[jonno]

Either you are, at the moment of your death, utterly perfect, completely holy, and absolutely ready to enter the presence of a righteous God ...

Through faith in Christ, by virtue of His atoning sacrifice - in God's eyes - I am justified, made perfect, holy, period.

Do you think Christ gave special dispensation to the repentant thief when he said "today, you will be with me in paradise"?

[null and void]

Yeah, but the thief didn't commit any further sins...

[DreamsofPolycarp]

CS Lewis talked about the final purification event whereby the federal state of righteousness becomes the actual achieved righteous state. His take on this is that time ceases to mean what it does on earth, and may allow for what "feels like" a progressive purification, leaving the way open to a backhanded sort of purgatory in one sense or another. I don't guess I have a problem with that idea, but I DO have a GREAT problem with the idea that we finish out the suffering of Christ and essentially propitiate our own sin. That is blasphemy. On the other hand, I have not talked with enough Roman Catholic theologians to know if that is what they are plugging.If I am scratching where you don't itch, then ignore it.

The bible DOES say that "to be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord" which militates in some measure against the idea of a progressive entrance into heaven.

I have to say that I found your statement about "snow covered dunghills" to be stupid, offensive, and, by the way, never a statement made by Martin Luther. The only place you find it is on the internet, in Catholic/Protestant debates. Luther never said it. However, even if he had, Luther was a German peasant whose language was...., "colorful" when he got wound up and going, but I would not attempt to vivisect my theological understanding of protestantism with some of his loopier statements.