Posted on 06/04/2018 9:25:52 AM PDT by SkyPilot
Participants attending the World Meeting of Families in August can be forgiven their sins or help a relative speed through purgatory.
Pope Francis has granted a "plenary indulgence" for those taking part.
In Catholic doctrine an indulgence frees you from being punished for your previously committed sins or it can be passed on to dead relatives to shorten their time in purgatory.
Even those following events on TV and radio can achieve a partial indulgence as long as they recite the Our Father, the Creed and other devout prayers.
Martin Luther's opposition to the sale of indulgences was one of the main causes of the Protestant Reformation in the 16th Century.
The Sacred Apostolic Penitentiary, the Vatican body dealing with forgiveness of sins, said pilgrims would have to attend confession and Mass, pray for the Pope's intentions and participate in some function during the five-day event.
The use of indulgences in Catholicism is a tradition that goes back to the Crusades in the 11th Century.
(Excerpt) Read more at bbc.com ...
You have provided a wonderful insight I have not had into this. I do not quite agree with your #3, but the Catholic perspective makes much more sense to me, now.
Thank you!
The way it's written:
Here's an 'honest' question:
Are those 7 churches mentioned in Revelation chap 2-3 Catholic or not?
But that's just the point., Some people very obviously do not receive all their temporal punishment on earth.
Think about it. Jeffrey Dahmer (LINK), the multiple torturer/forcible-sodomist/cannibal, was sentenced to 17 life sentences for his 17 murders. While in prison, he reportedly repented of his crimes. After only about two years, he was killed by another inmate.
Do you think he paid for 17 dismemberment flesheating sodomy rape-murders in two years?
There is no way we can know God's judgments. We cannot know on this earth. But we know God is inescapably just. By God's grace I believe Dahmer entered Heaven surely, but by God's justice I cannot presume he entered it instantaneously.
I say again, I can't judge, and thank God for that.
The only other alternative, is that with two mostly-unbothered years in prison, Dahmer experienced ALL of his temporal punishment right here on earth. Wouldn't that be presumptious? Wouldn't it be taking things lightly?
My son, do not think lightly
of the Lords discipline
or give up when you are corrected by him.
For the Lord disciplines the one he loves,
and he punishes every son he accepts.
Hebrews 12:5-6
May God have mercy on his soul.
I’d like to continue this conversation because I enjoy pretty much anything that encourages me to dig into the Word, even an argument.
But this is a bad week for it; I have a VBS lesson to prepare for tomorrow and an ear infection to fight off. (AGAIN, arrrrgh)
So I’m going to have to call it here for tonight. I’ll get to you tomorrow if I have free time.
18 Wives, submit yourselves to your husbands, as is fitting in the Lord.
19 Husbands, love your wives and do not be harsh with them.
20 Children, obey your parents in everything, for this pleases the Lord.
21 Fathers,[c] do not embitter your children, or they will become discouraged.
22 Slaves, obey your earthly masters in everything; and do it, not only when their eye is on you and to curry their favor, but with sincerity of heart and reverence for the Lord. 23 Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for human masters, 24 since you know that you will receive an inheritance from the Lord as a reward. It is the Lord Christ you are serving. 25 Anyone who does wrong will be repaid for their wrongs, and there is no favoritism.
I'm sure they do it out of love.
Like the Catholics do...
How can a person who admitted to being sinful (why else would you need a Savior) presume to be sinless before almighty God!
How can a person who understands the terrible price Christ paid with His death, presume He missed payment for some sins?
Luke 6:27-28
27 But to those of you who will listen, I say: Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, 28 bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you.
It’s impossible to call that an unbiblical doctrine.
It is unbiblical to leave out what happens to the believer when he entrusts himself to Christ.
It is unbiblical to fail to distinguish consequences in this life from consequences in eternity.
does not mean that temporal punishments or consequences are abolished.
No where is it taught that temporal punishments follow any true believer into eternity.
Many a forgiven sinner is in the State Pentientiary and will be for years to come.
Not a single one. Never in Scripture.
Yet another pagan accretion of Rome.
But before that, a believer, when he entrusts himself to the Lord, receives chastisement. His being a son does not exclude chastisement; quite the contrary:
My son, do not think lightly
of the Lords discipline
or give up when you are corrected by him.
For the Lord disciplines the one he loves,
and he punishes every son he accepts.
Hebrews 12:5-6
As for the consequences in this life as distinguished from the consequences in eternity, the chastisement of a believer does not occur in eternity. Punishment in eternity is hell, and this is not the final destiny of the believer.
Purgatory --- not necessarily a place, but a "state" of purification after death--- does not happen in eternity. Purgatory is temporal punishment due to sin which has been forgiven. All the souls being purified are forgiven, saved, destined for glory by the grace of God, and they know this and thank God for it.
This merciful purification is not hell or related to hell. It is not a suburb or level of hell. It is infinitely distant from hell. It is total and glorious purification .
(Psalm 66:9-10)He preserves our lives and keeps our feet from slipping. For You , O God, have tested us; You have refined us like silver.
(Zechariah 13:9) I will refine them like silver and test them like gold. They will call on My name, and I will answer them. I will say, 'They are My people,' and they will say, 'The LORD is our God.'"
(Malachi 3:3) And He will sit as a refiner and purifier of silver; He will purify the sons of Levi and refine them like gold and silver. Then they will present offerings to the LORD in righteousness.
(1 Corinthians 3:15)
If the work of anyone will be burned up, he will suffer loss; but he himself will be saved, but so as through fire.
So we are made glorious for indescribable bliss in the presence of the everlasting love, the infinite God.
Has the Vatican denied it? Simple question.
Indulgences are only of value to the saved.
Do you think he paid for 17 dismemberment flesheating sodomy rape-murders in two years?
You miss the point of the Cross. Christ paid for his sins.
Indulgences.....a non Biblical concept.
Get well, brother/sister.....and raise up those little ones in the name of Christ.
You will continue to compare your caricatured misrepresentations of Catholic doctrines to your misunderstood, mangled, and incomplete understanding of Scripture ... you mean.
People who accuse Catholics of "resacrificing" Christ in the Mass don't get to be treated like heroic crusaders for truth, at least not by me. If you can't deal with that ...
Youre getting close.
Let me help: Nicholas Owen, of the Society of Jesus, on account of the hatred of the Catholic faith, tormented "enectus" (on the rack? ... not sure) in London, England, AD 1606, 12 November. (The date is wrong, Owen was martyred in March.)
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