See the previous post #19.
God save us from the self-appointed experts in the “calculus of salvation.”
Actually the natural man can very easily accept the idea of purgatory. Penance, suffering, works, corrections of imbalance, these are the obligations most of us live with in our daily lives. What the natural man can’t live with is the notion that Christ has spilled his blood freely for our sakes, that his gift is our simply for the asking for his forgiveness and by repentence of our sins, baptism by his spirit and following by water, then living for him day by day. It is hard for the sinful man to even fathom that to die in Christ is to be alive with Christ forever. The natural man doesn’t want to feel obligated...we must “pay” some-how for our God given gifts; never mind just the simple acts of love and faith are all that he asks of us and to be willing to share the gospel.
Now no one knows the spiritual transactions that take place following death completely and the near death experiences I read about either speak of folks in heaven “saying go back its not your time yet” or folks in hell being sent back after experiencing the profound grace of Christ.
One experience I read about...man found himself in hell fighting demons who were tearing him apart but he remembered a little prayer he had prayed in sunday school as a small child(he had been otherwise unchurched all his life and was a thoroughly evil man)...all of sudden a light shown on him and the devils left him and he found himself in HIS presence. The man was sent back and was a changed Christian man as a result.
I have not seen any NDE’s involving folks who saw or experienced a taste of purgatory, though I’ll bet some freeper will now send me one.
The scriptures state that “it is appointed once that men should die and then the judgment”. I do believe God acts tactically and in the moment to pluck folks from the flames as well as providentially in his over arching manner.
There is the Judgment seat of Christ where all saved folks go to have their works judged..if they be spiritual they are not burned up, if they be not spiritual they are burned. Some have received eternal life by “the skin of their teeth”.
The great white throne judgment is the final judgment following the end of the 1000 years of Christ. Revelations states those who had remained unresurrected after the resurrection of the dead in Christ 1000 years before, are then brought before him and those not found in the Lamb’s book of life are sent to hell period.
These great judgments found in the Bible belie the notions of purgatory as currently promulgated. Yet I beleive God in his great mercy will act to save folks right on the verge of the flames of hell if even a child’s prayer or a desparing faith is displayed on an otherwise unrighteous man, such as the thief on a cross!
We are asked to carry our crosses but he promises that even that “My yoke shall be easy, my burden is light”. Christ’s blood has washed our sins away, it is that blood that has made us “Holy and acceptable to God”...not purgatory!