[bdeaner]

I’m not sure I answered this since I’ve been busy all day with stuff, but as I look your post over again, I would say that every commandment we break has a consequence. It can be a baby born out of wedlock, an adulterous relationship that has broken up your family, an STD for sleeping around, humiliation for being caught in a lie, distrust for having stolen something and you live with that record for the rest of your lives, etc. Sin ALWAYS carries a consequence.

Well, then you believe in the basic principle underlying the Catholic doctrine of purgatory: Temporal consequences of sin. When we choose evil instead of good, bad stuff happens. God forgives us, but he can't protect us from the consequences of our own free choice. He can protect us from eternal damnation, however, through the sanctifying grace of purgation -- or what you call "tribulation." The only difference for Catholics is that we believe this purgation goes on for some -- if they have not resolved their attachments to sin -- in the afterlife prior to heaven. I've shown that this belief in purgation in the afterlife is present in Hebrew tradition as well as in the early Church, and can be supported with scripture. That's a theological hat-trick right there. Speaks for itself.

[boatbums]

Sorry...HARDLY speaks for itself. The tradition is not supported by scripture, only in how your church's preconceived idea interprets it.

This entire thread has gone back and forth and back and forth and it really just boils down to these two concepts:

1. A person is redeemed, saved, cleansed, justified, made righteous, a child of God, indwelled by the Holy Spirit, in the presence of God in heaven immediately after death and all because that person has accepted the gift of eternal life by faith in the shed blood of Jesus Christ.

or

2. A person who accepts Jesus Christ as savior by faith in the shed blood of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins will most times, but not all the time, (depending on how individually righteous he/she is), also have to spend time in an intermediate place between earthly life and eternal life in Heaven after said person dies because sins committed in this life, that were omitted in the sacrament of confession and therefore not covered by penance, must still be punished. Although this person is in a disembodied state, he/she will suffer pain commensurate with how good he/she was in their earthy life. The length of time spent in such state is not really known but can be shortened by the good works of others still alive on earth that are offered in the name of said person in the intermediate place. In essence admitting that faith in the shed blood of Jesus Christ is insufficient to completely cleanse the person from all sin.

Can you see the difference between the two and do you understand why there has been contention over the idea of purgatory for millennia? I hardly think we mortals will ever settle the issue because it demands a choice: 1 or 2.