[gghd]

>The mystery of Christ's life, suffering & death. In God's Mercy, He permits us to suffer with Jesus Christ. Colossians1: 24 ‘Now, I rejoice in my sufferings for your sake, and in my flesh I am filing up what is lacking in the affliction of Christ on behalf of his body, which is the church.’
>There were -three- people on calvary. The good thief joined his sufferings to Christ & the bad thief cursed Christ & died. The mystery of God's Mercy: Jesus Christ pays off -the tab- in full BUT he lets us share in the payment. ‘Without God I can't & without me he will not.’
>Simon the Cyrene teaches us that there is ‘NO free ride in Christianity.’ We all get to help Jesus Christ carry his Cross. We call it ‘our’ Cross but everything belongs to God> we join our sufferings to the True Cross.
>Purgatory is the place where our souls are finally perfected to enable us to stand before the Perfection of God. In your response, you acknowledge a need for a final purification of most souls. The Church calls the place where it happens> Purgatory. It's explained on the Internet & it is biblical. Purgatory is a ‘suburb’ in Heaven & is not a separate place. Heaven exists in the Heart of God = Heaven is a big place.
>Christ suffered & died & then rose from the dead on the third day. The Gospel Truth, John 20: 17 ‘Jesus said to her, Stop holding on to me, for I have NOT yet ascended to the Father. But go to my brothers and tell them, I am going to the Father and your Father, to my God and your God.’ In my first comment I said, -Jesus didn't walk the Earth handing out Bibles saying, -Argue about this- rather He built a Church & out of the Church came the Bible. Please, look to the Church for the explanation of ‘Today you will be with me in Paradise.’
The Catholic definition of the Christian Virtue of Hope: ...it makes a person desire eternal life... >Ordinary hope is the desire to obtain a future good. Hope is a word used on purpose to describe a desire for a future good. TRUE Salvation for the individual is at the end of this life & the beginning of the next. >The Day of Universal Judgment will be a very interesting day. Have Hope as God gave us Holy Mother our Church, the body of Jesus Christ, to help us get into Heaven.

[lquist1]

“Please, look to the Church for the explanation of ‘Today you will be with me in Paradise.’”

Um...Why would I look to the (Catholic) Church when I’m not a Catholic? I already have the Bible, which is the literal Word of God. I don’t have need for a supplement.

Further, you keep saying that Purgatory is somehow biblical, and to check it out on the internet. I find your reluctance to give us the actual Scriptural support rather strange. I’ve studied the Bible for a number of years, and I’ve never seen Purgatory anywhere there. None of the early Apostles ever mention such a place. The Apostle Paul talked about absent from the body being present with the Lord. He wrote like 14 epistles, you’d think SOMEWHERE he would have mentioned this intermediary place called Purgatory.

And as for being a “suburb” of Heaven-I’ve never heard it put that way before. I was a Catholic the first 41 years of my life, and growing up in Catholic school, the nuns always taught us that Purgatory was a place with suffering similar to Hell. The only difference being it was temporary and not permanent. They also taught us that pretty much everybody had to spend some time there.

Obviously you are firmly committed to your belief system and I’m not gonna change your mind, so if you want to go on believing in everything the supposedly “infallible” Church tells you, that’s fine. I’ll stick to what the Bible says. And from what I read, I’m already justified by faith (Romans 5:1) and have no further need for purification, cause Christ paid it all.

Does that mean we can abuse this grace, as Apostle Paul said “God forbid!” To the contrary, those who think they can use Christianity as fire insurance to live any way they want were probably never saved in the first place. I think spiritual growth (good works) happens with every true believer. God is continually molding us more into the people He wants us to be.

Will we reach perfection this side of Heaven? No, and neither did Jesus’ mother Mary, the Apostle Paul, or any of the other saints. No human other than Christ has ever lived a sinless life. All sin and fall short of His glory (Rom 3:23). We all need a Savior, even Mary acknowledged this fact (Luke 1:47).

And Christ being the only perfect human being was the only one qualified to shed His blood for our sins. Which is why the formula for salvation is really quite simple; confess with your mouth ‘Jesus is Lord’ and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you are saved (Rom 10:9).

No need for any other mediators. No need to pray to dead human beings, no need to spend time in some phantom suburb of Heaven. If we are truly born again, then when we die (or if the Lord comes in our lifetime),we go straight to be with Him. End of story.