It constantly comes up, wretched “Faith Alone”, it messes up Protestants in every area of the faith.
John Salza is a great apologist. You should read him. He
was asked about Purgatory. Here’s his reply about the same verses. Fits, Paul is explaining Purgatory.
blessings,
- - -
Punished after death and still saved (1 Cor. 3:15)
J. Salza: If you wish to get your “information directly from the Bible,” then look to 1 Cor. 3:12-17. In these passages, Paul is talking about how God judges our works after death by using a string of metaphors (we are God’s building; works are good and bad materials, etc.). Paul says that if a person builds with good materials, he will receive a reward (verse 14). If he builds with a mixture of good and bad materials, his work is burned up, but he is still saved (verse 15). If he only builds with bad materials, he has destroyed the temple, and God will destroy him (verse 17).
This passage demonstrates several things. First, it demonstrates that our works serve as a basis for determining our salvation. This is contrary to the erroneous Protestant belief that, once we accept Jesus by faith alone, we are saved. Protestants have no good explanation for why Paul is teaching the Corinthians that our works bear upon our salvation. Second, the verse demonstrates that, if a person does both good and bad works, his bad works are punished, but he is still saved. The Greek phrase for “suffer loss” (zemiothesetai) means “to be punished.” This means the man undergoes an expiation of temporal punishment for his bad works (sins) but is still saved. The phrase “but only” or “yet so” (in Greek, houtos) means “in the same manner.” This means that the man must pass through the fire in the same way that his bad works passed through the fire, in order to expiate himself of the things that led him to produce the bad works in the first place.
This demonstrates that there is punishment after death, followed by salvation. The Church calls this purification “Purgatory.” If accepting Jesus as Savior by faith alone during one’s life were true, there would be no punishment after death for those who are saved. Your sins would already be washed away. This passage proves that there is punishment and forgiveness after death, followed by salvation. This biblical teaching of a post-death punishment by fire which is followed by salvation is inimical to Protestant theology.
There is nothing new under the sun, other than an ongoing splintering of Protestant Christianity. If you study the early Church Fathers and medievals, you will see that they were all Catholic. Don’t imbibe this Protestant mentality of “Jesus, the Bible and me.” God gave us His Holy Catholic Church, built upon the rock of St. Peter, to whom Christ gave the keys to the kingdom of heaven, and the authority to bind and loose in heaven what he binds and looses on earth.
http://www.scripturecatholic.com/
“John Salza is a great apologist. “
Not really. He is incapable of reading a short, simple paragraph without distorting it beyond recognition.
Here is what Paul wrote:
“5-8 After all, who is Paul? Who is Apollos? No more than servants through whom you came to believe as the Lord gave each man his opportunity. I may have done the planting and Apollos the watering, but it was God who made the seed grow! The planter and the waterer are nothing compared with him who gives life to the seed. Planter and waterer are alike insignificant, though each shall be rewarded according to his particular work.
9 In this work, we work with God, and that means that you are a field under God’s cultivation, or, if you like, a house being built to his plan.
10-15 I, like an architect who knows his job, by the grace God has given me, lay the foundation; someone else builds upon it. I only say this, let the builder be careful how he builds! The foundation is laid already, and no one can lay another, for it is Jesus Christ himself. But any man who builds on the foundation using as his material gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay or stubble, must know that each man’s work will one day be shown for what it is. The day will show it plainly enough, for the day will arise in a blaze of fire, and that fire will prove the nature of each man’s work. If the work that the man has built upon the foundation will stand this test, he will be rewarded. But if a man’s work be destroyed under the test, he loses it all. He personally will be safe, though rather like a man rescued from a fire.”
It doesn’t take a great thinker to turn that into:
“This passage demonstrates several things. First, it demonstrates that our works serve as a basis for determining our salvation. This is contrary to the erroneous Protestant belief that, once we accept Jesus by faith alone, we are saved. Protestants have no good explanation for why Paul is teaching the Corinthians that our works bear upon our salvation.”
It takes a dishonest man to twist it like that.
If anyone wants to know the truth, let them read what Paul wrote. Not what John Salza wrote. Those with eyes to see, WILL see.
This is the second time a Roman has come in and invented what a greek word actually means. “Zemiothesetai” does not mean “to be punished” at any time.
According to the Greek Lexicon,
Definition
to affect with damage, do damage to
to sustain damage, to receive injury, suffer loss
Translated Words
KJV (6) - be cast away, 1; lose, 2; receive damage, 1; suffer loss, 2;
NAS (6) - forfeit, 1; forfeits, 2; suffer loss, 2; suffered the loss of, 1;
At no time is this word ever translated as “to be punished.”
As for the scripture in question, it does not teach that men go to purgatory to burn for their sins. It says that, despite their imperfections, they will be saved. Kind of like how a Catholic might be saved. Not because of Catholicism, but despite of it “as though by fire.” It does not say they will be punished in the hereafter, only that they will not have as many rewards in heaven as he could have had. The scripture is clear that it is not us who live, but Christ who lives in us. It is by His righteousness, and not our own, that we merit heaven. And it is by His sacrifice, not the Eucharist or any ritual you go through or any holy work you do, which makes you clean as snow.