Then he says that Purgatory is a "work" of the person in Purgatory. I again ask for proof of what he claims is Catholic teaching...
I understand what he means...at least I think I do. He can correct me if I'm wrong. When he calls purgatory a "work," he means as opposed to *grace*. The "purity" which is supposed to result from purgatory is NOT a gift of God (grace), but is something the person achieves by suffering. It is a work as opposed to being something that God simply *gives* you.
You have this exactly backwards, as is usual. The cleansing in Purgatory is entirely due to grace. The suffering which we may feel is a result of the cleansing, not the cause of it. This is how far away we are, in your attempt to make us Pelagian, you see our doctrine backwards.
It is not God saying "We will make them suffer, this will have the effect of purifying them."
Rather it is "We will purify them, it may make them suffer, but it is for the good."
SD
Ahhh, the ends justify the means, is that a Catholic doctrine now?(^g^)
Oh, I just realized, that pergatory would be better defined as forced salvation, what we can't accomplish with God's Spirit and the blood of Christ, God then forces us to final submission with out giving us our free moral agency to decide whether or not we want to be with God enough to submit to it.
This whole idea goes against everything the scripture teaches on our salvation being to our choosing.
Deut 30:19 I call heaven and earth to witness against you this day, that I have set before thee life and death, the blessing and the curse: therefore choose life, that thou mayest live, thou and thy seed;
Dave: I and others have given evidence and support from the scriptures that there are only two options for the "after-life": heaven and hell. There is no mention of purgatory as a place of purification before entering heaven. But you do not DEAL WITH the biblical support we give you. You only reply using human argument and reasoning----"the doctrines and teachings of men." If you aren't going to address the scriptures, I'm through arguing about it with you. If you keep repeating your church's side of it, I will warn others that it is not scriptural; but as far as discussing it with you goes, I won't....not until you deal with the biblical evidence against such a concept. Until then, we're only going in circles.