Is There A Purgatory?

The Bible never speaks of a place where one can go to be purified of his sin. Rather, it always speaks of a Person to whom we can go to be purified: Jesus Christ. God tells us that those who refuse to trust Christ to cleanse them from their sins are condemned: Whoever believes in Him avoids condemnation, but whoever does not believe is already condemned for not believing in the name of God's only Son (John 3:18). There are only two choices: Whoever believes in the Son has life eternal. Whoever disobeys the Son will not see life, but must endure the wrath of God (John 3:36; See also Revelation 20:15; Luke 16:19-31, especially verse 26). Anyone who accepts Christ is completely saved: There is no condemnation now for those who are in Christ Jesus (Romans 8:1). Saying that there is no condemnation, certainly eliminates the flames of purgatory.

Another passage which clearly excludes the idea of purgatory is, their sins and transgressions I will remember no more (Hebrews 10:17). If, as the Bible says, God no longer remembers the sins of those who are in Christ, He does not punish them for these sins. To do so would be saying that Christ had not made full payment for them and that God the Father still remembered them. (See also Romans 5:8-11; Hebrews 10:14-18; Psalm 103:12).

Anyone who does not believe that Christ has completely saved him, has not completely trusted Christ to save him. That is, he does not believe that Christ's sacrifice has paid for all of his sins, and thinks he must pay for some of them himself. However, we are saved when we stop trusting what we can do, and start trusting Christ to save us.

The idea that Christ's sacrifice is not sufficient to cleanse us from all of our sins would condemn a great sinner such as the thief who was crucified with Jesus to suffer a long time in purgatory if not for all eternity in hell! Instead, there was nothing left over that Christ's death on the Cross did not cover. When the thief placed his trust in Christ, Jesus said to him, I assure you: this day you will be with me in paradise (Luke 23:43).

If purgatory existed, and the mass helped people to get out, the rich would have a tremendous advantage by being able to pay for masses to shorten their suffering. The poor instead, would be left to the mercy of the occasional priest who might say an unpaid mass for them. One ex-priest wrote, "If we really believed that the mass would save people from the flames of purgatory, would we make them pay for it? I would even save a dog if I saw one in a fire, and I would never even think of asking to be paid!"

Purgatory was evidently a pagan idea. Virgil, the pagan Latin poet who lived 70 - 19 B.C. divided the departed souls into three different places in his writings: One for the good, one for the damned, and a third where the less bad could pay for their sins. Since the idea of purgatory existed outside of the church before it came into the church, it is probable that it was brought in by contact with pagans like Virgil. There was a great influx of non-Biblical ideas into the church around 300 A.D. when the Roman Emperor Constantine took many unsaved people in as members of the church.

In any event, there is no mention of purgatory in the Bible. Some would try, however, to make the idea sound somewhat Biblical by referring to 2 Maccabees 12:41-45, a passage in one of the apocryphal books written between the times of the Old and New Testaments. These books were never accepted as part of the Hebrew Old Testament, nor quoted in the New Testament, but they are included in the Catholic Bible, though usually with an explanation that they are of a less inspired category. Apart from this passage in 2 Maccabees, the apocrypha is little used by the Catholic church to support a doctrinal position.

It is important to notice that this passage does not speak of purgatory at all, but actually condemns idolatry, particularly the practice of wearing little images on a necklace or such. Hebrew soldiers were found wearing this sort of thing after a battle, and their buddies, on making this discovery, realized that they had died in the sin of idolatry. They then counseled prayer for their souls. The Roman Catholic position is that prayer for them would have been unnecessary if they were in heaven and useless if they were in hell, so there must be another place. The logic seems good, but the result contradicts the clear teaching of the inspired Scripture. Contradicting inspired Scripture with a philosophical response based on an apparent inference from the Apocrypha is a very weak argument indeed. The very word "Apocrypha," which comes from the Greek word for hidden, has come to mean "false," or "of doubtful authorship."

With your casual consultation of dead souls, I’m wondering how you ‘test the spirits’ that are manifesting for your ‘work’ with spirits of the dead?

A soul is a soul whether in a body or not. Just as you see, hear and feel people who are in physical bodies, I see, hear and feel people who are not in physical bodies as well. It is not something I seek to do, it just happens. In many ways it is more of a curse than a blessing as I feel their physical and emotional pains in my body if I am not radiating my own connection of Love outward. Our soul is much much larger than our physical body and when you are born of the spirit you begin to sense and communicate directly with your spirit rather than being limited to your physical senses.

As to discernment, when you can read the soul you immediately know the purity of it and have discernment. Your question is valid though as there are many spirits who are tormentors and impostors whose motive is not pure. 1John 4 is very accurate in testing spirits. It really works that way when they try to imitate purity.

First you offer this: "The Holy Spirit is well worth striving for." Apparently you are under some erroneous impression that one can 'strive' for the Holy Spirit.

Then you make this comment in your next post: "How many different religions and versions of the Bible exist? Man has been doing this forever." And perhaps this is a clue from whence your error springs.

Christianity is the pause between Daniel's 69th week and the 70th week which will bring an end to sin. During this Christianity Age, the God Who created it all is placing His Holy Spirit in the spirit of those who will bow their knee with broken and contrite spirit, acknowledging their need for The Savior. They are therein born from above. Saved. Delivered from their sinful nature and born by God's Holy Spirit into the family of Jesus Christ.

This new birth is accomplished ONLY by God. You cannot strive for it to obtain it. ONLY God can cause this 'born again' phenomenon. It is outside of human capacity to bring it to pass because a human cannot command God or earn God's life. God's Life is so far beond out human capacities that ONLY by His Spirit is a man born of water then born by the Spirit, born from above.

This miracle is so phenomenal that Jesus seven gave Nicodemus an analogy that had absolutely no explanation in the Old Testament and was not explained until in John Three we witness Nicodemus coming to Jesus to learn about Messiah and God's plan.

Jesus gave the following analogy to Nicodemus:

John 3:1 Now there was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews. The same came to him by night, and said to him, "Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher come from God, for no one can do these signs that you do, unless God is with him."
Jesus answered him, "Most certainly, I tell you, unless one is born anew, he can't see the Kingdom of God."
Nicodemus said to him, "How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter a second time into his mother's womb, and be born?"
Jesus answered, "Most certainly I tell you, unless one is born of water and spirit, he can't enter into the Kingdom of God! That which is born of the flesh is flesh. That which is born of the Spirit is spirit. Don't marvel that I said to you, 'You must be born anew.' The wind blows where it wants to, and you hear its sound, but don't know where it comes from and where it is going. So is everyone who is born of the Spirit."
Nicodemus answered him, "How can these things be?"
Jesus answered him, "Are you the teacher of Israel, and don't understand these things? 11Most certainly I tell you, we speak that which we know, and testify of that which we have seen, and you don't receive our witness. If I told you earthly things and you don't believe, how will you believe if I tell you heavenly things? No one has ascended into heaven, but he who descended out of heaven, the Son of Man, who is in heaven. As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up, 15that whoever believes in him should not perish, but have eternal life. For God so loved the world, that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish, but have eternal life. For God didn't send his Son into the world to judge the world, but that the world should be saved through him. 18 He who believes in him is not judged.

Now before we replow this ground, please note that in verse eighteen the word 'believes' is derived from a Greek word meaning 'to faithe' as in to live in faith, trusting in God in you to be the Life directing you, so long as you submit to His Lordhsip. But if you fail to submit to His Lordship, notice there are no corollaries to the promise from God that whosever believes/faiths is not judged.

Understand that Jesus told Nicodemus something that had not one hint even of the reason behind the event in the desert, with the brass snake raised up on a pole so that whoever looked tot he brass snake was healed of the snake bites! There was no healing those snake bites by man's striving to do so. ONLY faithing in the gift of God resulted in the healing and delivery from death by snake bite.

Christianity is the life lesson lived for almost 200 years now first shown way back in the desert and Moses with the Brass Snake. ONLY faith makes possible God placing His life back in mankind. And He has Promised (and what Promise is more assured than one from God) to cleanse you from all sin when you trust/believe/ faithe in Jesus Christ as Lord and your Savior. Once born from above, His Life is responsible for your eternal Life in the now and forever.

One last question you might want to face: If you bow your head right now and acknowledge your need for His Salvation, His eternal Life, what sin could you commit in the future that would take God by surprise? ... He sees the end from the beginning. That's why Jesus said No Man can take those in Him from His hands. That no man includes you for your deliverance. Once He delivers you, not even you can take you from Him. That is utter defeat for satan.

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