Posted on 11/02/2015 6:56:55 AM PST by Salvation
All Souls’ Day by Jakub Schikaneder, 1888
I have blogged before on Purgatory. Here is a link to one of those blogs: Purgatory – Biblical and Reasonable. I have also written more extensively on its biblical roots here: PDF Document on Purgatory.
On this Feast of All Souls, I want to reflect on Purgatory as the necessary result of a promise. Many people think of Purgatory primarily in terms of punishment, but it is also important to consider it in terms of promise, purity, and perfection. Some of our deceased brethren are having the promises made to them perfected in Purgatory. In the month of November we are especially committed to praying for them and we know by faith that our prayers are of benefit to them.
What is the promise that points to Purgatory? Simply stated, Jesus made the promise in Matthew 5:48: You, therefore, must be perfect as your Heavenly Father is perfect. In this promise is an astonishing declaration of our dignity. We are to share in the very nature and perfection of God. This is our dignity: we are called to reflect and possess the very glory and perfection of God.
St. Catherine of Siena was gifted by the Lord to see a heavenly soul in the state of grace. Her account of it is related in her Dialogue, and is summarized in the Sunday School Teacher’s Explanation of the Baltimore Catechism:
The Soul in the State of Grace– Catherine of Siena was permitted by God to see the beauty of a soul in the state of grace. It was so beautiful that she could not look on it; the brightness of that soul dazzled her. Blessed Raymond, her confessor, asked her to describe to him, as far as she was able, the beauty of the soul she had seen. St. Catherine thought of the sweet light of that morning, and of the beautiful colors of the rainbow, but that soul was far more beautiful. She remembered the dazzling beams of the noonday sun, but the light which beamed from that soul was far brighter. She thought of the pure whiteness of the lily and of the fresh snow, but that is only an earthly whiteness. The soul she had seen was bright with the whiteness of Heaven, such as there is not to be found on earth. †My father,†she answered. “I cannot find anything in this world that can give you the smallest idea of what I have seen. Oh, if you could but see the beauty of a soul in the state of grace, you would sacrifice your life a thousand times for its salvation. I asked the angel who was with me what had made that soul so beautiful, and he answered me, “It is the image and likeness of God in that soul, and the Divine Grace which made it so beautiful.†[1].
Yes, this is our dignity and final destiny if we are faithful to God.
So, I ask you, “Are you there yet?†God has made you a promise. But what if that promise has not yet been fulfilled and you were to die today, without the divine perfection you have been promised having been completed? I can only speak for myself and say that if I were to die today, though I am not aware of any mortal sin, I also know that I am not perfect. I am not even close to being humanly perfect, let alone having the perfection of our heavenly Father!
But Jesus made me a promise: You must be perfect as the heavenly Father is perfect. And the last time I checked, Jesus is a promise keeper! St. Paul says, May God who has begun a good work in you bring it to completion (Phil 1:6). Hence, if I were to die today, Jesus would need to complete a work that He has begun in me. By God’s grace, I have come a mighty long way. But I also have a long way to go. God is very holy and His perfection is beyond imagining.
Yes, there are many things in us that need purging: sin, attachment to sin, clinging to worldly things, and those rough edges to our personality. Likewise most of us carry with us hurts, regrets, sorrows, and disappointments. We cannot take any of this with us to Heaven. If we did, it wouldn’t be Heaven. So the Lord, who is faithful to His promise, will purge all of this from us. The Book of Revelation speaks of Jesus ministering to the dead in that he will wipe every tear from their eyes (Rev 21:4). 1 Corinthians 3:13-15 speaks of us as passing through fire in order that our works be tested so that what is good may be purified and what is worldly may be burned away. And Job said, But he knows the way that I take; and when he has tested me, I will come forth as pure gold (Job 23:10).
Purgatory has to be—gold, pure gold; refined, perfect, pure gold. Purgatory has to be, if God’s promises are to hold.
Catholic theology has always taken seriously God’s promise that we would actually be perfect as the Father is perfect. The righteousness is Jesus’ righteousness, but it actually transforms us and changes us completely in the way that St. Catherine describes. It is a real righteousness, not merely imputed, not merely declared of us by inference. It is not an alien justice, but a personal justice by the grace of God.
Esse quam videri – Purgatory makes sense because the perfection promised to us is real: esse quam videri (to be rather than to seem). We must actually be purged of the last vestiges of imperfection, worldliness, sin, and sorrow. Having been made perfect by the grace of God, we are able to enter Heaven, of which Scripture says, Nothing impure will ever enter it (Rev 21:27). And again, you have approached Mount Zion and the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and countless angels in festal gathering, and the assembly of the firstborn enrolled in heaven, and God the judge of all, and the souls of the just made perfect (Heb 12:22-23).
How could it be anything less? Indeed, the souls of the just made perfect. How could it be anything less if Jesus died to accomplish it for us? Purgatory makes sense based on Jesus’ promise and on the power of His blood to accomplish complete and total perfection for us. This is our dignity; this is our destiny. Purgatory is about promises, not mere punishment. There’s an old Gospel hymn that I referenced in yesterday’s blog for the Feast of All Saints that says, “O Lord I’m running, trying to make a hundred. Ninety-nine and a half won’t do!â€
That’s right, ninety-nine and a half won’t do. Nothing less than a hundred is possible because we have Jesus’ promise and the wonderful working power of the precious Blood of the Lamb. For most, if not all of us, Purgatory has to be.
AMEN!
AMEN!
Exactly. We DO agree. There will be a pergation.
From NYer: “I Corinthians 3:11-15. Do you deny the judgment of God?”
Here is what Corinthians 3 actually says - with NOTHING about Purgatory:
“After all, who is Apollos? And who is Paul? We are simply God’s servants, by whom you were led to believe. Each one of us does the work which the Lord gave him to do: I planted the seed, Apollos watered the plant, but it was God who made the plant grow. The one who plants and the one who waters really do not matter. It is God who matters, because he makes the plant grow. There is no difference between the one who plants and the one who waters; God will reward each one according to the work each has done. For we are partners working together for God, and you are God’s field.
You are also God’s building. Using the gift that God gave me, I did the work of an expert builder and laid the foundation, and someone else is building on it. But each of you must be careful how you build. For God has already placed Jesus Christ as the one and only foundation, and no other foundation can be laid. Some will use gold or silver or precious stones in building on the foundation; others will use wood or grass or straw. And the quality of each person’s work will be seen when the Day of Christ exposes it. For on that Day fire will reveal everyone’s work; the fire will test it and show its real quality. If what was built on the foundation survives the fire, the builder will receive a reward. But if your work is burnt up, then you will lose it; but you yourself will be saved, as if you had escaped through the fire.”
In context, Paul is obviously saying workers who are building up the church - “For we are partners working together for God, and you are God’s field. You are also God’s building.” - need to be careful how they build. If they do so in God’s way, building with stone or metal, their work will last and be approved by God.
If they build using their own natural strength, building with wood or straw, then it will not last. Their futile man-powered efforts will be judged, and destroyed.
“And the quality of each person’s work will be seen when the Day of Christ exposes it. For on that Day fire will reveal everyone’s work; the fire will test it and show its real quality. If what was built on the foundation survives the fire, the builder will receive a reward.”
Those who have built well will receive a reward. But those who built in manners not approved by God will have “its real quality” revealed - as having been dross.
“each man s work will become evident” - NASB, 1 Cor 3.12. Evident: “plain or clear to the sight or understanding”. We judge now in a worldly way, but God’s judgment will make plain to all who built according to His will.
And then the man who built badly...will suffer torment? No, not hardly - yet there will be loss:
“It is the tragedy of a fruitless life, of a minister who built so poorly on the true foundation that his work went up in smoke. His sermons were empty froth or windy words without edifying or building power. They left no mark in the lives of the hearers. It is the picture of a wasted life. The one who enters heaven by grace, as we all do who are saved, yet who brings no sheaves with him. There is no garnered grain the result of his labours in the harvest field. There are no souls in heaven as the result of his toil for Christ, no enrichment of character, no growth in grace.”
http://www.studylight.org/commentaries/rwp/view.cgi?bk=45&ch=3
But there is NOTHING in here about incomplete punishment for sin, nor is sin being addressed at all. The worker is still saved. He still enters the Kingdom - but he does so empty handed. But there is not a whiff of “a place or condition of punishment for those who “...have not fully paid the satisfaction due to their transgressions...”
NOTHING in 1 Corinthians 3 suggests ANY man who believes has been imperfectly saved, or that the Blood of the Lamb was insufficient sacrifice.
Thank God!
This is the covenant that I will make with them
After those days, says the Lord:
I will put My laws upon their heart,
And on their mind I will write them,
He then says,
And their sins and their lawless deeds
I will remember no more.
Now where there is forgiveness of these things, there is no longer any offering for sin. - Heb 10
“I will remember no more”. It doesn’t get any better than that! God has forgotten my sin, because of what Jesus Christ has DONE.
Either you are COMPLETE IN CHRIST, or not. There is no other choice. Either you are a child of God, or a child of disobedience, again there is no other choice. Either you are made alive in Christ and seated in Heavenly places in Christ Jesus, or you are spiritually dead. You WERE in darkness, but now you are children of the Light! (Romans 8, Ephesians 1-5, Colossians 1-3)
How many more ways does Paul have to explain and contrast the before, and the after, for a Believer? Jesus has done everything that ever needs to be done to secure your place in God’s family. No amount of suffering, in this life or the next, will surpass what Jesus has already endured and accomplished for mankind. It truly is FINISHED for those who believe His Word.
Jesus said to the thief on the cross “Today you will be with ME in paradise”.
Was he telling the thief that his destiny was paradise?
Or was He telling him that he was going to be with Him?
We know that Jesus sits at the right hand of the Father in heaven.... so did Jesus leave the thief in paradise? or did He take him with Him along with all of the other believers who were being held in Abraham’s bosom?
You see... I believe that the place referred to as Abraham’s bosom (a paradise in Hades) is empty... It has been empty since Jesus went there to declare his victory and set the captives free.
We also know to that to be abscent from the body (death) is to be present with the Lord.
Therefore we are always confident, knowing that, whilst we are at home in the body, we are absent from the Lord:
For we walk by faith, not by sight.
We are confident, I say, and willing rather to be absent from the body, and to be present with the Lord.
So I ask you this....
Is “paradise” a place? or is it to be present with the Lord?
There is no “purgatory”.
To say that there is would be a contradiction to the words of Jesus when He said “It is finished”.
The process of becoming “perfect” I would also submit is a process which God Himself completes... NOT US.
We simply cannot become perfect from our own works. It cannot happen. We are MADE perfect ONLY by His sacrifice.
Paadise was a waiting place for all the good people of the Old Testament.
The Apostles Creed says “was crucified, died and was buried; he descended into hell; on the third day he rose again from the dead”
Christ remained on earth for the 50 days of Easter. Think of all the Easter Sunday encounters, Emmaus, the fishing scene, walking through doors — twice!
So the good thief and the other good people could not go to heaven until Christ entered first — The Apostles Creed says: “he ascended into heaven and is seated at the right hand of God the Father Almighty.”
After Christ’s Ascension into heaven, then those people waiting in Paradise entered heaven. It really is simple when you look at the Ascension.
**We simply cannot become perfect from our own works**
That’s why there is a Purgatory — so we may be made perfect through the will of God.
Not if you read the post I was replying to in the first place. You cry catholic bashing every time someone disagrees with you.
Actually yes. It’s not about us, its about Him.
One can win rewards for actions done in Christs name, but our salvation and righteousness were won by Him on the cross. I will rejoice in what you call “utter tripe” when I am called home. Will you feel cheated if you don’t have to suffer?
And we have blessed assurance and peace while we are still here on earth that we can rest entirely in Christ with no fear.
Disagreement is not bashing. If you dont want discussion and rebuttal, don’t post open threads.
sorry humblegunner, that reply was directed to the post you were answering, not you.
So Catholicism with their Purgatory is similar to Hindu and Reincarnation where they accumulate more good karma than bad until they can eventually earn a person a higher place in the caste system in a future life, the ultimate goal of any Hindu adherent is moksha, or salvation from samsara. Moksha is the final of four primary Hindu goals.
As I learned it ...
The early church princes worried about dying unbaptized thus going to hell, so they opted for infant baptism.
This was fine until someone decided that sins in a state of grace, ie, post-baptism, were more serious than the same sins committed by the unbaptized.
So it was back to adult baptism, until someone pointed out that a prince could fall off his horse, hit his head on a rock, and die before he could get baptized.
There had to be a solution. So they did what they always do, they conjured one. Be baptized as an infant to escape hell and work off the industrial state-of-grace sins before entering heaven. And that’s purgatory.
Done, done, and here’s your T-shirt. It’s been a long time since I read that, so there may be some mistakes.
>>> That’s why there is a Purgatory — so we may be made perfect through the will of God.
There is no scriptural basis for this.
It is a teaching of works salvation.
What can there be done at all after your dead?
Will you acquire wealth? have relationships with others? feed the hungry? go to church? Tell me... What specifically does Jesus do with you in purgatory to perfect you???
It is appointed to men once to die, and then comes the judgment. What good would purgatory do for you if you have already been judged???
Our salvation is complete in the the shed blood of Christ.
If you seek to be made perfect for entry into heaven by any other means than the blood of Christ (which is complete), then your sins remain.
If you read in the Book of Revelation about those who are judged according to their works, you will find it doesn’t work out too well for them.
Relying instead upon Christ’s sacrifice exempts you from judgment on that day. Yes we all give an account, but the judgment seat of Christ is a different event apart from the great white throne judgment and has absolutely NOTHING to do with salvation.
It’s still Jesus our Lord and Savior Who cleanses us of all sin, regardless of time and place.
What’s totally invented here is the notion that Purgatory is not an instrument of grace.
I am very familiar with Romans 4 and how Abraham was credited with righteousness. I repeat the question: what does Abraham’s righteousness have to do with the existence of Purgatory?
Inability to discuss the scripture in plain words often leads to silly verbal embellishment.
Riiight, 20 paragraphs or so to explain away 5 simple verses, that speak of burning off imperfections.
This is the methodology that makes Protestantism so unattractive.
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