Both you and the Church and Staples cannot be right. If I have to choose, I choose a studied convert and an infallible Church along with my own study. Most of us are not perfect at death and nothing unclean enters heaven. Thus purgatorial cleansing.
Most?
You are denying the explicit Word of God in favor of Rome, but at least in your case you deny it with your eyes open. Hope it works out for you.
And here is your so called purgatorial cleansing:
2Co 5:10 For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ; that every one may receive the things done in his body, according to that he hath done, whether it be good or bad.
1Co 3:12 Now if any man build upon this foundation gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, stubble;
1Co 3:13 Every man's work shall be made manifest: for the day shall declare it, because it shall be revealed by fire; and the fire shall try every man's work of what sort it is.
1Co 3:14 If any man's work abide which he hath built thereupon, he shall receive a reward.
1Co 3:15 If any man's work shall be burned, he shall suffer loss: but he himself shall be saved; yet so as by fire.
None of us are perfect at death...
We will appear before the judgment seat of Jesus immediately when we die...The record of all of our works will be thrown into a fire...When the fire dies down Jesus pulls out the works that survived the fire...Only the record of the good works survived, the bad works are turned to ashes...
All those things we thought were good and were burned will become a loss, waste of time...AND, they can hinder us from receiving rewards in heaven...And since all the bad works were consumed in the fire, the fire saved us...NOW we can go into God's presence...This judgment is immediate upon death...There is no purgatory...There is no punishment...Jesus abolished the penalty of sin when he died...
Your 'learned experts' tell you that YOU are going to burn in purgatory, feel the flames as punishment for your sins...And they use this scripture to falsely convince you of that...All you have to do is read it for yourself to understand it...
I should have suggested you read the Epistles and note that they are addressed to all of the saints, the body of all believers, and not to priests and bishops. God’s Word is to the people, for the people. You do not need Rome to teach you what the Bible means when it explicitly teaches (in multiple places) that Christ cleanses from ALL sin. That is plain.
However, you do need Rome to invent and manage Purgatory based on the idea that the Jesus of Rome (an altogether fictitious Jesus) doesn’t pay all of the sin debt. You need Rome to use Purgatory to manipulate and extort sinners for many centuries. Ever asked yourself why the pope, if he has the power claimed, doesn’t simply release all those souls in Purgatory? The whole thing is laughably absurd.
Any man or any institution who places himself or itself between you and God is utterly wicked. Tim Staples and the Bishops of Rome won’t be there to hold your hand and plead your case at the judgment. You will be judged according to what Christ has accomplished for you or you will offer up your own works. You either accept Him and His work alone by faith or you are on your own. There is no in between. There is no second chance. There is no Purgatory. The Bible says today is the day of salvation. What did Christ tell the thief on the cross? He didn’t say, after some purgation you will be in Paradise. He said “Today you will be with Me in Paradise.”
We live our lives one day at a time. Yesterday is gone. Tomorrow never comes. Today is the only day we have, to be saved by the grace of God. The Bible says, “Thy people shall be willing in the day of thy power...” Are you willing to look to Him in faith and be saved this very day?
Or will you keep looking to the weak Jesus of Rome, the Jesus who must be sacrificed over and over again, the Jesus who can only do so much for you, the Jesus who saves so incompletely you must spend time in Purgatory?
Staples is a manifest sophist who avoid debates, and has been refuted here, by the grace of God, and and does not personally engage us here where the likes of him are not protected by wannabe inquisitors as at Catholic Answers.
As for an infallible Church, that is the very issue, and you trust in an infallible church which has presumed to infallibly declare she is and will be perpetually infallible whenever she speaks in accordance with her infallibly defined (scope and subject-based) formula, which renders her declaration that she is infallible, to be infallible, as well as all else she accordingly declares. Quite the circular system.
Most of us are not perfect at death and nothing unclean enters heaven. Thus purgatorial cleansing.
Which is simply a denial of the cross, as it reduces the gospel to simply providing more grace whereby a person can practically become good enough to be with God, while Scripture clearly teaches that by faith the heart is purified, and one is sanctified and made accepted in the Beloved, on His account, (Acts 15:9; 1Co. 6:11; Eph. 1:6)
And that believers now have direct access into the holy of holies, and their next location after this life will be forever with the Lord, and with the only suffering being that of the loss of rewards (and the Lord's disapproval) at the judgement seat of Christ, which is person is saved despite of, and not because of, and which only takes place after His return. (1Cor. 4:5; 2Tim. 4:1,8; Rev.11:18; Mt. 25:31-46; 1Pt. 1:7; 5:4)
Would that be your own personal interpretation?