A QUESTION ON PURGATORY Nanfe Miner: I would like to know where there is a mention of purgatory in the Bible and the fact that people on earth can change their status by praying for them. Thanks. Answer: Thank you, Nanfe, for this beautiful question. I am glad you are a believer. That means a minus for the devil. But I invite you to embrace growth in Christ, the Way, the Truth and the Life. Every child is born to grow, same with God’s children. Coming to your question, surely something as important as purgatory is expected to be clearly taught in the pages of the Sacred Scripture. And it is very clearly taught there. However, before I show you where the Bible clearly teaches about purgatory, I want to hope that you are not insisting on finding the exact word ‘purgatory’ in the Bible, because that is not required for the truth to be there. After all, the most important Truth in the whole of Christianity is the Trinity, which the Bible clearly teaches but does not contain that word. We believe in the Incarnation of God in Christ. The word ‘Incarnation’ is nowhere in the Bible, but the teaching is. I want to also assume that you really believe the Word of God and would accept what the Word of God says, even if it conflicts with some human opinions around you. 1. In 1 Cor. 3:15, Paul writes: “If the work is burned up, the builder suffers loss; the builder will be saved, but ONLY AS THROUGH FIRE.” St. Paul teaches very clearly here that God performs a final purgation or purification – a process that involves SUFFERING – on the souls of some departed Christians. This final purification removes all the imperfections that cling to the soul, things Paul metaphorically calls “wood, hay, and straw” – flammable materials which are burned away in this judgment by God. Conversely, that man’s good works – which St. Paul compares with “gold, silver, and precious stones” – are refined and retained. 2. If you read the Bible with unbiased mind, humbly searching for the truth from the lips of our Lord Jesus Christ, you will find that several of his sayings clearly teach that there would be some debt of justice that must be paid after our earthly life. In Matt. 12:32, Christ talks of sins that will not be forgiven in the world to come, implying that some sins will be forgiven after death. 3. In Matt. 5:25-26, Christ uses court to describe eternal judgment. He asks us to attain perfect reconciliation while still on earth, otherwise, if we reach the hour judgment without perfect reconciliation, we would be thrown into prison. “Truly, I tell you, you will never get out until you have paid the last penny.” This means that someone in this prison will get out sometime after paying the debt. I assume you know that Christ is not here talking about avoiding prisons in this world. 4. In Matt. 18:32-35, Christ tells another story to teach about forgiving others as God forgives us. The unforgiving servant was put in jail until he should pay all the debt. And Christ ends by saying: “So my heavenly Father will also do to every one of you, if you do not forgive your brother or sister from your heart.” I want also to mention here that to be able to forgive the way God wants is something we grow up in. It is the same as loving like God. This is the meaning of perfection, which is the goal of our spiritual growth. St. Paul says that we must grow until we come to “maturity, to the measure of the full stature of Christ” (Eph. 4:13) He says that with the whole church we must grow up in love (Eph. 4:14-16) Christ asks us to be perfect as our heavenly Father is. (Matt. 5:48). 5. It is very important to understand what salvation means. The theory of the so called eternal security, once saved always saved, is FALSE and totally unbiblical. Our salvation is an ongoing process. That is why Christ says that only those who persevere to the end will be saved (Matt. 10:22; 24:1,13;) St. Paul says: “I pummel my body lest I be disqualified” (1 Cor. 9:27) 6. Again, the passage from 1 Jn. 5:16, which gave rise to our present discussion clearly teaches that there are mortal and venial sins. A soul in a venial sin is not dead spiritually. If he physically dies, he will not go to hell, but will be purified as St. Paul says in 1Cor 3:15. Christ also confirms the truth of mortal and venial sin when he said: “That slave, who knew what his master wanted and did not prepare himself or do what was wanted, will receive a severe beating. But the one who did not know and did what deserved a beating will receive a light beating.” (Lk. 12:47-48) 7. Purgatory is NOT about “second chance” to unbelievers or unrepentant sinners. It is a holy place for God’s holy people, but it is a temporary condition that is sanctified by Christ’s Presence for the purification and sanctification of God’s imperfect children. As soon as Christ died, that was the place he went. In Acts 2:31 we read: “He was not abandoned to Hades nor did his flesh experience corruption.” The souls in purgatory are called “Holy Souls” because only holy souls can go to heaven. The above passages from Sacred Scripture are enough for anyone who truly believes in the Word of God to know there is purgatory. Apart from using the words ‘prison’ or ‘jail’ or ‘saved as through fire’ for the truth of purgatory, the Bible clearly teaches there is another place after death, which is neither heaven nor hell. The Bible uses the Hebrew word ‘sheol’ which it clearly distinguishes from another Hebrew word ‘Gehenna’ meaning ‘hell’. Sheol is neither the hell of the damned nor the heaven of the perfect. This place in-between is what 1 Pet. 3:18-21 calls “prison” when it says: “Christ was put to death in the flesh, but made alive in the spirit, in which also he went and made proclamation to the spirits in prison, who in former times did not obey, when God waited patiently in the days of Noah, during the building of the ark, in which a few, that is, eight persons were saved through water. And baptism, which that prefigured, now saves you…” This prison, which is the same concept of sheol (in Hebrew), hades (in Greek), and purgatorium (in Latin) is purgatory as we have come to know it today. This temporary place of the ‘dead’ did not cease to exist after Christ’s Resurrection and Ascension. The Bible tells us that it will cease to exist at the end of time. “Then Death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. This is the second death; and anyone whose name was not found in the written in the book of life was thrown into the lake of fire.” (Rev. 20:14-15). This means that until the Day of the final judgment, the work of salvation, which is purification and sanctification, goes on. After the Death and Resurrection of Christ, the work of the Holy Spirit is to purify and sanctify us with the Body and Blood of Christ. Put in a figurative way, He washes sin away with the Blood of Christ and clothes us with the Body of Christ. This goes on until we become perfect. The Blessed in heaven are described as those made perfect. (Heb. 12:22-24). About the saints, the Bible says: “They have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.” (Rev. 7:14). About helping the departed souls with our prayers, I should expect a true Christian, with God’s kind of love in his or her heart, to rather ask ‘why not?’ All those in Christ are united to one another in Christ, whether in heaven, purgatory or on earth. Christ is one. Even in purgatory, it is Christ who is saving the souls there. But he does it more when we add our prayers and sacrifices. This is what is called the “Communion of the Saints”. We are able to help one another out of sin says St. John (1 Jn. 5:16). From the day we entered into Christ, we no longer see ourselves the way the world sees. St. Paul says: “From now on, therefore, we regard no one from a human point of view; even though we once knew Christ from a human point of view, we know him no longer in that way. So if anyone is in Christ, there is a new creation: everything old has passed away; see, everything has become new!” (2 Cor. 5:16-17). Because of this truth, it is wrong to see the departed souls as ‘dead’ because they are alive in Christ but are going through purification and sanctification in order to be ready for heaven. Every true believer in Christ never dies. Life is changed, not ended. Christ calls the Christian’s ‘death’ a sleep (Jn. 11:11). But the spirit lives. Christ describes the spirits of the ‘dead’ who are in God as alive, because God is “God not of the dead but of the living; for to him all of them are alive” (Lk. 20:38) Even the famous passage often quoted to refute purgatory actually supports it: “And just as it is appointed unto men once to die, and after that the judgment, so Christ, having been offered once to bear the sins of many, will appear a second time, not to deal with sin, but to save those who are eagerly waiting for him.” (Heb. 9:27-28) In this passage about death and judgment, the letter to the Hebrews talks about the final coming of Christ. However, within the passage we are also able to see clearly that there are two judgment periods. One is immediately after death; the other is at the end of time. It also clearly states that in his second coming, Christ will no longer deal with sin, but will “save those who are eagerly waiting for him” It means, therefore, that even after the first judgment, Christ will continue to deal with sin in the lives of some who have not been perfected. After death comes judgment, and after judgment comes either heaven or hell. Those who go to hell are those who are spiritually dead in sin at the point of their leaving this world. Those who go to heaven are those who are spiritually alive in Christ at the point of physical death. But some of those who are spiritually alive in Christ at this point may not have attained the perfection of God, which Christ is working to achieve in them. The meaning of venial or small sins is the imperfections in our lives, especially the imperfection of our love, some amount of selfishness and inordinate attachment to creatures. The reason the souls in purgatory cannot help themselves anymore but passively undergo purification is because they have lost their physical body, which is given to us for sacrifice. Our body was given to us so that we can freely offer it up to God as a living sacrifice. St. Paul says: “Brothers, I beg you through the mercy of God to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice holy and acceptable to God, your spiritual worship. Do not conform yourselves to this age but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, so that you may judge what is God’s will, what is good, pleasing and perfect.” (Rom. 12:1-2). “Consequently, when Christ came into the world, he said, “Sacrifices and offerings you have not desired, but a body you have prepared for me…” (Heb. 10:5) It is our opportunity to freely and actively die with Christ to save ourselves and the world. That is the meaning of the cross Christ asks us to carry and follow him every day of our life. (Lk. 14:27). Our bodies are extensions of the Cross of Christ. That was why St. Paul said: “I am glad when I suffer for you in my body, for I am completing what remains of Christs sufferings for his body, the church.” (Col. 1:24). Helping them is mandatory because Christ says: “I was in prison, you came and visited me” (Matt. 25:36) The mystery of God’s mercy and our salvation is, not that God is unable to save everybody by his almighty power, but that he wants us to share in that work so that we can have the same kind of love he has and be able to share his glory. God allows some people to be poor so that goods can be shared and love can grow. I know your version of the Bible does not contain the book of Maccabees, but the complete Bible does. In 2 Mac. 12: 45, it is written: “It was a holy and pious thought. Therefore he made atonement for the dead, that they might be delivered from their sin.” This was the story of how the Jewish warrior, Judas Maccabeus, collected some money to offer sacrifices for the souls of fellow soldiers who died in war. It will not easy for you to quickly accept the truth of the doctrine on purgatory, but if you truly believe the Word of God, I strongly believe that through prayer and humble submission to the Truth, you will gradually come to the fullness of truth. May the Holy Spirit of truth continue to guide all of us in his truth. God bless you
Posted on: Sun, 19 Jan 2014 17:12:36 +0000
Trending Topics
© 2015