Thank you for your reply, I appreciate a non-judgemental reply. I don’t know how some people quote multitimes in a reply…so I just put the quote in bold…
**The “cleansing” Catholics refer to is what Protestants often call sanctification. The difference is that Catholics believe we
must be sanctified or transformed interiorly-truly changed-rather than merely forgiven in order to have eternal life. A sinner whose sins are merely non-imputed is
still a sinner since sin comes from the heart-and remember that no sinners enter heaven. So from the fall of man God’s been in the business of changing mans
heart-not just convicting him of his unrighteousness but of actually eliminating that unrighteousness-that’s what justification is. **
Sanctification is something that is a continual process in this life, but you never get perfect. So are you saying that because you never reach perfection that you have to go to purgatory to get perfect? And I completely agree that God wants peoples hearts to change, but that is a life long process. But that does not mean you are not justified, because you are justified by Jesus. (as far as I understand the RC do not separate justification and sanctification, because they are one and the same thing, and although they are one and the same thing, protestants (although I am sure some differ!) believe that they also cannot be separated, even though a distinction is made between being accepted into Christ, and living in Christ).
Why would God put us through the entire drama of casting us into this world unless the experience itself had the potential of playing a role in our purification. That role is to change our wills. Protestants generally believe that mans will is not involved in his salvation because man’s too corrupt to play any part in saving himself. That’s why they teach that nothing we can do counts-God does it all. While Catholics agree that only by His grace are we saved, we also believe that He has us play a part by becoming beings who actually choose that His will be done-whose wills come into agreement with His.
This explains it well, I do not think that man is able to save himself because of sin. Which is why when a Christian, the works you do are actually Christ working through you. Heb 13:21. And I agree with your teaching that we have a part to play…but only that we choose him and that choose that his will be done. But any other contribution becomes a work, because you cannot merit salvation.
This is his purpose- to mold us through trial and achieve a being refined to His standards in the process. Otherwise He may as well have avoided all the trouble and simply forgiven Adam & Eve immediately-or prevented them from sinning in the first place. He’s doing a work here and purgatory can be part of the work necessary to accomplish His ends.
I agree purgatory
can be part of the work necessary, but I just can’t get my head around why it needs to be. Because Christ said on the Cross ‘it is finished’, but its not finished if we still have to go though purgatory. I believe that there are consequences to our actions on earth, but once we leave this earth, those who believe in Christ are saved, because he paid the price, so we don;t have to, but it seems that purgatory is still a ‘paying’ to God, and I don’t see why. It is for this reason that I don’t believe it exists, because as someone said above, it is not in a time consortium, but if it is outside of time, then when do you ‘finish’ in purgatory and progress to be with Christ?
What does light have to do with darkness? How could a being enter heaven-how could they even know or experience heaven or godly things -if they’re still attached to the very things that make them ungodly? Until our wills are totally convinced that God alone is worthy of our love and obedience-until we fulfill the law by being perfected in love as He’s commanded from the beginning- heaven remains unattainable.
How – by the work of Christ, because he was totally obedient to God’s will, and it is through Christ that someone is saved and goes to be with Christ – who is God. Why is it not possible that Jesus alone bridged the gap for us?
And yes I have basically made my mind up about purgatory, because it seems like an option to just have faith in Christ but not really do anything about it. To live as you want now and pay later. Most of my family is Catholic, and I hear them say that it doesn’t matter if they get things wrong and continue in that wrong because they can pay for it in purgatory, rather than do ‘penance’ on earth, but that they are ‘ok’ because they believe in Jesus. So it is not just protestants who think that you just need faith and all is cool. Your good works are proof of your faith, and that is what you are rewarded for…not punished.
:flowers: 