My favorite:
1 Corinthians 3:11-15: “For no one can lay a foundation other than the one that is there, namely, Jesus Christ. If anyone builds on this foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, or straw,the work of each will come to light, for the Day will disclose it. It will be revealed with fire, and the fire [itself] will test the quality of each one’s work. If the work stands that someone built upon the foundation, that person will receive a wage. But if someone’s work is burned up, that one will suffer loss; the person will be saved, but only as through fire.”
A little background, the prior chapters were talking about those spreading a false gospel, focusing on miracles, etc. Paul was saying that on judgement day, those that changed the gospel would be destroyed by God, in effect, on judgement day. He then goes on in the above verses about believers themselves. The interesting thing is, he is being judged on his works. His works are being judged. Now according to the above verses, Protestants like to paint the picture that the man is already saved, his works are the burning building, and he escaped it, so he personally is fine. That sounds great, and in fact if you read the above verses like that it seems perfectly plausible. But that’s not what the original Greek means, and you are welcome to look it up. I actually verified it on, ironically enough, a Protestant on-line translator. Lets start with the underlined words “suffer loss.” In the Greek, the transliterated word is “zemioo.” In the Old Testament in the Septaguint, the word is used in the context of punishment. An example is in Proverbs where a man is punished for a crime. It can mean “affect with damage, to do damge to, to sustain damage, receive injury, to suffer loss.” As you can see, “suffer loss” in this sense is to receive punishment and injury. Interesting. Christian believers, being judged on their works, and if their works are not all up to snuff, they are burned, and even the man himself.
Let’s look at the second underlined phrase “but only.” Protestants look at this verse, and they think “oh well that just means that it’s a metaphor, that because of the grace of Christ we were saved, and if not we would have been burned in hell.” Except that’s not correct, because first off, the works themselves are being judged, and the people Paul is talking about are believers that are saved, so it is not referring to hell. The Greek word for “but only” is the adverb “houto.” And the interesting thing about it is that it means “the same, exactly, follows, same, same manner.” When you look at it in it’s proper context, Paul is saying that he will be saved, the same as through fire. So altogether now, a Christian man’s works will be tested by God, and if he has not done good deeds (venial sins), he himself will be punished, and he will be saved the same as through fire. This is almost word for word catholic doctrine on purgatory.
