Purgatory and Infused RIghteousness cannot both be false

  • Thread starter Thread starter Lazerlike42
  • Start date Start date
Status
Not open for further replies.
L

Lazerlike42

Guest
Protestants believe that there is no Purgatory, and that righteousness is imputed, not infused. However, the Scriptures teach that “nothing impure shall enter heaven.” If righteousness in merely imputed and the saved person does not necessarily become sanctified in life, then there must be a purification after death. He may have his sins forgiven by the imputation of Christ’s righteousness (for the sake of arguement), but he would still die impure and need purgation. On the other hand, if righteousness is truly infused, and a person who is saved will truly become sanctified by his death, then Purgatory is not necessary. (Of course in the case, it would be so that an extremely few number of persons have ever been saved, but I am making the point just for the sake of the arguement).
 
40.png
Lazerlike42:
Protestants believe that there is no Purgatory, and that righteousness is imputed, not infused. However, the Scriptures teach that “nothing impure shall enter heaven.” If righteousness in merely imputed and the saved person does not necessarily become sanctified in life, then there must be a purification after death. He may have his sins forgiven by the imputation of Christ’s righteousness (for the sake of arguement), but he would still die impure and need purgation. On the other hand, if righteousness is truly infused, and a person who is saved will truly become sanctified by his death, then Purgatory is not necessary. (Of course in the case, it would be so that an extremely few number of persons have ever been saved, but I am making the point just for the sake of the arguement).
Click to expand...
Well, yes righteousness is infused, but that infusion is a process, and that is sanctification. If it was an one time instant thing, we’d be walking around totally sinless. Of course that is not the case. This “infusion” of righteousness is what I would call sanctification would continue on until we die. Purgatory is merely the final stage of that “infusion”. The “consumation” of it if you will. So Purgatory may still be nessecary, but that depends on the individual believer.
P7
 
40.png
Lazerlike42:
Protestants believe that there is no Purgatory, and that righteousness is imputed, not infused. However, the Scriptures teach that “nothing impure shall enter heaven.” If righteousness in merely imputed and the saved person does not necessarily become sanctified in life, then there must be a purification after death. He may have his sins forgiven by the imputation of Christ’s righteousness (for the sake of arguement), but he would still die impure and need purgation. On the other hand, if righteousness is truly infused, and a person who is saved will truly become sanctified by his death, then Purgatory is not necessary. (Of course in the case, it would be so that an extremely few number of persons have ever been saved, but I am making the point just for the sake of the arguement).
Click to expand...
One of the big shocks for me when I started learning about the Catholic faith was when I realized that, in a sense, I had always believed in Purgatory. I believed that God was continuously making us holy, and ridding us of sin, and that this process would not be completed untill we died and went to Heaven. I thought that the second after we died, we would be instantaneously purified from all sin and made completly holy. I was stunned to realized how close my belief was to the Catholic understanding of Purgatory. Obviously, there are several differences, but the idea of Purgatory was not nearly as foreign to me as I believed it was.
 
40.png
Pryority7:
Well, yes righteousness is infused, but that infusion is a process, and that is sanctification. If it was an one time instant thing, we’d be walking around totally sinless. Of course that is not the case. This “infusion” of righteousness is what I would call sanctification would continue on until we die. Purgatory is merely the final stage of that “infusion”. The “consumation” of it if you will. So Purgatory may still be nessecary, but that depends on the individual believer.
P7
Click to expand...
Of course. I was speaking from Protestant perspectives.
 
40.png
Pryority7:
Oh. 😃
Click to expand...
Basically, my point is that Protestants have to believe in one of two things:
  1. Imputed Righteousness WITH Purgatoy
or
  1. Infused Righteousmness WITHOUT Purgatory (in which case maybe 20 people would have been saved since the time of Christ)
 
40.png
Lazerlike42:
Basically, my point is that Protestants have to believe in one of two things:
  1. Imputed Righteousness WITH Purgatoy
or
  1. Infused Righteousmness WITHOUT Purgatory (in which case maybe 20 people would have been saved since the time of Christ)
Click to expand...
I’ve tried the reasoning myself, but when I do, I hear this “3rd option”:
God *looks upon us as if we were righteous *because we are covered with the blood of Christ. Due to how *He chooses *to see us we are therefore totally clean and free to enter heaven.

In their minds, this upholds the verse that nothing unclean shall enter heaven - God ‘declares’ us clean by the blood of Christ, making us ‘clean’ in God’s eyes, therefore our sins are no longer visible or relevant for salvation.
 
40.png
Elzee:
I’ve tried the reasoning myself, but when I do, I hear this “3rd option”:
God *looks upon us as if we were righteous *because we are covered with the blood of Christ. Due to how *He chooses *to see us we are therefore totally clean and free to enter heaven.

In their minds, this upholds the verse that nothing unclean shall enter heaven - God ‘declares’ us clean by the blood of Christ, making us ‘clean’ in God’s eyes, therefore our sins are no longer visible or relevant for salvation.
Click to expand...
Actually, not only does God declare us clean by the blood of Christ, we are actually CLEANED by the blood. It doesn’‘t cover our sins really if you think about it. Covering something doesn’t nessesarly negate it’s existence. If you do #2 on the floor and you cover it with a flower smelling carpet, it doesnt’ take away the fact that underneath the carpet, there’s poop. Same here. God does not merely cover our sins by Christ’s blood, He eliminates them by Christ’s blood. This is of course a process in our small microsecond in God’s eternity we call time. That’s why John the Baptist called Jesus the “Lamb of God who TAKES AWAY the sins of the world”. This amazing elimination of our sins is a process in our lives and will be finished when we die or during purgatory.
 
40.png
Pryority7:
Actually, not only does God declare us clean by the blood of Christ, we are actually CLEANED by the blood. It doesn’‘t cover our sins really if you think about it. Covering something doesn’t nessesarly negate it’s existence. If you do #2 on the floor and you cover it with a flower smelling carpet, it doesnt’ take away the fact that underneath the carpet, there’s poop. Same here. God does not merely cover our sins by Christ’s blood, He eliminates them by Christ’s blood. This is of course a process in our small microsecond in God’s eternity we call time. That’s why John the Baptist called Jesus the “Lamb of God who TAKES AWAY the sins of the world”. This amazing elimination of our sins is a process in our lives and will be finished when we die or during purgatory.
Click to expand...
Which is why the third option doesn’t work. God simply declaring you righteous doens’t make it so. The concept of imputed righteousness turns God into a liar, into someone who knows or that makes the “rule” that nothing unclean shall enter heaven and then lies to all the people, all the angels, and Himself, and says that we are righteous when He knows we’re not.
 
40.png
Lazerlike42:
Which is why the third option doesn’t work. God simply declaring you righteous doens’t make it so. The concept of imputed righteousness turns God into a liar, into someone who knows or that makes the “rule” that nothing unclean shall enter heaven and then lies to all the people, all the angels, and Himself, and says that we are righteous when He knows we’re not.
Click to expand...
Makes perfect sense. But like I’m sure you have, I have discussed and discussed this with my Evangelical, Lutheran, and Baptist friends and I get nowhere. There is one verse in Scripture that talks about being ‘clothed with Christ’ (I can’t think of where it is right now) and that one verse seems to usurp everything else in Scripture on this topic - we’re “clothed with the righteousness of Christ” I think it is - therefore, we’re only covered up. Anyone familiar with that verse? I can’t find it.
 
40.png
Elzee:
I’ve tried the reasoning myself, but when I do, I hear this “3rd option”:
God *looks upon us as if we were righteous *because we are covered with the blood of Christ. Due to how *He chooses *to see us we are therefore totally clean and free to enter heaven.

In their minds, this upholds the verse that nothing unclean shall enter heaven - God ‘declares’ us clean by the blood of Christ, making us ‘clean’ in God’s eyes, therefore our sins are no longer visible or relevant for salvation.
Click to expand...
This is a very protestant way of thinking about it.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top