As YOU can see, what I said is what the Church teaches. Purgatory explainedsteve-b:
That isn’t what the passage says. 1 Cor. 3:10-15
10 By the grace God has given me, I laid a foundation as a wise builder, and someone else is building on it. But each one should build with care. 11 For no one can lay any foundation other than the one already laid, which is Jesus Christ. 12 If anyone builds on this foundation using gold, silver, costly stones, wood, hay or straw, 13 their work will be shown for what it is, because the Day will bring it to light. It will be revealed with fire, and the fire will test the quality of each person’s work. 14 If what has been built survives, the builder will receive a reward. 15 If it is burned up, the builder will suffer loss but yet will be saved—even though only as one escaping through the flames.
As you can see, this has absolutely nothing to do with the Catholic doctrine of purgatory. If you read what has already been said here (by Catholics) you will see that purgatory is a place where PEOPLE are PURIFIED, and not a place where the QUALITY OF WORKS of people are TESTED by fire. Do you understand the difference between a fire that burns human WORKS (to test their quality) and a fire that supposedly purifies HUMAN BEINGS through temporal punishment?
Universalism, teaches that in the end God saves everyone.steve-b:
I don’t know what that is. I’ve heard of the 7th day denomination but I’ve never studied what their dogma is.So now you’re a universalist?
Background is of consequence.
Hi steve-b, do you understand the difference between a fire that burns human WORKS (to test their quality) and a fire that supposedly purifies HUMAN BEINGS through temporal punishment?
The quality of our works is an expression of our love for God (and internal holiness / purity). A person can do many objectively good works (giving to the poor, feeding the hungry, visiting the sick, etc.), but if they have no love for God these works are meaningless.steve-b:
Hi steve-b, do you understand the difference between a fire that burns human WORKS (to test their quality) and a fire that supposedly purifies HUMAN BEINGS through temporal punishment?
Perhaps you need to read slower.
This is what the link states “One argument anti-Catholics often use to attack purgatory is the idea that the Catholic Church makes money from promulgating the doctrine. Without purgatory, the claim asserts, the Church would go broke.”
…Erm… your point being? This is a common misconception non-Catholics have about Catholic dogma. See, we don’t start believing something when it’s defined as dogma. Dogmas are only defined when an existing belief comes under enough attack (through external forces or through internal heresy) that it becomes necessary to state them definitively. We didn’t start believing in prayer for the dead after those counsels, that’s just when it became officially necessary to define those beliefs as Dogmas to avoid confusion for Catholics and non-Catholics.I’ve read all the links and passages used and I don’t believe there is any evidence of purgatory.
ProdglArchitect:
This is what the link states “One argument anti-Catholics often use to attack purgatory is the idea that the Catholic Church makes money from promulgating the doctrine. Without purgatory, the claim asserts, the Church would go broke.”
I’ve never used that argument but we can look at the facts of history.
This is directly from the Catholic Catechism:
…
The council of Florence was in 1439. The council of Trent wasn’t until 1545.
Well, it’s not part of the Protestant Bible, but it was part of every Bible from 313 to 1611, when King James decided that he had the right to decide what was scripture and what wasn’t. (Not even Martin Luther had that much hubris; he simply relegated them to what what he considered to be less-inspired.) It’s been included in every Catholic Bible since 313 to the present day; as well as in every Orthodox Bible.
No, that’s not the end of the discussion. Having an advocate doesn’t mean that we don’t have to make amends for what we’ve done. I have an advocate in court in the form of my lawyer. That doesn’t mean I don’t have to face the consequence of the actions that landed me in court to begin with. Jesus certainly does make atonement for our sins, and it’s through His sacrifice that we are saved; but that doesn’t remove the responsibility we have for our actions.
Granted he was long before Jesus but not that long.You think every sin being revisited in a very public way is not going to be painful?
nogames,steve-b:
Hi steve-b, do you understand the difference between a fire that burns human WORKS (to test their quality) and a fire that supposedly purifies HUMAN BEINGS through temporal punishment?
Hi ProdglArchitect, somehow you’ve read something into this passage (1 Cor. 3:10-15) that it isn’t saying.
The point was in the passages I quoted, from Mt 25nogames:
The quality of our works is an expression of our love for God (and internal holiness / purity). A person can do many objectively good works (giving to the poor, feeding the hungry, visiting the sick, etc.), but if they have no love for God these works are meaningless.steve-b:
Hi steve-b, do you understand the difference between a fire that burns human WORKS (to test their quality) and a fire that supposedly purifies HUMAN BEINGS through temporal punishment?
To test the quality of our works is not to see how effective they were, it’s to see if they were born out of our love for God. The more we love God, the greater our spiritual purity will be, we grow in love as we become more pure.