Purgatory

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Purgatory

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Jesus willingly died for the believer’s sins; He died in our place to pay the debt that we could never pay. “Who his own self bare the believer’s sins in his own body on the tree, that we, being dead to sins, should live unto righteousness: by whose stripes ye were healed” (I Peter 2:24). How devastating it is that Catholics trust in a place not mentioned in Scripture, but which they call Purgatory. They are taught to trust that somehow they can through suffering be purified enough to achieve the holiness necessary to enter heaven.

For true believers the one-time sacrifice of Christ Jesus is sufficient to pay for all sin. He appeared “to take away sins once for all” (Hebrews 9:26). He is the One “Whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood.” (Romans 3:25).

The Scriptures make clear that “the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord” (Romans 6:23). Those that have not received eternal life face final judgment and hell. Biblically there is no “in-between” state for the soul, “as it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment” (Hebrews 9:27).

#1030 “All who die in God’s grace and friendship, but still imperfectly purified…after death they undergo purification, so as to achieve the holiness necessary to enter the joy of heaven.”

#1472 …every sin, even venial, entails an unhealthy attachment to creatures, which must be purified either here on earth, or after death in the state called Purgatory. This purification frees one from what is called the "temporal punishment" of sin. …

Hebrews 1:3 …When he had by himself purged our sins, sat down on the right hand of the majesty on high.

I John 1:7 If we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin.

#1475 “In the communion of saints, ‘a perennial link of charity exists between the faithful who have already reached their heavenly home, those who are expiating their sins in purgatory and those who are still pilgrims on earth.”

I John 4:10 Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins.

I John 2:1-2 And if any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous: and he is the propitiation for our sins: and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world.

#498 “Through indulgences the faithful can obtain the remission of temporal punishment resulting from sin for themselves and also for the souls in Purgatory.”

Acts 8:20 But Peter said to him, ‘May your silver perish with you, because you thought you could obtain the gift of God with money.’

What a terrible deception to impose on faithful Catholics. The very reason and purpose of why Christ Jesus became man and suffered such an excruciating death was to expiate sin, once and for all, by His perfect sacrifice. How can any church that claims to follow Jesus Christ withhold this truth from its people! Not only has the Roman Catholic Church withheld the knowledge of the completeness of Christ finished work on the cross, but she has gone to the extreme of creating a non-existant place called Purgatory that nullifies the Savior’s finished work. “Then said he [Christ] Lo, I come to do thy will, O God. He taketh away the first, that he may establish the second. By the which will we are sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.” Hebrews 10:9-10