DOES PURGATORY EXIST? (2)
1 John 5:17 (AMPC)
"All wrongdoing is sin, and there is sin which does not [involve] death [that may be repented of and forgiven].”
Dear people of God, in the first part of the post on this topic, we examined the thinking behind the Roman Catholic doctrine of purgatory being that sin is categorised into mortal and venial sins and that someone who commits venial sin would neither enter heaven nor enter hell but proceed to a temporary place called purgatory to suffer temporarily to be purged of venial sins to now qualify to enter heaven.
We also saw how the Lord Jesus Christ has offered the perfect sacrifice of His body and blood for the sins of mankind and how it is that no other sacrifice is required. This fact of the death of the Lord as redemption for all humans of the penalty for our sins proves that the doctrine of purgatory is not real since purgatory requires someone to make another offering or sacrifice of himself or herself to qualify to enter heaven, which is a contradiction to God’s Word.
In fact, the Word of God says in Romans 10:9-10 (AMPC), “Because if you acknowledge and confess with your lips that Jesus is Lord and in your heart believe (adhere to, trust in, and rely on the truth) that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved.
10 For with the heart a person believes (adheres to, trusts in, and relies on Christ) and so is justified (declared righteous, acceptable to God), and with the mouth he confesses (declares openly and speaks out freely his faith) and confirms [his] salvation.
No other sacrifice is required to be saved to qualify to enter heaven other than this Scripture above.
Today’s lead Holy Bible text tells us all wrongdoing is sin and since the wages of sin is death, then venial sin also qualifies one to enter hell, which is spiritual death and this again, defeats the argument of the existence of purgatory.
The second part of today’s lead text tells us there is sin which does not lead to death that may be repented of and forgiven.
When I was in the Roman Catholic church some years ago, I used this Scripture to support the argument for the existence of purgatory. The problem here, however, is that the Roman Catholic doctrine on purgatory says the souls in purgatory (or church suffering) cannot pray for themselves to be delivered from purgatory and so have need to rely on the prayers of the saints in heaven and the church on earth for them to be forgiven.
Since God requires a person who sins to personally repent and ask for forgiveness before forgiveness is given, then it means this Scripture cannot be referring to the souls in purgatory who according to Roman Catholic doctrine can ONLY be saved through prayers of others outside purgatory.
So what exactly is the Scripture in 1 John 5:17 telling us?
For us to understand, let us first look at another Scripture in Hebrews 6:4-6, “For it is impossible [to restore and bring again to repentance] those who have been once for all enlightened, who have consciously tasted the heavenly gift and have become sharers of the Holy Spirit,
5 And have felt how good the Word of God is and the mighty powers of the age and world to come,
6 If they then deviate from the faith and turn away from their allegiance– [it is impossible] to bring them back to repentance, for (because, while, as long as) they nail upon the cross the Son of God afresh [as far as they are concerned] and are holding [Him] up to contempt and shame and public disgrace.
Here, from this Scripture we clearly see that some people who deviate from the faith having satisfied 5 conditions listed therein would not be forgiven even while they are alive here on earth and are destined for an eternity in HELL!
This means according to 1 John 5:16b, such a person has committed the unpardonable sin, the sin that leads to spiritual death forever. No amount of prayer can save such person anymore because as a matured Christian who has known and experienced great things in Christ, he or she has consciously taken a decision to backslide and fall back into sin.
Very few people as matured Christians enter this situation because very few people are able to reach such high level of Christian maturity in their lifetime and still backslide. It is a most dangerous situation for anyone to enter as all hope of recovery is lost even whilst alive.
On the other hand, the Bible here still talks about a sin that does not lead to death, and can be pardoned when the person repents and asks God for forgiveness and Christians are encouraged to pray for such a person.
Recall, the person is still alive here on earth and not dead. Yes, as Christians we are given authority by the Lord Jesus Christ to raise the dead in Matthew 10:8.
However, the dead who are raised to life by our authority in Christ usually come back from either heaven or hell as some have testified but none of those who returned from hell committed the unpardonable sin because if they did, God would not respond to any command in the name of Jesus Christ to bring them back because His Word is clear on this and God cannot violate His Word.
Nobody has ever returned from the dead and claimed to have come back from purgatory.
Remember it is God’s mercy at work when a Christian commands a dead person’s spirit in the Name of Jesus Christ to return to his or her body and so nobody can boast as having the power to do so because all power belongs to God.
Dear friend, from this post, it should be obvious to you reading this that the only time any human has to live right, repent after faltering and prepare for an eternity in heaven is here on earth as one is alive.
Nowhere in God’s Word are Christians commanded to live a life of ungodliness because the end of such life is an eternal damnation in HELL. Therefore, anyone aiming for purgatory and living in sin would certainly end up in HELL.
If anything, the doctrine of purgatory is a doctrine of demons orchestrated by satan himself, which objective is to deceive Roman Catholics to live an easy life of sin without realizing that the end of such life is destruction.
If I may ask the Roman Catholics, would you consider the sin of rebellion and stubbornness as venial sin or mortal sin?
I believe Roman Catholics would consider such as venial sin because it is the individual who is exhibiting this character and it would be termed as bad behaviour.
However, let us see how God views rebellion and stubbornness in 1 Samuel 15:23a (AMPC), “For rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft, and stubbornness is as idolatry and teraphim (household good luck images).”
You can see that God’s Word equates rebellion with witchcraft and stubbornness with idolatry.
Now, the Roman Catholics would definitely call witchcraft and idolatry mortal sins, which would end the person in eternal damnation in hell if the person dies without repenting.
Therefore, this should tell you that God does not view sin the way Christians view it because sin is wrong doing and the wages of sin is spiritual death or eternal death.
Dear friend, there is no purgatory. There is only heaven and hell and it would be in your best interest to aim for heaven by living a righteous life here on earth in complete and total obedience to God’s commandments in the Holy Bible.
God would never lower His standard of justice for anyone no matter who you think you are. God’s Word in the Holy Bible remains the only standard for assessing and judging all humans in this life.
May the good Lord bless you as you heed His Word today, act on it and share with others in Jesus’ Most Holy Name, Amen.
Gabriel Ama.
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