Purgatory

Why is Purgatory a place of hope?  Because if Purgatory did not exist we would all go to hell.  Why would we go to hell?  It is not sufficient to say "we are washed clean in the blood of the Lamb."

Nothing unclean can enter heaven.  Let's see what Jesus has to say about this.

Did Jesus ever speak of Purgatory?  Yes, He did.

In Luke 12:59 Jesus said:

"I say to thee, thou shalt not go OUT from there, until YOU PAY the very last mite."

In Matthew 5:26 He also said:

"Amen I say to thee, you shalt not go out from there till YOU REPAY the last farthing."

Now, remember, Jesus is the just judge of all men, and every single one of us will go before Him to be judged. And when we go to judgment it means we have died, we have left this life and are now in eternity before the judgment seat of Christ. Note what Jesus says:

“YOU WILL NOT GET OUT ….”

Get out of what?  Get out of where? You have died, you are in eternity, you are being judged and assigned to a place where you are about to go. Now, we KNOW there is no getting out of the hell of the damned so Jesus is NOT talking about the hell of the damned.

So this place, this state of being that Jesus is talking about is after this life. You are being judged and assigned to a place where YOU don’t get out until YOU PAY (those are the words of Christ, yes, UNTIL YOU PAY) the last farthing, the very last penny. This is what the Church calls "Purgatory."

This place of punishment, this place of expiation of temporal punishment due to sin that WE MUST PAY (according to Jesus Himself) is called “Purgatory because the temporal punishment that WE PAY is purged away from us, the affection and attachment to sin in this life that we were not willing to give up is also purged away from us.

You can call this place whatever you want, but JESUS SPOKE OF IT, and there is NO DENYING THE FACT THAT HE SPOKE OF IT. The Church calls this place Jesus spoke of, “Purgatory.”

And since you are not in the hell of the damned you are clearly not yet seeing God face to face until you get out, so you are not in the beatific vision of heaven yet, UNTIL YOU PAY the debt you owe to temporal punishment.

Not only that, Jesus Christ solemnly swore to what I have shown you in Scripture when He said “AMEN, I say to thee …”

Now, if you want to fight with Him, be my guest, but you will lose.

Furthermore, in Luke, 12:47 Jesus speaks to us about how we will be judged based on whether or not we did the will of God as it was made known to us. He said:

“And the servant who knew the will of his Lord, and prepared not himself, and did not according to His will, shall be beaten with many stripe.”

And in Luke 12:48 Jesus said:

“But he that knew not, and did things worthy of striped, shall be beaten with few stripes. And unto whomsoever much is given, of him much will be required, and to whom they have committed much, of him they will demand the more.”

So, again, the beating will stop after the punishment has been PAID, and again, this is NOT the hell of the damned because the beatings never stop there.

And all of the above has to do with the AFTERLIFE, AT JUDGMENT, so in fact, there IS a place where we have to go to PAY OFF a debt that WE MUST PAY, not that JESUS MUST PAY.  He said this Himself.

Now, Jesus was talking about settling out on the way to the Judge, so unless you think Jesus just likes to ramble on about some fictitious place that does not exist (purgatory) when he is talking about "settling out" you have no excuse.

If there is no purgatory Jesus would NEVER have spoken about a fictitious place that does not exist. It would only be heaven or hell, you repented or you didn't. If you repented Jesus would have ONLY talked about being in heaven, not some "fictitious" place (according to you) or THE HELL OF THE DAMNED where there is NO GETTING OUT.

Now, since Jesus himself spoke of a place where you get out when YOU PAY a debt, you have NO STANDING in your argument against purgatory.

Roger L.

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