by westsands410 » July 12th, 2006, 6:05 pm
Guinea-Pig:
Have had a look at this article that you recommended: http: // members.aol.com /jasonte2 /purge. htm
First off, I'm not Catholic, so had - until I read the above - little idea of the Catholic concept of Purgatory. Just to be clear, I am certain that the buying and selling of indulgences is of no use when trying to 'buy your way' out of sin. It's just wishful thinking on the behalf of the congregation and the opportunity to make some money for the Church.
Second, I don't view purgatory or purgation as paying for sins in any way. As you correctly said previously, even if it were possible for us to pay for our sins (as a prison sentence, say), it would take aeons if not all of eternity. However, I do believe that purgatory is the process which God puts us through in order to remove the traces of sin from our being after death. It is the consequence of accepting Jesus's sacrifice for us on the cross, and I couldn't find anything in the above-mentioned article that ruled this type of purgatory out. You quoted Luke 23:43 (in your post on 7/7) - Jesus and the thief on the cross - in which Jesus says that the the thief would be with him in Paradise that day. I don't know how long the purging process will take, and I do not think that the verse mentioned above rules out the process of purgation, as He was not referring to an earthly 24-hour period. This I take from the Creed (variously termed 'Apostles Creed' or 'Nicene Creed') that my denomination uses each Sunday, in which we say that Jesus was "crucified, died and was buried, and three days later rose again into Heaven". He spent three days dead - in hell with the damned - and so could not have meant that the thief would be with Him the same day that He was crucified. The word 'day' can be used ambiguously: one can refer to times being 'in King Arthur's day', and one well-known Old Testament quote (that I can't find just now) states that a thousand years is as the blink of an eye for God, and that His days are not as ours.
Anyway, sorry for the long double post, I'll shut up now...
P.S. Have also looked at the article at carm.org. While I accept what the author has to say about Jesus's death on the cross acting as payment for our sins, nothing written there has persuaded me that the need for a 'scouring' type of purgatory is still necessary before the individual can encounter God...