YOU HAVE BEEN TAUGHT THAT WHEN YOU DIE YOU WILL GO TO PURGATORY …. |
Roman
Catholics, the priests teach you that in the hereafter there is a place
called purgatory, where ‘the souls of those people who have died in grace,
but with imperfections or venial sins or temporal punishments to be
discharged for the serious sins committed, expiate and purify themselves
before going to heaven (Enciclopedia Cattolica [Catholic Encyclopaedia], vol.
10, 330). But what verses do the Catholic priests use to support purgatory? They
principally use these verses, which we find in the first epistle of Paul to
the Corinthians: “According to the grace of God which is given unto me, as a
wise masterbuilder, I have laid the foundation, and another buildeth thereon.
But let every man take heed how he buildeth thereupon. For other foundation
can no man lay than that is laid, which is Jesus Christ. Now if any man build
upon this foundation gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, stubble; Every
man's work shall be made manifest: for the day shall declare it, because it
shall be revealed by fire; and the fire shall try every man's work of what
sort it is. If any man's work abide which he hath
built thereupon, he shall receive a reward. If any man's work shall be
burned, he shall suffer loss: but he himself shall
be saved; yet so as by fire” (1 Corinthians |
Concerning
purgatory, you are also taught the suffrage of the living for the dead, for
your Catechism says: ‘We can help and even deliver the souls from the torments
of Purgatory through suffrages, that is, through prayers, indulgences, alms
and other good works, and above all through the Holy Mass (….) the fruit of
these works, applied to the souls in Purgatory is called suffrage because it
suffrages, that is, it mitigates the torments suffered by the souls in
Purgatory and hastens their deliverance’. In other words, you are told that
through prayers, alms, indulgences, good works, and above all the Mass, you
can help the souls of the dead to pay their debts, which they must discharge
in Purgatory. To support this so called suffrage, the priests take the
following passage in the book of Macabees, where it is said that Judas the
Macabee took up a collection among all his soldiers, which he sent to
Jerusalem to provide for an expiatory sacrifice for the sins committed by
some Jews who had died in battle (under the tunic of each of the dead they had
found ‘amulets sacred to the idols of Jamnia’): ‘Thus he made atonement for
the dead that they might be freed from this sin’ (2 Macabees 12:46). |
In all
probability, the teaching about purgatory reassures you, for you think that
even after death you can be purified from your sins and after this
purification you will be allowed to enter heaven. However, you Roman
Catholics must understand that all the things the priests teach you about
purgatory are UNTRUE, I say it again, they are UNTRUE, for Jesus Christ in His
teaching never said that besides heaven and hell there is another place – a
middle way between heaven and hell – where the souls of the dead go after
death. For He stated: “Enter ye in at the strait gate: for wide is the gate,
and broad is the way, that leadeth to destruction, and many there be which go
in thereat: Because strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth
unto life, and few there be that find it” (Matthew 7:13-14). Therefore, after
death there are only two places for the souls of men: destruction, that is,
HELL; and life, that is, |
Paradise
is a wonderful heavenly place (which is called also the third heaven), whose
beauty we human beings cannot describe adequately with our words; in it there
is the throne of God and the throne of the Lamb at His right hand, and there is
an innumerable company of angels, who – together with the souls of the just –
worship God and the Lamb day and night. |
Those who
die in Christ, that is, who are at peace with God at their death, enter this marvellous
place immediately after their death. In this place they will wait for the
resurrection, which will take place at the second coming of Christ from
heaven. And we are of those who – if they die in Christ - will enter |
The souls
of those who had been killed because of the Word of God – and which were seen
by John in vision – were under the altar in heaven before the throne of God. Here
is what John says: “And when he had opened the fifth seal, I saw under the
altar the souls of them that were slain for the word of God,
and for the testimony which they held” (Revelation 6:9). |
Paul said
that to him to die was gain, for he had the desire to depart and be with
Christ which was far better. Here are his words: “For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain. But if I live in the flesh,
this is the fruit of my labour: yet what I shall choose I wot not. For I am
in a strait betwixt two, having a desire to depart, and to be with Christ;
which is far better” (Philippians |
Paul said
to the Corinthians that he and his fellow workers were confident and willing
rather to be absent from the body and to be present with the Lord: “We are
confident, I say, and willing rather to be absent from the body, and to be
present with the Lord” (2 Corinthians 5:8). Answer to this question of mine:
‘How could those men desire so much to depart from their body if they believed
in the existence of a place called purgatory where they had to go to discharge
some of their debts through terrible torments? Don’t you think that this
shows that those men did not believe in the existence of purgatory at all? |
In the
Book of Revelation we read: “And I heard a voice from heaven saying unto me,
Write, Blessed are the dead which die in the Lord from henceforth: Yea, saith
the Spirit, that they may rest from their labours; and their works do follow
them” (Revelation 14:13). Therefore the Spirit of truth says that those who
die in grace are blessed for they rest from their labors in heaven. That
excludes the possibility they are in a purgatory paying some of their debts
through some sufferings less inferior to those of hell; for if they were in
purgatory they would be unhappy, because instead of resting from their labors
they would suffer terrible torments for their sins. However, in this world
there is also the spirit of error, which says that those who die in Christ go
to purgatory. |
But let me
now speak about hell and those who go there. Hell is a place of torment which
is in the heart of the earth, and where there is burning fire (Luke |
Perhaps
now you will say to me: ‘But we go regularly to confess our sins to the
priest and he remits our ‘mortal sins’, why should God then send us to hell?’
Listen, the confession you do to the priest is of no value before God,
because those sins you confess to the priest are still attached to your
conscience for the priest has no divine authority to take them away from you.
Only God, through the blood of Jesus Christ, can remit your sins. Therefore you
have been deceived into believing a lie, and this lie will cost you eternity unless
you reject it. Know this, therefore, that if you continue to believe the
untrue words of the priest you will go to hell. Let me give you an illustration:
it is as if Tom tells you that the rich man whom you owe a million of euro
delegated him to remit entirely your debt, and after you trusted him one day
you find out that you are still in debt to that rich man; but the worst of it
is that you could have obtained the remission of that debt of yours if within
a certain time you had gone to the one who was really able to remit your
debt, that is, to the son of that rich man who had really the power to remit
your debt. You just had to ask him to remit your debt and he would have
remitted your debt. |
Therefore,
if you go to the Son, you will obtain the remission of your debt, but if you
continue to trust your priests, you will continue to be in debt to God, and
after death it will be too late for you to obtain the remission of it. |
What must
you do to receive the remission of your sins and thus escape the fire of
hell? You must be born again, that is, you must experience the new birth
Jesus spoke about when He said to Nicodemus: “You must be born again” (John
3:7 - NKJV) and also: “Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he
cannot enter into the |
A man
experiences the new birth when he recognizes himself as a sinner before God
and he repents of his sins with a broken heart and a contrite spirit and he
believes in the name of the Son of God, that is, Jesus Christ. When he does
these things he feels to be born again, for his sins are instantly blotted
out from his conscience through the blood of Jesus Christ and he feels to be
a new creature. In other words, he is spiritually regenerated and renewed and
he can say together with Paul: “I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I
live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in
the flesh I live by the faith of [in] the Son of God, who loved me, and gave
himself for me” (Galatians 2:20). Then and only then will he be able to say that
he is in Christ, that is, a Christian, for according to the Scripture: “If
any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away;
behold, all things are become new” (2 Corinthians 5:17). And there is no
condemnation in Christ, for Paul said to the Romans: “There is therefore now
no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the
flesh, but after the Spirit” (Romans 8:1). Therefore, since there is no
condemnation to them who are in Christ, don’t you think that to believe that
after death Christians before entering the Paradise of God must go first to a
place called purgatory to pay their debts they still have to the
righteousness of God is a CONTRADICTION? Don’t you think that it is a
contradiction since in purgatory, according to the Roman Catechism,
Christians go to be condemned, even though for a certain period of time and
not forever, to torments in order to pay their debts to God? As for these so
called debts - which according to the priests need to be discharged in
purgatory – we say: If according to the Scripture, when a man confesses his
sins to God, God remits both his sins and the eternal punishment he deserves
for his sins, is it not diabolical to affirm that after death that man must
go to a place of torment to pay those debts? Of course it is; but not to the
priests who, blinded by the devil, like to teach things contrary to the sound
doctrine. |
To say
that a person justified by God, when he dies must go to purgatory to pay his
debts is tantamount to saying that if a person sentenced to life imprisonment
is granted a pardon and his punishment is blotted out, he must anyway
continue to stay in prison for some years to pay for his misdeeds, and after
those years he will be able to go out of prison!!! Your priests are greatly
mistaken, for the Holy Scripture teaches that when God forgives a person all
his debts, he forgives also the eternal punishment and the person must discharge
no punishment either in this world or in the world to come, for Christ paid
the full ransom price for our redemption. |
To those
who have been justified by the blood of Christ, there are no more debts to
pay, for Christ on the cross paid all their debts and we are by the grace of
God among those who have been justified. We know very well that the Council
of Trent cast an anathema on those who say that ‘after the reception of the
grace of justification the guilt is so remitted and the debt of eternal
punishment so blotted out to every repentant sinner, that no debt of temporal
punishment remains to be discharged either in this world or in purgatory
before the gates of heaven can be opened’ (Council of Trent, VI, canon 30).
But that curse will return upon the head of all those who proclaimed and
still proclaim it. |
We know
whom we believed and we are persuaded that it is impossible for Christ - the
One who washed us from our sins in His own blood and promised us eternal life
- to lie. We will continue to glory in the Lord for we have been washed from
all our old sins in the blood of Christ, and by His mercy we have received
from Him eternal life: let the roman catholic councils curse the true
believers, we believe in the Word of God which states that when the righteous
(that is those who are justified by the grace of God) die they will go
immediately to heaven to be with the Lord Jesus Christ for their robes have
been completely washed by the blood of the Lamb. To Christ Jesus be the glory now and forever. Amen. |
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Let me explain the words of Paul |
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Paul said
to the saints who were at |
The
apostle had preached the Christ in |
So in the
day of Christ the fire will test the quality of each believer’s work, and all
the good and right things he said and did, will survive and he will receive
his reward, while all the things of no value that he built on the foundation
will be burned up and he will suffer loss for he will not be rewarded for
those things. He himself will be saved, but only as one escaping through the
flames. |
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The suffrage |
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Obviously,
since the Scripture denies the existence of Purgatory it denies also all
suffrages on behalf of those who – according to what the priests say – are
there to discharge their debts, therefore the
suffrage must be rejected. Even if we grant for the sake of argument that
purgatory exists, have the priests never read that “every man shall bear his
own burden” (Galatians 6:5) and that nobody “can by any means redeem his
brother, nor give to God a ransom for him” (Psalm 49:7)? How can then the
priests teach that the living can somehow offer to God a propitiatory
sacrifice for the dead who are in purgatory? And what is that propitiatory
sacrifice? The Mass!! Listen, the only propitiatory sacrifice which is of
value is the one made by Jesus Christ when He gave himself on the cross for
our sins, and it was made once for all, thus it is UNREPEATABLE. And furthermore,
the sacrifice of Christ can benefit only the living, for those who accept it
receive remission of sins forever. But as for those who have died in their
sins, His sacrifice can by no means be useful to them since the time during
which they could believe on it and be forgiven IS EXPIRED. They died in their
sins and with their sins attached to their conscience and for those sins they
will have to suffer greatly forever and ever. No so called propitiatory
sacrifice (the mass, alms, etc.) offered for the dead by the living will be
useful to the dead, for before God it is of no value. |
What shall
we say then about the words taken by the priests from the book of Macabees to
support the suffrage? We shall say these things. First of all, the books of Macabees
(even though they are included in the canon of the Catholic Bible) are not
inspired by God and therefore are not part of the Holy Scriptures, and so it
is a mistake to mention those books to support the suffrage on behalf of the
dead. Secondly, as for the expiatory sacrifice offered by Judas the Macabee,
in the law of Moses there were no expiatory sacrifices to be offered for the
sins of the dead, so Judas did not follow the law of his forefathers. That
means that his act was of no value for it was not prescribed by the Law of
Moses given by God to His people. Therefore, the priests, in order to support
their suffrage, mention an act of no value done by a Jew. |
In
conclusion I say that this suffrage is able to do only one thing, that is, it
enriches the priests and the Papal Court for you must pay for the masses (or
rather you must give an offering) to be offered on behalf of the dead. |