Monthly Archives: July 2013

Purgatory, Indulgences, the Treasury of Merit and the Gospel of Jesus Christ

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purgatory2As you may have heard in the news this week, the new Pope (Francis), wishing to make use of the new social media announced that indulgences would be granted not only to those who attend the upcoming Roman Catholic Youth Day celebration in Brazil (a week-long event which starts tomorrow, July 22), but also to those who follow the event online, and especially follow his tweets on twitter. Some people seem very surprised by this announcement and yet the only thing new about it is the twitter component. The doctrine of Indulgences remains a central teaching of the Roman Catholic Church.

PURGATORY: (Latin: purgatorium; from purgare, “to purge”) – the condition, process, or place of purification. This is a place of PURGING or temporary punishment in which the souls of those who die in a state of grace are made ready for heaven.

The doctrine of purgatory is an integral doctrine to the Roman Catholic understanding of redemption. It is the place where the vast majority of even professing Christians go upon their death.

As recently as the Roman Catholic Catechism, the Church declares that if a person dies with any spot or blemish or stain on their soul – any impurity – instead of going directly to heaven they must first go to this place of purging which is this intermediate state between earth and heaven. Rome makes clear that purgatory is not hell. It is not a place of the punitive wrath of God, but it is a place for the corrective wrath of God, as it were, where the sanctifying process is continued through the crucible of fire.

A person may be there for two weeks or they may be there for two hundred million years – as long as it takes for a person to become truly righteous – inherently righteous, and once that process is completed, they can be declared justified by God and released into heaven.

I’d now like to go through all the Bible verses that teach the doctrine of purgatory ________________________.

Ok.. well that did not take long, because there are none! That’s right, we do not find either the word or the concept of “purgatory” in the Bible. It is a tradition of the Roman Catholic Church that developed over a long period of time. Continue reading →

Miscellaneous Quotes (84)

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quotes“Let the man who would hear God speak read Holy Scripture.” – Martin Luther

“Have thou ever in thy mind this seal, which for the present has been lightly touched in my discourse, by way of summary, but shall be stated, should the Lord permit, to the best of my power with the proof from the Scriptures. For concerning the divine and holy mysteries of the Faith, not even a casual statement must be delivered without the Holy Scriptures; nor must we be drawn aside by mere plausibility and artifices of speech. Even to me, who tell thee these things, give not absolute credence, unless thou receive the proof of the things which I announce from the Divine Scriptures. For this salvation which we believe depends not on ingenious reasoning, but on demonstration of the Holy Scriptures.” – Cyril of Jerusalem, 313 – 386 AD – Catechetical Lecture 4, 17)

“We love people by telling them the best news in all the world: The God against whom you have committed treason, offers complete amnesty, freely. He will commute your death sentence. He will forgive your treasonous intentions and actions and feelings. He will put away his just and holy anger against you. And not only that, he will adopt you into his royal family and make you an heir with his Son. And lest you doubt that this is possible for him to simply justify the wicked, he put forward his Son to bear the death sentence and duty that you have failed to perform, if you would have him. He raised him from the dead so to show that the death of his Son was sufficient. He offers you now all of this through his Son. It is all free. You cannot earn it. You cannot deserve it. The condition is to lay down the arms of treason, the arms of rebellion, and bow in humble helpless dependence on free mercy from the King and receive his full pardon and amnesty and acceptance. We preach that, indiscriminately, to everybody.” – John Piper

“Christ did not die on the cross for us because we are so valuable. We are so valuable because Christ died on the cross for us.” – R. C. Sproul, Jr.

“‘Be still and know that I am God’ is not first about inner peace but about beholding God’s self-exalting work among the nations.” (Ps 46:8-10) – Justin Taylor

“…the higher purpose of the cross was that the Father would be glorified by the satisfaction of His justice.” – R.C. Sproul

“What has exceedingly hurt you in time past, nay, and I fear, to this day, is lack of reading. I scarce ever knew a preacher who read so little. And perhaps, by neglecting it, you have lost the taste for it. Hence your talent in preaching does not increase. It is just the same as it was seven years ago. It is lively, but not deep; there is little variety; there is no compass of thought. Reading only can supply this, with meditation and daily prayer. You wrong yourself greatly by omitting this. You can never be a deep preacher without it, any more than a thorough Christian. Oh begin! Fix some part of every day for private exercise. You may acquire the taste which you have not; what is tedious at first will afterward be pleasant. Whether you like it or not, read and pray daily. It is for your life; there is no other way; else you will be a trifler all your days, and a pretty, superficial preacher. Do justice to your own soul; give it time and means to grow. Do not starve yourself any longer. Take up your cross and be a Christian altogether. Then will all the children of God rejoice (not grieve) over you, and in particular yours.” – John Wesley, writing to a younger minister, quoted in D. A. Carson and John D. Woodbridge, Letters Along The Way (Wheaton, 1993), page 169.

“He that will play with Satan’s bait, will quickly be taken with Satan’s hook.” – Thomas Brooks

“My God, I have never thanked you for my thorn! I have thanked you a thousand times for my roses, but never once for my thorn. Teach me the glory of the cross I bear; teach me the value of my thorns. Show me that I have climbed to you by the path of pain. Show me that my tears have made my rainbow.” – George Matheson // “Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses” (2 Cor. 12:9).

“Salvation isn’t about praying a special prayer, walking an aisle, or any other ritual. It’s about bowing to the Lord in repentance and faith, submitting to His Word, and worshiping Him in spirit and truth. Anything short of that is empty religion.” – John MacArthur

“Advice to aspiring ministers: Get in the Word. Stay in the Word. Master the Word. And for heaven’s sake, preach the Word!” – R. C. Sproul

“There will be three effects of nearness to Jesus—humility, happiness, and holiness.” – C. H. Spurgeon

“The first act of redemption was God stooping to cover the shame of his creatures.” – R.C. Sproul

Not God, Not Christ

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and I will never forget him.

After his death in 1976, my dad, who was his pastor, received Prof. Smith’s personal New Testament. Upon my dad’s death in 2007, I received this same New Testament. I find it marked up by Prof. Smith in personal ways.

For example, on the Romans 8 page, where the King James Version says, “Who shall lay any thing to the charge of God’s elect?”, Smith jotted in the margin, “Not God!” And where it says, “Who is he that condemneth?”, he noted, “Not Christ!”

Does that seem too obvious to mention? To me, it is significant. Here’s how. Smith’s clear this-and-not-that way of thinking is categorical, even simple, and very apostolic. When I listen to some preachers, it’s not just that I disagree with their conclusions; it’s that I disagree with their mode of thinking. Not all considerations in theology are blindingly obvious. But then, when we preach, we do not make those more difficult matters our great message. We are not there to proclaim a grand maybe-ism. The apostles certainly weren’t. We are there, as they were, to declare a sure word of hope to desperate people for whom everything is on the line. They need to hear a word from God himself, through us, that this is what the gospel is, and that isn’t. Then their hearts can come to rest in the authority of it.

People need and deserve apostolic clarity.