Matthew Sucky here. Give me another soul winning tip, and in this video I want to
talk to you about the idea of purgatory. The idea of purgatory. Now when it comes
to the Catholic Church and some other religious belief systems, they believe in
heaven and hell, but they also believe in an intermediate stage called purgatory.
Where basically if somebody dies and they're not fully cleansed, then they
have to go to purgatory to have their sins to be cleansed, and the Catholic
Church will say that we can pray for those people, that you know God will let
them out of purgatory. In the past they would pay money to help them get out of
purgatory. Well the question is, well how do we describe this as we're going soul
winning to people that would have questions about this? Now I'm here in the
Philippines and the vast majority of people we talk to are in the Catholic
Church, and if they're not in the Catholic Church they generally have a
Catholic background and a Catholic sort of belief system. And you know when I'm
describing the gospel, I start off in Romans 3 23 and 3 10 and show that we're
guilty, and then I describe that you know after you know we die we're gonna
go to heaven or hell. And I'll explain that you know what there is no purgatory
mentioned in the Bible. I say it's either spiritual life in heaven or spiritual
damnation in hell. And you know what I try to keep the gospel kind of
interesting to people, so I kind of make a mini joke here when I explain this, and
I explain how there is no intermediate like zombie state where you're
spiritually alive and spiritually dead at the same time like half alive half
dead, but that no you're either in heaven forever or you're in hell forever. It's
one or the other. Now the vast majority of time when I explain that you know
immediately they believe it they don't have any questions about it. You know
most Catholics don't really believe all the doctrines and teachings that the
Catholic Church actually teaches. They just kind of go out of tradition because
that's what their family does, but I just describe how it's either heaven or hell
immediately. And honestly I haven't really run into problems of people
having major questions about it. Only from time to time do people bring up
purgatory and it seems like it's a stumbling block that I have to overcome
during the gospel. But the question is what if you run into someone who that
really is a stumbling block? Where you explain how it's heaven or hell and they
push back and ask about purgatory what would you say to them? Well I believe
Luke 16 starting at verse 22 is probably the clearest reference that we can see
that when a person dies they either go to heaven or hell immediately. It says in
Luke 16 verse 22, and it came to pass that the beggar died and was carried by
the angels into Abraham's bosom. Now Abraham's bosom is referring to his chest
and so this is up in heaven. The rich man also died and was buried and in hell he
lift up his eyes being in torments. And so what I do is I highlight this rich
person and I explain you know he wasn't some wicked person according to the
Bible. It doesn't mention him being a murderer or being a terrible human being
but it says he died and the first thing that happens to his body is his body is
buried. The rich man also died and was buried and in hell he lift up his eyes
being in torments. So what I describe is the first thing that happens to our body
is it goes to the ground. You know we see this rich man is buried. The first thing
that happens to the soul is either they go to heaven to be where Abraham and
Lazarus are or they go to be in hell for all eternity. And of course we can
explain that this is not a parable because it uses real names and what
we're seeing here is there's either heaven or hell immediately. Another thing
that you can mention in regards to purgatory is the fact the Bible never
mentions the word purgatory, never mentions the concept of purgatory
whatsoever. The word hell is in the Bible over 50 times. The word heaven is in the
Bible hundreds of times. Now not all of those times it directly referring to
heaven but many times it is referring to heaven as we see it. And so it mentions
heaven and hell over and over again. It never mentions purgatory. It never
mentions an intermediate state. It just mentions you're spiritually alive or
spiritually dead. Another verse you could highlight this is John 3 36 where it says
he that believeth on the Sun hath everlasting life and he that believeth
not the Sun shall not see life but the wrath of God abideth on him. So it's one
or the other. Either you have life or God's wrath abides on you. Now the
biggest passage that people will turn to with purgatory is in 1st Corinthians
chapter 3. Now it could be that you run into a Catholic that is trained in
Catholicism and they're not dogmatically believing in purgatory but they have
real questions. They might bring up 1st Corinthians 3 to you because that is
their big passage they go to where it talks about someone is at the judgment
seat of Christ which is for believers getting rewards. It says gold, silver,
precious stones, wood, hay, stubble. And it talks about it being tried in the fire
and the gold, silver, and precious stones last through the fire. The wood, hay, and
stubble is burned up. And what it says in 1st Corinthians 3 verse 15 is if any
man's work shall be burned he shall suffer loss but he himself shall be
saved yet so as by fire. And what Catholics will say is this well he's
still saved but it's so as by fire meaning he has to go through purgatory
for a period of time. But if you look at the context you can tell this is not
true because there's nothing inherently sinful about wood, hay, and stubble.
There's nothing that would indicate that's a sin it's just something that
doesn't last through the fire. You set wood on fire it's gonna burn up. You set
hay and stubble on fire it's gonna burn up. Whereas gold, silver, and precious
stones last through the fire. So the idea is rewards in heaven versus things with
no eternal value. Many things we do are not sinful but they don't have eternal
value. You know going to going to your secular job, you know working out, having
a hobby. These are things that are not sinful but they have no eternal value.
They're not gonna get your rewards up in heaven. And so the Bible is describing in
1st Corinthians 3 is that when we get to the judgment seat of Christ we're gonna
find out how many rewards we got in our lives based on the things and the actions
that we did. And so this is not an indication of purgatory. It doesn't say
that the person is thrown in purgatory it talks about their works. So there's
nothing to indicate that they're gonna be thrown in purgatory or they're gonna
be thrown in fire. And the Bible says that when you go to heaven it's forever
when you go to hell it's forever. It says tormented day and night forever and ever
there is no second chance. There's no indication of a purgatory. Most times
people are gonna believe this as you just kind of explain heaven and hell and
explain how purgatory is never mentioned in the Bible. And it's a nice thought
that people want to have because they want their unsaved relatives to get a
second chance. But it's just not reality. When we die it's either heaven or hell
immediately. Now if they still want to argue with you and debate you about that
then you're looking at someone who is pretty dogmatic on Catholicism. They're
not going to end up believing. But the average person that is ready and willing
to get saved if you just describe the Bible mentions heaven and hell and never
mentions purgatory and you just highlight on the salvation verses that
it's either heaven or hell saved or unsaved most of them are going to
understand it they're going to get it they're going to believe. Anyways thank
you and God bless.