Purgatory

Hearing that word purgatory a couple of times in the last few days has made me think of my childhood growning up. In some faiths that word is used  more often than it should be. It can be a tormenting word as a child.

For one thing it refers to purgatory as being a holding tank for people after you die. The Bible says differently.

The Bible says to be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord. You are born, you live, you die and if you are a born again believer you go home to be with the Lord.

If your not born again then hell will be your home. Some people say how can a loving God send anybody to hell. God for one doesn't send anyone to hell we send ourselves by not believing. Hell wasn't created for humans it was created for the devil and his demons. As sad is it is though some humans will end up there.

In the book of Romans the first chapter it talks about how God put in all us a knowing to believe in Him. It says that because of creation we all know there is a God. So if God gave us all the ability to believe in Him then we need to take it to the next step. John 3:3 says to be born again or saved.

So getting back to the purgatory thing. If God said that we are saved by grace in Eph. 2:8 then why would anybody think that after we get saved and we are cleansed why would we believe we have to go someplace else before we can get to God.

Purgatory means the condition or process of purification or temporary punishment in which, it is believed, the souls of those who die in a state of grace are made ready for Heaven. Notice the word believed.  It says that it is believed the souls of those who die in a state of grace are ready for Heaven. It doesn't say that it is true. I think someone just misunderstood the definition.

If  God created purgatory which He didn't since the Bible doesn't back that up. If He did though that would really mean we could all live anyway we want to on this earth then we die and go to so called purgatory where we can get cleansed and go on to heaven.

If that was true then it would mean everybody goes to heaven. The Bible says that wide is the gate that leads to destruction and narrow is the gate that leads to life. As Christians we have instructions that we follow according to the Bible. When we follow them the narrow gate will belong to us. The unsaved are the ones that will be punished. Course that still doesn't mean that purgatory is the place they will go they will die and go right to hell.

So if you believe in purgatory I pray you find the truth. My guess is that thought torments some of you also. Ask God to show you the truth.