13. Our Need for Purgatory
INFERNAL INTERNET
My Dear Rehtulnitram,
I had thought I told you to do something about that priest? Now you tell me he wrote your protestant minister and urged him to add the church fathers to his research on purgatory. Enough is enough already. I trust that you at least are suitably informed on the issue to take steps. We must do all we can to circumvent the goal of the human swine which is to share the abode of the perfect, where the saints see the enemy, as he is, face to face. It is to our eternal discomfort that many more people than we would suspect are already prepared for the beatific vision on account of the graces received from G-d in the struggles endured in the world. The fact is, the more one loves the enemy, the more perfected that person wants to be. The elect would be ashamed to gaze upon him while imprisoned and stained by sin. We damned would have no desire to look at him at all. Those who belong to him are given the opportunity to be fully cleansed. Ah, if only Calvinist theology was right, then even one small sin would be a sign that one was not chosen and thus damned to hell. It would be sweet justice without mercy!
That troublesome priest asks your errant minister, "Can defectors claim without guile that their faith is utterly verified by a sinless life, even though they have had a conversion experience in which they accepted Jeezus as their PERSONAL Savior?" The question is loaded. He knows that the popular evangelical and pentecostal view would be that if a so-called believer fell into sin, it would be a sign that his or her faith was a pretense. He next poses this question: "If you now accept the Protestant understanding of the Bible, according to this reformed view of salvation, then do you really have faith?" The Catholic Church would at least admit that the faith may have been genuine, but somewhere along the way it soured. This is especially true with serious sins. Beware of the Catholic stance, besides being true, it reminds the believer that he cannot be utterly secure in his salvation, particularly if he begins to compromise the Gospel. The priest is quick to add: "Of course, without repentance, there can be no forgiveness, either in this world or in the next. Where there is sorrow for sin, God's mercy knows no bounds." The extent of the enemy's mercy and the required participation of the human swine in divine forgiveness must be cloaked and distorted. Everything hinges upon our deception.
I note from your report that one of the priest's lost lambs came home. Hell's swell! The master will not be happy. The idiot burns out his brain by coming up with what he thinks is a rhetorical return to the priest, "If purgatory is real and important, then why did Jesus not tell any of his disciples how to get out of that place?" The priest answers by lamenting the state of religious instruction. "The answer should be obvious," he says, "the souls in purgatory are absolutely helpless. They can be assisted by our prayers, almsgiving, indulgences, and works of penance, but they are entirely at the mercy of God. The time to do something about it is not after death but right now. The Scriptures, as I have shown before, are filled with evidence for its existence. In any case, at the end of the world and the last judgment, purgatory will cease to exist and there will be but two realities, heaven and hell. Every one of us is called to be a saint, it is a real possibility."
On that note, pardon me while I throw up. This is my last warning, do something about the priest. The poor dupe that encountered him ended up going to confession and leaving as a restored faithful son of the Church. Ugh!
Slubgob
My Dear Rehtulnitram,
I had thought I told you to do something about that priest? Now you tell me he wrote your protestant minister and urged him to add the church fathers to his research on purgatory. Enough is enough already. I trust that you at least are suitably informed on the issue to take steps. We must do all we can to circumvent the goal of the human swine which is to share the abode of the perfect, where the saints see the enemy, as he is, face to face. It is to our eternal discomfort that many more people than we would suspect are already prepared for the beatific vision on account of the graces received from G-d in the struggles endured in the world. The fact is, the more one loves the enemy, the more perfected that person wants to be. The elect would be ashamed to gaze upon him while imprisoned and stained by sin. We damned would have no desire to look at him at all. Those who belong to him are given the opportunity to be fully cleansed. Ah, if only Calvinist theology was right, then even one small sin would be a sign that one was not chosen and thus damned to hell. It would be sweet justice without mercy!
That troublesome priest asks your errant minister, "Can defectors claim without guile that their faith is utterly verified by a sinless life, even though they have had a conversion experience in which they accepted Jeezus as their PERSONAL Savior?" The question is loaded. He knows that the popular evangelical and pentecostal view would be that if a so-called believer fell into sin, it would be a sign that his or her faith was a pretense. He next poses this question: "If you now accept the Protestant understanding of the Bible, according to this reformed view of salvation, then do you really have faith?" The Catholic Church would at least admit that the faith may have been genuine, but somewhere along the way it soured. This is especially true with serious sins. Beware of the Catholic stance, besides being true, it reminds the believer that he cannot be utterly secure in his salvation, particularly if he begins to compromise the Gospel. The priest is quick to add: "Of course, without repentance, there can be no forgiveness, either in this world or in the next. Where there is sorrow for sin, God's mercy knows no bounds." The extent of the enemy's mercy and the required participation of the human swine in divine forgiveness must be cloaked and distorted. Everything hinges upon our deception.
I note from your report that one of the priest's lost lambs came home. Hell's swell! The master will not be happy. The idiot burns out his brain by coming up with what he thinks is a rhetorical return to the priest, "If purgatory is real and important, then why did Jesus not tell any of his disciples how to get out of that place?" The priest answers by lamenting the state of religious instruction. "The answer should be obvious," he says, "the souls in purgatory are absolutely helpless. They can be assisted by our prayers, almsgiving, indulgences, and works of penance, but they are entirely at the mercy of God. The time to do something about it is not after death but right now. The Scriptures, as I have shown before, are filled with evidence for its existence. In any case, at the end of the world and the last judgment, purgatory will cease to exist and there will be but two realities, heaven and hell. Every one of us is called to be a saint, it is a real possibility."
On that note, pardon me while I throw up. This is my last warning, do something about the priest. The poor dupe that encountered him ended up going to confession and leaving as a restored faithful son of the Church. Ugh!
Slubgob
posted by Father Joe Jenkins at
9:30 PM
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