Wednesday, November 13, 2013

Purgatory


On today's program I discussed the Roman Catholic teaching on purgatory. I reviewed a lecture by Karlo Broussard, a Roman Catholic apologist, and discussed our differences, pointing out the errors in his argument. This is the beginning of a two part series in response to this lecture.

Here is the program

13 comments:

  1. Pastor Cooper have you read Aquinas on purgatory? I can send you the links of the Summa where he talks about it.

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  2. Pastor Cooper have you read what Aquinas wrote on purgatory? Do you believe purgatory can be understood in an orthodox way?

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  3. Pastor Cooper have you read what Aquinas wrote on purgatory? Do you believe purgatory can be understood in an orthodox way?

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  4. If I have read Aquinas on purgatory it has been quite some time. Can you tell me where in the Summa he discusses purgatory? I will take a look at what he says.

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  5. Frankly, any argument I've heard in favor of purgatory falls flat on its face simply by virtue of its absence in the Scriptures. The Jews did not have a doctrine of any such thing, and there is no sense of it in the New Testament at all.

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  6. What I found interesting is that I have often heard from those of the Roman Church the complaint of Lutheran views on justification leading to a "license to sin". That our view cannot be right, since it that means we can sin all we want and have little consequence.

    Karlo mentions here that the distinction of venial sins, that will not keep us out of heaven, does not mean we can just commit as many of these as we would like....because if we have actual love for God, we would not do that.

    It seems somewhat inconsistent with their complaint that our view of justification may lead to a license to sin. Their distinction of venial sins could do the same.

    in Him,

    Joe

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  7. Good point Joe. I was thinking the same thing.

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  8. Jordan, Aquinas's dicussion of purgatory can be found in the following links from the summa:

    http://www.newadvent.org/summa/7001.htm

    http://www.newadvent.org/summa/6002.htm

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  9. Jordan here is what Aquinas wrote on purgatory:

    http://www.newadvent.org/summa/7001.htm

    http://www.newadvent.org/summa/6002.htm

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  10. Revelation 6:9-11
    English Standard Version (ESV)
    9 When he opened the fifth seal, I saw under the altar the souls of those who had been slain for the word of God and for the witness they had borne. 10 They cried out with a loud voice, “O Sovereign Lord, holy and true, how long before you will judge and avenge our blood on those who dwell on the earth?” 11 Then they were each given a white robe and told to rest a little longer, until the number of their fellow servants[a] and their brothers[b] should be complete, who were to be killed as they themselves had been.

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  11. It would appear that our presence in heaven is initially restricted to a place of resting underneath the altar in heaven, to at least the 5th Seal on the Scroll of Life.

    I don't think this necessarily indicates we're freely moving about Heaven until called to action under the Seventh Seal.

    Also, if a soul is at rest beneath the altar in Heaven, it complicates the Roman view of intercession of the Saints in an omnipresence to receive prayers, and then delivering them to God.

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  12. Daniel,

    That text from Revelation is commonly used to defend the doctrine of purgatory. If I continue discussing purgatory, I will deal with that text.

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