Article XIV - Of Purgatory
The Romish doctrine concerning purgatory, pardon, worshiping, and adoration, as well of images as of relics, and also invocation of saints, is a fond thing, vainly invented, and grounded upon no
warrant of Scripture, but repugnant to the Word of God.
The term purgatory comes out of Catholicism but the concept is older than
Christianity. Purgatory refers to a
state and/or place after death where souls who are not quite good enough for
Heaven (or not quite bad enough for Hell) can be purified, cleansed, and sanctified
through suffering. Once a soul has
suffered enough he/she is ready to ascend into the presence of God.
Methodists reject the Catholic doctrine
of purgatory. The editors of our
Articles of Religion called the concept a fond
thing. That’s fond in the Shakespearean sense, meaning “simple, unwise, foolish.”
Basically our church’s official stance
is: Purgatory is a stupid.
In the Screwtape Letters, C.S.
Lewis imagined a junior demon named Wormwood who, frustrated that his attempts
to corrupt his human charges were failing, sought advice from a senior demon named
Screwtape.
Poor little
Wormwood is all out of ideas. He says, “Screwtape, I give up. We can’t tell
them there is no God and we can’t tell then there is no hell. What lie should
we tell them?”
Screwtape
says, “My dear Wormwood, just tell them there is no hurry.”
The doctrine of purgatory tells us,
“There is no hurry.”
Which is an invitation to a mindset not
just a doctrine: the mindset of theological bulimia. Theological bulimia encourages us to binge on
unrighteousness in this life and purge through suffering immediately
after. Purge-atory.
And many of us, non-Catholics included,
have theological bulimia. We hate our
bodies, our lives, our material existence; but we love the taste of sin, its
texture and flavor. Yet, we don’t want
to carry the weight of its wages around for all eternity. (Heaven doesn’t make robes in that size.) So we binge, justifying our gluttony for
gluttony and the other sins with plans to crawl into the grave when we’re done
and painfully expel our ugliness.
Unfortunately, it doesn’t actually work
that way.
Remember that in the sacrificial system
under the Old Testament law, atonement for sin was made through blood. That is, through death.
And according
to the law almost all things are purified with blood, and without shedding of
blood there is no remission. (Hebrews 9:22)
Animal sacrifices weren't tortured, they were
calmed and then killed because atonement for sin is comes through death, not
through suffering.
If Jesus had accepted the beatings, and
the whippings, and the insults, and the pain of crucifixion, but come down from
the cross before He actually died, the plan of salvation would have failed.
For the wages
of sin is DEATH---not suffering.
You can’t purge your sins by hurting
yourself or by letting others hurt you.
The wages of sin is death. So, the only way you could pay your way out
of eternal Hell would be to die for yourself for eternity. And eternal death is the definition of Hell (Matthew
10: 28; Revelations
20: 14, 15).
Purging doesn’t work.
Think.
If suffering and pain in themselves produced holiness, then the victims
of torture and atrocities on Earth would all be saints. But we know that trauma is more likely to
create demons than angels.
If there is a place in the afterlife
where souls are tormented under the pretense that one day they’ll go to Heaven
because they suffer, their hope is just another torment, and Purgatory is just
another name for Hell.
By one
offering He [Jesus] has perfected forever those
who are being sanctified. (Hebrew 10:14)
Jesus gave up His life. God who transcends time and eternity DIED a
death of eternal and infinite mass and thereby covered all of the sin-debts of
humanity past, present, and future.
And He
Himself is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also for
the whole world. (1 John 2:20)
We are saved from Hell and for Heaven
when we accept Jesus and truly submit ourselves under His Lordship. We don’t have to do any more to gain
redemption. We CAN’T do any more to gain
redemption.
Spiritual bulimia hides the true shape
of redemption from our eyes. We see only
how ugly we must be to God.
I’m too evil, too damaged. I deserve to suffer. I NEED TO suffer.
We can’t see the beauty of the fullness
and finality of Jesus’ sacrifice. We see
ourselves in the image of our sin, but God wants us to see that through the
cross we are remade in the image of Jesus (2 Corinthians 3: 18).
He is the
image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation.
(Colossians 1:15)
And we
all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are
being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as by the
Spirit of the Lord. (2 Corinthians 3:18)
You don’t have to keep hurting
yourself.
All you have to do is receive Jesus,
rest in Jesus, and reflect the image of Jesus.
Do that and you’ll stop
binging. Do that and you’ll stop
punishing yourself with every sin you can shove down your life. Do that and you break the cycle of
binge-atory and purge-atory.
Therefore, if
anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have
passed away; behold, all things have become new. (2 Corinthians 5: 16, 17)
You just need Jesus.
Anything else is, well let’s just call
it a fond thing.
---Anderson T. Graves II is a writer, community organizer
and consultant for education, ministry, and rural leadership development.
Rev. Anderson T. Graves II is pastor
of Miles Chapel CME Church in Fairfield, Alabama;
executive director of the Substance Abuse Youth Networking Organization (SAYNO); and director of rural
leadership development for the National Institute for Human Development (NIHD).
Subscribe to my personal
blog www.andersontgraves.blogspot.com .
Email atgravestwo2@aol.com
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Support by check or money order may be
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P O Box 132
Fairfield, Al 35064
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