Thursday, February 11, 2010

#28) Doctrines of Error

Last week, I spoke on some of the differences between Roman Catholicism and Protestantism. We learned that Roman Catholicism is not a valid alternative nor can it be considered a denomination of Christianity. We reviewed their own declarations from the Council of Trent as well as the Catechism. Tonight, we are going to focus on what Scripture has to say regarding some of the other doctrines and dogmas of the Catholic Church. As was the case with last week, this is not meant to belittle anyone simply because they have a different faith from ours. It is simply meant to point out the differences from a Scriptural perspective to further your understanding of Truth. It is as John Calvin said:

John Calvin to Michael Servetus
I neither hate you nor despise you; nor do I wish to persecute you; but I would be as hard as iron when I behold you insulting sound doctrine with so great audacity.

John Calvin
A dog barks when his master is attacked. I would be a coward if I saw that God's truth is attacked and yet would remain silent.


As always, my goal is to teach the Truth of Scripture in the Light of Scripture alone. Sola Scriptura!

Our first area we are going to touch on tonight is the doctrine of purgatory.

Ask congregation to explain the basic concept of purgatory.

Catechism of the Catholic Church, paragraph 1030
All who die in God’s grace and friendship, but still imperfectly purified, are indeed assured of their eternal salvation, but after death they undergo purification, so as to achieve the holiness necessary to enter the joy of Heaven.

Handbook for Today’s Catholic, page 47
If you die in the love of God but possess any stains of sin, such stains are cleansed away in a purifying process called Purgatory. These stains of sin are primarily the temporal punishment due to venial or mortal sins already forgiven but for which sufficient penance was not done during your lifetime.


According to Roman Catholicism, all men die with a stain of sin. The only exceptions to this are infant babies who have been baptized and the saints who were deemed exceptionally holy. All others are blemished with sin even till the point of death. As a result of this, one can not enter into the joy of Heaven until they have been purified. This purification is as by fire. Catholicism does not rely primarily on Scripture for this doctrine. It is a doctrine that stems from their own teaching which they refer to as Sacred Tradition. It is also a doctrine that comes from the Apocrypha. The Apocrypha is included in the Catholic bible but it is not found in the Protestant Bible. They can be used as history lessons but they were written by fallible men and are not to be included among the inspired Word of God. However, they have attempted to fit it to Scripture by referencing various passages. One passage in particular is from 1 Corinthians.

1 Corinthians 3:15
If any man's work is burned up, he will suffer loss; but he himself will be saved, yet so as through fire.


In essence, the doctrine of purgatory teaches that one is to live a good and holy life but that they will eventually end in a state of sin with the need to be purified by fire and cleansed from the stain. Before I get into the doctrine of purgatory as a whole, I’d like to touch on a few other areas. Those areas are penance and indulgences.

Catechism of the Catholic Church, paragraph 1480
Like all the sacraments, Penance is a liturgical action. The elements of the celebration are ordinarily these: a greeting and blessing from the priest, reading the word of God to illuminate the conscience and elicit contrition, and an exhortation to repentance; the confession, which acknowledges sins and makes them known to the priest; the imposition and acceptance of a penance; the priest's absolution; a prayer of thanksgiving and praise and dismissal with the blessing of the priest.

Catechism of the Catholic Church, paragraph 1468
The whole power of the sacrament of Penance consists in restoring us to God's grace and joining us with him in an intimate friendship." Reconciliation with God is thus the purpose and effect of this sacrament.


In other words, penance is a part of the process of reconciliation. We become reconciled to God through a string of actions on our part. We earn the grace of God by the works that we complete on this Earth. According to Catholicism, the proper way to be reconciled to God is by being greeted and blessed by a priest, reading Scripture in public, and confessing our sins to a priest. It is by this method that one can attempt to achieve a state of holiness so as to reduce the amount of time they have to spend in purgatory. After all, isn’t the goal to get to Heaven as soon as possible?

All of this ties into indulgences. While penance is the active process of sanctification and obtaining holiness and good graces of God, indulgences are the method of obtaining forgiveness for sins already committed. It is not actually a way of obtaining forgiveness of the sin itself but rather a method of spiritual stain removal. Penance is preventative whereas indulgences are corrective. Like penance, indulgences are meant to reduce the amount of time one has to spend in purgatory. This is done by drawing from what is knows as the Treasury of the Church. Just as the Roman Catholic faith is based upon works, these same works are stored in a heavenly storehouse where merit can be drawn from by members of the Church. However, all drawings of indulgences are given through the Church by its priests through official sacraments.

Now that we have an idea of what penance, indulgences, and purgatory are, let’s look at Scripture to see what the Word of God says.

Penance and indulgences are both a form of works based salvation. It denies the atonement of Christ and places it in the hands of the priests. Regarding penance, the Catholic Church tells us we can perform works to earn justification and be considered righteous.

Romans 4:3
For what does the Scripture say? "ABRAHAM BELIEVED GOD, AND IT WAS CREDITED TO HIM AS RIGHTEOUSNESS."

Romans 5:9
Much more then, having now been justified by His blood, we shall be saved from the wrath of God through Him.

Romans 5:1
Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ,

Romans 4:5
Now to the one who works, his wage is not credited as a favor, but as what is due. But to the one who does not work, but believes in Him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is credited as righteousness,

Galatians 2:16
nevertheless knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the Law but through faith in Christ Jesus, even we have believed in Christ Jesus, so that we may be justified by faith in Christ and not by the works of the Law; since by the works of the Law no flesh will be justified.


Scripture is very clear when it says we are not saved by our works nor is there anything we can do to justify ourselves. It is by faith alone through the blood of Christ. We are not justified by penance and indulgences. We are justified by his blood. The doctrine of penance and indulgences clearly detracts from the atonement provided in the blood of Christ. It removes the sufficiency of Christ and amounts it to nothing more than a fraction of plan of salvation.

I’ll have you know, John battled a type of people similar to this.

1 John 5:13
These things I have written to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, so that you may know that you have eternal life.


John was combating a particular type of crowd in his day. That crowd was the Gnostic movement. They taught a secret knowledge that was pertinent to salvation that only they could reveal. John speaks boldly and bluntly in his use of the word “know.” He wanted the readers to understand that there was no hidden knowledge regarding salvation. It was cut & dry. They could KNOW whether or not they were saved. They could be confident! The Roman Catholic Church functions in much the same way. They say outside of the Catholic Church, there is no preservation from error. They say outside the Catholic Church, one cannot be saved. Sure, this is not the spoken word taught today but it is to be understood so long as they affirm the declarations of the Council of Trent that we went over last week. They teach that they have a hidden knowledge that is preserved within their church (that they claim to be Christ’s only Church). It is only through the priests that this knowledge and revelation can be shared and experienced. It is modern Gnosticism in more ways than one.

Not only are indulgences unbiblical, they were also created as a money making scandal. In the early Church, indulgences were often sold to the people. The people would bring the priests money and the priests would then offer up indulgences on their behalf. These indulgences would often be purchased for the dead in a hope to speed up their time in purgatory so they could enjoy the joy of Heaven. Indulgences were sold in the form of time periods. There were basic indulgences sold during the Mass that would shave time off of purgatory for basic sins. Then there were more expensive indulgences offered by bishops. These would only be available to certain people in higher financial standing. Of course, if it meant getting to Heaven faster, isn’t it worth it to give some money? You can’t take it with you after all right? On top of all of that, the quality of the pardon varied based on the motives of the priests. If they didn’t have the proper attitude while performing the sacrament, the quality was reduced. Of course, they were collecting money from people so the sacrament was not considered null and void. It was just reduced in effectiveness. Some time would still be shaved off purgatory just for going through with the act. Because a man’s heart is only known by God, it made sense to keep going over and over just in case. On top of that, nobody knew how long a man would spend in purgatory. Again, it only made sense to keep paying for indulgences in hopes that you would free your dead loved ones from the fires of purgatory as well as avoid having to go there yourself. As long as you pay, you can enjoy the joys of Heaven in an expedient manner. So long as you perform works in the Church, purgatory will go by much faster than for others. However, if you really care about the others, you can help them out by paying some more. This is the grim reality of how it all started. Things may have changed over the years but the roots still remain.

All of this leads to the concept of purgatory and how it completely bashes the concept of grace and forgiveness in Christ. Since we already covered the basics of what purgatory is all about, I now want to go over the Scriptural response.

Romans 8:1
Therefore there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.

2 Corinthians 5:8
we are of good courage, I say, and prefer rather to be bsent from the body and to be at home with the Lord.


As Christians, we have no fear of going anywhere but Heaven. Paul had no fear of death. He knew the moment he left his body, he would be at home with the Lord experiencing the joy of Heaven.

John 19:30
Therefore when Jesus had received the sour wine, He said, "It is finished!" And He bowed His head and gave up His spirit.


The Greek word used here is teleo. Regarding monetary matters, the word was used to refer to a payment of debt. Christ was saying that all debt was considered paid in full. Through his blood, there is no more debt. Why is it that the Catholic Church teaches otherwise?

Hebrews 9:27
And inasmuch as it is appointed for men to die once and after this comes judgment,


This verse looks like it could almost be used to justify purgatory. Isn’t it saying there is judgment after death? Can’t it support the notion of God judging us to an intermediate place of purgatory to be cleansed of the stain of our sins? Most certainly not! That is what the blood of Christ perfected. Remember in the beginning when we went over 1 Corinthians 3:15 regarding fire?

1 Corinthians 3:15
If any man's work is burned up, he will suffer loss; but he himself will be saved, yet so as through fire.


Upon death, there will indeed be judgment from God. For the unsaved, this judgment will end in eternal death and suffering of Hell. For the saved, this judgment will result in eternal life with the Father. However, our works will be judged as well. They may not play a part in our timeline from death to Heaven but they most certainly affect our rewards in Heaven. Instead of attempting to find out the meaning of 1 Corinthians 3:15, the Roman Catholic Church invents a meaning in order to make it fit their pre-existing doctrine of purgatory. It is dangerous practice to invent doctrine and then make Scripture fit. If it is not explicitly in Scripture, it is to be excluded.

Again, Paul is not saying one must be purified in purgatory. He is relating the common method of purification to our reward. In those days, fire was the method of removing the dross. Dross is all the waste product of metals being purified in fire. Let’s look at the entire passage.

1 Corinthians 3:10-15
According to the grace of God which was given to me, like a wise master builder I laid a foundation, and another is building on it. But each man must be careful how he builds on it. For no man can lay a foundation other than the one which is laid, which is Jesus Christ. Now if any man builds on the foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, straw, each man's work will become evident; for the day will show it because it is to be revealed with fire, and the fire itself will test the quality of each man's work. If any man's work which he has built on it remains, he will receive a reward. If any man's work is burned up, he will suffer loss; but he himself will be saved, yet so as through fire.


Notice it is not saying that a man must perform works or else be saved through the fires of purgatory. It is saying that we will have eternal reward in Heaven. One day the judgment of God will come to all. The atoning blood of Christ is the only thing that can save. This will be the first step. Among Christians, however, there is yet another judgment. This judgment will determine the eternal rewards in Heaven.

Matthew 6:20
But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys, and where thieves do not break in or steal;

1 Peter 1:7
so that the proof of your faith, being more precious than gold which is perishable, even though tested by fire, may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ;

Isaiah 64:6a
For all of us have become like one who is unclean,
And all our righteous deeds are like a filthy garment;


Outside of Christ, even our greatest works are as filthy rags. In the Hebrew, this literally meant the rags used to catch the bloody flow of a menstruating woman. However, when we have Christ as our foundation, those works take on a whole new meaning. They may not purify us, speed up entrance to Heaven, or work off past sins of others but they do indeed build up treasures in Heaven.

2 Peter 3:10
But the day of the Lord will come like a thief, in which the heavens will pass away with a roar and the elements will be destroyed with intense heat, and the earth and its works will be burned up.


In the day of judgment, all of our works will be burned up. The only ones to remain will be the eternal works in Christ. These works are described as being of even higher quality than gold. Gold will burn away but works in Christ will remain forever. Gold will burn away. How then can money be used to buy pardons? Notice the final statement though. It says, “If any man's work is burned up, he will suffer loss; but he himself will be saved, yet so as through fire.” Yet, even this is not referring to fires of purgatory. As we already covered, we have complete justification and forgiveness of debt in the atoning blood of Christ. It is telling us that even a man with no works will be saved but it will be by the skin of his teeth. Imagine a man being surrounded by fire. The firefighter comes in, grabs the man, and makes a dash for the only exit. The firefighter wraps the man in his coat to avoid being burned and plunges into the flames toward the door. If not for the firefighter, this man would have died in the judgmental flames. In the same way, even if a man has saving faith but has only a few works in Christ to go along with it, he will be spared from the fires of judgment simply by being clothed in Christ. His eternal reward will be small but salvation in Christ was still accomplished.

Romans 5:1
Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ,

Romans 3:28
For we maintain that a man is justified by faith apart from works of the Law.


We are justified by faith alone. The Roman Catholic Church teaches we must work for justification, work for Heaven, and experience suffering by fire in order to reach Heaven.

John Murray
According to Romish theology, all past sins both as respects their eternal and temporal punishments are blotted out in baptism and also the eternal punishment of the future sins of the faithful. But for the temporal punishment of the post-baptismal sins the faithful must make satisfaction either in this life or in purgatory. In opposition to every such notion of human satisfaction Protestants rightly contend that the satisfaction of Christ is the only satisfaction for sin and is so perfect and final that it leaves no penal liability for any sin of the believer.


Christ said it himself. It is finished! Roman Catholic teaching does not believe this and, in turn, adds to the gospel.

Galatians 1:8-9
But even if we, or an angel from heaven, should preach to you a gospel contrary to what we have preached to you, he is to be accursed! As we have said before, so I say again now, if any man is preaching to you a gospel contrary to what you received, he is to be accursed!


Anything added to the Gospel is a false gospel. Anything that adds to the finished work of Christ is a false gospel. A false gospel is to be condemned. As I said in the beginning:

John Calvin
A dog barks when his master is attacked. I would be a coward if I saw that God's truth is attacked and yet would remain silent.


And again, as John Murray so accurately puts it:

John Murray
This polemic against Romish blasphemy is just as necessary today as it was in the Reformation period. The atonement is a completed work, never repeated and unrepeatable.

2 comments:

  1. You have done your homework. Well researched!

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    Replies
    1. This is a topic that is near and dear to my heart as I have many friends who are lost within a system that simply has too many irreconcilable differences.

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