Tag Archives: scripture

Purgatory Pickle Redux

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A fellow by the name of Charles recently commented on an old purgatory post of mine that has long since sunken below the horizon. He says:

“Why do Catholics use 1 Corinthians 3:10-15 to prove Purgatory? It couldn’t be plainer in the text that the fire will reveal all works on ‘the Day’. The Day of Christ at judgment. ‘ The Day’ is too obvious but surprisingly overlooked by Catholics.”

My first reaction would be to say that Catholics believe in two judgments, personal and universal. We are faced with personal judgment when we die. The universal comes when Christ returns to Earth to judge all of mankind. On “the Day”, that is the day of our judgment, our works are tested by fire. That fire is not literal, of course, but suffering of some kind is implied. I see no contradiction whatsoever regarding purgation and judgment.

What are your thoughts?

Mass on September 11

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I know I’m a couple days behind on this, but grad school has been keeping me busy. Anyhow, I just wanted to point out how absolutely perfectly timed the mass readings for September 11 were. Call it coincidence. Call it Divine Providence. It doesn’t matter; either way, there are lessons to be learned from Word given that day.

First Reading: Sirach 27:30 – 28:7, "Anger and wrath, these also are abominations, and the sinful man will possess them."

Psalm: Psalm 103:8,1-2, 3-4, 9-10, 11-12, "The Lord is merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love."

Second Reading: Romans 14:7-9, "For none of us lives to himself, and none of us dies to himself."

Gospel: Matthew 18:21-35, "Then Peter came up and said to him, ‘Lord, how often will my brother sin against me, and I forgive him? As many as seven times?’ 22 Jesus said to him, ‘I do not say to you seven times, but seventy times seven.’"

Have you forgiven the 9/11 hijackers?

“Was Paul crucified for you?”

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Dr. Andrew Jackson of Smart Christian is concerned that bloggers need to be reminded of 1 Corinthians 1:10-16.

"I appeal to you, brothers, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that all of you agree and that there be no divisions among you, but that you be united in the same mind and the same judgment. For it has been reported to me by Chloe’s people that there is quarreling among you, my brothers. What I mean is that each one of you says, ‘I follow Paul,’ or ‘I follow Apollos,’ or ‘I follow Cephas,’ or ‘I follow Christ.’ Is Christ divided? Was Paul crucified for you? Or were you baptized in the name of Paul? I thank God that I baptized none of you except Crispus and Gaius, so that no one may say that you were baptized in my name. (I did baptize also the household of Stephanas. Beyond that, I do not know whether I baptized anyone else.)"

Andrew writes,

"As much as we would all like to declare ‘we aren’t like the Corinthians,’ unfortunately, I do not think much has changed in the church, and yes it is often reflected in the Christian blogosphere."

"We all need to allow Paul’s words to the Corinthians help us reevaluate how we blog. If we are not careful, it is very easy for Christian bloggers to become identified by which Christian leaders or preachers or teachers they declare their allegiance."

"Does your blog loudly and publicly declare ‘I follow John Piper, Brian McLaren, Jim Wallis, John MacArthur, or R.C. Sproul?’ I could easily name others. "

I can’t say run into that problem much (if at all) on Catholic blogs, but I’ve definitely seen Charles Spurgeon get a lot of hero worship on Protestant blogs. It amuses me that some of the same people who spout Spurgeon quotes as if they were Scripture are allergic to the deutercanonical (aka apocrypal) books of the Bible.

Anyhow, Andrew’s concern casts Adrian Warnock’s recent request in an interesting light. I wonder how he’ll respond.