“Pay Now or Pay Later”- The Gospel According to the Roman Catholic Church

The following video’s are portions of a 3 and half hour debate between Dr. James White and Fr. Peter Stravinskas on “Purgatory: Biblical or Mythical?” This debate is number 6 of 10 of the Great Debate series (1996 – 2005) that Dr. White has done with several Catholic apologists in the United States. If you would like to hear this debate (or the others) in its complete and unedited form, you can listen to them here. Dr. White has taken the time to find and debate Roman Catholic apologists that are well qualified to defend the Roman Catholic position. He has debated Patrick Madrid (editor of Envoy Magazine was the vice president of Catholic Answers), Gary Michuta, Fr. Mitchell Pacwa, Gerry Matatics (a convert from Reformed Protestantism), Robert Sungenis (founder of Catholic Apologetics International and another convert from Protestantism), and others. I only say this so that no one may think that Dr. White is picking on someone that is not well equipped to accurately defend these issues.

For those of you that may not know what the Catholic belief of purgatory is, here is a quick summery from Wikipedia:

Purgatory is a doctrine in the Roman Catholic Church, which posits that those who die in a state of grace undergo a purification in order to achieve the holiness necessary to enter heaven [Catechism of the Catholic Church 1030]. This purification of the elect, while traditionally seen a fiery punishment for sins, is declared to be entirely different from the punishment of the damned in hell. The Catholic doctrine holds that the souls in purgatory undergo temporal punishment due to venial sins or as satisfaction due to their transgressions, and that they can be aided by the prayer and sufferings of the faithful and the Sacrifice of the Mass. Hence central to the Roman Catholic doctrine of purgatory is prayer for the dead.

1 CORINTHIANS 3

This first clip of from the cross-examination where Dr. White has an opportunity to ask Stravinskas questions on 1 Corinthians 3:4-15 (one of the few places Roman Catholics “claim” the teaching of purgatory can be supported).



Just to clarify that last verse (15), it reads:

If any man's work is burned up [wood, hay, straw] he will suffer loss; but he himself will be saved, yet so as through fire.

PAY NOW OR PAY LATER

This next clip is from the end of the debate when the audience has an opportunity to ask questions to the opponents.



1 Peter 4:8

And above all things have fervent charity among yourselves: for charity shall cover the multitude of sins. (KJV)

Above all, keep fervent in your love for one another, because love covers a multitude of sins. (NASB)

Well there you have it, the gospel according to the Catholic Church (if it can even be called a gospel). The Catholic Church clearly believes that a person can suffer and/or pay for their own sins in order enter Heaven. One should rightly ask the question, “Why did Christ have to die on the Cross?” (Galatians 2:21) If one’s salvation from eternal punishment to having peace with God is dependent on ANY level of man’s works or actions, then salvation is no longer a gift of Grace and Christ died for nothing. This is NOT the Gospel of Christ. The Catholic Church does NOT preach the Gospel of Christ, it has become an apostate Church. Therefore, those that hold to the teachings of the Roman Catholic Church, “Christ will be of no benefit to you” (Galatians 5:2). My prayer is that anyone that is reading this that is involved in the Catholic Church, that they would be encouraged to leave that Church and seek a Biblical Gospel Church:

Do not be yoked together with unbelievers. For what do righteousness and wickedness have in common? Or what fellowship can light have with darkness? What harmony is there between Christ and Belial? What does a believer have in common with an unbeliever? What agreement is there between the temple of God and idols? For we are the temple of the living God. As God has said:

"I will live with them
and walk among them,
and I will be their God,
and they will be my people."

Therefore

“Come out from them
and be separate, says the Lord.
Touch no unclean thing,
and I will receive you."
"I will be a Father to you,
and you will be my sons and daughters,
says the Lord Almighty."
2 Corinthians 6:14-18

(I want to clarify that I am NOT saying that everyone that attends a Catholic Mass in not saved and does not have the Gospel of Christ. My focus is that the teachings of the Catholic Church is not the Gospel of Christ and that those that are true Disciples of Christ in the Roman Catholic Church should no longer be yoked with them)

The Dawkins Delusion

For those of you that are familiar with Richard Dawkins, you are in for a real treat. However, you have never heard of Dawkins or read his books; you should still get a kick out of this. Dawkins has been dubbed “The world most famous out of the closet living atheist”. Last year he published a book The God Delusion, which has gotten a lot of attention lately.

I came across this mock interview on a blog that I frequent often, James White. If you have ever heard Dawkins speak, Terry Tommyrot is quite tenanted in his impersonation of Dawkins. In the following interview, you will hear Richard Dawkins’ common augments against the existence of God used against his very own existence. I certainly got a kick out of it.

“If an unbeliever considers Christianity to be irrational simply on the basis that it allows for something to be accepted without independent demonstration, then the unbeliever in question is unrealistic and must be pressed to see that he ends up refuting himself (not simply Christians) in terms of such values and demands. Thus his unbelieving attitude turns out to be the truly irrational attitude, for it inconsistently requires something of it opponents which it does not live up to itself. Such an attitude would make knowledge of anything whatsoever impossible for finite and faulty creatures- and thus shows itself to be supremely unreasonable.”
(Dr. Greg L Bahnsen Always Ready pg 198)



If you liked the interview, you may be interested in this short parable of how this discovery took place in David Anderson’s Does Richard Dawkins Exist? A parable