From Judgement to Mercy

From the very beginning, God has wanted to save humanity from our fallen nature. But Lucifer and his rebel angels have consistently inflamed our pride, lusts, and arrogance to lead us away from the Divine plan for glory. 

Lucifer thought that his rebellion could diminish God's glory, but he didn't understand that God can raise up sons and daughters from the beasts of the fields. He can create human beings even better than angels to not only serve Him, but to love Him, too. Just as Jesus said to the Jews who claimed to be descendants of Abraham, He could raise up more from the stones on the ground. So we are meant to replace the angels who fell away to follow Lucifer, now called Satan, the Accuser. 

Our very core nature was corrupted by Satan's lies, introducing distrust and disobedience into the Garden of Eden, so that with each generation, it gets a little harder to reach for faith. That's why God put his grace, also, into the picture so that we could summon the will to respond; and why He decided that faith, despite all of the corruption and suffering, would be accounted to us as righteousness. Just because we have been chosen, and in turn, we choose to respond, God has promised to restore our human nature to its original pristine condition, and remake us into Heavenly beings. 

We do not see the entirety of his plan, but we can rest assured that his will is inevitable, and it will demonstrate his glory despite any resistance from the fallen rebels. In the course of time, with the development of history, we have seen several movements of God's plan for our salvation. At first, He may have appeared uncompromising and too judgemental, but always there would remain an undercurrent of restraint and the promise of mercy. God hoped that we could be led by example, or at least deterred by threats of justice. But when He was forced to punish sinners or lose credibility, He chose mercy. Even when He had to draw back from us, as his holiness was repulsed by sin, He still loved us enough to send his Son into the world, to show us the Way.

We can see the incremental changes of policy in how God has dealt with fallen humanity written in the Bible, especially in Genesis. Later, the story progresses through the people of Israel and then outward, to eventually embrace the whole world. It would appear that God occasionally rethinks his policy of responses to steer history in the direction He wants it to go, but it is more likely that his plan has clearly defined steps that we simply cannot anticipate. In a way, it's like a chess game that God is playing with Satan, and his moves are not revealing the plan until the final play brings checkmate and humiliation. 

Let us review these moves through history to see how God's plan develops:

I. Adam and Eve - Disgrace 

   Although we were created to live in innocence and walk beside God in the Garden of Eden, we fell from grace. All of humanity was cursed for their lack of trust in God. They disobeyed a single simple command. So, they were exiled from his Presence, and the Garden, to eventually suffer mortality, just like the other beasts.

II. Noah - Wrath 

   All people are judged to be wicked, willfully pursuing their own standards of good and evil, despite warnings. God sent the Flood to destroy their whole civilization. Only one man listened, and his family was saved.

III. Babel - Scattering 

   The Flood survivors chose to rebuild their rebellious civilization, bigger and stronger, building a huge temple to try and put God in a box. God scattered them across the Earth and divided them by splitting their languages.

IV. Abraham and Lot - Choosing 

   The tribes in the Middle East coalesce again into city states. In their pride, they prosper and debauch themselves with unrestrained lusts and sin. God calls out a few who will listen, then makes an example of the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah. 

V. Moses and the Chosen - Discipline 

   After rescuing a group of slaves from oppression, God knits them together as his own nation, and gives them a law to follow. When they obey, He blesses them; when they defy Him, they're punished. When a king shows Him love, he receives a great promise. The Jews become an example before the world of God's justice and merciful discipline, and He always saves a remnant. 

VI. Jesus the Messiah - Mercy 

   Observing that including those with stiff-necks and hard hearts will always spoil the nation, God decides to select out the ones willing to repent and learn to follow. God chose to become a human being, to fully experience and overcome the human condition, so that those who would put their faith in Him could be saved. He sacrificed Himself to break the curse from Eden, so that sin could be forgiven, and reconciled those who would desire an intimate walk in discipleship with Him. Then He did the "impossible" and came back from the grave! When He departed, Jesus gave us the Holy Spirit for the renewal of our hearts and minds, and to lead us to fullness of Truth.

VII. The Church - Renewal 

   Christians are a called-out community of believers. We have been given the Holy Spirit, and are expected to behave with exemplary morality. Failures are expected, but those who don't try to follow Jesus and love one another are "tares among the wheat." They are not truly his disciples, despite however "religious" they appear. We have been commissioned to take the Gospel to all nations, call new believers, and try to build a kingdom of those loyal to God shaped by faith in his Son and his Word. It hasn't been easy, and the results have been less than we hoped, but the fullness of God's timing may be rising like the dawn. 

VIII. The Kingdom - Reign 

   We are waiting for Jesus to return as our immortal Divine King. He will humble the rebellious nations and destroy their armies arrayed against Israel. Then He will inaugurate his perfect Kingdom, which will last for 1,000 years. It is prophesied in the Bible, and we know that God always fulfills his promises.

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Is Purgatory for Real?

For whatever reason, Protestants keep coming back to debate the doctrine of purgatory. This idea is unique to the Catholic Church. The Orthodox do not ascribe to it either. Ever since Martin Luther made this idea a topic of contention, we keep on accusing Catholics of abusing the concept of temporary punishment, purging, as preparation for entry to Heaven. 

The Catholics explain it as a necessary justice that purges us from the stains of venial sins which we have committed. But what kind of forgiveness is it that keeps a record of wrongs, while we are urged not to do the same against those who wrong us? Of course, we can earn indulgences to secure our early release, but that creates a whole new series of problems. Salvation is not supposed to be something that we earn. Why are we expected to earn our way out of an almost hellish place of punishment even after we have been granted salvation? Is Jesus' sacrifice not quite enough, or is his righteousness imputed to us not yet a suitable garment to gain us entry to the wedding feast? The very concepts of merit and stain are problematic. 

Therefore, I have developed a different idea, drawing from the Scriptures, that takes account of concerns about meeting the requirements for our places in Heaven. By contrast, this is not a place of punishment so much as it is a trial by fire of our humility, which reveals how well we have been listening to the Holy Spirit. Yes, it can be painful, and we are meant to be among the saved going to Heaven, but it doesn't have to be endured for longer than it takes for us to learn a proper attitude of appreciation for grace. Indeed, it seems that the Catholic teachings are more likely to prolong it than to decrease its duration. 

We are saved by grace because of our faith. Our works are no more than a response of loving obedience, and we have no claim to merit of any kind. Indeed, we are little more than worthless servants, for which of us can claim to have done all that our Lord may have asked of us? If we have somehow managed to achieve anything worthwhile, we should count ourselves as blessed.

In my view, purgatory happens when Christians who have been saved are judged for their works done on Earth. Jesus says that we will be rewarded according to our works, good or worthless. This judgment determines our place and role in Heaven. Our good works survive a test of flames, separating gold from dross to become our eternal treasure, but worthless works will all be consumed and lost, discarded as cinders or blown away as ashes. We must not hold on to those worthless deeds and resist correction, or we will remain in the flames until we release them. Just because we have done what the Church prescribed, doesn't mean the Lord asked it of us.

Therefore, let us practice humility here and now, holding on to nothing, but letting all of our deeds be an offering to God for his glory, not our own. Strive for the fruit of good character and obedient holiness with all humility. Spread the Gospel so as to save souls, and serve to build the Kingdom. Love one another as Jesus loved us. These will endure for your eternal reward. With only a minimum of these, performed because of our faith and desire to please God, we may be saved as if passing through a wall of flames to reach safety, but we will have only the shirts on our backs to cover us. Oh, of course, we can do more by following Jesus' example and listening to the leading of the Holy Spirit calling us to employ our talents. Those who do well will receive even more, while those who do little will get little. 

Purgatory is where we let go of the good works WE have done that God did not request from us, but it does not have to be endured for a long time unless we make it difficult. It is not the place where we are purged from our sins, unless you count as "sin" anything that failed to please the Lord. Jesus already died to wash away our evil deeds. They are forgiven. But clinging even to our good deeds with pride can be a severe hindrance, and may even bar our entrance to Heaven. 

There are certain things that we are all expected to do when the opportunity arises, and they are clearly outlined in Scripture. These include obedience to the Ten Commandments, performing the works of corporal mercy, and loving our enemies among others. We are also expected to try to pray without ceasing, and to seek ways to apply our talents toward building the Lord's Kingdom. And, we are given certain gifts for the tasks we are assigned. Those are the things we are expected to accomplish. 

What we are not asked to do are those things which we reach for out of our own ambition. We are not all meant to be great evangelists, like Billy Graham. Nor must we all plant new churches in foreign lands unreached by the Gospel. Not even is every Christian meant to be a pastor or teacher. Few of us have the special gifts needed to succeed in those tasks. We might even achieve some small successes if we try, but God had an even better idea of what we could do for Him if we had only listened. Perhaps we were taking someone else's place, who could not do what we were called to do, and leaving him without a blessed task. We should not always aspire to do great things, but allow ourselves to invest our hearts in the fields where we are planted. If we are to be called out, God will find ways to let us know what He wants. 

By contrast, if we rather to pursue our own goals, however glorious, without seeking his advice for our vocation, whatever we may accomplish will in the end become cinders and ashes. If we come before the Throne and offer Him our good works, we had better hope that we have done at least something that He asked of us. We certainly don't want to hear Him say that He never knew us, and never heard us asking what He wanted us to do to serve the Kingdom.

P.S., This is NOT what the Catholic Church teaches. It mostly comes from Scripture, and then from listening to the Holy Spirit. I do not claim it to be infallible, but merely logical and likely correct. I do not view this as an essential doctrine necessary for our salvation. Let's not argue about it nor condemn Catholics for their own ideas.