Purgatory and Indulgences (The Failure of Rome)

We're doing a little series right now. This is week four, free gospel or false gods, understanding the

Roman Catholicism versus the hope of Christ. And tonight we are, and you guys remember this being recorded.

I mean, we can still talk, ask questions, but just I feel like it's a warning to let you know that that's happening.

But tonight we're talking about indulgences and purgatory. And I actually kind of put that backwards on the title.

So we're gonna talk about purgatory first, because I think purgatory sets the stage for why there are indulgences.

I typed in, not typed in, I copied and pasted this lesson tonight into Grok, and just fact checking stuff.

Like I asked it like, make sure I didn't say anything erroneous or whatever. And one thing it did for me was it gave me this chart.

Now I had to edit it because I didn't think it did a good job. So I went through, but it gave me the idea for this chart.

So I went through and edited it. And so that's what you have. We're not really gonna go over this chart, but I thought that was cool.

So it's Roman Catholic versus biblical view of purgatory and indulgences. So it's a little cheat sheet there for you that you can use.

And a lot of that we'll talk about tonight, but I probably won't have time to go over that, okay? So I want you to know, and I've said this a few times, why are we going over this?

Because Roman Catholicism is present in our area. And even though many within Roman Catholicism may not acknowledge it, it is a dark and hopeless religion.

And you can see that the brothers that went down to Mexico and Stephanie's been down to Mexico before,

Ella has been down to Mexico. So they've seen it. It's a little darker down there.

I'll talk about that some tonight. But as far as the religion goes, as far as the false teaching goes, we should not compromise.

In fact, even further, let me say it this way, we should hate it. We should hate the, can

I use the word besmirch? We should hate the besmirching of the gospel. We should hate the clouding of the gospel at the same time as while we love our

Roman Catholic neighbors and friends, I love them enough to tell them the truth. So let me just kind of walk back a little bit from a few weeks ago to get us into this week.

So let me ask you this, actually. Rome teaches two types of sin. What are they? Venial, egregious, but it's called something else.

It is egregious, but what did we say? Mortal, yeah. So venial and mortal.

And mortal sin causes, it is egregious because it causes the loss of justifying grace.

The catechism, the Catholic, the catechism of the Catholic church says, if mortal sin is not redeemed, this is 1861 paragraph, if mortal sin is not redeemed by repentance and God's forgiveness, it causes exclusion from Christ's kingdom and the eternal death of hell.

So you commit a mortal sin and you don't do anything about it, what happens? You go to hell.

So you've gone through all the steps to be a good Roman Catholic and somewhere in your life you commit a mortal sin, possibly you didn't even know it, or maybe you commit the mortal sin at the end of your life.

If nothing's done with that, you go to hell. The catechism 1863, the paragraph, says that even venial sins can dispose of us little by little towards mortal sin.

However, venial sins in and of themselves, so this is important for where we're gonna go, so I want you to understand this rightly, we have to address it rightly.

So venial sins do not remove justification from a person in the Roman Catholic system. So the

Roman Catholic church has to figure out what are we gonna do with all the venial sins you've committed, okay?

Venial sins, like little white lie, you left 30 minutes early from work, whatever the case may be.

Does the cross take care of the venial sins? Well, in terms of guilt, it's the

Roman sacramental system that handles that, so it's not even the cross.

You gotta understand, in Rome, the cross is insufficient to deal with your sins.

But it's the Roman Catholic sacramental system that takes care of the guilt.

But the purification of your sins and the consequences of your sins and the purification you need from your sins for venial sins, it doesn't take care of that.

So in order to deal with this, I hope you're tracking with me, Rome invented the doctrine of purgatory, okay?

So why does purgatory exist? Purgatory exists to deal with the consequences of your venial sins.

Mortal sins? No, your venial sins. Because if you commit mortal sin, where do you go?

You go to hell. So purgatory comes from the Latin purgatorium. It means purging.

So the idea is that the Christian cannot get into heaven unless completely purified from his or her sins.

The blood of Jesus doesn't do this in the Roman Catholic system. It's the fires of purgatory, which we'll talk about that later.

Some would say it's not fire. But purgatory is the place after life where the Christian goes in order to receive their purification.

I'm not gonna deal with it, it'll take too long, deal with all the history of the doctrine. But I will mention that it's real development starts to take real traction with Pope Gregory the

Great, okay? He was Pope from 590 to 604, so it gives you a little historical context.

He was crazy in many ways. I mean, he did some good things, but what I mean by crazy is not clinically crazy, but he had all these visions and things about people dying and being suffering after death.

And so through that, he helped develop this doctrine. I'll give you a definition from theologian.

This is a Reformed theologian, Lorraine Botner. He says, the Roman Catholic Church has developed a doctrine in which it is held that all who die at peace with the church, but who are not perfect, must undergo penal and purifying suffering in an intermediate realm known as purgatory.

Only those believers who have attained a state of Christian perfection go immediately to heaven.

All unbaptized adults and those who after baptism have committed mortal sin go immediately to hell.

The great mass of partially sanctified Christians dying in fellowship with the church, but who nevertheless are encumbered with some degree of sin go to purgatory, where for a longer or shorter time they suffer until all sin is purged away, after which they are translated to heaven.

Okay, do you understand so far, I hope? We can pause there for just a second. Do you understand what purgatory is?

You have a question about all I've said so far? What purgatory is?

Yes, that's true. I agree, yes. Okay, now, that's what purgatory is.

It is a place where your venial sins, the consequences and ramifications, and I don't know, the darkness of your venial sins is purged away.

All right, where does this come from? First of all, you need to understand this is in your heart.

If it's not dealt with, this is in your heart. It's in my heart. So number one, it comes from this proclivity of a works -based system, okay?

All mankind has within them this idea or this knowledge that there's something wrong between God and I, but I'm gonna fix it myself.

In Romans 1, it talks about how they exchange the glory of the Creator for images.

So how are they gonna fix the relationship with the Creator? We're gonna worship these images, right? That's not talking about Roman Catholicism, though interestingly enough, there is some application there.

Now, I have in my heart, if not checked, a way that I'm gonna work my way back to God, and so this is a natural outflow of that, right?

We need to do something in order to appease God, and this is heavily prevalent in Roman Catholicism, but now you need to understand, it's not, it is mixed with paganism, but it's also mixed with Christianity.

There's some true things about Christianity that's all mixed together here. So this works -based proclivity is now gonna be mixed with words that we know, like Christ, and grace, and cross, and salvation, and those things.

So that's the foundation. But you need to remember Romans 11, six, which says what? But if it is by grace, it is no longer on the basis of works otherwise grace would no longer be grace.

Let me remind our church tonight that when you begin to mix one ounce of works into grace, it's no longer grace.

This is not only true of Roman Catholicism, it's actually true of any man -made system of salvation.

God's done all the work, now you just gotta do your part, right?

Well, if I gotta do my part, God hadn't done all the work, right? If I've gotta do my part,

Jesus hasn't paid it all. There's a sermon cranking through my mind right now,

Elder D .J. Ward, that's him. He's like, if I gotta do my part, Jesus didn't pay it all, we shouldn't sing that.

We should sing Jesus paid some of it. If he only paid some of it, he's not a sufficient savior. So listen to me tonight, it's only not applicable to Roman Catholicism.

The difference with Roman Catholicism is they've canonized this, they put it in writing, this anti -grace theology.

So purgatory is a doctrine, this is very important for you to understand, purgatory is a doctrine in search of a text.

It is not a doctrine flowing out of a text. It is a doctrine in search of a text.

And if I may give a friendly rejoinder to our Presbyterian brothers, I would say, and they're brothers and sisters,

Dutch Reform, brothers and sisters, OPC, PCA, all these things, brothers and sisters, but infant baptism is a doctrine that doesn't flow out of the text, but it goes in searching of a text.

It's the same hermeneutic. Now, obviously, I hate to even put them next to the heretics, but they should be friendly and take that friendly and warn that it's a bad hermeneutic.

Now, the doctrine of purgatory is searching for a text, but guess what, how many texts teach the doctrine of purgatory?

Zero, none anywhere, okay? Zero in the Bible and zero even in the Apocrypha, but I'll address some of those.

Now, there's some verses they try to use, so if you want to, you can look at Matthew 12. So if you're debating a

Roman Catholic, not a formal debate, hopefully that didn't come around for a while, if you're talking to a

Roman Catholic and they say, listen to this, Matthew 12, 32. Matthew 12, 32. And whoever speaks a word against the

Son of Man will be forgiven, but whoever speaks against the Holy Spirit will not be forgiven, either in this age or in the age to come.

There we've got purgatory. What? How? Okay, I'll explain the logic. It's faulty, but here's the logic.

The logic is, since blasphemy of the Holy Spirit, Jesus says, cannot be forgiven in the age to come, logically it follows that there are some sins that can be forgiven in the age to come.

Do you understand? Do you agree or disagree? Yeah, I hope you disagree.

You disagree. It doesn't logically flow from that, right? But that's the argument. Since Jesus says blasphemy of the

Holy Spirit can't be forgiven in the age to come, but, well, they wouldn't say maybe, what he means is there are some sins that can be forgiven in the age to come, and so that's what purgatory.

Of course, the point is it's absurd. That's not what that text is talking about, right?

You understand that? It's not talking about that at all. Jesus is not implying even that some sins can be forgiven in the age to come.

That's foolish. Now, you can't turn here in your Bible, or at least I hope not. This is a big test. If you can turn here tonight in your

Bible, then you have to leave. No, not really, I'm joking. But you should get a new

Bible. So I'm gonna read from 2 Maccabees, okay? Till you pull out your apocrypha.

So 2 Maccabees, I'm gonna read. This is where they base the doctrine of purgatory. 2

Maccabees, chapter 12, verse 39 through 46. Now, if you wanna look this up later, you can.

2 Maccabees 12, 39 through 46. Now, this is describing a time around the Maccabean revolt.

This takes place in between the Old and New Testament, 167 BC, so sometime around here is when this story.

Just to be clear, I'm gonna say the name Judas. That's in the text. But the Judas in the text is not

Judas Iscariot, of course, right? It's Judas Maccabeus. And that's the one who lived in 160s.

And he is the Jewish leader who is leading this revolt. So anyway, all that's not important.

Just listen to the narrative, okay? 2 Maccabees 12, 39 through 46. And the day following,

Judas came with his company to take away the bodies of them that were slain and to bury them with their kinsmen in the sepulchers of their fathers.

And they found under the coats of the slain some of the donorees of idols of Jamnia, which the law forbiddeth to the

Jews. So they all plainly saw that for this cause, they were slain.

Then they all blessed the just judgment of the Lord who had discovered the things that were hidden.

And so betaking themselves to prayers, they besought him that the sin which had been committed might be forgotten.

But the most valiant Judas exhorted the people to keep themselves from sin. For as much as they saw before their eyes what had happened because of the sins of those that were slain.

And making a gathering, he sent 12 ,000 drachms of silver to Jerusalem for sacrifice to be offered for the sins of the dead, thanking well and religiously concerning the resurrection.

For if he had not hoped that they who were slain should rise again, it would have seemed superfluous and vain to pray for the dead.

And because he considered that they who had fallen asleep with godliness had great grace laid upon them, it is therefore for a holy and wholesome thought to pray for the dead that they may be loosed from sins.

Let me say this to you. You have probably Roman Catholic friends or family or neighbors or acquaintances who will tell you, they actually believe this, who tell them, purgatory's not in the

Bible. And they would say, yes it is, it's in our Bible. Purgatory's in our

Bible. But they don't even know this passage, they don't even understand it. And what the passage is teaching, it's not biblical, so we reject it, but the passage itself is teaching that Judas Maccabeus comes upon these men, they're dead.

Did you catch why they were dead? God killed them. Why did God kill them? Yeah, what were they doing?

This is very important actually. They were worshiping idols. They had idols with them, okay?

And so God brings judgment on them, and Judas says, well we need to pray that God would forget their sins and receive them and all that.

Okay, do you understand that actually goes against what Rome says purgatory is?

Because worshiping idols violates what?

Just think through this. Worshiping an idol violates what? Very good,

Nathaniel. Nathaniel's jumped ahead and he's there. It's a mortal sin.

Why? Because it's breaking one of the 10 commandments. So these men,

I'm speaking from Roman Catholic theology. These men have not committed venial sins.

They've committed what? Mortal sins. Now can you have a mortal sin and go to purgatory?

No, from Rome's own teaching. So I'm just saying, obviously we reject this outright. You have to go back to the second lecture if you wanna know why we reject the

Apocrypha, but idolatry is a mortal sin, and so those guilty of mortal sin don't go to purgatory.

They go to hell. So 2 Maccabees, their main passage or whatever, it doesn't even prove what they try to make it prove.

All right? Now, that's where the basis is.

What is purgatory? We've kind of talked about that, but let's flesh this out some. If you talk to, and you can understand why this would be.

Rome today, it's divided, I don't know, it's fractured maybe I should say, but there's kind of like modern

Roman Catholics, and then there's also maybe more traditional Roman Catholics.

The more traditional Roman Catholics see purgatory as a place of pain.

Modern apologists, kind of not new age, but new neo -Catholicism maybe

I could say, they want to back away from that, right? They want to say we don't even know how long it is or if it's painful.

You can understand why they might want to do that, but that's not the standard teaching of Roman Catholicism.

So let me read to you from Charles Hodge. He says, in the opinion of the majority of the theologians, the torments of purgatory consist in part in those of fire, or at least in such as are analogous to the pain produced by fire.

So the classic historical traditional teaching is you go into purgatory and it brings pain to you in order to cleanse you of your sin, your venial sin.

You say, well, Charles Hodge is a Protestant, so we can't trust him. Okay, well, we can trust him, but let me read to you from a

Roman Catholic. This is Cardinal Patrick Joseph Hayes. Let me give you his dates just so you know, he's not back in the medieval times.

He was born 1867, he died 1938. So here's what he says.

He was the Archbishop of New York. Later, he was a Cardinal. He says, according to the holy fathers of the church, the fire of purgatory does not differ from the fire of hell except in point of duration.

Did you hear that? It doesn't differ. Hell and purgatory are the same. He says, in terms of the pain, just different in duration.

St. Thomas Aquinas, so he quotes, so this is a quote of Aquinas. Aquinas, I think, died in the 13th century and he's a major Roman Catholic player, major theologian, the

Roman Catholic theologian. He says this, it is the same fire that torments the reprobates in hell and the just in purgatory.

The least pain in purgatory surpasses the greatest sufferings in this life.

Do you hear that? The least pains in purgatory surpasses the greatest sufferings in this life.

And then back to Cardinal Hayes. Nothing but the eternal duration makes the fire of hell more terrible than that of purgatory.

Do you understand? Now, you're gonna have new neo -Catholic apologists who are gonna talk about, well, we don't know, and maybe it's instantaneous and all that, but the classic

Roman Catholic position on purgatory is it is excruciating, right?

It's painful. This is dark. It's wicked. It's anti -gospel.

Now, how could I be so bold to say anti -gospel? Well, turn to Hebrews. I'll just read two texts. Hebrews 9 and Hebrews 10.

What does it say about a Savior who can save us from the guilt but not the consequences of sin?

Hebrews 9 .26, the second half of that. But as it is, no, there's so many more we could look at.

Let's just look at a couple. Hebrews 9 .26, but as it is, He has appeared once for all at the end of the ages to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself.

What has Jesus' sacrifice done? It has expiated sin. It has propitiated sin.

That is, satisfied the wrath of God against sin, and it's expiated sin. It's put it away.

Hebrews 10, it'll go the next chapter, verse 11 through 14. And every priest stands daily at his service, offering repeatedly the same sacrifice, which can never take away sins.

But when Christ had offered for all time a single sacrifice for sins, He sat down at the right hand of God, waiting from that time until His enemies should be made a footstool for His feet.

For by a single offering, He has perfected for all time those who are being sanctified.

Could you get any clearer than that? So Rome is teaching Jesus need to be sacrificed, but you too need to bear the pain.

So Jesus bore the pain on the cross, but you've got to, because of your venial sins, you're gonna have to bear the pain some in purgatory.

When the text says He's given, that is Christ, a single offering, and by this

He has perfected for all time those who are being sanctified. This is why we have great hope, all our hope, in the active obedience of Christ.

That the righteousness of Christ is imputed to our accounts so that when we stand before God, we are not judged based on our remaining sin, but we are judged based on the finished work of Christ.

Okay, any other questions about purgatory? Now with purgatory, so this is gonna get us to this point.

With purgatory comes the doctrine of indulgences. Let me read to you from the

Catechism of the Catholic Church, paragraph 1471. An indulgence is a remission before God of the temporal punishment due to sins whose guilt has already been forgiven, which the faithful Christian who is duly disposed gains under certain prescribed conditions through the action of the church, which as the minister of redemption dispenses and applies with authority the treasury of the satisfactions of Christ and the saints.

I'm gonna explain all that here in just a minute, but let me just say this. You can't buy an indulgence for a mortal sin.

You got it? It's not mortal sin, but what? Venial sin. So this, you see how indulgences, purgatory goes together.

So if you want less time in purgatory, you need an indulgence, and the indulgence is able to remit before God the temporal punishment due to your venial sins.

Not all of them, okay, but the ones for which specifically you have an indulgence for.

Now, I'm going to read from Pope Paul VI. He died in 1978.

The reason I'm gonna read from him is to show you that indulgences is not just something back in the

Reformation. It still happens today, okay? So this is from his document,

Indulgentarium Doctrina, or I don't know. I had to autocorrect there, so it just says doctrine, but I know it's

Latin. So I'm doing this to show you that it's modern. So first of all, he quotes

Trent, Pope Paul VI, who died in 1978. He says, the church condemns with anathema those who maintain the uselessness of indulgences or deny the power of the church to grant them.

What's he saying? He's saying if you're like us and you say indulgences are whack, then you're anathema.

You are cursed, you're cut off. I'm not gonna read this next chunk because we're just kind of being mindful of time.

So let me just give you the simple explanation. This is not my view or the biblical view, this Roman Catholic view, all right?

You ready for this? Pay attention. The Lord Jesus and the Virgin Mary and all the saints.

Now, what do I mean by saints? Right, the super saints, right?

Not like we would say saints. So what are those three categories? The Lord Jesus, the

Virgin Mary, and the saints. They have lived such good lives.

They have gone above and beyond in the way that they have lived so that their good works have not only merited their own salvation, but they've done so good that they have leftover works.

You understand? This is not my view, it's not biblical view. It's Roman Catholic view. So Jesus, Mary, and the saints have lived such exemplary lives.

They've done so many good works that when they go to heaven, they've got all these good works left over.

What are we gonna do with them? Well, obviously, as you would expect, we're gonna put them in a big bucket, all right?

I'm being a little pejorative there. We're gonna put them in a big chest, and we're going to call the chest the treasury of merit, all right?

So all these leftover good things that these people have done, we put in this chest called the treasury of merit, and when the

Pope wants to, he can dip into the chest, and he can use it to remit part or all, which is the difference between a partial and plenary indulgence.

He can use it to remit part or all of one's temporal punishments due to venial sin. I'm not asking if you agree with it, but does the explanation make sense?

I'm like, I know on one sense, you're like, of course it doesn't make sense, but do you understand the argument?

Okay, let me read to you from Pope Paul VI. Although indulgences are, in fact, free gifts, nevertheless, they are granted for the living as well as for the dead, only on determined conditions.

To acquire them, it is indeed required, on the one hand, that prescribed works be performed, and on the other hand, that the faithful have the necessary dispositions.

That is to say that they love God, detest sin, place their trust in the merits of Christ, and believe firmly in the great assistance they derive from the communion of saints.

In addition, it should not be forgotten that by acquiring indulgences, the faithful submit docilely to the legitimate pastors of the church, and above all, to the successor of blessed

Peter, the key bearer of heaven, to whom the Savior Himself entrusted the task of feeding his flock and governing his church.

Okay, so how do you get an indulgence? Pope Paul VI, to acquire a plenary indulgence, it is necessary to perform the work to which the indulgence is attached and to fulfill three conditions, sacramental confession,

Eucharistic communion, and prayer for the intentions of the supreme pontiff. You gotta pray for the pope.

It is further required that all attachments to sin even to venial sin, be absent.

So really, they've tried to counterman or counteract or respond to the way indulgences were used during the

Reformation. So basically, during the Reformation, you're just like, hey, I'm gonna go out and do this. Go ahead and give me an indulgence for it.

They're saying, no, you can't be like that. You can't do that. Lorraine Botner says this. In general, it is held that the period of suffering in purgatory can be shortened by gifts of money, prayers by the priests and masses, which gifts, prayers, and masses can be provided by the person before death or by relatives and friends after death.

The more the satisfaction one makes while living, the less remains to be atoned for in purgatory.

Okay, now I'm gonna give you a crazy thing. Some of you know this happened. Some of you, you were not an adult this long ago.

But this was in 2013. Some of you weren't born. 12 years ago,

Pope Francis offered indulgences to those who attend the 28th

World Youth Day in Rio de Janeiro, okay? I have his whole decree here. Let me just read it.

It'll help you understand. Here's what he writes. This is just 12 years ago.

The Holy Father Francis, and I've chopped some things to just shorten it a little bit. The Holy Father Francis designed that young people might obtain the hoped -for fruits of holiness from the 28th

World Day to be celebrated 22nd to 29th of the coming month of July in Rio de

Janeiro from the treasury of the rewards of our Lord Jesus Christ, of the most blessed

Virgin Mary, and of all the saints, has permitted that the youth and all the faithful who are properly prepared may receive the gift of the indulgences as follows.

A, if you want the plenary indulgence, plenary means the full, if you want the one that covers everything, that's obtainable once a day.

It's granted on the usual conditions, sacramental confession, Eucharistic communion, and prayer for the supreme pontiff's intentions.

It may also be applied by way of suffrage for the souls of deceased faithful and for faithful who are truly repentant and contrite who will devoutly participate in the sacred rites and exercises of devotion that will take place in Rio de

Janeiro. Those faithful who are legitimately prevented may obtain the plenary indulgence as long as, having fulfilled the usual conditions, spiritual, sacramental, and of prayer, with the intention of filial submission to the

Roman pontiff, they participate in spirit in the sacred functions on the specific days and as long as they follow these rites and devotional practices via television and radio or always with the proper devotion through the new means of social communication.

Okay, let me explain all that. This is what Pope Francis was saying.

If you come to Rio de Janeiro and you go through the rites and all that and you have the right attitude, you can receive an indulgence.

You can receive it for you or you can receive it on behalf of the dead. But if you can't make it and you're just faithful and you watch it on television or you follow it on Twitter, that was funny, you can also get the indulgence, right?

So if you do all of this and you have the right spirit and you go through these things, the church will grant you an indulgence, all right?

I have more quotes. I don't wanna read them all. Let me read the Bible again,

Ephesians 5. 25, husbands love your wives as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her, that he might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, that he might present the church to himself in splendor without spot or wrinkle or any such thing that she might be holy and without blemish.

Can you fit purgatory into that? Now, Roman Catholics try, but you can't fit purgatory into that.

The text is telling us that Jesus is going to present his people, that when we die, we're gonna enter into heaven, our souls will enter into heaven and we'll await the resurrection of the body.

Based on what? The work of Christ. Do you understand?

The work of Christ. Now, I'm not going to read,

I have a long quote from Lorraine Botner. You know what? I'm gonna read some of it. Because this is true.

He says, it is safe to say that no other doctrine of the church of Rome, unless it be that of auricular confession, has done so much to pervert the gospel or to enslave the people to the priesthood as has the doctrine of purgatory.

A mere reference to the days of Tetzel, Luther and the Protestant Reformation, not to mention present day conditions in the

Roman Catholic countries in Southern Europe and Latin America where the church has undisputed ecclesiastical control for centuries is sufficient to illustrate this point.

Every year, millions of dollars are paid to obtain relief from this imagined suffering.

No exact figures are available. In contrast with the custom in Protestant churches in which itemized financial statements of income and expenses are issued each year,

Roman Catholic finances are kept secret. No kind of budget or balance sheet ever being published which would show where their money comes from, how much it amounts to, how much is sent to Rome, how or where the remainder is spent.

In this, as in other things, the people must trust their church implicitly. The doctrine of purgatory has sometimes been referred to as the goldmine of the priesthood since it is the source of such lucrative income.

The Roman Catholic church might well say, by this craft, we have our wealth, end quote.

Okay, did you know? So let me give you a real time analysis. So how's this help? What is it, whatever, how's this?

Give me a real time example, okay. Your dad dies. You're a

Roman Catholic, your dad dies. Where does your dad go? Was your dad perfect? No.

But he's faithful Roman Catholic, so where does he go? Goes to purgatory. Guess what?

Something you can do to help him. You can have a mass held on his behalf, right?

So you go to the priest and you say, I want a mass, this is a very customary thing,

I want a mass held on behalf of my dead father. Well, the priest is already expecting that, of course.

Of course, because I care about your dad and I care about you and I care about these things. And now the church will hold this mass and by holding this mass, we are going to lessen the time that your dad has to spend in purgatory.

Except, you ever watch Home Alone 2?

And Home Alone 2, I think it's Rob Schneider, it plays the bellboy or whatever. And he goes to Macaulay Culkin, whatever his name is in the movie,

Kevin, and he carries all his stuff and all that, and then he holds out his hand like this, like, excuse me, what's he expecting?

A tip, and then he pulls out his gun, gives him his gun, whatever. Okay, but that's what the priest is like.

Now, he's not doing that, but it's expected. You don't get this mass for free. In some places,

I looked this up on the internet, must be true. Now, in some places, I looked up on websites, it says it this way, a suggested donation of $300.

So you want your dad, or your son, or your uncle, or your grandpa, or your wife, or your daughter, or your grandson, or whatever, you want them to have less time in purgatory, you need the indulgence.

So you get the indulgence, but you can't get the indulgence free. There is an expected what?

Donation. And actually, when it comes to Roman Catholicism, this is true of everything. Like baptism.

I'm not sure about confession, but I know with baptism, indulgences, masses on behalf of the dead, or whatever, it's a cash cow, if you will.

It's ungodly. It is keeping people in fear, and it's keeping people in darkness.

And now, let me close with a word from Martin Luther. In his 95 Theses, we're familiar with those.

Well, you probably don't know all of them, I don't know all of them, but here's what Thesis 82 says. I love this. He says, this is

Luther, why does not the Pope empty purgatory for the sake of holy love, and of the dire need of the souls that are there?

If he redeems an infinite number of souls for the sake of miserable money with which to build a church.

Now, that has a specific historical context, but here's the logic that Luther says. You got this big bucket of merits, right?

You got this big treasury of merits, and all you gotta do, the Pope is authorized to dip his ladle in, as it were, and just dispense it, dispense it, dispense it.

Why are you doing it for money? Luther's argument is like, why don't you just do it?

Like, someone dies, and you have the power to release them from the pains of purgatory?

Why don't you just do it? Stop fleecing the flock, stop taking money from people, stop compromising the gospel, and just release them from purgatory.

But it shows us, it shows us, I'm gonna say this, because this is hard.

It shows us the character of the Popes. It's why we say that the

Popes, you might not say the Pope is the Antichrist, but you certainly would say that the Pope, you should say, the

Pope is Antichrist. He's not gracious. He's not full of love.

He wants to keep people in darkness. He wants to keep people in bondage.

He wants to keep people in purgatory. He could release them, but he's not gonna do it unless you got the right amount of money.

So, that's the unbiblical doctrine of purgatory indulgences, a flyover. Let me say this, and then we'll have opportunity for questions.

So, this is a blunt, force, open, unapologetic attack on the gospel.

You understand? You cannot have the gospel of grace and purgatory both exist.

You have to choose one or the other. Because the gospel of grace,

Romans 8, 1, there is therefore now what? No condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.

So, no condemnation means what? No condemnation.

It's gone. It's over. It's settled. Why? By your works? No. By your suffering?

No. By what Jesus has completed. In His perfect life, His sacrificial death, bearing our sins.

What's He doing? You think about what purgatory says. Thank you Jesus for what you're doing, but it's not enough.

You've suffered, but I gotta suffer too. Thank you Jesus for doing some of it or doing a lot of it, and thank you for all that you've given, but I gotta go through this too.

It's contrary. It's directly in opposition. Romans 4, 25 says that He was raised for our justification.

The resurrection of Christ. You know what our justification depends on? Not purgatory, certainly. Not the sacramental system, certainly.

It depends on the resurrection of Christ. Children, adults, even in this room tonight, be reminded, even tonight, this isn't,

I know I'm joking, but this isn't about bashing the Catholics. This is about exposing the truth of the

Gospel that He would come to Christ.