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What do you think of Purgatory?

IndigoChild5559

Loving God and my neighbor as myself.
And you certainly are free to disagree with my view.
I do believe God loves and cares for us and that’s why He made a way to deal with sin. So what are your thoughts about the reason Adam and Eve hid from God after they disobeyed, perfect animal that God killed to then clothe them, and then the institution of animal sacrifices?
It is clear you take the Adam and Eve story to be history. I don't. To me, it is simply a wonderful creative piece of fiction that teaches important valued and statements about human nature.
 

InChrist

Free4ever
It is clear you take the Adam and Eve story to be history. I don't. To me, it is simply a wonderful creative piece of fiction that teaches important valued and statements about human nature.
Okay, thanks again for sharing your view. I do believe the Garden of Eden account to be historical, but I realize many don’t.
Would you say the OT temple sacrifices were fictional, also?
 

IndigoChild5559

Loving God and my neighbor as myself.
Okay, thanks again for sharing your view. I do believe the Garden of Eden account to be historical, but I realize many don’t.
Would you say the OT temple sacrifices were fictional, also?
We have all sorts of archeological evidence documenting sacrifices, as well as reliable historical documents confirming it.
 

YoursTrue

Faith-confidence in what we hope for (Hebrews 11)
Okay, thanks again for sharing your view. I do believe the Garden of Eden account to be historical, but I realize many don’t.
Would you say the OT temple sacrifices were fictional, also?
One also might ask about the death penalty ordered at Leviticus 24:16, maybe that was a fictional thing also.
"anyone who blasphemes the name of the LORD is to be put to death. The entire assembly must stone them. Whether foreigner or native-born, when they blaspheme the Name they are to be put to death."
 

muhammad_isa

Veteran Member
I don't think anything separates us from God. I just don't envision God as being so fragile that he can't tolerate our imperfection.
I think you miss the point..
Our deeds affect our faith, and good deeds bring us nearer to G-d, while sin brings
us farther away. This is about OUR nature, and not that of G-d.
 

IndigoChild5559

Loving God and my neighbor as myself.
I think you miss the point..
Our deeds affect our faith, and good deeds bring us nearer to G-d, while sin brings
us farther away. This is about OUR nature, and not that of G-d.
I agree with you that sin negatively effects our soul. The more you commit a particular sin, the more it numbs the pangs of your conscience. I'm not saying that sin isn't harmful. My point here is that I don't agree that God stops loving us or hearing our prayers or anything like that simply because we sin. The Christian idea that "God cannot look upon sin" just seems bizarre to me.
 

Estro Felino

Believer in free will
Premium Member
I agree with you that sin negatively effects our soul. The more you commit a particular sin, the more it numbs the pangs of your conscience. I'm not saying that sin isn't harmful. My point here is that I don't agree that God stops loving us or hearing our prayers or anything like that simply because we sin. The Christian idea that "God cannot look upon sin" just seems bizarre to me.
I think that God loves everyone, a priori. That's a priori dogma.
Nevertheless sometimes we think that He loves us more than the others. And this makes us believe that we are more important than the others: hence divisions, overpowering, abuse of power.
Evil and sin are the result of that: if we think we are as important as the other 8 billion people on Earth, in God's eyes, sin rarely comes.
Sin never comes.
That's my opinion.
 

YoursTrue

Faith-confidence in what we hope for (Hebrews 11)
I think that God loves everyone, a priori. That's a priori dogma.
Nevertheless sometimes we think that He loves us more than the others. And this makes us believe that we are more important than the others: hence divisions, overpowering, abuse of power.
Evil and sin are the result of that: if we think we are as important as the other 8 billion people on Earth, in God's eyes, sin rarely comes.
Sin never comes.
That's my opinion.
Who would you say sets the standard for sin? In other words, who defines sin?
 

URAVIP2ME

Veteran Member
Jesus Christ does, in my faith.
Sin derives from the absence of love. When we don't love our neighbor as we love ourselves.
Agree, Jesus Christ does, and Jesus gave us his New Commandment found at John 13:34-35.
We are Now to love neighbor MORE than self - love more than the old golden rule of Leviticus 19:18
In other words, we are now to have the same self-sacrificing love for others as Jesus has.
 

URAVIP2ME

Veteran Member
Sin is simply a description of what we humans sometimes do. It is not that God tolerates or does not tolerate sin. It is that he loves and cares for us even with all our warts. Like I said, I don't think anything separates us from God...............................
Right because there isn't 'any thing' (or anyone else) that can separate us from God ' except ' we ourselves - John 10:28-29
 

URAVIP2ME

Veteran Member
It is clear you take the Adam and Eve story to be history. I don't. To me, it is simply a wonderful creative piece of fiction that teaches important valued and statements about human nature.
Yipes, then you disagree with 1st Chronicles' detailed Jewish ancestral list starting with verse one __________
 

URAVIP2ME

Veteran Member
I think you miss the point..
Our deeds affect our faith, and good deeds bring us nearer to G-d, while sin brings
us farther away. This is about OUR nature, and not that of G-d.
Who is the 'our' in 'our deeds' because even an atheist can do deeds.
But what atheist will do the deeds Jesus instructed to do at Matthew 24:14; Acts 1:8
 

URAVIP2ME

Veteran Member
As an atheist, I don’t think about purgatory.
Jesus agrees with you because Jesus did Not think or teach about any purgatory.
Jesus did Not resurrect his 4-day dead friend from any purgatory but simply brought him back to life - John 11:11-14
Jesus brought his friend back from death's deep sleep - John 11:11-14; Psalms 115:17; Isaiah 38:18; Ecclesiastes 9:5
 

IndigoChild5559

Loving God and my neighbor as myself.
I’m not actually questioning the sacrifices. I do wonder what you believe their purpose was, as related to sin.
Sacrifices were basically the steps in creating a meal: slaughter, cooking, and eating. I am not entirely sure, but I suspect that "having a communal meal with God" might be seen as a way to restore relationship with him.

Another theory, this one more classic, is simply that the origins of sacrifice were in ancient paganism, which believed in powerful, fickle gods that if you didn't appease them, they would send a drought or a plague or whatever. The idea of a sacrifice is simply to destroy something that is important to you, such as your food or your child, as a way of showing the gods "You are important to me. Please don't smite me." It's a way of thinking that really doesn't exist anymore, even among Neo-Pagans.
 

URAVIP2ME

Veteran Member
Every time Jesus mentions Gehenna, he is referring to a temporary hell where we are purified. Isn't that what purgatory is?
Gehenna was a garbage pit outside of Jerusalem where things were destroyed.
If you destroy something in a fire place it is gone forever ( ashes for example )
The living were Never thrown into the Gehenna garbage pit. ( incinerator )
KJV wrongly translated Gehenna into English as hell fire, so that wrong idea could include a purgatory.
Since death 'acquits' a person's sins - Romans 6:7,23 - then what good would a purgatory serve.

Biblical hell is Not from the word Gehenna.
Even the expression of ' helling potatoes ' is Not roasting but burying them.
Who in their right mind would even slowly roast a vicious live animal over a burning fire.
Does anyone righteous go to hell __________
The day righteous Jesus' died he went to hell - Acts 2:27
Not to fire but to a well deserved sleep.
'Sleep' is the conditions of the dead according to both Jesus and the OT
- see Psalms 6:5; 13:3; 115:17; Isaiah 38:18; Ecclesiastes 9:5; John 11:11-14
Temporary Sleep or Rest In Peace until Resurrection Day - Acts 24:15
Resurrection Day meaning: Jesus' coming Millennium-Long Day governing over Earth for a thousand years.
- 1st Corinthians 15:24-26; Isaiah 25:8
 
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