"THEY THAT TRUST IN THEIR WEALTH, AND BOAST THEMSELVES IN

THE MULTITUDE OF THEIR RICHES; NONE OF THEM CAN BY ANY MEANS REDEEM HIS BROTHER NOR GIVE TO GOD A RANSOM FOR HIM. FOR THE REDEMPTION OF THEIR SOUL IS PRECIOUS." (Psa.49:7-8)

"BECAUSE THERE IS WRATH, BEWARE LEST HE TAKE THEE AWAY WITH HIS STROKE: THEN A GREAT RANSOM CANNOT DELIVER THEE. WILL HE ESTEEM THY RICHES? NO, NOT GOLD, NOR ALL THE FORCES OF STRENGTH." (Job 35:18-19)

As we can see from the previous scriptures, there is no ransom we can pay for our soul. The ransom was already paid at Calvary, with the precious blood of the Lamb, Jesus Christ. Now I don't know about the rest of you, but if my child was kidnapped and a ransom was demanded, once I paid the price and got my child back, I would not continue to pay the kidnapper money! Would you? If the price was paid in full, there is nothing left to pay! A Catholic will tell you that with sin comes penalty and punishment. This, I will agree with. There is always a consequence for sin. But we are talking about a Father-son relationship that we have with God while we are on this earth. He loves us so he chastises us that we learn how to overcome temptation and become better witnesses. Where we run into a problem is when the Church of Rome teaches that when we die, we still must be punished. This is basing our salvation on works. If we are 'good' and do not commit even a venial sin, we can go straight to heaven. But if we forget to confess even a venial (less serious) sin we have to go to Purgatory and suffer until God feels we've suffered enough.

What is Purgatory? It is supposed to be a place between heaven and hell where believers go to be 'refined', purged! Purgatory was first established in 593 A.D. by Gregory the Great and proclaimed a dogma by the Council of Florence in 1439. In The Quotable Fulton J. Sheen, on page 20, it stated that God could not have extended His wonderful “grace” to mankind were it not for “purgatory”. Now keep in mind, this is where believers go if they weren't good enough. Catholic Theologian Bellarmine believed, "The pains of purgatory are very severe, surpassing anything endured in this life."The Manual of the Purgatorial Society with the imprimatur of Cardinal Hayes 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. It is the same fire, says St. Thomas Aquinas, 'that torments the reprobate in hell, and the just, in purgatory. The least pain in purgatory,' he says, ' surpasses the greatest suffering in this life.' "

Another book with the imprimatur of Archbishop Spellman (now Cardinal), Bellarmine is quoted as saying: "There is absolutely no doubt that the pains of purgatory in some cases endure for entire centuries" (Saturday in Purgatory, John M. Haffert). So here we see that by Roman Catholic doctrine, believers in Jesus Christ will suffer the same fire of hell as an infidel! Scripturally speaking, that is RIDICULOUS!! For one thing, the Bible never even alludes to such a place, EVER! Revelation 20:13-14 tells us "death and hell are thrown into the lake of fire." No mention of Purgatory. Even more ridiculous is the notion that if there was such a place (which there is not), it would contradict Scripture to say our works (prayers, masses, rosaries, etc.) could get anyone out of anywhere. Eph.2:8-9 says:

"For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: NOT OF WORKS, lest any man should boast." (Emphasis mine)

Roman Catholicism admits:

"The Church does not pretend to know how much of Purgatory God remits by a partial indulgence [a remittance of the punishment due sins after death] of so many days, years, etc." (Question Box, 413, 1913 edition).

"The Catholic church does not pretend to know anything about the duration of the suffering of Purgatory" (Ibid, 567).

"The Catholic Church does not claim to directly apply the infinite merits of Jesus Christ and the super abundant merits of His saints to the souls in Purgatory, over whom she has no jurisdiction" (Ibid, 414).

In other words, she, (the RCC) will take money from widows and orphans in exchange for indulgences to be applied to their deceased loved ones, knowing that she has no power over the dead. How then can she justify her practice of having one pay to have a “mass” said for a dead loved one? Although they admit they have no jurisdiction, just listen to what Pope Innocent XI on July 31, 1679 “confirmed”:

“Each time that members say the holy names of Jesus and Mary devoutly: seven days’ indulgence...Those who openly wear the Holy Rosary out of devotion and to set a good example may gain one hundred days’ indulgence” (The Secret of the Rosary, St. Louis De Montfort, 86).

And again:

“People are often quite unaware of how rich the Rosary is in indulgences. This is because many priests, when preaching on the Rosary [too bad they’re not preaching the gospel] hardly ever mention indulgences...the Holy Rosary is the root and the storehouse of countless blessings. For through the Holy Rosary...the dead (the Holy Souls) have their pains eased by suffrages” (Ibid. 86).

If the Catholic hierarchy has no jurisdiction, how can she promise anything? Truly Purgatory and indulgences are nothing more than a great hoax to rob the people through their ignorance and fear of death! Jesus Christ says in Jn.5:24:

"Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that heareth my word, and believeth on him that sent me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation; but is passed from death unto life." the penitent thief on the cross was told by the Savior "...Verily I say unto thee, Today shalt thou be with me in paradise." (Lk.23:43) "For God hath not appointed us to wrath, but to obtain salvation by our Lord Jesus Christ, Who died for us, that, whether we wake or sleep, we should live together with him." (I Thess.5:9-10)

The Reformation itself began as a protest against the cruel practice of selling indulgences. These elaborately printed pieces of paper, with the pope's seal affixed, claimed to limit the time a deceased Christian would spend in purgatory for unrepented venial sins.

I believe the Word of God is very clear. If you trust that Jesus paid the ransom in full at the cross, you are saved and will be with Him now and forever. If you think His finished work was insufficient and that there is something you can do to merit heaven, you are lost. "Therefore we conclude that a man is justified by faith without the deeds of the law." (Rom. 3:28)

I'd like to end my article by sharing a story written by a Reformation Pamphleteer named Eberlin von Gunzburg in the 1520's. His story sums up the Reformation beautifully. It begins with three travelers (disillusioned Catholics) and a character named Psitacus (who is actually Eberlin's stand-in). It was called I Wonder Why There Is No Money In the Land. The three travelers are telling Psitacus:

"In all lands, cities, villages, manors, and houses, in all seasons, by every means, at every opportunity, God and his saints come begging to us, crying out, "Give, Give!" moved by their cries, we turn over to them our property and our lives...We thus find ourselves supporting not only God and his saints, but their many servants as well, an entire culture of beggars...priests, monks, and nuns in incountable numbers. And all of them want to lead a life of pleasure and abundance in princely pomp and circumstance, without having to work for it. Such a life requires much property and many goods, which they claim they deserve because they are God's servants. So filled with the good life are they that they think they can emulate God; from their great abundance of piety and holiness, they say they can make us holy as well when they favor us. They claim to possess an inexhaustible supply of indulgences on which they draw to redeem souls from purgatory."

The travelers complain that the Church charges them fees for prayers, baptisms, confirmations, burials, and intercession on behalf of sick children. The travelers had been brought to the brink of atheism by the malpractices of the medieval church. Their conclusion:

"We now have a God who does us no good. He takes away our property and endangers our lives. Frequently he forbids us to eat eggs, butter, and meat, sends us off to die in his wars, and excommunicates and damns us eternally over an unpaid goschen. Either our God is no God at all, or he is not the true God. For a true God does good things for his servants and protects and saves them."

Psitacus shares the Word of God with the travelers and at the end of the story they turn from the false God of tradition to the true God of Scripture:

"I know of a true God about whom I have learned in an old Book. He does many good things freely for His people and He takes nothing in return. He forgives their sins. His son died for them. He permits His people to eat whatever they have whenever they need it. His servants are devout and honorable...[and] He asks of them only that they be at peace and love one another...I will therefore embrace this God and let the old God go. For our God is...surely not the true old God. The Bible is older than our God's book (i.e; canon law), and the biblical God is older than our God. Therefore I find the biblical God to be the true God" (This story is taken from PROTESTANTS: The Birth of a Revolution, Ozment, 55-57). By Diane M. Schoeppner