Catholic Indulgences in 2013

If you've heard about the Pope offering indulgences for following him on Twitter, you are not going to be amazed at the horrific nature of the link I'm sharing in this post. When my husband told me about this, I thought for certain he was joking. Rest assured, it is not a joke and it is a sober reason to leave the Catholic church.

I understand that people who are very sincere follow Catholicism. It is hard to leave a religion of one's family or upbringing, but we are each accountable before God Almighty and will one day stand before Him. There will be no pass for following error no matter how sincere a person is because we can be sincerely wrong. When we are wrong on the matter of what it takes to go to Heaven, there is no correction able to undo the state we'll find ourselves in. Hell is a very real place and the die is cast on where we are going upon our death--there is no evidence in Scripture to the contrary.

Please read the Bible and look at what it says. Compare it to what your religion teaches, whether it's Catholic or some other religion that has rules made up by fallible men. No matter how old a religion is, if it is not founded on the Bible, which means the 66 books of the Old and New Testament that met the strict standards to be considered the word of God recorded by men, it is not something to be trusted. Only God's word is unchanging.  Christianity is meant to be very simple, no act that we perform can put us in a saving relationship to God the Father. It is remarkably simple to be born again as the Bible says we must be in order to see the kingdom of God. (John 3:7 is where the statement is, but read all of John 3 to understand more)

I don't know about you, but I want to 100% certain what I'm placing my faith in in guaranteed to get me where I want to go when I die. Moreover, I want to be 100% certain what I teach my children is going to be the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth. Aside from this, there are so many wonderful promises made to the true follower of Christ. It pains me when people who only give lip service to Christianity try to rest in the promises of God. The promises are for those who are in Christ, which means, those whose attitude toward sin is the same as Gods. No, we aren't perfect, but we cannot be truly IN Christ if we are comfortable living in a sinful lifestyle such as homosexuality or having sex outside of marriage. It amazes me how people expect God to watch over them but they refuse to give Him anything...the only thing He wants is our hearts, our allegiance. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to be able to see where a person's allegiance is, whether we're talking Christ or something less important. You can spot a 'fan' anywhere--look at sports. There is evidence of who you support, right?

When I was growing I had questions about Catholicism and began to research. I started by going to the Priest who could not sufficiently answer my questions. I believe the Lord put it on my heart to start asking, and in time, the Word of God made sense to me because I had been born again as the Bible says (born spiritually, because the first birth is merely physical birth).

We are all born spiritually dead, so we cannot comprehend God's word. I distinctly remember reading the Bible in high school and not understanding what it meant. I tried and tried...in college I realized how sinful I was according to God's standard of perfect holiness and bowed before Him as a humble servant. Pride was gone, self-promotion and justification of my actions was gone...it was me and the Christ I'd heard of and wanted to live for. He came in to my heart and I was radically changed-- set free. Free from the bondage of sin and free to serve the living God whose word never changes. I needed that so much and it's been an anchor of steadfastness for nearly two decades.

For Further Study....

What does the Bible teach about a need for further possible cleansing when we die so we are fit to enter Heaven (the untrue belief of Purgatory)?

1 John 1:9
9 If we confess our sins, he is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and cleanse us from ALL unrighteousness. (no unrighteousness is left)

1 John 2:1
My dear children, I write this to you so that you will not sin. But if anybody does sin, we have an advocate with the Father—Jesus Christ, the Righteous One. (no one else can be an advocate for us, only Jesus is named as the advocate, just like He is the only intercessor named in the Bible in 1 Tim 2:5)

Romans 8:1, 2
There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus, who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit. For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made me free from the law of sin and death. (it is Christ Jesus who frees us completely from the condemnation of our sin, we are FREE from the law of sin and death because of what Christ did....don't follow a religion that teaches something other than this, it is not to be trusted with your eternal soul)

There is not a single verse in the Bible with which to defend the false theology of purgatory. In fact, the very idea of a second route to heaven runs counter to God's redemptive plan. Jesus Christ was the substitute for you and me, and His death paid our sin-debt. He obtained our eternal redemption with His blood (read Heb. 9 for more). If there is a place where people can go to suffer for their own sins—in other words, pay their own penalty—then God sending His Son to die makes no sense. Our good works are called filthy rags in the Bible, how could they or the prayers offered by sinners do anything Christ didn't already do?

In John 14:1-3, Jesus told the disciples that He was going away to prepare a place for His followers. Nowhere in scripture do we find any mention of a detour into misery where we "earn" a pass into heaven. The Bible says that believers are either at home in the body, or absent from it and present with the Lord. There is simply no in-between stopover.

Prayerfully living for the King of Kings and hoping to point you to Him-