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Matthew Sucky here. Give me another soul winning tip, and in this video I want to talk to you about the idea of purgatory. The idea of purgatory. Now when it comes to the Catholic Church and some other religious belief systems, they believe in heaven and hell, but they also believe in an intermediate stage called purgatory. Where basically if somebody dies and they're not fully cleansed, then they have to go to purgatory to have their sins to be cleansed, and the Catholic Church will say that we can pray for those people, that you know God will let them out of purgatory. In the past they would pay money to help them get out of purgatory. Well the question is, well how do we describe this as we're going soul winning to people that would have questions about this? Now I'm here in the Philippines and the vast majority of people we talk to are in the Catholic Church, and if they're not in the Catholic Church they generally have a Catholic background and a Catholic sort of belief system. And you know when I'm describing the gospel, I start off in Romans 3 23 and 3 10 and show that we're guilty, and then I describe that you know after you know we die we're gonna go to heaven or hell. And I'll explain that you know what there is no purgatory mentioned in the Bible. I say it's either spiritual life in heaven or spiritual damnation in hell. And you know what I try to keep the gospel kind of interesting to people, so I kind of make a mini joke here when I explain this, and I explain how there is no intermediate like zombie state where you're spiritually alive and spiritually dead at the same time like half alive half dead, but that no you're either in heaven forever or you're in hell forever. It's one or the other. Now the vast majority of time when I explain that you know immediately they believe it they don't have any questions about it. You know most Catholics don't really believe all the doctrines and teachings that the Catholic Church actually teaches. They just kind of go out of tradition because that's what their family does, but I just describe how it's either heaven or hell immediately. And honestly I haven't really run into problems of people having major questions about it. Only from time to time do people bring up purgatory and it seems like it's a stumbling block that I have to overcome during the gospel. But the question is what if you run into someone who that really is a stumbling block? Where you explain how it's heaven or hell and they push back and ask about purgatory what would you say to them? Well I believe Luke 16 starting at verse 22 is probably the clearest reference that we can see that when a person dies they either go to heaven or hell immediately. It says in Luke 16 verse 22, and it came to pass that the beggar died and was carried by the angels into Abraham's bosom. Now Abraham's bosom is referring to his chest and so this is up in heaven. The rich man also died and was buried and in hell he lift up his eyes being in torments. And so what I do is I highlight this rich person and I explain you know he wasn't some wicked person according to the Bible. It doesn't mention him being a murderer or being a terrible human being but it says he died and the first thing that happens to his body is his body is buried. The rich man also died and was buried and in hell he lift up his eyes being in torments. So what I describe is the first thing that happens to our body is it goes to the ground. You know we see this rich man is buried. The first thing that happens to the soul is either they go to heaven to be where Abraham and Lazarus are or they go to be in hell for all eternity. And of course we can explain that this is not a parable because it uses real names and what we're seeing here is there's either heaven or hell immediately. Another thing that you can mention in regards to purgatory is the fact the Bible never mentions the word purgatory, never mentions the concept of purgatory whatsoever. The word hell is in the Bible over 50 times. The word heaven is in the Bible hundreds of times. Now not all of those times it directly referring to heaven but many times it is referring to heaven as we see it. And so it mentions heaven and hell over and over again. It never mentions purgatory. It never mentions an intermediate state. It just mentions you're spiritually alive or spiritually dead. Another verse you could highlight this is John 3 36 where it says he that believeth on the Sun hath everlasting life and he that believeth not the Sun shall not see life but the wrath of God abideth on him. So it's one or the other. Either you have life or God's wrath abides on you. Now the biggest passage that people will turn to with purgatory is in 1st Corinthians chapter 3. Now it could be that you run into a Catholic that is trained in Catholicism and they're not dogmatically believing in purgatory but they have real questions. They might bring up 1st Corinthians 3 to you because that is their big passage they go to where it talks about someone is at the judgment seat of Christ which is for believers getting rewards. It says gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, stubble. And it talks about it being tried in the fire and the gold, silver, and precious stones last through the fire. The wood, hay, and stubble is burned up. And what it says in 1st Corinthians 3 verse 15 is if any man's work shall be burned he shall suffer loss but he himself shall be saved yet so as by fire. And what Catholics will say is this well he's still saved but it's so as by fire meaning he has to go through purgatory for a period of time. But if you look at the context you can tell this is not true because there's nothing inherently sinful about wood, hay, and stubble. There's nothing that would indicate that's a sin it's just something that doesn't last through the fire. You set wood on fire it's gonna burn up. You set hay and stubble on fire it's gonna burn up. Whereas gold, silver, and precious stones last through the fire. So the idea is rewards in heaven versus things with no eternal value. Many things we do are not sinful but they don't have eternal value. You know going to going to your secular job, you know working out, having a hobby. These are things that are not sinful but they have no eternal value. They're not gonna get your rewards up in heaven. And so the Bible is describing in 1st Corinthians 3 is that when we get to the judgment seat of Christ we're gonna find out how many rewards we got in our lives based on the things and the actions that we did. And so this is not an indication of purgatory. It doesn't say that the person is thrown in purgatory it talks about their works. So there's nothing to indicate that they're gonna be thrown in purgatory or they're gonna be thrown in fire. And the Bible says that when you go to heaven it's forever when you go to hell it's forever. It says tormented day and night forever and ever there is no second chance. There's no indication of a purgatory. Most times people are gonna believe this as you just kind of explain heaven and hell and explain how purgatory is never mentioned in the Bible. And it's a nice thought that people want to have because they want their unsaved relatives to get a second chance. But it's just not reality. When we die it's either heaven or hell immediately. Now if they still want to argue with you and debate you about that then you're looking at someone who is pretty dogmatic on Catholicism. They're not going to end up believing. But the average person that is ready and willing to get saved if you just describe the Bible mentions heaven and hell and never mentions purgatory and you just highlight on the salvation verses that it's either heaven or hell saved or unsaved most of them are going to understand it they're going to get it they're going to believe. Anyways thank you and God bless.