Milo

The Bible never speaks of a place where one can go to be purified of his sin. Rather, it always speaks of a Person to whom we can go to be purified: Jesus Christ. God tells us that those who refuse to trust Christ to cleanse them from their sins are condemned: Whoever believes in Him avoids condemnation, but whoever does not believe is already condemned for not believing in the name of God’s only Son (John 3:18). There are only two choices: Whoever believes in the Son has life eternal. Whoever disobeys the Son will not see life, but must endure the wrath of God (John 3:36; See also Revelation 20:15; Luke 16:19-31, especially verse 26). Anyone who accepts Christ is completely saved: There is no condemnation now for those who are in Christ Jesus (Romans 8:1). Saying that there is no condemnation, certainly eliminates the flames of purgatory.

Another passage which clearly excludes the idea of purgatory is, their sins and transgressions I will remember no more (Hebrews 10:17). If, as the Bible says, God no longer remembers the sins of those who are in Christ, He does not punish them for these sins. To do so would be saying that Christ had not made full payment for them and that God the Father still remembered them. (See also Romans 5:8-11; Hebrews 10:14-18; Psalm 103:12).

Anyone who does not believe that Christ has completely saved him, has not completely trusted Christ to save him. That is, he does not believe that Christ’s sacrifice has paid for all of his sins, and thinks he must pay for some of them himself. However, we are saved when we stop trusting what we can do, and start trusting Christ to save us.

The idea that Christ’s sacrifice is not sufficient to cleanse us from all of our sins would condemn a great sinner such as the thief who was crucified with Jesus to suffer a long time in purgatory if not for all eternity in hell! Instead, there was nothing left over that Christ’s death on the Cross did not cover. When the thief placed his trust in Christ, Jesus said to him, I assure you: this day you will be with me in paradise (Luke 23:43).

If purgatory existed, and the mass helped people to get out, the rich would have a tremendous advantage by being able to pay for masses to shorten their suffering. The poor instead, would be left to the mercy of the occasional priest who might say an unpaid mass for them. One ex-priest wrote, “If we really believed that the mass would save people from the flames of purgatory, would we make them pay for it? I would even save a dog if I saw one in a fire, and I would never even think of asking to be paid!”

Purgatory was evidently a pagan idea. Virgil, the pagan Latin poet who lived 70 – 19 B.C. divided the departed souls into three different places in his writings: One for the good, one for the dammed, and a third where the less bad could pay for their sins. Since the idea of purgatory existed outside of the church before it came into the church, it is probable that it was brought in by contact with pagans like Virgil. There was a great influx of non-Biblical ideas into the church around 300 A.D. when the Roman Emperor Constantine took many unsaved people in as members of the church.

In any event, there is no mention of purgatory in the Bible. Some would try, however, to make the idea sound somewhat Biblical by referring to 2 Maccabees 12:41-45, a passage in one of the apocryphal books written between the times of the Old and New Testaments. These books were never accepted as part of the Hebrew Old Testament, nor quoted in the New Testament, but they are included in the Catholic Bible, though usually with an explanation that they are of a less inspired category. Apart from this passage in 2 Maccabees, the apocrypha is little used by the Catholic church to support a doctrinal position.

It is important to notice that this passage does not speak of purgatory at all, but actually condemns idolatry, particularly the practice of wearing little images on a necklace or such. Hebrew soldiers were found wearing this sort of thing after a battle, and their buddies, on making this discovery, realized that they had died in the sin of idolatry. They then counselled prayer for their souls. The Roman Catholic position is that prayer for them would have been unnecessary if they were in heaven and useless if they were in hell, so there must be another place. The logic seems good, but the result contradicts the clear teaching of the inspired Scripture. Contradicting inspired Scripture with a philosophical response based on an apparent inference from the Apocrypha is a very weak argument indeed. The very word “Apocrypha,” which comes from the Greek word for hidden, has come to mean “false,” or “of doubtful authorship.”

Karma is a theological concept found in the Buddhist and Hindu religions. It is the idea that how one lives one’s life will determine the quality of life one will have when one is reincarnated. In other words, if one is unselfish, kind, and holy during their lifetime, one will be rewarded by being reincarnated (born again into a new earthly body) into a pleasant life. However, if one lives a life of selfishness and evil, one will be reincarnated into a less than pleasant lifestyle.

The entire concept of karma is based on the theological belief in reincarnation. It is sort of a “you reap what you sow” idea with the reaping to take place in your reincarnated life. The Bible does not agree with the idea of reincarnation, so therefore, it does not support the idea of karma.

In Hebrews 9:27 it states, “And inasmuch as it is appointed unto men once to die, and after this (cometh) judgment.” This Bible verse makes clear two important points which, for Christians, negate the possibility of reincarnation and karma. First, it states that it is “appointed unto men once to die…” Meaning that humans are only born once and only die once. There is no endless cycle of life and death and rebirth that is promoted in the reincarnation theory. Second, it states that “after this (cometh) judgment…” Meaning that there is no second chance, like there is in reincarnation and karma, to live a better life. You get one shot at life and living it according to God’s plan, and that’s it.

The Bible talks a lot about reaping and sowing. In Job 4:8 it says, “Even as I have seen they that plow iniquity, and sow wickedness, reap the same.” And in Psalms 126:5 it says, “They that sow in tears shall reap in joy.” And in Luke 12:24 it says, “Consider the ravens: for they neither sow nor reap; which neither have storehouse nor barn; and God feedeth them: how much more are ye better than the fowls?”

In each of these instances, as well as all the other references to reaping and sowing, the act of receiving the rewards of one’s actions (reaping) takes place in this life, not in some future life. It is a present-day activity and the references make it clear that the fruit one reaps will be commensurate with the actions one has performed. In addition, the actions or sowing one performs in this life will affect one’s reward or punishment in the afterlife.

This afterlife is not a rebirth or a reincarnation into another body here on earth. It is either eternal suffering in hell (Matthew 25:46), or eternal life in Heaven with Jesus, who died so that we might live eternally with Him. And it is this life that our actions of sowing should be oriented towards. The Apostle Paul wrote in Galatians 6:8-9, “For he that soweth to his flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption; but he that soweth to the Spirit shall of the Spirit reap life everlasting. And let us not be weary in well doing: for in due season we shall reap, if we faint not.”

Finally, we must always remember that it was Jesus whose death on the cross resulted in the reaping of eternal life for us, and that it is faith in Jesus that will gain for us this eternal life. It says in Ephesians 2:8-9, “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.” Therefore, we see that the concept of reincarnation and karma is incompatible with what the Bible teaches about life, death, and the sowing and reaping of eternal life.

Answer: “I think,” a young man told me earnestly, “that Jesus’ teachings were good, but He was just an ordinary man. After He died, His followers invented the story about the Resurrection and started talking as if He were God. They meant well, of course, they were only trying to gain more support for their new religion. But if Jesus had known that they’d made a God out of Him, He would have been shocked.”

Many people like the idea of acknowledging Jesus as a great moral Teacher, but they don’t want to recognize Him as God. So they suggest that all His claims to deity in the Gospels were added by over-zealous followers after His death. This hypothesis may be convenient to those who wish to pick and choose among Christ’s teachings, but is it true? Is it even logical?

Even if we assume that the apostles managed to deceive the Jewish people about the resurrection of Christ (a quite impossible fraud), what did they have to gain by this deception? The hypothesis asserts that they “were only trying to gain more support for their new religion.” But what profit would the apostles receive from making a god of a dead rabbi and making disciples in his name? If personal gain was what the apostles had in mind, they failed miserably. In fact, their own teachings defeated them, for they urged people to follow Christ, and not themselves (Acts 14:13-15; 1 Cor. 1:12,13; 2 Cor. 4:5); they did not make any financial profit from their converts (Acts 20:33, 34; 1 Thess. 2:9; 2 Thess. 3:8); and for preaching Christ they received not fame and admiration but persecution, and torture, and death (Acts 4:2, 3; Acts 5:18, 40; Acts 7:54-8:2; 2 Cor. 6:4, 5; 2 Cor. 11:23-28).

No man will give up his life for a belief which he knows to be false. So why would the apostles be willing to suffer shame, imprisonment, beatings, and death in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ if they knew full well that Jesus was just a dead rabbi? Some suggest that the disciples’ eagerness to spread Christ’s teachings led them to make a god of Him and then nobly give up their lives to establish His credibility. But stripped of Jesus’ claims to deity and all the things He taught which depended upon His being the Way, the Truth, and the Life (John 14:6), there is very little left of His teachings in the Gospels. All that remains are a few simple moral principles which the Old Testament (among others) had already established. Why would the disciples be so passionate about spreading teachings that were really nothing new?

Those who think that the deity of Christ is not essential to His teachings clearly know little or nothing about what He actually taught. Again and again Jesus insisted that He was the only way to God and that men must follow Him. His whole ministry was founded upon the idea that He was far more than just an ordinary rabbi, He was the Son of God. We may accept that claim or reject it, but we cannot pretend that Jesus was just an ordinary man with some misguided followers. Either He was who He claimed to be, and we ought to worship Him, or He was a liar and we ought to reject Him. There is no other option.

R. J. Bohner

Question: How can God allow nice people to go to hell and bad people to go to heaven?

Answer: We all know people whom we value, who seem like genuinely good, kind people. But the Bible makes it clear that even these people have sinned and fallen short of God’s perfect standards.

“There is not a righteous man on earth who does what is right and never sins.” (Ecclesiastes 7:20)

“All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” (Romans 3:23)

God sees a person’s whole heart, sees all of their actions, and knows all of their words and thoughts. So God has a lot more information to use when judging someone. It is with this complete knowledge that God can judge us righteously. The Bible says that “God sees not as man sees, for man looks at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart” (1Samuel 16:7).

So how does this affect the whole heaven and hell question? It puts everyone on an equal playing field. People we think are good are in the same position as people we think are bad, because, from God’s perspective, no one perfectly follows his commands. There is, in every one of us, that inner drive that says, “I don’t care. I’m going to do it anyway.”

In fact, the Bible says that “All of us like sheep have gone astray, Each of us has turned to his own way” (Isaiah 53:6). In big and small ways, all of us have forsaken God and gone away from Him.

The antidote is to return to God. The Bible calls this “repentance.” When a person truly turns back to God, there is no sin that is too big for God to forgive. God provided the means to forgive sin through Jesus Christ’s death on the cross. And God offers His forgiveness and eternal life to anyone who will believe in Jesus. Heaven is a free gift offered to anyone who will ask for God’s forgiveness and ask Jesus to come into their life. Here is how the Bible describes someone who turns to God in this way: 

“As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins, in which you used to live when you followed the ways of this world …All of us also lived …gratifying the cravings of our sinful nature and following its desires and thoughts. Like the rest, we were by nature objects of [God’s] wrath. But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions — it is by grace you have been saved. …in order that in the coming ages he might show the incomparable riches of his grace, expressed in his kindness to us in Christ Jesus. For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith — and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God — not by works, so that no one can boast.” (Ephesians 2:1-9)

All through the Bible God makes it clear that we gain heaven, not by our “good works” or “good life,” but that God offers it to all as a gift. Rather than pretend that we are good people, He asks us to admit that we sin against Him.

We can focus on life after death, but what about our life right now? We can interact with God and be guided by Him right now, and experience the life He created us to have. There is no relationship on earth as fulfilling and important as knowing God. If you want that after death, you have to start it now.

Fulfilled Prophecy as Evidence for 
the Bible’s Divine Origin

2,000 prophecies including approximately 200 about the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus.

While a few of the prophecies have not yet been fulfilled (for example, the Second Coming of Christ), there are no prophetic failures.

While there are both obvious and subtle prophecies, most are very detailed and specific.

No other religion has specific, repeated, and unfailing fulfilment of predictions many years in advance of contingent events over which the predictor had no control.

Studies of psychics show only around 8% of their predictions come true and virtually all of these can be attributed to chance and a general knowledge of circumstances.

Fulfilled prophecy is powerful evidence that the Bible is divine rather than human in origin.

Objection: Jesus manipulated events to fulfil prophecy. Answer: (a) Many prophecies were out of his control (ancestry, place of birth, time of death). (b) His miracles confirmed Jesus to be the Messiah. (c) There is no evidence that Jesus was a deceiver. (d) In order to manipulate all the people (including his enemies) and even his disciples to make it appear that he was the Messiah, Jesus would have needed supernatural powers. If he had such powers, he must have been the Messiah he claimed to be.

Examples of Non-Messianic Prophecies

The Succession of Great World Kingdoms (Daniel 2:37-42). Even negative critics agree that Daniel foretold the governments in order of Babylon, Medo-Persia, Greece, and Rome. 

Cyrus King of Persia (Isaiah 44:28-45:1). Since Isaiah lived between about 740 and 690 BC (2 Kings 25-21) and Cyrus did not make his proclamation for Israel to return from exile until about 536 (Ezra 1), there would have been no human way for him to know what Cyrus would be named or what Cyrus would do. 

Israel to Be Returned to Its Land A Second Time (Isaiah 11:11-12). The first was under Nehemiah and Ezra subsequent to the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 AD. The second was in 1948. No other culture in history has been restored, especially after so much time and genocidal hatred. (Some say that the “second time” will be on the last day.) 

The Closing of the Golden Gate (Ezekiel 44:2-3). The Golden Gate is the eastern gate of Jerusalem, through which Christ made his triumphal entry on Palm Sunday before the crucifixion (Matthew 21). Ezekiel predicted its closing and in 1543 Sultan Suleiman the Magnificent closed the gate and walled it up, not knowing he was fulfilling prophecy. It remains sealed to this day exactly as the Bible predicted, waiting to be re-opened when the Lord returns. 

The Destruction of Tyre (Ezekiel 26:3-14). The prophecy was partly fulfilled when Nebuchadnezzar destroyed the city and left it in ruins. Alexander the Great later attacked the seemingly impregnable Island of Tyre by taking the stones, dust, and timber from the ruined mainland city to build a causeway to the Island. This prophecy is comparable to saying that Chicago will be destroyed and never rebuilt. 

The Doom of Edom (Petra) (Jeremiah 49:15-17). Given the virtually impregnable nature of the ancient city carved out of rock and protected by a narrow passageway, this was an incredible prediction. Yet, in 636 AD it was conquered by Muslims and today stands deserted but for tourists. 

Flourishing of the Desert in Palestine (Ezekiel 36:33-35). Since before the turn of the twentieth century, Israel has been renovated and Israel’s agriculture is flourishing. 

Destruction of Jerusalem (Mark 13:1-2). Fulfilled literally when the Romans completely destroyed Jerusalem and the temple buildings. According to historian and eyewitness Josephus, some of the stones were 37 feet long, 12 feet high and 18 feet wide. Stones were even pried apart to collect the gold leaf that melted from the roof when the temple was set on fire. 

Examples of Messianic Prophecies

Topic	Old Testament	New Testament
Messiah to be the seed of the Woman	Gen. 3:15	Luke 2:5-7, Gal. 4:4
Messiah to be the seed of Abraham	Gen. 12:2-3, 18:18	Mat.1:1-2, Luke 3:34, Acts 3:25, Gal.3:16
Messiah to be of the tribe of Judah	Gen. 49:10	Mat. 1:1-2, Luke 3:33
Messiah to be of the seed of David	2 Sam. 7:16, Ps. 132:11, Jer. 23:5, 33:15	Mat. 1:6, 22:42-45, Luke 1:31-33, Acts 2:29-30, Rom. 1:3
Messiah to be born of a virgin	Is. 7:14	Mat. 1:18-25, Luke 1:26-38
Messiah to be born in Bethlehem	Micah 5:2	Mat. 2:1-6, Luke 2:4-6
Tribute paid to Messiah by great kings	Ps. 72:10-11	Mat. 2:1-11
Messiah to be heralded by a messenger	Is. 40:3. Mal. 3:1	Mat. 3:1-3
Messiah to be the Son of God	Ps. 2:2,7	Mat. 3:17, Luke 1:32-33
Messiah to be anointed by the Holy Spirit	Is. 11:2	Mat. 3:16-17
Galilee to be the first area of Messiah’s ministry	Is. 9:1-7	Mat. 4:12-16
Messiah to be meek and mild	Is. 40:11, 42:2-3, 53:7	Mat. 12:18-20, 26:62-68
Messiah to minister to the Gentiles	Is. 42:1, 49:6-8	Mat. 12:21, Luke 2:28-32
Messiah will perform miracles	Is. 35:5-6	Mat. 9:35, 11:3-6, John 9:6-7
Messiah to be a prophet like Moses	Deut. 18: 15-19	Mat. 21:11, 24:1-35, John 1:45, 6:14, Acts 3:20-23
Messiah to enter the temple with authority	Mal. 3:1-2	Mat. 21:12
Messiah will enter Jerusalem on a donkey	Zech. 9:9-10	Mat. 21:1-11
Messiah to be betrayed by a friend	Ps. 41:9	John 13:18-21
Messiah to be forsaken by his disciples	Zech. 13:7	Mat. 26:31, 56
Messiah will be smitten	Is. 50:6	Mat. 26:67, 27:26,30
Messiah to experience crucifixion (long before crucifixion was invented)	Ps. 22:15-17	Mat. 27:34-50, John 19:28-30
Messiah will be pierced	Zech. 12:10	John 19:34-37
Details of Messiah’s suffering and death and resulting salvation (hundreds of years before Christ!)	Ps. 69:21, Is. 53:2-12,	Mat. 26-27, Mark 15-16, Luke 22-23, John 18-19
Messiah to die in 33 AD	Dan. 9:24-26	33 AD is the widely accepted historical date of the crucifixion
Casting of lots for His garments	Ps. 22:18	John 19:23-24
Messiah to be raised from the dead	Ps. 16:10	Acts 2:25-31, 13:32-37, 17:2-3
Messiah’s resurrection	Job 19:25, Ps. 16:10	Acts 2:30-31, 13:32-35, 17:2-3, 1 Cor. 15:20-22
Messiah to ascend to heaven	Ps. 68:18	Luke 24:51, Acts 1:9, Eph. 4:8-13
Messiah to be at the right hand of God	Ps. 110:1	Mat. 26:64, Mark 14:62, Rom. 8:34, Heb. 1:3
Messiah, the stone which the builders rejected, to become the head cornerstone	Ps. 118:22-23, Is. 8:14-15, 28:16	Mat. 21:42-43, Acts 4:11, Rom. 9:32-33, Eph. 2:20, 1 Pet. 2:6-8