Purgatory?

Q. Do you understand, that God never expects us to be perfect in this
 world?

A. Yes, He knows we will not reach perfection in this life.

Q. Jews believed that when they died, they would have to go to
Gehinnom where the soul spends time being cleansed. See the Jewish
people believe that they must do that because they are still waiting
for the Messiah (Jesus). They still believe that way today. 

A. True. And Christianity was born out of the Jewish faith.
My point is that the Catholic Church did not invent Purgatory or
the concept of purification. So of course they still believe this
since they did not accept Jesus as Messiah. But Jesus never condemned
this belief or corrected it.

Q. See when Jesus died he went and took the keys of death and
hades. He brought all the ones out of Gheinnom, but only the
deserving ones. After that Jesus said I am that High Priest that you
were having to come to for atonement. I gave my life so you would not
have to scrafice any more. That is why the veil in the temple
was torn from TOP to BOTTOM. 

A. True. But the words Hades, Sheol and Gheinnom or ghenna can be confusing. All the dead went somwhere
other than Heaven in the OT awaiting the one who would open Heaven. I think this is Sheol or Hades but
Hell or Gheinnom is the place of final damnation.

Q. We will be made perfect when we set foot in heaven.

A. Amen! We would simply say we must be made perfect BEFORE we can
set foot in Heaven. We call this perfecting a action of God PURGATORY.
We both believe we must be made perfect before entering into the
presence of God. So we agree on the concept. We give it a name but
you cannot give it a name because you are confined by the Protestant
doctrine of scripture alone, which is itself not found in scripture.
But there is nothing about this doctrine that contradicts scripture.

Q. The grace of God has given that right to go into heaven.
Where does Jesus ever say we have to suffer AFTER we die?

A. There is no scripture that says this explicitly  because the Bible is not a book of systematic
theology. But we do see this implied by 

I Cor 3:15 But if someone's work is burned up, that one will suffer
loss; the person will be saved, but only as through fire."

But Mt. 5:8 Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God. 
So one must be pure in heart in order to see God. And Jesus Himself
said, 

Mt 12:32 "but anyone who speaks against the Holy Spirit will not be forgiven,
either in this age or in the age to come.

So, sin can be forgiven in the age to come but not this particular
one.

Q. The Jews wait for Jesus who has come, they rejected him while he
was on earth. If you feel you have no hope of going to Heaven without first going to Hell then you have no
hope at all! 

A. Purgatory is not Hell. Hell is final damnation, the second death
and permanent. Pugatory is the place of the dead, Sheol or Hades not
Ghehenna (sp) This is where the souls of the righteous went before
Jesus opened up Heaven by His death and resurrection. This is where
they were purified and awaited the Messiah. We know it exists and
there is no scripture that says it ceases to exist except Rev 20:14
when death andHades are thrown into the Lake of Fire at the end of
time.

Q. Sin is Sin in the eyes of God. There are no little sins or big
sins. 

A. Then you deny the plain teaching of scripture in 

I Jn 5:16 1f anyone sees his brother
commit a sin that does not lead to death, he should pray and God will
give him life. I refer to those whose sin does not lead to death. There
is a sin that leads to death. I am not saying that he should pray about
that. 17 All wrongdoing is sin, and there is sin that does not lead to death..

Q. It is more that good deeds, and he will not have you
spend time after you die to get perfect. You are already perfect
if he is Lord of All!

A. But we know for a fact that WE ARE NOT PERFECT. We are saved, yes.
We are justified, yes. But we must be "pure in heart' in order to see
God. So, somehow or other we must be perfected, purified, made
Holy as He is Holy. We do not believe most of us achieve this in this life. That is why we will need to be
purified after we die in Purgatory.