...Hell on Earth Nothing impure can enter into the Kingdom of God (Revelations 21:27). Every person will have to pay for their sins to "the very last penny" (Luke 12:59). I'll use somewhat of a parable to explain purgatory. God is just per Scripture (John 5:30), correct? Now, let's say you have one man who leads a saintly life and another who leads a sinful life, but sincerely repents of his sins on his death bed. According to Protestants, both these men go straight to heaven after death. Is this just? I would have to answer in the negative. According to Catholic belief, the saintly man would go straight to heaven whereas the repentant man would have to be cleansed through temporal (not eternal) punishment for his sins before entering heaven. Where is this done? He can't be sent to hell because hell is eternal per Scripture (Matthew 25:46; Mark 3:29). There has to be a middle ground so to speak. This "middle" ground is purgatory. We must suffer for our sins just as Christ suffered for them (Romans 8:17; 2 Corinthians 1:5-7). If this suffering is not in this life, it has to be in the next. Protestants say that since purgatory is not mentioned in the Holy Bible, it doesn't exist. But the Holy Trinity is not mentioned in the Bible either yet almost all mainstream Protestant denominations believe in it. Unfortunately, the King James Version of the Bible mistakenly omits the Books of Maccabees. These books were decided by the Church Fathers to be inspired of God. The Twelve Apostles...
Words: 1538 - Pages: 7
...LIBERTY UNIVERSITY THEOLOGICAL CRITIQUE: FOUR VIEWS ON HELL A THEOLOGICAL CRITIQUE SUBMITTED TO DR. ROBERT WETMORE IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE COURSE THEO 530 LIBERTY BAPTIST THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY BY PETER J. FILIPIAK SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 25, 2011 TABLE OF CONTENTS INTRODUCTION...................................................................................................1 SUMMARY.............................................................................................................1 CRITICAL INTERACTION...................................................................................2 The Literal View...........................................................................................2 The Metaphorical View................................................................................4 The Purgatorial View....................................................................................5 The Conditional View..................................................................................6 CONCLUSION........................................................................................................7 BIBLIOGRAPHY....................................................................................................9 Introduction Four Views on Hell is a book edited by William Crockett in which...
Words: 2461 - Pages: 10
...The Souls in Purgatory IV – GOLD Narrator: There was once an old lady who had raised a niece since she was a tiny baby. She had taught the girl to be good, obedient, and industrious, especially the souls in purgatory. As the girl grew older and very beautiful, the old woman began to worry that when she died on her niece would be left all alone in the world, a world which her niece saw only through innocent eyes. Old Lady: Dear Lord, as I daily prayed to all saint’s in heaven for our intercession in heaven to You that You might send some good man who would fall in love with my niece and marry her… then I could die in peace. Narrator: As it happens, the old woman did chores for a comadre who had a rooming house. Among her tenants there was a seemingly rich merchant who one day said: Rich Merchant: I would like to get married. If I could find a niece quiet girl who knew to keep the house tidy, and to be a good wife and mother to our children when they came. (As the old lady heard the rich merchant, her eyes opened and began to smile and scheme to her mind, for she could imagine her niece married to the niece gentleman.) (The old lady told something to the merchant) Old Lady: You could find all that you are looking for in my niece, who is a jewel, a piece of gold, and so gifted that she could even catch birds while they were flying. (The gentleman became interested) Rich Merchant (Gentleman): Hmmmm… I would like to meet your niece, may I go to your house tomorrow...
Words: 1575 - Pages: 7
...The differences between Dante’ and the churches depictions of hell and purgatory are very interesting. Dante is a crazily influential author, so separating the churches beliefs from his can be relatively difficult, considering a lot of what people believe about Hell now is based in what Dante said, and has basically nothing to do with what the Church believes. Separating the Churches beliefs of hell, and Dante’s is very difficult in terms of art. The amount of art that was created after the inferno was written that isn't heavily based off of the inferno is negligible. However, the Church believes that hell is just where people who go are completely separated from God, and there is no coming back. We can see the influence of Dante’s work in what basically everyone thinks of Hell, this horrible place that you go to be tortured for all of eternity physically, but the church believes that its more of a mental torture, knowing that you will...
Words: 1076 - Pages: 5
...My Journey In Purgatory, Hell, and Heaven I had a dream. I dreamed that I was able to journey hell, purgatory, and heaven. My account is I was in the purgatory with four murderers named John, Romeo, Billy, and Raymond. Day 1. They were there before I came. They were speaking to God almighty with Jesus beside him. John and Raymond were asking for forgiveness from God for the sins they made while they are living. They also said that it’s okay if he doesn’t forgive them because their sins are unforgivable. Then, they were gone. Romeo and Billy were not asking for forgiveness from God but instead, they have confidence in themselves that they will go to heaven. Then, they were gone too. One of God’s followers asks me to rest. So I went to sleep. Day 2. I went to the judging palace where I saw the four murderers talking to God in day 1. Then, God asked me: “Do you think that your sins are forgivable young man? Do you think you will go to my heaven?” I remained silent. After a while, I said: “I know that some of my sins are unforgivable but I want to go to heaven so I want to ask you to forgive me Lord. Cleanse me Lord, remove all my sins”. “Do you want to take peek in hell and heaven?”, God asked. “Yes, I would like to see hell and heaven.” I said. Then, we travelled. Day 3. I saw hell. It was horrible. It was dark and so hot in there. And I saw Romeo and Billy suffering. “They were not sincere in themselves and they didn’t ask forgiveness.”, God said. I’m sad for them. I can’t...
Words: 622 - Pages: 3
...circles of Hell the terraces of Purgatory and the spheres of Heaven. On his journey he sees spirits either punished or rewarded for their decisions on earth. The main theme of The Divine Comedy, written by Dante Alighieri is the choices made in a man’s life and where those choices will put him after death. Dante Alighieri’s version of Hell describes all of the punishments of those condemned, in accord with their sin. On entering Hell, Dante and Virgil read a sign, describing the horrors of hell and that there is no escape. “Through me you enter the city of woes… Abandon all hope ye who enter here.” (Dante Inferno Canto III) As they travel through Hell they see all of the various punishments for the condemned. They find that each sinner is condemned to a punishment that is in relation with his or her sin. For example, the Misers and the Spendthrifts are in Circle IV. Their sins were that they worshipped money so much that they hoarded it, or had so little regard for money that they spent it wildly. Nothing is so loathed to a miser as a spendthrift. So, their punishment is to bombard each other continually with huge stones expressing the antagonism between excessive hoarding and excessive squandering. Another example is the punishment of the Thieves, their hands, which they used to steal, are cut off and their bodies are entwined with snakes or serpents. Although Hell contains grave sinners, those without very terrible sins go to Purgatory. Purgatory is the place where those who...
Words: 753 - Pages: 4
...The idea of a person or a person’s soul living on after death is shared by many religions. Where these religions differ is in what they believe happens after one’s death; there are even differing views about what happens within different denominations of the same religion. The question of life after death has perplexed man through the ages. In the Bible Job famously asked “if a man die, shall he live again?” (Job 14:14). The notion of resurrection is central to Christian faith, it is the belief that Jesus returned to life on the Sunday following the Friday of his crucifixion. In Matthew 28 an angel says to the Virgin Mary and Mary Magdalene; “do not be afraid; for I know that you seek Jesus who was crucified. He is not here; for he has risen, as he said.” It is from the resurrection of Jesus that the Christian belief in life after death emerges. In John 11:25-26 Jesus said “I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me will live, even though he dies.” This led to the belief that if one is to follow the teachings of Jesus and accept him as their lord and saviour; one can then look forward to the afterlife. N.T Wright, in his book Surprised by Hope: Rethinking Heaven, the Resurrection, and the Mission of the Church states that “Jesus’ resurrection is the beginning of God’s new project, not to snatch people away from earth to heaven but to colonize earth with the life of heaven.” This literal view of resurrection in similar to the Hindu belief in reincarnation...
Words: 2372 - Pages: 10
...The Divine Comedy Author name University The contrast between Inferno and Purgatory First circle was Limbo. There were unbaptized and virtuous non-Christians, many wise and well-known people such as Homer, Horace, Avicenna, Cicero, Hippocrates, Socrates, Aristotle and others. In the second circle (Lust) were people, who took possession of lust. Here Dante saw Cleopatra, Semiramis, Dido, Helen of Troy. A strong wind threw their souls back and forth without a pause. The third circle (Gluttony) was for gluttons, guarded by a huge Cerberus. They laid here in mud, under the cold rain, unable to see anything around and not paying attention to each other. Here, Dante met Florentine Chacko, who died recently. In the fourth circle (Greed) were wasteful and mean people. They moved heave objects from place to place. In the fifth one (Anger) were angry and lazy people. They fought each other in Styx marsh. Dante met Filippo Argenti there. The sixth circle (Heresy) was a haven of heretics who believed that the soul dies with a body. They were burned alive in the fiery tombs. Here he met Epicurus, Emperor Frederick II, and Pope Anastasius II. The 7th circle (Violence) was the circle of violence. Here were three rings. In the outer ring, sinners were boiled in a bloody Phlegethon river. Here lived Alexander the Great, Dionysius I of Syracuse, Guy de Montfort Obizzo d'Este, Rinier Pazzo, Rinier da Corneto, and Azzolino da Romano. In the middle ring were suicides and profligates. Suicides were...
Words: 685 - Pages: 3
...Heaven and Hell Popular, secular opinion seems to conclude either: 1) there is no after-life or 2) everyone and their pets go to heaven. There isn’t much talk about Hell, except to dismiss the possibility of anyone going there. But one historical figure spoke very forcefully about the reality of Hell and the very real possibility of human beings spending eternity there. That person is none other than Jesus Christ, the Second Person of the Blessed Trinity who became man. God did not dismiss Hell as either non-existent or not a threat. We should follow His example and learn what He taught. Who will go to Heaven? So after the Judgment, one will go to Heaven or Hell. Who goes to Heaven? How can I get there? The simple answer is that the souls of the just who are free of guilt and punishment will go to Heaven. But, we need to break that down a bit. First, let’s be clear on one point: no one can earn their way into Heaven by their good works… no one. Salvation is a free gift from God. In Catholic terminology, the person who enters Heaven is said to have died in a state of sanctifying grace. Protestants sometimes refer to this as the grace of justification. And they are correct. The souls of the just are those who have been justified by grace through faith. So the question is, who has been justified? This is where Catholic and non-Catholic teaching parts ways. We receive the grace of justification, that is, Sanctifying Grace, at our baptism when we are born anew from above Two...
Words: 763 - Pages: 4
...Gutierrez, Jerome Erick A. Synthesis Paper Inferno 4 and Purgatorio 7 (Comparing and Contrasting) Initially, I wanted to see if there was similarity between the Inferno’s first circle or level and the Pugatorio’s first spur, terrace, or level but I could not really find anything. I then decided to write once again about a topic found in my first paper and I noticed that despite the fact that the Valley of the Rulers isn’t the first ledge, or terrace in Dante’s Purgatorio[1] (unlike Limbo which is the first circle of hell) and that it isn’t also technically IN Purgatory but right before it (a.k.a Ante-Purgatory), it does indeed have some similarity/parallelism (but also big differences) to the first circle of the Inferno (Limbo). The key words I noticed was that Dante the wayfarer asks Virgil who are those “separate from the rest” as they approach Limbo[2] (In the Inferno). Then in the Purgatorio, Sordello leads Dante and Virgil to the Valley of the Rulers who are referred to those (spirits) who are “set apart”[3] Now speaking of Limbo in the Inferno, Virgil, who also happens to be from this place (proved by line 39, Inferno 4), refers to the inhabitants of Limbo as “those who live in longing”[4] (manifested by their constant sighing, and not any outcry of pain due to suffering unlike other Cantos in the Inferno). Logically and factually, these souls long for the Beatific Vision or entry into Paradise, but such event will never happen despite these pagans being virtuous[5]...
Words: 1514 - Pages: 7
...hell. The church took full advantage of this and collected taxes from its followers. * Followers were required to pay a 10th of their earnings to the church. This was called tithing, the people were asked to pay a 10th of income, crops, seeds, or livestock. * The church also convinced its people that they would either go to heaven, hell or purgatory after death. Purgatory was believed to be a place that the soul went to after death if one wasn’t condemned to hell and wasn’t a firm enough believer in god to go to heaven. So the person’s soul would remain in purgatory until his or her soul was purified. The important part to this was the more prayers the person received while in purgatory the faster there souls were purified. So people would buy what they called indulgences with money and in return the church would reduce the time they spent in purgatory. This was another tactic used by the church to increase its wealth and dominance. * PS 1…Tetzel’s Sermon on Preaching Indulgences How many mortal sins are committed in a day… , and those that commit them must needs suffer endless punishment in the burning pains of Purgatory. * Luther, The Ninety-Five Theses (1517) . Our Lord and Master Jesus Christ in saying "Repent ye," etc., intended that the whole life of believers should be penitence. * I believe the church was able to maintain its dominance for so long because of its ability manipulate the words of the bible. People believed they feared god...
Words: 477 - Pages: 2
...ride will be called "PURGATORY". It'll be centered right in front of the main entrance. To enter the ride you will have to go through a dark spooky "forests," since in the tv show, "PURGATORY" is located in a forest. Once you have come to the entrance of the ride there will be five portals to enter "PURGATORY," you can choose to be in front, in the middle, or in the back of the blade, the PURGATORY blade! The blade is black and has a bone structure handle, the shape of the blade is shaped like a cowboy boot. Once you get on the ride you will have to put your arms up high and a silver bar with black padding will come down over your shoulders. Once given rules like, "keep arms in at all time, if needed to exit stairs are located on the left hand side, and...
Words: 461 - Pages: 2
...as Ancient Greece. These poems depicted the events and the ideas of the time they were written in. One such epic poem was Dante Alighieri's Divine Comedy. Written in the early fourteenth century the Divine Comedy takes on an allegoric view of the Christian and of the political beliefs held by Dante at the time. Dante was part of a political group in Italy known as the White Guelphs, who favored the Pope as leader over the Holy Roman Emperor. This held influence in the Divine Comedy. In trying to get these ideas out the people Dante wrote the epic poem in the vernacular of the Italian people. The Divine Comedy is centered on Dante and his two guides. The poem takes the reader on a journey with Dante and his guides through Hell, Purgatory, and Heaven. This is accomplished through the poem being broken up into three main canticles. Each one of these canticles contains thirty-three cantos. The number three is an important Christian symbol as it symbolizes the Trinity. This is important to Dante in his poem due to his religious beliefs. As the reader gets a literal description on Dante’s travels, the reader symbolically gains insight on how people viewed the progression of a person’s soul toward God. The first canticle is about Dante’s and his guide, Virgil’s, descent through the ten circles of Hell. As they descend through Hell the reader learns about the 10 circles. The deeper in Hell the worse your sin is considered. The sins that represented the circles included...
Words: 998 - Pages: 4
...The Divine Comedy represents the mature Dante’s solution to the poet’s task annunciated in The New Life. Its three canticles (the Inferno, the Purgatorio, and the Paradiso) display a nearly limitless wealth of references to historical particulars of the late Middle Ages and to Dante’s life. Even so, its allegorical form allows these to function as symbols. The Pilgrim’s journey through Hell to Heaven thus becomes an emblem of all human experience and a recognition of life’s circularity. The “Comedy” of its title is, therefore, the situation of life and the accumulation of experience that attends it. Correspondingly, however, chronological placement of the narrative from Good Friday through Easter Sunday, 1300, particularizes the experience even as it implies the death and rebirth that attends a critical stage of any person’s life. The poet tells his readers in the first line of the Inferno that he is midway through life, and indeed Dante would have been thirty-five years of age in 1300. Though he maintains present tense throughout the poem, he is, however, actually writing in the years that follow the events that he describes. This extraordinary method allows the Poet to place what amounts to prophetic utterance in the mouth of the Pilgrim. Dante thus maintains and further develops the thesis of The New Life, that the progress of the Pilgrim corresponds directly to the progress of the Poet. The literal journey that the Pilgrim undertakes toward the Beatific Vision succeeds only...
Words: 3695 - Pages: 15
...Hamlet's designation of the importance of religion in relation to the importance of the state can be clarified by way of his soliloquies, throughout Hamlet. More specifically, Hamlet’s first, fourth, and sixth soliloquies, raise the question of how Hamlet views his relationship with God in accordance to his relationship with the state of Denmark. It is evident the Hamlet is particularly religious. Although Hamlet does not explicitly discuss his ideas regarding the significance of religion and state in relation to one another, they can be inferred through his decisions and actions throughout the play. Precisely, Hamlet’s actions regarding Old Hamlet’s Ghost and Gertrude’s marriage, in addition to his thoughts regarding Purgatory and suicide, provide evidence for how he understands this relationship to be balanced....
Words: 1523 - Pages: 7
