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Originally Posted by janelle144
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Hi Janelle.
I only read the article in the blog titled ''Why the Good Thief Doesn’t Justify Protestant Doctrines'' in which Broussard says that salvation is works based, and dependent upon being baptized, and that there is a purgatory.
None of which I agree with. Not only does Paul make it clear that salvation is by grace through faith in Christ Jesus, and not by works
(Eph. 2:8-9), but Jesus Himself made it clear that works are not a requirement for salvation when He told the Samaritan woman that salvation was a gift of God and all she had to do was to ask for it
(John 4:10:14). As well, Jesus told the crowd to whom He was speaking
(John 6:27-29) that the only work they had to do to be saved was to believe in Him. This was in reply to the question the crowd had asked Him concerning what works they had to do. They thought there were works they could do to be saved, but Jesus corrected them by telling them that there was only one work by which they could be saved, and that was to believe in Him.
The fact that water baptism is not necessary to be saved is made clear by the fact that Cornelius and his household were saved
before they got baptized
(Acts 10).
Works, and getting water baptized are things that should result from having been saved, but they are never a requirement in order to be saved.
As for purgatory,
The Catechism of the Catholic Church defines purgatory as a "purification, so as to achieve the holiness necessary to enter the joy of heaven," which is experienced by those "who die in God’s grace and friendship, but still imperfectly purified" (CCC 1030). It notes that "this final purification of the elect . . . is entirely different from the punishment of the damned" (CCC 1031).
The purification is necessary because, as Scripture teaches, nothing unclean will enter the presence of God in heaven (Rev. 21:27) and, while we may die with our mortal sins forgiven, there can still be many impurities in us, specifically venial sins and the temporal punishment due to sins already forgiven.
Purgatory | Catholic Answers
The concept of purgatory fails to recognize the fact that every believer is already positionally sanctified (as opposed to experientially sanctified), already clean, and that all sins without exception were judged at the cross.
Hebrews 10:10 compared with
10:14 makes it clear that
positionally speaking, with reference to our position in Christ, all believers have been sanctified and therefore have been perfected. As for the issue of a believer's experiential sanctification, that depends on how much he matured spiritually during his life after salvation, and it is what it is when he dies. If a believer doesn't reach spiritual maturity during his life on this earth, then that is his status when he enters heaven, and he will simply forfeit the rewards he otherwise would have received at the judgment seat of Christ
(1 Cor. 3:12-15).
Jesus told the apostles that with the exception of Judas Iscariot (who had never received Jesus as Savior) they were all completely clean
(John 13:6-11).
All believers are holy, all believers are sanctified and therefore saints regardless of their experiential status. No purgatory is necessary for the believer to enter heaven when he dies.
I completely reject any notion that you must earn your salvation by works on your part, or that you must be water baptized (I was water baptized by the way) in order to be saved, or the concept of purgatory.
As for the issue of hell, the only reason a person will remain eternally separated from God is simply because he did not avail himself of God's provision for his salvation by simply placing his trust in Jesus Christ who did all the work for his salvation.
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It is different, to some of us anyway. There are a lot of professing Christians, however, who feel if you reject their spin on the scriptures, you have rejected Jesus and they have no problem condemning you to hell either - easy as pie for them to just write you off into their perception of hell and throw away the key. And then they wonder why no one wants anything to do with the image of Christ they present 
