Lies About Angels

False teachers and their false claims of angels visiting them. Beware of these pawns of satan.

Books I Read in 2021

Once again I am publishing my annual look at the books I’ve read this past year, letting my readers know what sorts of things I read and fill my head with (aside from the Bible, many magazines, journals, etc).

I know there is a lot to read here but you may find a title or short review to pique your interest and perhaps get a copy of the book for yourself. (The two books I’m reading now will have to wait for next year’s list since they won’t be finished this week!)

As with the past years, a few books were repeat reads for me for various reasons; some so I could give them away but mostly just too many years passed to remember what was in them—those will be noted in blue. For the most part the titles should tell you what the subject is. The list is in the order in which they were read.

Sergeant York and the Great War, by Alvin C. York and edited by Tom Skeyhill and Richard Wheeler. York’s war diary and further writing so as to make book. Originally edited in 1930 and then additional editing done in 1998. This is a bit of an abbreviated—sort of Alvin York and his life before WWI and then the war years. If you don’t know who he was, he won the Medal of Honor even though a conscientious objector. I previously read the original while I was in the Army in the early 1970s. Then I had a copy after I was married but gave that to my son before he left home. I purchased this copy in 2012 and read it then. My wife asked me to read it to her so we started it in the middle of December 2020 and finished it on January 4th.

How the Scots Invented the Modern World, by Arthur Herman.  An extremely well-done and very interesting history of the people of Scotland and how they really did “invent the modern world” by their many ideas, inventions, etc. So much of what we have now originated with Scots and their descendants. A highly recommended book.

The Forgotten 500, by Gregory A. Freeman. This book is reporting on a mission about which I’ve never heard; an OSS mission to rescue 500+ airmen who were shot down over Yugoslavia during bomb runs to and from Romania. They were gathered and protected by the Chetnik leader Draza Mihailovich. The man was staunchly for the Allies and yet they treated him and his people badly due to Soviet propaganda. In the end, we helped Tito conquer Yugoslavia in the name of Communism.

One Bible Only? by Roy E. Beacham & Kevin T. Bauder, editors.  I read this when I got it in 2016 and just now read it to see if I wanted to keep it or pass it along. I’m keeping it. The subtitle is, “Examining Exclusive Claims for the King James Bible.”  That about sums up the topic, and it is very well done—and, no, it isn’t KJV only.

Grimm’s Fairy Tales. I read this one to my wife off and on since we got it 11 years ago.  We’d read some then stop for a while and read another book. We’d forget about it for ages. But we decided to finish it before Spring and we missed the date by a week. Most of the tales were just stupid but there were plenty which were fun.

Vietnam: An Epic Tragedy, 1945—1975, by Max Hastings. The title say it all. Over 750 pages of text, plus bibliography and notes. Just as I’ve always said—we had no business being there. And also as I say, Iraq/Afghanistan is just Vietnam all over again.

We Will Not Be Silenced, by Erwin Lutzer. An excellent book discussing how Christians should address the “cancel culture” and “wokism” in society. Good information also on how to stand one’s ground for the Faith.

Semper Four. 4 Marines: An Oral History, by Aaron Elson. Interviews with four Marines who fought in the Pacific during World War II. Loaned to me by a retired Marine who is one of five veterans I meet with for “coffee” (I don’t drink the stuff) on Wednesday mornings and who knows I like reading history.

From Bondage to Freedom: A Survey of Jewish History From the Babylonian Captivity to the Coming of the Messiah, by Daniel Fuchs and Harold A. Sevener. The title pretty much sums it up. The authors cite the Bible, the Talmud, Maccabees, Josephus and modern historians.

Silent Wings at War: Combat Gliders in World War II, by John L. Lowden. I knew about the use of gliders on D-Day but never knew 90% of what this book is about. Fascinating history of some very brave men and the horrible numbers of casualties they suffered.

The Shetland Bus: A WWII Epic of Courage, Endurance, and Survival, by David Howarth. This was a part of WWII I was unfamiliar with. We watched a couple seasons of the BBC show, “Shetland” and on one episode the story revolved around a mission of the “Shetland Bus,” which was an organization of fishing boats going to and from Norway taking supplies or agents to the Norwegian underground while bringing back refugees, agents, and even downed allied airmen. Well, in April this year I was shopping for books at Barnes & Nobel and on the shelf was this book! AHA! Now I could get the story, and what a fascinating story it is. Many participants were captured and executed by the Nazis but most missions were very successful and kept 240,000 German troops tied up in Norway when they were desperately needed after the invasion of France by the Allies. Some great history.

Hope For the Children of the Sun: Curing the Sonnenkinder Syndrome Called Contemporary Christian Worship, by Craig S. Bulkeley.  An interesting study of the philosophy behind CCW and immature worship practices.

The High and the Mighty, by Ernest K. Gann. A novel I read to Jill. We saw the movie and have two other Gann movies. The movie version of this book was the first airplane disaster movie. Lots of “soap opera” in the movie but even more so in the book; the movie had to cut some out for time! The good thing is that the movie followed the book accurately.  Essentially it’s about a plane which has a major problem on the way from Hawaii to California and the stories of the passengers, as well as the actions and interactions of the crew to get the plane to safety. Because of the too much soap opera I would never recommend it.

Maps of War: Mapping Conflict Through the Centuries, by Jeremy Black.  Most pages have maps, from the earliest wars using maps to modern day. Lots of text explaining the history of map-making for wars, describing each map shown, etc.

A Nation and Not a Rabble: The Irish Revolution 1913-1923, by Diarmaid Ferriter. Dates, reasons, places, murders, massacres, treason, etc; all the details of the revolution/fight for independence. The last chapter discussed historical revisionism, honoring those who fought the wars and establishing memorials.

Anne Frank, The Diary Endures: Her Life and Her Legacy, LIFE publications. Thick paper-back magazine format. A very good look at Anne Frank’s life.

Behold, I Stand at the Door and Knock: What to say to Mormons and Jehovah’s Witnesses when they knock on your door, by Michael Licona. Very good and succinct apologetics for a door encounter.

A History of France, by John Julius Norwich. Well-written, engaging, condensed (370+ pages) history ending with the end of WWII because the author didn’t want to write about his own lifetime.

Citizen Soldiers of World War II: True story of the American soldiers who served with Merrill’s Marauders in Burma and the Chinese Sixth Army during WWII, by Paul B. Long. The title/subtitle sums up the topic. However, this is all from a Christian’s viewpoint, with lots of scripture. Very encouraging for those who have served, are serving, and will serve. I passed it to a young man who is the son of good friends and who is currently serving in the Navy.

Revelation: The Christian’s Ultimate Victory, by John MacArthur. Essentially this is the text and commentary from The MacArthur Bible Commentary. From a pre-trib, millennial view.

Destination: Tokyo: A Pictorial History of Doolittle’s Tokyo Raid, April 18, 1942, by Stan Cohen. The title sums it all up. Lots of never before published photos, some great stories, etc.

Thud Ridge: F-105 Thunderchief Missions Over Vietnam, by Colonel Jack Broughton. Excellent, sometimes riveting story of fighter-bomber combat missions. Also discussions of the poor way the war was handled which got too many killed. I read this in the early 1970s when I was in the Army; it gave me a whole new understanding of that war and made me “fall in love” with the F-105.

The Thirteen Apostles, by J. Ellsworth Kalas. Examination of what the Bible and tradition says about the 13 original apostles. 

The Mormon Trail: Yesterday and Today, by William E. Hill.  A good study of the Mormon Trail but also a lot of pro-LDS propaganda. Author appears to be Mormon; says Joseph Smith was a martyr (martyr’s don’t shoot back), said they always moved due to persecution without noting that the persecution was the result of how the Mormons behaved to their neighbors, etc.

The Wall, by John Hersey. This is historical fiction and I last read this book when I was in high school 50+ years ago. It has stuck so in my mind all these years that I decided to buy a copy and read it. Since I had told my wife about it we decided I could read it to her, but halfway through it was getting too emotional for her so I finished it on my own. The story is about the Jews in the Warsaw ghetto during WWII and how they suffered until finally staging an uprising that kept German Army units away from the front line. Sad story using fictional characters, but a learning story anyway.

Hitler’s Furies: German Women in the Nazi Killing Fields, by Wendy Lower. Very interesting study of how involved many German women were in the murder of Jews and other “undesirables.” They were just as evil as their male counterparts. 

Oprah, Miracles and the New Earth: A Critique, by Erwin Lutzer. Examination of the teachings that Oprah Winfrey promotes, which are found it the books, The Secret; A Course in Miracles; A New Earth; and others. Sounds a lot like Christian Science!

The Ravine: A Family, A Photograph, A Holocaust Massacre Revealed, by Wendy Lower. Fascinating story of the detective work the author used to identify the family and the killers in a photo she was given while researching various aspects of the Holocaust.

Sam Houston & the Alamo Avengers, by Brian Kilmeade.  A history of the fight for Texas independence from Mexico, with brief biographies of the leaders, the politics and combats leading up to the battle of the Alamo, and the war as it continued to the surrender of Santa Anna. Finally, the story of Sam Houston after the war and up to his death in 1863.

Irish Aces of the RFC and RAF in the First World War, by Joe Gleeson. Short biographies of 29 Irish men who flew for the Royal Flying Corps/Royal Air Force during World War I. Includes several photos. Ten of them died in combat.

The Princess Bride, by William Goldman.  I read this novel to my wife. While the book was pretty good, I think the movie version was a lot more fun. I’ve seen the movie many times (we own the DVD) and so finally wanted to read the novel to see how close the movie followed it; it did well, and cleaned out a lot of nonsense found in the book.

The Battle of Hastings, by Jim Bradbury. An excellent study of this battle in which the invading Normans defeated the English in southern England and changed England forever. Discussed the history leading up to the battle, the location, the arms and armament, the battle, and the results. If you like history, it’s a good one.

Indestructible: One Man’s Rescue Mission That Changed the Course of WWII, by John R. Bruning. A biography of a pilot’s pilot, Paul I. Gunn, and his exploits in the South Pacific, especially after he was separated from his family. Gunn developed tactics that became widely used in helping win the war. We also follow the story of his family as they were interred by the Japanese in the Philippines and suffered harsh treatment along with other internees. 

Christian Modesty and the Public Undressing of America, by Jeff Pollard. Excellent examination of how even Christians have bought into “nakedness” in their fashions, including the worst example of immodesty — swimming attire and how the goal of that all along was to sexualize the public.

The Hard Sayings of Jesus, by F.F. Bruce.  A very good examination of some of the various more difficult to understand things that Jesus said.

The York Patrol: The Real Story of Alvin York and the Unsung Heroes Who Made Him World War I’s Most Famous Soldier, by James Carl Nelson. An excellent story about the whole patrol, the various men who were with York, who of them were killed and wounded, their backgrounds and history after the war. Excellent reading.

The Blue and the Gray, by Thomas B. Allen.  Year by year study of the American Civil War, concise but with lots of photos from the war. Used book, picked up at July 4th antique sale at the local fairgrounds.

A Bloody Business: America’s War Zone Contractors and the Occupation of Iraq, by Col. Gerald Schumacher (Ret.). This book was given to me by a retired Marine Vietnam War veteran, knowing I was a history buff. I sure learned a lot about the military contractors. To me it just demonstrated the weakness of our military if we need all those contractors in the war zones.

Teachings of Presidents of the Church: Joseph Smith, LDS publication. Read for researching and will us some of the information for a future blog post on “The Anti-Mormon Blog.”

Have A Joyous Christmas

Watch What You Wear

Being drawn to a person’s God-given beauty is one thing; having one’s eyes directed to another’s body by a sensually designed garment is another. While clothing does not have to smother one’s gender, any apparel designed to draw the eye to the erotic zones of the body cannot fill the requirements for Biblical decency.

Jeff Pollard, Christian Modesty and the Public Undressing of America, pg.65

You’ve God to Be Kidding!!!

He [Jesus] allowed the devil to drag Him into the depths of hell as if He were the most wicked sinner who ever lived…. Every demon in hell came down on Him to annihilate Him…they tortured Him beyond anything that anybody has ever conceived…. In a thunder of spiritual force, the voice of God spoke to the death-whipped, broken, punished spirit of Jesus with resurrection power! Suddenly, His twisted, death-wracked spirit began to fill out and come back to life…. He was being reborn before the devil’s very eyes…. Jesus Christ dragged Satan up and down the halls of hell…. Jesus…was raised up a born-again man…

Kenneth Copeland, cited in The Berean Call, November 2021, Questions & Answers column.

Can anyone point any where in the Bible to support this ridiculous nonsense? When the Apostles’ Creed says that Jesus “descended into hell,” it is talking about the grave; hell in that context means grave, and it just points out that Jesus was really physically dead.

Neither Satan nor demons live in hell. Neither Satan nor demons even touched Jesus while he was in the grave.

Kenneth Copeland is one of the worst false teaching heretics who is still alive. In my opinion, the man is demon-possessed!  It is this type of foolishness which leads people astray in their faith.

God Told You What?!?!?

Beware of those who tell you that God spoke to them -- they are LIARS.

“The Chosen” — Unbiblical Danger

I’ve read a lot about The Chosen ever since it came out and I have to say it is one of the most blasphemous, heretical, aberrant, and just plain dangerous piece of gutter trash to be promoted as Christian!!!

To begin with, the director, Dallas Jenkins, has chosen to work with a Mormon producer and has stated that the Christian Jesus and the Mormon Jesus are the same!!! This ignorant statement is blasphemous to the real Jesus of Christianity! 

Next, the series really plays fast and loose with the Bible, adding in all sorts of nonsense which denigrates Jesus. Jenkins even says that 95% of the content not in the Bible yet he thinks this is okay because he claims he had “an experience with God,” who told him that The Chosen would be the “definitive portrayal of [His] people” and that He wouldn’t let Dallas “screw it up.”

BUT— Is God Really the One Behind “The Chosen” as the Creator of the Series Declares? Absolutely not! In fact, I’d say Satan is the one behind it.

Another article I linked to earlier this year is also well-worth reviewing!

I’ve come across some videos that I am posting below, which I highly recommend you watch and learn the factual problems with this series. I find it distressing how vast numbers of Christians are actually watching and enjoying this tripe with absolutely no discernment.

PROOF The Chosen Is Produced By A Mormon

Another Mormon connection is the fact that a Mormon singing group was included for The Chosen Christmas Special.

Examine this review of Season 2, Episode 8. It is a perfect example of the problems with the entire series:

You can search the ‘net and find a lot of similar examinations of different parts of this series and they will all show the same false teaching.  Warn your friends that what they are watching is not of God.

Updated 12/22/21 

Two more important videos to see:

A Critique of The Chosen Season 1&2:

The [Counterfeit] Chosen — The Chosen exposed. A Biblical review:

Some more good information exposing the Mormon connection can be found here.

Shameful and Immodest

Some forms of public nakedness are shameful and/or explicit sinful since the Fall of Adam. Exposing the male or female body, which should be covered, is out of harmony with the Biblical model. Moreover, since exposing the privates is shameful, it seems obvious that clothing which emphasizes or purposely draws attention to these areas of the body is likewise shameful and immodest. And modern swimwear is the epitome of these things—by design.

Jeff Pollard, Christian Modesty and the Public Undressing of America, pg.34

Swimwear IS Immodest

…led me to examine modesty in general and then swimwear in particular. Why swimwear? Because Scriptural evidence convinced me that modern swimwear is immodest nakedness; and historical evidence convinced me that was designed to be so. After a good bit of research I discovered that the fashion industry employed swimwear to change public opinion about modesty. In other words, fashion designers used swimwear to undress America. And this is diametrically opposed to Christian modesty.

Jeff Pollard, Christian Modesty and the Public Undressing of America, pg. 18

Christian Modesty Copies Pagan Immodesty

In past centuries, Christian peoples were often noted for their modesty, and heathen peoples for their immodesty. Today, the line between the professing Christian and the savage tribesman has become increasingly blurred, as more and more “Christian” people resort not only to the pagan practices of scarification, tattoos and body mutilation, but have thrown off the “restraints’ of modest dress in favor of the trendy and physically revealing. The result is that modern America has been publicly undressed. What is worse, Americans have come to think of nakedness as normal and acceptable, even preferable.

Jeff Pollard, Christian Modesty and the Public Undressing of America, pg. 13

Cultures and Modesty

Cultures that worship nature and treasure sensuality tend to dress immodestly. Those which make an idolatry out of material possessions, often fall prey to a foppish enslavement to high fashion. On the other hand, cultures which embrace true Christian piety will seek to make personal holiness the driving standard for their dress codes. They will develop clothing which emphasizes biblical principles like distinction, functionality and modesty. In short, dress is not neutral.

Jeff Pollard, Christian Modesty and the Public Undressing of America, pg. 11

Bill Johnson and Gandalf's Staff?!?

False apostles, who are also objectively false teachers, love gimmicks. This short video from Bethel shows just how irrational and unbiblical these false teachers/false churches can get when they take their teachings from secular movies.

So, ask yourself -- Has racism ceased? it was supposed have ceased in the church the moment they declared it here with their "Apostolic Authority."

What Would Jesus Do?

 

Knighthood in the Church!!!!

H/T Famine in the Land

Slain in the Spirit?

H/T Famine in the Land

Did He Really Say That?!?

As a reformed Christian, the  writer [author] believes that counselors must not tell any unsaved counselee that Christ died for him, for they cannot say that. No man knows except Christ himself who are his elect for whom he died.

Jay Adams, Competent to Counsel, pg.70

This is one of the major problems of Calvinist/Reformed ideology. The Bible says Christ died for ALL mankind but it is only efficacious for those who accept salvation through Christ.

Thus Saith Rome! Timeline of Papist Doctrines

Click to enlarge.

Get the pdf here.
 

Children of the Cult

The following article was posted today at Midwest Christian Outreach apologetics site. I received it in my weekly email from this ministry and decided this one really needed to be shared here. So I asked Don if I could post the entire article on my blog and he graciously gave me permission to do so.

=======================

Children of the Cult

by Don and Joy Veinot | Nov 4, 2021

Children of the Corn was a short story written by Stephen King and first published in 1977. It has since been adapted for film and television. It is a simple tale of a small town inhabited by a cult of children, all under the age of nineteen. The Christian church and Bible were deemed evil and therefore vandalized by the cult. A core doctrine was that before the children turned nineteen, they must commit suicide or be killed. This rule was mandated by an entity the cult refers to as, “He Who Walks Behind the Rows.” Even those members who do not like this rule submit out of fear of “He Who Walks Behind the Rows.” This is of course a fictional tale but is never-the-less a pretty accurate representation of children who are raised in cults and/or authoritarian religious groups. The powerful being they have been taught to believe in is an evil distortion of the God of Scripture. The young people today who leave authoritarian groups and/or cults, or are kicked out of their group, very often reject the “god” of the cult, but they do not realize Scripture too rejects the false god they were taught to believe in. They have realized they cannot possibly live up to the rigid standards imposed upon them, and so often they wander through life feeling as though God Himself has rejected them.

In 2002 our book, A Matter of Basic Principles: Bill Gothard and the Christian Life, was released. Although Gothardism is not theologically a cult – meaning that it does not reject essential tenets of the faith, such as the Trinity or the Deity of Christ – it is a patriocentric authoritarian group and can certainly be considered sociologically to be cultic. Authority is the key feature of Bill Gothard’s teaching. It is structured in such a way that the wife and children are essentially the property of the father. Authority, according to Bill Gothard, is an “umbrella of protection.” To get out from under the umbrella of protection is rebellion – and here Gothard sets a biblical hook with 1 Samuel 15:23 and quotes, “rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft.”

To demonstrate how this works, Gothard has an actual drawing of God holding a hammer which represents the father, beating on a chisel which represents the wife, who fractures the diamonds which represents the children. Somehow the love of God is lacking here.

Gothard claims his mandates are “non-optional principles,” though thankfully, not all his followers buy into his teachings as deeply or as consistently as others. Those who dive deeply into his authoritarian theorem, however, often become spiritually abusive, using God as the big stick to keep the wife and children “in line.” Of course, children should be taught to respect and obey both their parents, but they must also be shown real love and taught throughout their childhood how to live so they might face life as fully functioning God-honoring adults, who have the ability to deeply love others.

A few years ago, we got a call from a counselor who was dealing with a woman in her early forties who had grown up in Gothardism. Her “authority” (father) never let her court a potential spouse. Since she wasn’t married and had not thus been “transferred” to another authority, she was not given permission, even as an adult, to move out of the family home or even to hold a job. Her parents had recently passed away, and she was completely unprepared to live on her own. She was also terrified that she had somehow offended God and so deserved the awful fix she found herself in. She only knew of a God who represented cold authoritarianism and no grace at all.

A state senator who had been involved in a Gothard-influenced church for over 20 years called and ordered two cases of our book shortly after he had read it. He was concerned that many of his volunteers were young people who had grown up in Gothard’s ATI homeschooling with parents that had been quite involved in attending Gothard’s seminars. When the kids were old enough to legally leave their childhood homes, many left Gothardism and rejected God in favor of atheism or agnosticism. The senator wanted to help these young people realize they weren’t rejecting the true God of Scripture, but a god of Gothard’s invention. We often say that just because God and Gothard both begin with “Go” and end in “d,” they are not the same thing. Since those days we have met with many people who had been raised in that system to help them unknot the false beliefs they had developed either by his direct teaching or peer pressure. The goal is to help them better understand Who God is, what grace is, and how it works in their lives.

Another group, the late Gwen Shamblin’s Remnant Fellowship, is theologically and sociologically a cult. In addition to denying the deity of Christ, the doctrine of the Trinity, and salvation by grace alone, through faith alone in Christ alone, Remnant Fellowship is also extremely authoritarian. A recent note we received from someone who grew up in the group begins:

What lies ahead is years of emotional and developmental stunting… years of feeling alienated from secular peers because nobody taught you how to express emotions in a healthy way…Conflict and strife in your life will overwhelm you and feel foreign. You won’t know how to handle it and so you will forever fear the world around you, perceiving any imperfect person as suspicious because of the sin they could be living in. You have seen numerous people in your life disappear because sin took them away from you. You don’t want that to happen to you and so you stay…This works until you hit puberty. Suddenly your brain is going a mile a minute with questions, desires, passion, and empathy that you don’t understand. Are you being possessed? Are you being punished?

You start to ask questions of those [in the group] around you and they brush you away and tell you that they miss the version of you before you questioned everything…All anyone can tell you is that you simply aren’t good enough for God and that it’s your fault.

Note the similarities of this individual with the woman raised in Gothardism – “years of emotional and developmental stunting,” “nobody taught you how to express emotions in a healthy way,” “feeling alienated from secular peers,” “perceiving any imperfect person as suspicious.” This last one would include pretty much everyone since we are all imperfect, “for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” (Romans 3:23) And to the child raised in Gothardism or Remnant Fellowship, so-called “secular peers” would include anyone outside of the tightly controlled group, whether or not they are Christian. They would think it obvious that no one is truly serving God if they are not “one of us.”

This is also true of people raised in the Jehovah’s Witnesses or other groups who have very similar stories to tell. Many children of the cults become atheists or agnostics or just walk this earth spiritually alone – shunned by “God’s people” and God Himself. It’s very scary to believe that you have lost God, even though their god is not the true God who loves them. Others turn from authoritarian cults to loosey-goosey New Age beliefs that are not grounded in any truth at all about God. There is a cost to false teaching, sometimes bringing severe consequences in this life, and often bearing eternal consequences as well. During His earthly ministry, Jesus expressed His concern over children:

So it is not the will of my Father who is in heaven that one of these little ones should perish. (Matthew 18:14)

A little before that He said,

Whoever receives one such child in my name receives me, but whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in me to sin, it would be better for him to have a great millstone fastened around his neck and to be drowned in the depth of the sea. (Matthew 18:5-6)

One of our favorite passages of Scripture is the story of the Prodigal Son in Luke 15. It is the story of a disrespectful son who demands his share of his inheritance, leaves home, and lives badly, bringing disgrace upon his father. Our favorite part of the passage is what it tells us about the father when his son decides to return to his father’s house:

But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and felt compassion, and ran and embraced him and kissed him. (Luke 15:20)

Even from a distance, he knew his child’s walk. He didn’t wait for the boy to arrive; he ran to meet him. The father didn’t demand some sort of groveling, but “embraced and kissed him.” Cults and authoritarian groups do not understand that God loves us in spite of our fallen state, not because of our own inherent goodness. We cannot earn His love and Paul comments,

but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. (Romans 5:8)

If you know of a person who is lost in the wilderness because of cult involvement, pray for them, lead them to a Father Who deeply loves them, and as much as possible, show them the love of God yourself.Ω

© 2021, Midwest Christian Outreach, Inc All rights reserved. Excerpts and links may be used if full and clear credit is given with specific direction to the original content.

The Occult Nature of “Purgatory"

The movie "Purgatory" shows the fate of the soul that leaves the body after death. Mystics such as Fulla Horak, St. Faustina Kowalska and St. Padre Pio — people who have been graced by the visits of souls from purgatory — are only some of the protagonists featured in the movie. "Purgatory," tells the story of souls living both in bodies and those that have already left this world. It is also a reminder — in film form — of the most outstanding theologians and scientists, who have been studying the state of human consciousness upon the death of the body.

"Purgatory" opens today, October 28 in 700 theaters nationwide. To find a theater near you, click here.

Well, I’m not including the link to find the theater near you. This was received in my email on 10/28/21 from the Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights; I signed up for this email newsletter because it has some good articles about culture.

This above paragraph alone demonstrates the occult and false nature of the papist doctrine of purgatory. To demonstrate the origin of, the lies about, and the unbiblical nature of purgatory, I’m posting below a section from my article Unbiblical Catholic Sin, Purgatory and Indulgences from June 2010.

Purgatory: Invented by Pope Gregory the Great in 593, this didn’t become dogma until 1439 because of so much reluctance to accept such an unbiblical idea. Catholicism teaches that Christ’s death made it possible to be forgiven of sin, but the sinner must still undergo some pain and torment in order to be purged and made acceptable to enter heaven. This “purging” is of unknown intensity and duration. “While Catholicism says it is theoretically possible to be cleansed through the sufferings of this life and one’s death, no one, not even the pope himself, can know whether that has occurred. Consequently, almost all Catholics expect to spend some unknown length of time in purgatory.” (Dave Hunt, A Woman Rides the Beast, p.475)

The Second Ecumenical Council of the Vatican, which was held from 1962 to 1965, stated this about purgatory: “The doctrine of purgatory clearly demonstrates that even when the guilt of sin has been taken away, punishment for it or the consequences of it may remain to be expiated or cleansed. … [I]n purgatory the souls of those who died in the charity of God and truly repentant but who had not made satisfaction with adequate penance for their sins and omissions are cleansed after death with punishments designed to purge away their debt.”

Paragraphs 1030-1032 of the Catechism say, “All who die in God's grace and friendship, but still imperfectly purified, are indeed assured of their eternal salvation; but after death they undergo purification, so as to achieve the holiness necessary to enter the joy of heaven. The Church gives the name Purgatory to this final purification of the elect, which is entirely different from the punishment of the damned. The Church formulated her doctrine of faith on Purgatory especially at the Councils of Florence and Trent. The tradition of the Church, by reference to certain texts of Scripture, speaks of a cleansing fire: ‘As for certain lesser faults, we must believe that, before the Final Judgment, there is a purifying fire. He who is truth says that whoever utters blasphemy against the Holy Spirit will be pardoned neither in this age nor in the age to come. From this sentence we understand that certain offenses can be forgiven in this age, but certain others in the age to come.’ This teaching is also based on the practice of prayer for the dead, already mentioned in Sacred Scripture: ‘Therefore [Judas Maccabeus] made atonement for the dead, that they might be delivered from their sin.’… The Church also commends almsgiving, indulgences, and works of penance undertaken on behalf of the dead.”

Catholics are taught that the living can help those in purgatory by saying prayers, giving alms and doing good works, which merits are then offered on the behalf of those in purgatory. Requesting a Mass on the behalf of the dead is supposedly the most effective means (usually money is provided to the priest for this service).

What does the Bible say?

[Christ] being the brightness of His glory and the express image of His person, and upholding all things by the word of His power, when He had by Himself purged our sins, sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high. (Hebrews 1:3, NKJV)

But he that lacketh these things is blind, and cannot see afar off, and hath forgotten that he was purged from his old sins. (2 Peter 1:9, KJV)

Since Christ died to purge our sins, there is no need for a purgatory. Additionally, Scripture says that when we die, we go to be immediately with the Lord and not in a place of purging (Luke 23:43; Philippians 1:23-24; 2 Corinthians 5:8).