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Date:         Tue, 29 Sep 1992 14:56:00 EST
From:         "DRCV06::GRAHAM" <GRAHAM%DRCV06.decnet@DRCVAX.AF.MIL>
Subject:      Thoughts on sanctification and Purgatory.

The idea has been put forth several times that Purgatory is a place where
sanctification is completed.   It has been stated that people must complete
paying for their sins, this has been called sanctification.  This is not
sanctification.

A quick tour through the New Testament looking for this word will reveal
what it relates to and how it is accomplished.

In John 17:17, Jesus has just prayed that His followers, specifically, His
disciples, are not of the world, then He asks the Father to sanctify them
through His truth, and says "Your word is truth."  No works there, no
pennance for sin.

In Acts 20:32, Paul, speaking to the Ephesian elders, desires for them that
they be built up by God to take their place with the sanctified.  Again, it
is God who is doing the sanctifying.  Sanctification is no more a work of
man's will than justification was.

In Acts 26:18, in making his devense, Paul is relating his conversion, and,
quoting the words of Jesus, says that part of his mission is to bring
salvation that will  open their eyes, rescue them from Satan's power,
forgive their sins and place them with the sanctified by inheritance.  So,
perhaps sanctification is a normal and expedcted result of the forgiveness
of sins.  You're forgiven, you're sanctified, in God's eyes, at least.

First Corinthians 1, verse 2 tells to whom Paul is writing the letter.  It
is to the members of the church, the called, the sanctified.  Come on now,
no more about purgatory being a tool to sanctify people, it is not.

I don't have much more time, so I won't q uote the next couple of dozen
texts on the subject, but you can see them by looking up the variants of
sanctify in your concordance.

Our title and fitness for heaven are paid in full.  The very notion that we
can do anything to satisfy God or to pay for our sins is ludicrous.

Now, the issue of receiving the results of our sins in our mortal bodies is
completely different.  So long as we live here on earth, we will feel the
results of sin, Adam's and ours.  If we fornicate, we may get AIDS.  If we
be a drunk, we may get Cirrhosis of the liver.  These are of the flesh.
Paul, in 1 Cor. 15, makes it clear that at the second coming we will
receive immortal bodies, those living and those departed will all receive
immortal bodies.  In those bodies, there cannot be any further course for
sin.

Some will say that those who have died in advance of this may be in
purgatory being purged.  Again, the sanctification texts indicate clearly
that we do not sanctify ourselves, and we are not sanctified via pennance
for our sins.  We are sanctified by inheritance, just the same as we become
sons and daughters of god.

Do we then engage in those things that Paul has specifically forbidden?  Of
course not.  We abstain, not because it in any way alters our standing with
God, but because we love Him and want to bring glory to the name of Jesus.

Our works have nothing to do with our predestination, our calling, our
justification, our sanctification or our glorification.  They are part of
God's predetermined plan for us.  All our good works were planned before
the fuondations of the world, Ephesians 2:something.

According to Paul, we are already sanctified, which means set aside.  Any
physical results of our sins will vanish at the last trump, or the grave,
whichever comes to us.

Dan Graham
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