Page 53 - History of Christianity I - Student Textbook

Study Section 10: The Church Leaves Her First Love

10.1 Connect

If you are married, you probably remember how excited you were when you found your first love.
You remember her walking down the istle and vowing to love her the rest of your life. But as time
passes, sometimes that initial love can wane. It’s like the excitement you felt when you first
accepted Christ as your Savior and fully realized that you were forgiven. You probably were
ecstatic! But as time passes, your love for Christ and service to Him can become mundane. In a
sense, this is exactly what happened to the church in this period of history. But it was even worse.
The church played the harlot with the world. False teachings emanated from powerful popes and were
endorsed as the doctrines of the church. The church of the Middle Ages did not even resemble the church that
Christ established at Pentecost. Yet through this dark time, some remained faithful to Christ and paid the price.
Let’s see how this all plays out….

10.2 Objectives

1. The student will be able to describe the doctrine of purgatory and biblically demonstrate that it is a
false belief.

2. The student will be able to describe how scholasticism came to the forefront of the Middle Ages,
superseding the doctrines of theology.

3. The student should be able to name a couple of individuals who stood against the powerful church and
sought to return to Biblical teachings of Christ.

10.3 The Doctrine of Purgatory - 1274

Purgatory, while not taught in the Bible, became a Church doctrine at the Second Council of
Lyon in 1274. The council declared the following:

[I]f they die truly repentant in charity before they have made satisfaction by worthy fruits of
penance for (sins) committed and omitted, their souls are cleansed after death by purgatorical
or purifying punishments, as Brother John has explained to us. And to relieve punishments of
this kind, the offerings of the living faithful are of advantage to these, namely, the sacrifices of Masses, prayers,
alms, and other duties of piety, which have customarily been performed by the faithful for the other faithful
according to the regulations of the Church. (https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Purgatory)

According to the Catholic Encyclopedia, Purgatory is “a place or condition of
temporal punishment for those who, departing this life in God's grace, are not
entirely free from venial faults, or have not fully paid the satisfaction due to their
transgressions.” To summarize, in Catholic theology Purgatory is a place that a
Christian’s soul goes to after death to be cleansed of the sins that had not been
fully satisfied during life. Is this doctrine of Purgatory in agreement with the Bible?
Absolutely not!

Jesus died to pay the penalty for all of our sins (Romans 5:8). Isaiah 53:5 declares, “But He was pierced for our
transgressions, He was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was upon Him, and by
His wounds we are healed.” Jesus suffered for our sins so that we could be delivered from suffering. To say that
we must also suffer for our sins is to say that Jesus’ suffering was insufficient. To say that we must atone for our
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