LARobert, i appreciate your feedback and i am very happy that i am able to discuss this with a brother in Christ from the Catholic Church because most of my close friends have fallen away from God. i have the people at my church but what i really needed was a Catholic to talk to about this so i really appreciate your post. however most of my post was about Jon saying that being assured of salvation by only believing in Jesus is blasphemy. honestly that was the only thing that moved me to comment.

i have read much scripture. in fact, everything i had written up there was from what i had read in scripture. i found it somewhat insulting when you felt you needed to tell me that i would understand more than John 3:16 if i read through scripture because i made many references to scripture in my post and you made none in yours. i made the refernces even from different books and even some exact verses. i may not have had exact verses every time but i know as well as you that they are in there.

i read the verses that Jon posted on his article but they do not confirm the existence of purgatory. the verse in 2 Maccabees is referring to those before Jesus and they, therefore, could not be purified by His perfect blood. and the verses from Matthew do not prove it either because in his first reference, he talks about how Jesus talks about the last penny needing to be paid. But hasnt Jesus paid the last penny? with his death, sin and death was conquered and ,therefore, how can our price not be paid? and the one after that just talks about the unforgivable sin and how it cant be forgiven in either life. that doesnt prove purgatory because its just saying that they wont even be shown mercy in the afterlife, not necessarily whether or not purgatory exists. but i digress, whether or not purgatory exists doesnt change the fact that you and i believe in Jesus. so even if it does, it still means we are going to be with God in Heaven for eternity. i guess i shouldnt have named this forum “the existence of purgatory”. but anyway, i hope you will share your beliefs with me on purgatory again. whether or not we come to an agreement, this is a good way to keep me in the faith. i have been going through some hard times lately and its been hard to keep the faith so discussing views on this has been very helpful. thank you again for your reply, brother in Christ. i hope to hear from you soon.