****Purgatory & God's Mercy

        Purgatory is a controversial subject as most Protestants don't believe in it, the reason being that it's not clearly mentioned in the Bible. The Bible reveals only truths, but it does not mean that what it doesn't reveal has to be false. By the way, after Jesus ascended to heaven, the Gospels were not written right away and the Bible as we know it now did not exist for about half a millennium until the Catholic Church selected the books of writings that were judged to be inspired by God and put them together as one book. The Church relied mainly upon tradition in spreading the gospel. Jesus never told us to rely solely upon any forthcoming book. There were no Bible Christians for another millennium until Protestants broke away from the Church. My personal belief is that purgatory does exist. It is logical that there is a place for sinners to be purified before entering heaven. God's mercy is so great that if we succumb to his mercy, we are instantly saved. We are forgiven, but we still need to pay the price for having offended him. I came across this video on purgatory today. I had heard about Maria Simma, but didn't know much about her. The video gives you a good start on learning about purgatory. I have a feeling that you would want to watch the other videos in the series after seeing this one. I am thinking of getting the book Get Us Out of Here mentioned in the video myself.
       I believe that being detached from the world and longing to see the Lord can contribute to shortening our time in purgatory or help us skip it altogether. Remember the criminal crucified next to Christ who abandoned himself to him, saying "Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom"? The Lord replied, "Amen, I say to you, today you will be with me in Paradise." 
        My three categories. (1) You put yourself completely in God's hands and are ready to go to him at any time; you have a good chance of going straight to heaven. (2) You are reluctant to abandon yourself to him, but get to do it before you die; you are saved, but you'll have to go through purgatory. (3) You choose not to yield to your Savior; you remain separated from him for all eternity. Our best policy is of course to abandon ourselves to him as soon as we can.