The Bible Provocateur
The Bible Provocateur
LIVE DISCUSSION: Knowing the Terror of the Lord (Part 3 of 3)
What if the most dangerous lie is the one that tells you there’s still time later? We tackle the claim head-on: there is no purgatory. That isn’t a scare line; it’s a biblical conviction that reframes urgency, clarity, and the way we carry the gospel into a weary world. We move from the comfort of soft faith into the grit of watchfulness, calling Christians to wake up, pray, and speak plainly about repentance and hope in Christ.
We contrast a sentimental, hand-wringing portrait of God with the sovereign Lord of Scripture—King, supreme, and good. That shift changes everything. If God commands repentance, then evangelism is not a hobby; it’s obedience. We look to Acts 3 for ground under our feet: repent and be converted, that sins may be blotted out, that times of refreshing may come from the Lord’s presence. And we press the logic further: if heaven holds Christ until the restoration of all things, purgatory cannot stand without collapsing into universalism. Scripture offers no such path.
We also face a hard question with pastoral honesty: is hell fair? The common assumption that sin stops at death doesn’t fit the biblical pattern. Rebellion continues where repentance is refused, and justice is not cruelty but truth applied. Yet this is not a cold message. We linger over God’s mercy, His generosity, and the precious death of His saints. Assurance grows, not from wishful thinking, but from a Savior who draws sinners with cords of love and holds them fast. From there, we turn our platforms—yes, even social media—into tools for a clear, compassionate call: turn from sin and turn to Christ now.
If this conversation stirred you, share it with someone who needs hope. Subscribe for more thoughtful, Scripture-centered talks, and leave a review to help others find the show. What’s one step you’ll take today to live with holy urgency?
BE PROVOKED AND BE PERSUADED!
Shall not hide the word of God from any of you. It is our responsibility to share the whole counsel of God. I'm just saying what the Bible is teaching and saying. My point once again, there's no purgatory. If you betray Christ, there is no purgatory. There's no purging in the afterlife of what you did in this life. If you don't repent, if you don't submit, there is no remedy that you can seize hold on after you die. Otherwise, what would be the sense of urgency now? Christians, we have been soft for many years. But I sense that we're going into hard times. And the way we were doing things up to this point, I don't see how we can survive going into hard times outside of the fact that I know the outcome of God and his church. This is not good news for the wicked. But if it gets in your mind and if it affects you, then it should motivate you to go out and get people to turn around and turn to Christ. To turn from sin and turn to Christ. Where is your sense of urgency? This is a message for me, too. I'm not just picking on all of you. It's for us all. It's for us all. Excuse me, were warned. You see how many times God's people were warned and they didn't heed. I'm telling you now, believers, get ready. Get ready. Get up on that watchtower and watch and pray. Because we are facing a very, very critical time in our existence. And for many, many decades, for many, many decades, we have experienced ease. We have not, for the most part, here, especially in the Western world, we have not had to suffer for our faith. So if somebody threatens taking our guns or all this other kind of nonsense, we think it's the end of the world. Oh my gosh, they're gonna take my guns. It's Armageddon. I'm not gonna have a gun. I need guns so I can not have to shoot it. You know, we're all caught up in the silliness of politics, the silliness of technology, the silliness of social media. Although I do think that in all these spectrums, in this whole thing, there is a way for us to use it. I'm on social media right now talking to you. But I'm talking to you about Christ. One thing that I know is that all things on this earth are for us to use. And Christians, we have a huge opportunity to use this platform to reach the lost. And we should do whatever we can to maximize our reach. And most importantly, it's not just about maximizing our reach, but it's about what we maximize our reach with. What are we using to reach people with? We need to persuade men to turn from their sins and turn to Christ now because it's a command by Christ, not an option. It's not an option, it's a command, it's a demand. And the picture that modern Christianity paints is that God is up in heaven, he's laid out this plan of salvation, and he's up there gripping his hands and just with his eyes closed, hoping that you will make a good choice for Christ and come to him. He's just hoping and desiring that you will come. Please, please come to me. I love you so much. Please come to me. I need you. Please use your free will and come to me so I can save you. I've done everything I can do. I can't do anything more. It's up to you now. This is the gospel that people are preaching today. That's the painting or the image or the picture of God, and that is an idol and not the real God of heaven. The God I know is sovereign. He's King Supreme, Lord over all. Not this whimpering, whimpering God that Christianity today has been painting, who is just desiring and hoping and waiting for you to come to him. Like a kidnapped child, and uh, you know, of a and the and the parent is God, and the God is like his his kidnap, his child is kidnapped, and he doesn't know where the child is, and he's and he's hopeless and doesn't know what to do, and I I I have the money to pay a ransom, but I can't find them, and I don't know where they are. This is this is what is wrong with Christianity today. That is not the God of the Bible. I don't know what God you guys are worshiping, but that is not the God of the Bible. The God I know, He does whatever He pleases, and whatever He does, He does for one reason and one reason only. His sovereign pleasure. Pleasure. Now you might look at that and go, Well, that doesn't seem right. That doesn't seem right. I don't think God should be doing that. If I were God, I would do things different. Christians, sometimes the things you say out loud should stay inside. Some of us should not let our inner voice come outside. I know I'm being a little dramatic, but I want to bring this idea home. Stop dealing with fantasies. Our God is supreme and sovereign and king. He is not, he is commanding, not asking. He's telling you to ask. He's not asking you, you ask. You need to ask, you need to seek, you need to find. He knows where everybody is. He's not lost. You are. So what are you gonna do? Because whatever you're gonna do, you better do it now because there is no purgatory for those people that you refuse to go share the gospel with and witness to and tell them that they're gonna die and perish in an unforgiving hell forever. Now, somebody says, Well, hell is not fair. I don't know why God would send somebody to hell. That's not fair. Eternal, eternal hell. I did a post earlier. I'm gonna say it again right now. You're gonna die. You're going to die. Every one of us is going to die. Some of you may go, this is a morbid topic. Not if you're a believer, it is not. I know my Lord, and I know my Lord and Savior. I know where I'm going. I know where I'm going. I know. I've been assured, I've been promised to by him. So this conversation is not morbid. Let me tell you what God says about the death of his people. He says, precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his saints. Precious. God says that precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his saints. Does that sound morbid to you? No, it makes me anxious to go. I'm ready to go. I know when I get to that doorway, it's going to be scary. Death's dark doorway is going to be very scary. But it's going to take, and I'm going to, and I hope, but it's going to take a significant degree of faith to have no fear. But I know there's going to be a tinge of fear. I know at least. Because there's always a part of us that thinks that we don't deserve it because we don't. But we can rely on his goodness, Christians. He's a good and merciful God. He's not some impersonable, he's not some, you know, impersonal, cold, rigid, law-mongering being. That's not him. He's charitable. He's loving. He's generous. He's benevolent. He's forgiving. He wants what is best for us. He wants to provide for us. He wants to be our banner. I know I'm going long right now. But I have to. I have to. And the Lord stops me, you'll know. But I can tell you right now, there ain't no purgatory. No purgatory. I want to take you somewhere else. One more verse. Acts chapter three. Acts chapter three. Acts chapter three. Luke tells us in verse nineteen. Let me start with verse eighteen. But those things which God foretold by the mouth of all his prophets, that the Christ would suffer, would suffer, he has thus fulfilled. Verse nineteen. That your sins may be blotted out, so that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord. I'm going to read this again. I'm going to read 20 and 21 together. And then I'm going to make a few more comments. And then I'm going to go to bed. Verse 19, I'm sorry, 19 and 20 and 21. Repent, therefore, and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out, so that times, so that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord. And that he may send Jesus Christ, who was priest to you before, whom heaven must receive until the times of restoration of all things, which God has spoken by the mouth of all his holy prophets since the world began. So, in keeping with this theme of there being no purgatory, no such thing as a purgatory. The Bible doesn't teach purgatory. The Catholics are wrong. We read here, excuse me, we read here in verse 21 that heaven must receive Christ until the times of restoration of all things, which God has spoken by the mouth of all his prophets since the world began. Christ will remain in heaven until the restoration of all things. I'm going to explain to you as best I can and as articulately as I possibly can. Hear me out. If heaven must receive Christ until the times of the restoration of all things, that means that if there was a such thing as a purgatory, which there is not, I want to make that clear, there is no purgatory. Purgatory is a lie. No such thing as purgatory. It's a heresy of the Catholic Church. It's a lie. If you want to quote me on something, quote that. Now, but if heaven, if heaven is going to hold Christ until the restoration of all things, and if there was a purgatory that the Bible taught, then that means that that means two things. That means that Christ can't return until all those who enter purgatory leave or escape it or get out. You understand? In other words, if if heaven must receive Christ until the restitution or until the restoration of all things, and if purgatory is a true doctrine, then that means that Christ cannot come back until everyone who is in purgatory is purged from purgatory. Which also means that every single person who goes into purgatory eventually will come out, which also means further that there is nobody who would ever remain in hell. That salvation is universal. That all people will eventually be saved. If you hold to the idea and the belief of purgatory, these are the things that you need to believe. This is the natural outflow of logic from the doctrine of purgatory, which is a lie and is not true and is not taught in the Bible at all by anyone. So now I want to address one last objection to those who would say that hell is unfair, that a place of eternal or everlasting torment is unfair. I have one last remark to make for those who would cast that dispersion on the doctrine of hell. If a person who is impenitent, who refuses to embrace Christ and to come to Christ, and decides to live their whole life like a child of hell, like Satan spawn, agnostic, atheist, science of mind, Zoroastrianism, all these other things. If someone dies rejecting Christ and choosing to remain in their sin in spite of the call to repent and to love God with all your heart, mind, and soul, and to love your neighbor as yourself, and to submit to Christ as your Lord and Savior. All those who reject that in this life, if they die, when they die, they're going to hell. But some of you will say it's unfair the way hell is described, not by me, by Christ. Where the worm dies not. Where the fire is not quenched. On and on. But you'll say, that's not fair. That's not, that's not, you know, a person has only committed so many signs, so many sins, no matter how long they live, there's a limit to how much sin they actually committed. So at some point, they have paid the crime. No, they didn't. I'm going to tell you why. You are assuming that when they go to hell, that their sin stops. Their sin doesn't stop. The same mandate that they had on earth being to submit to Christ and to love God with all your heart, mind, and soul, and to love your neighbor as yourself, that mandate and that requirement goes with them when they go to hell. Does that make sense? In other words, sin, the sin of a sinner doesn't stop because a sinner went to hell. No more than a criminal stops being a criminal just because they go to jail. We've heard horror stories about people in prison. Their nature doesn't change. I'm not talking about the innocent ones. I'm talking about the ones that are serious criminals. Their nature doesn't change. Sinners don't change when they go to heaven. When they go to hell, when they perish. They don't. When the rich man went to hell, he asked for Abraham to send Lazarus to give him a dip of a tip of a little bit of cold water to put on his tongue. He asked for somebody to go from the dead and to preach to his family. He didn't ask for redemption. He didn't ask for an appointment to see Christ or to see one of the apostles or any other saint that he might have known. There was no desire to get out of his torment. He only sought to have his torment eased. He didn't seek to get out of it. He didn't ask for mercy and grace. The mercy that he asked for was for Lazarus to put cold, a drop of cold water on his tongue. So you see, when a sinner dies, dying is natural because of the fall. It became natural. So when a person dies, they go to hell, but they don't stop sinning just because they're in hell. So it's the sin that they have while they're there that continues the everlasting nature of their torment. Does that make sense? The call to repent still is binding. The call to love God is still binding. The call to love your neighbor is still binding. The call to obey God's law is still binding. Now a lot of you argue with me all the time about man's free will. They still have the same will that they had before they died after they died. They have the same exact will. Nothing changed. God didn't take anything from them. No one who goes to hell, God took nothing from them. He took nothing from them. However, what I will tell you is that God was never under any obligation to give them anything. God is under no obligation to add anything or to give anything to man. If grace is grace, that means unmerited favor, which means that God is not forced or obligated to give it. If he withholds it and you continue in sin, God is not sinner because he didn't give you grace that he's not obligated to give you. And this goes back to what I'm saying about God being sovereign. God is not the God that you guys paint him out to be. Not all of you. I'm speaking generally. Christians, we don't know the extent to which our thankfulness needs to go. You know what I mean? I went really long tonight. And I was happy to do so. Because I love God's people. And I love God's word. And more importantly, I love the Lord Jesus Christ and what he's done for me. Because I know full well what it means to be a sinner and to seize on everything that is ungodly and to expect everything that is ungodly. For some reason, God arrested me, altered my will, and brought me to Him with the cords and bonds of love, and I am thankful. I'm glad I was arrested and subdued and taken captive. And I know all of you feel the same. I know you do. And if you do, you have been given significant currency. Go and put that currency to the exchangers and bring back gifts to throw at the feet of our Lord, expressing gratitude, gratefulness, and thankfulness for what he's done for us. And then we will start to get to know what it really means to be in service to him. Yes, to bear fruit. So, Christians. That being said, I want to thank you for your kind attention for those who hung in there and listened to me babble. And I have one last thing to say to you. Of all the things that I've said to you tonight, I want to ask. You to be provoked or be persuaded by these things. May God bless all of you. Have a great night until the next time. God bless.