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Raphjd ~

R: [quoting WR:] "or a free gift" -- The Catholic church for centuries used this part to get people to give up their lands to the church with the promise of going to heaven. Nice racket.

It appears that you took this as a reference to a free gift from an individual to the church. That is completely, absolutely, and in all other ways not what I meant.

The phrase "a free gift" was based on Romans 6:23 as rendered in some modern versions such as the New Revised Standard Version: "For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord." It refers /not/ to a gift from an individual to God (or to God's people); it refers instead to the grace of God -- God's free gift of forgiveness and redemption given to the believer.

Some members, and leaders, of the Roman Catholic Church did motivate people to donate money, and land, and other gifts, telling them that the performance of these good works would tend toward the purifications of their souls (or be reckoned toward the account of some deceased relative) and as a result this would decrease the amount of time their souls would spend in purgatory.

The Roman Catholic Church /continues/ to do this, whenever it grants indulgences! (And if you get your hands on a Roman-Catholic-approved Bible less than 40 years old, you will probably be able to find a page that grants an indulgence to the reader who reverently reads the text -- something to the effect of 100-hours of purgatory gets stricken from the reader's record, or whatnot.) I consider purgatory to be an unBiblical concept, and the issuance of "indulgences" rather ridiculous. (And, notice that there's nothing really "free" about an indulgence: it's payment for services rendered! That's part of what's wrong with 'em!) But since that's not the sort of thing I was talking about when I mentioned God's "free gift," I'll leave the subject there.

Yours in Christ,

Waterrock