The Global Protestant Nation, Rescuing Its Multitude of Souls from Purgatory

By Richard J. O'Brien

According to the Global Protestant Nation, ‘once you are saved, you are always saved’, thus declaring purgatory a myth. This idea came from of the leader of the Protestant Nation Martin Luther, not the Bible. Divine revelation says we must atone for our sins in purgatory before we ascend into heaven. So if the Protestant Nation doesn’t believe in purgatory, where are the protestant souls?

In the 16th century, the reformers discounted the Apostles' Creed with its Communion of Saints. In the process, they forsook God's liberality, his after-death mercy to the souls suffering in purgatory. They did this for themselves, and for all their followers to come, by their self-made-up teaching, declared on their own authority and not on God's - that they would henceforth be guided in their faith by... 'Sola Scriptura' (Scripture Alone). So God gave them over to their stubborn hearts to follow their own designs.

Thus began the protestant exile in purgatory. (Compare with Psalm 81:12, 13)

Read Richard J. O’Brien’s captivating historic account about how Martin Luther misled the souls of the Global Protestant Nation, and how you can help to set this right.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Richard J. O'Brien
• Release date: Sep 17, 2012
• ISBN: 9781301080007

Richard J. O'Brien

Richard J. O'Brien lives in New Jersey. He served as an infantryman in the 101st Airborne Division,  attended Rutgers University, and holds an MFA in Creative Writing from Fairleigh Dickinson University. As a boy, Richard accidentally slow-boiled his tropical fish one winter day when he left the tank heater set too high before going off to school. He's happy to report that the two kittens in his life are alive and well. 

Book preview

As the author I report with dismay, my findings of widespread fear among Protestant clergy and laity. This is a fear, at times at or below the point of dread, that the Reformers, God bless them, gave sincere but false witness, (deeply influenced by Satan), to your ancestors, 500 years ago, when they 'denied' God's purgatory, and 'dissuaded' their followers from praying for their dead.

Jesus foretold such events when He told Peter (and all mankind) that Satan desires to sift you all like wheat. (Luke 22:31)

Yet, while the Reformers largely succeeded in stopping the prayers, their betrayed faithful followers, nevertheless, continued to go to purgatory at death, and this to atone to God for the unfinished punishment still due to His Justice for their sins. "For reparation for sin is ALWAYS necessary, and if we do not do it voluntarily, God will arrange for it." (Eltz 2005, page 163)

And so it is that millions of Protestant souls, but not all, thought to have been in heaven, have actually been in purgatory, misled by the 'no purgatory' and 'heaven immediate' empty teachings of their churches.

For, while at individual judgment, Jesus forgives humble and contrite souls the guilt of their sins, and absolves them from the vengeance of hell, they still need to make up in purgatory for the punishments due to the sins they had not finished nor even started to repair in life. (Catherine of Genoa, Saint, Purgation and Purgatory: the Spiritual Dialogue, Chapter 4, Paulist Press 1979)

Even though the Reformers and their leader-followers thought they were doing right when they discarded the 'communion of saints', over-time they wrongly re-shaped God's Law of Salvation, profaning, through slogans, what He had made holy.

The dread I find held by nearly all Protestants, is that, right from the start, their loved ones have been, and still are, suffering in purgatory without help from them or their churches. They are not being taught this faithful witness, or aided in overcoming the corruption by their leaders, whose God-given responsible charge is: To help their people enter heaven; and in this, they are, nearly all, to one degree or another, deficient.

God's purgatory is not cruel; it's Just; but failing in the duty ‘to love and pray for your neighbors’ in purgatory and elsewhere every day is cruel and Unjust.

This book shows you how to remedy these, and other out of sorts Salvation matters, with the Lord.

Never give up on your soul. God’s mercy is greater than your sins. Love Him. Even a Lord, don’t let me go to hell!, in the final moments of your life may be enough to save you, so much does He love you.

Freedom… freedom… freedom… to pray for the souls in purgatory… together in your churches… audibly in communal prayer.

Illustration 1

Martin Luther, Religious Reformer 1483–1546

"Luther himself expresses the heavenly image of his spirit. At the same time, the image reveals his frail face. 1520"

Engraving by Lucas Cranach, the Elder www.mun.ca/rels/hrollmann/reform/pics/people/monk/html

Chapter 1

WHEN THINGS WENT WRONG

It had to be. For as near as could be told, in the billion-member Protestant Nation, only some 10%, or a hundred million or so of its people, to one degree or another, were mercifully praying for their dead.

The Global Protestant Nation—Rescuing Its Multitude of Souls from Purgatory opens the movement to free them all– Martin Luther, the 16th century Christian faith reformer and his followers– from exile-prolonged in purgatory, expressly the place the Reverend Luther declared ‘doesn’t exist’.

For as it was, in 1517, Albert of Brandenburg, the 27 year-old new archbishop of the German Catholic Archdiocese of Mainz, needed funds to pay off the debts he incurred in obtaining his high church and civil offices. He received authorization from Pope Leo X to solicit donations from the faithful, funds that, upon completion of certain prayers and good works, would merit indulgences or special relief for the souls of their loved ones in purgatory, hastening their release to heaven.

Half the funds would go to Albert to pay off his debts; the other half to the Pope to help reconstruct the crumbling (and no longer safe) twelve centuries-old ‘greatest church in Christendom’– the Basilica of Saint Peter in Rome.

Father Luther, already disturbed with the worldliness of some of his fellow clergymen, had had no problem with the Catholic doctrines on purgatory and indulgences. But the aggressive and seeming ‘sale’ of indulgences to the German peoples, especially by the monk preacher, Johann Tetzel, who had been appointed to ‘preach the indulgence’, scandalized him.

In protest, Luther wrote and disseminated his Disputation on the Power and Efficacy of Indulgences, the famous ‘95 Theses’. A series of missteps on both sides then breached the relationship between Luther and the Catholic Church.

The momentous Protestant Reformation followed, that included among other things, Luther’s newly acquired denials of indulgences and purgatory, and prayers for the dead. (Note: See Appendix F for a summary on Indulgences.)

Luther and his company had subscribed to purgatory’s purpose– the after-death perfecting of faithful but imperfect souls for perfect heaven. All their lives, they and their ancestors had prayed and made sacrifices to God for their dead, to help them pay down their debts to divine justice. They had believed, too, in the Bible verse: Nothing defiled may enter heaven. Soul-perfecting purgatory gave them hope. (Compare with Revelation 21:27)

Luther’s ‘abolishment of purgatory’ though, for many, defeated this ancient piety. Even so, as we’ll soon see, purgatory continued to receive and perfect faithful souls for heaven, as God created it to do until the end of time.

Purgatory (Hades) is a transitory province of heaven’s domain. At the end of the world, Jesus will absolve the souls there of all remaining punishments. Purgatory (Hades) will then be destroyed, as the Bible says, when the angels cast it into hell’s lake of fire. (See Revelation 20:13-14) (See also Appendix A, Accounting for the Dead: Sheol, Hades and Purgatory)

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Purgatory, or the place by any other name for the perfection of what Newman called ‘earth-stained souls’, is of God. It belongs to no single group, but rather to all. The Protestants, numerous as they are there, form but a minority of its population. From the Garden of Eden to now, and until the end of the world, the mystery of purgatory is. All who enter heaven do so on its cleansing passageways, except for the innocent, except for the martyrs, and except for those rare individuals who, while on earth, made full restitution to their neighbors, and full satisfaction to God, for their sins. Those who foolishly live and die in mortal sin, who don’t beg forgiveness from the Lord with their lips, and with their hearts and souls, doom themselves to hell.

Gaining or losing Salvation is no small matter.

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This work is the discernment of years of study, prayer, deliberation and discovery. I’ve prayed for the dead since childhood, but thirty-plus years ago, when I felt their tug at my heart, I accelerated prayers and sacrifices for certain of their souls in purgatory: those my family or I had sinned against in life; souls who had wronged us or those we love; ancestors, family, friends, faith leaders; God-parents of my family members; the children we God-parent; teachers, classmates, caregivers, benefactors; my U. S. Marine Corps comrades-in-arms who gave their lives in the service of our country; the most forlorn soul in purgatory… and others. Before long, my prayers became focused on the Protestant souls.

It had to be; for as near as could be told, in the billion member Protestant Nation, only some 10%, or a hundred million or so of its people, to one degree or another, were mercifully praying for their dead. They included former Catholics who typically pray for their dead, Anglicans, Episcopalians, and certain Lutherans.

Yet they, and many others, doubted the self-assumed power of the Reformers:

1) to abolish purgatory– (created by the Lord for souls to complete the atonement still owed to God for sins at death;) and

2) to terminate prayers for the dead– (prayers that help speed their souls suffering in purgatory to get to heaven.)

Protestant churches: Hear this and tremble: in negating prayers for the dead, you and your churches sin in your hearts against yourselves, and against your living and dead neighbors; and you disaffirm the Lord’s command that His temple be called– A HOUSE OF PRAYER FOR ALL PEOPLES! (Isaiah 56:7)

Happily, there are people of good will from outside your nation that, in addition to praying for their own, pray in general for the souls of others. Saint Bernardine of Sienna (d. 1444) tells us God gave the Blessed Virgin Mary, spiritual Mother of the souls in purgatory, a certain dominion over such prayers. Mary uses them to help all the suffering souls, some more than others, in perfect accord with the will of God. (Ursuline Nun 2005:100) (See also Agreda 1978 abridgement: 791-794). While nearly all Protestants abandon their faithful dead at death, the Blessed Virgin Mary never does; instead, she uses the general prayers she receives from others in part to hasten the release of Protestant souls… . But what does this say of you, non-praying Christian bodies, that your faithful but imperfect souls in purgatory can only hope non-Protestants would pray for them… when it is you who are obligated?

There are millions of Protestant souls in purgatory whose names God never hears called out in prayer. They include your own faithful dead– greatly loved by the Lord– souls making reparation to him for the still un-atoned-for sins of their lives. It’s a wounding to all concerned– to God, for, by not offering after-death prayers and sacrifices to Him in the communion of saints, you stay the liberality of His hand to assist your dead; to your suffering dead, deprived of your justly-owed relief; and to the survivors– you– the omissioners, you who don’t, out of justice, pause to pray for your dead.

And your churches are set in incredible contradiction to the spiritual justice God demands of them for His beloved souls in purgatory– by His commandment, ‘love thy neighbor’; by His covenant, ‘the communion of saints’; and by His communal prayer, the ‘Our Father’. I came to believe somebody had to tell living Protestant Christians to help me, and to help others who care, pray for their dead. It was then I felt a pull from your souls in purgatory!

I’m sure it was from them… it was so long and so strong. It was as if they were telling me, in the words of King David: Look on our right hand and see– there is no one who takes notice of us… no one who cares for our souls. (Compare with Psalm 142:5) They pulled at my heart with their hopes, and in docility I consented.

There was no music. There were no thrills. And this is how I became ‘somebody’, friend of the Protestant souls in purgatory. For they were troubled and abandoned, as sheep without a shepherd. Your churches were, and still are, ignorant of their plight. Ignorant, too, of your plight, the plight of their badly taught flocks on earth.

There is a purgatory! Blest Protestant souls are there in great numbers, redressing their forgiven but un-atoned-for sins! You alone can help them! Learn that prayer for the dead is a spiritual work of mercy; and that, blessedly, at one and the same time, offering such prayer helps your souls in purgatory,– and helps you, too– atone for sin. But Jesus suffered for our sins, didn’t he? So for Protestants, there’s no purgatory– only ‘heaven-immediate upon death– guaranteed!' It is ‘ONCE SAVED– ALWAYS SAVED’, is it not? No, it is not! For that false witness lulls legions of Protestants into living with their God-given consciences dangerously ‘turned off.' Make no mistake about Jesus. He showed purgatory to the trembling Saint Faustina (d.1938), she whom he called His Apostle of Divine Mercy, and told her: My mercy does not want this [purgatory]… but justice demands it! (Compare with Kowalska, 2004 (Diary #20))

Consider in Colossians 1:24 how Paul rejoices in completing ‘what is lacking in the sufferings of Christ’. But what is lacking in Christ’s sufferings? On Jesus’ part? For your Redemption? Nothing.

On your part? For your Salvation? Saint Paul says– ‘you must share in the sufferings of Christ’. (Compare with Romans 8:17)

In the Redemption, by His passion and death, Jesus made entrance into heaven possible for faithful souls by giving satisfaction to divine justice for the original sin of our first parents. For while God gave the contrite Adam & Eve animal skins to cover their nakedness as a sign He forgave them the guilt of their disobedience, He nonetheless banished them to earth where, for over 900 years, they suffered the punishment of their sin.

Know that, before any of us can enter perfect heaven, in addition to the free-to-us gift of Jesus’ Redemption, we must have: 1) before death - repented of the sins of our lives; and 2) atoned for them. The atonement is accomplished through prayers and suffrages– our own– and those others may have made, or may yet make, in our behalf. Yes, we must have given satisfaction to God (repentance), and reparation to our neighbors (the victims of our sins). We must do this in person, or vicariously (if this doesn’t make matters worse), either on earth or in purgatory, or both. (See Glossary for definitions of repent and suffrages)

Like our first parents, we, too, must atone for our sins. Of such is God’s ‘narrow way’– the communion of saints. Listen to the words of Jesus: ‘Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the Kingdom of Heaven, but only the one who does the will of My Father in heaven.’ ‘Everyone who listens to My words but does not act on them will meet with ruin. ’ (Compare with Matthew 7:21, 24-27)

Most Protestants wrongly trust that they and their loved ones go straight to heaven at death, and have no need of prayers. Yet, almost every one of their faithful dead are in purgatory, burdened by the impediment of their un-repaired sins, uniquely abandoned by their own families and churches, and left to get to heaven the long and hard way– on their own.

The reformers began this anguish five hundred years ago, when, based on human wisdom, they denied the existence of God’s purgatory, and discarded their ancient faith practice of praying for their dead. Saint Paul warns us about this, teaching that ‘Human wisdom is foolishness in the sight of God.’ (Compare with 1 Corinthians 3:19).

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As I witness further on, faulty human wisdom is a moral hazard that endangers and imperils souls.

Illustration 2

The Passage from Sin to Grace

The black base of the dome stands for the earth and its imperfections. The rising purple octagon denotes purgatory, the perfecting intermediate state connecting both shapes and states of the spirit. The white circular top represents heaven and its perfection. This illustration of the octagonal lantern dome of the 14th century Monastery of Santa Maria de Vallbono, Spain, thus depicts the passage from sin to grace, as well as God’s laws of Salvation and the communion of saints.

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Throughout the years of involvement