The Book of Luke has a very grave warning for Protestants. Luke warns Protestants, particularly professional Protestants, in Luke 12:39-48. It is among Today’s Readings:
Jesus said to his disciples: “Be sure of this: if the master of the house had known the hour when the thief was coming, he would not have let his house be broken into. You also must be prepared, for at an hour you do not expect, the Son of Man will come.” Protestants and Catholics agree that this warning from Jesus must be heeded.
Then Peter said, “Lord, is this parable meant for us or for everyone?” And the Lord replied, “Who, then, is the faithful and prudent steward whom the master will put in charge of his servants to distribute the food allowance at the proper time? Blessed is that servant whom his master on arrival finds doing so. Truly, I say to you, he will put him in charge of all his property.
But if that servant says to himself, ‘My master is delayed in coming,’ and begins to beat the menservants and the maidservants, to eat and drink and get drunk, then that servant’s master will come on an unexpected day and at an unknown hour and will punish the servant severely and assign him a place with the unfaithful.”
Here is where Luke warns Protestants, particularly professional Protestants behind the pulpits, that they will be treated more harshly than the amateur Protestants in the pews: “That servant who knew his master’s will but did not make preparations nor act in accord with His will shall be beaten severely; and the servant who was ignorant of his master’s will but acted in a way deserving of a severe beating shall be beaten only lightly.”
Jesus may be offering a way out to those who are truly “ignorant of his master’s will”. They, “deserving of a severe beating shall only be beaten lightly.”
THE BIG QUESTION: Is the promised punishment permanent or temporary? Are the souls of those who are “beaten lightly” in hell, placed forever in one of the Upper Circles, where they are not as horribly tormented as those sent to be punished in the deeper circles of permanent pain?
Or, and this is a question Professional Protestants hate, are those souls only punished for awhile? Every Professional Protestant who doesn’t want to scare donors away will say, “Well, if they don’t know they are wrong to be in my church, they will only be punished a little while.” By thinking or saying that, they are actually saying “Such souls go to Purgatory for cleansing and will be allowed in Heaven.”
Are Professional Protestants who say, “You won’t be punished forever for being in my schism.” yet teach that there is no such place as Purgatory because it strengthens the claim of credibility by The Only Church Jesus Founded, automatically in the group that is “beaten severely”?
Protestants, both behind the pulpit and in the pews must, when seeing more fully the terrifying meaning of the concluding sentence “Much will be required of the person entrusted with much, and still more will be demanded of the person entrusted with more.” must be quaking in their boots, if they have any sense at all.
Each person on earth is able to understand that Jesus fulfilled the Prophecies and realize that He founded One Church. All may obey its holy teachings. Each of us will be judged accordingly, some more harshly than others.
