JVI-873 SeptOct'03 PT Mag - Jack Van Impe Ministries

Years ago, Dr. Jerry
Falwell and I were
both members of the
Baptist Bible Fellowship
under the leadership and
guidance of the powerful
leader, Dr. G. B.Vick who
was also my pastor.
At our national
convention held in
Jacksonville, Florida, Dr.Wendell
Zimmerman, the keynote speaker, began
the week-long gathering of ministers
from around the nation with one of the
most shocking statements a Baptist leader
ever made. He said,“Our Catholic friends
have a place called purgatory and I wish
we Baptists had such a place to purify us,
because God knows we need more holiness
within our ranks.”
In recent days, a book crossed my desk
documenting the fact that for over 100
years, and even to the present moment,
a teaching has infiltrated scores of
Protestant churches that entails more
suffering, and for a much longer period
of time, than the “purgatory” of the
Catholic faith.
Even though I had read over 10,000
volumes in my lifetime, I had never heard
of such a theory until this book was sent
to me entitled: The Rod,by J. D. Faust. In
my new video entitled, The Protestant
Purgatory,I deal with this 400-page
volume extensively. Here are a few of
the opinions and quotes it contains.
Dr. George W. Dollar, author of A
History of Fundamentalism in America,
who promotes the book states:“God’s
going to send all the wicked, lazy, unprofitable
Christians … to outer darkness for
1,000 years and there shall be a gnashing
of teeth.”
Watchman Nee warns:“To lose the
crown is to lose Kingdom entrance.”
W. F. Roadhouse (1875-1951) and
D. M. Panton (1870-1955) both declared:
“Christians (who do not repent before
they die) will be briefly punished at the
judgment seat and then excluded from
Christ’s future 1,000-year kingdom.”
Panton openly taught that some
Christians who miss the millennium will
be temporarily punished in the fiery
underworld according to their works.
Paul Rader, founder of the Great
Tabernacle in Chicago, said:“…
Everything that has to do with the thousand
years must meet the most terrific
fires of testing. Only that which can pass
through the fiery test at the judgment
seat will be admitted into this thousand
years of Millennial splendor.”
To me this teaching is nothing more
or less than a Protestant Purgatory.
Nevertheless, as wrong as this material is,
some 300 religious leaders, named in the
book, and some for whom I preached,
proclaimed this doctrine for over 100
years in America and Canada.
J. D. Faust in his book, The Rod again
writes — and personally I believe this
teaching to be in total error: “Christians
are warned about the danger of being
temporarily ‘hurt’ by this Lake of Fire ….”
He continues:“The fires of the underworld
are real and terrible and the disobedient
Christian that does not repent
in time may temporarily experience these
fires … for 1,000 years.”
He adds,“The underworld is the dark
realm in the heart of the earth that the
Lord uses as a prison until after the millennium.
It is under the earth. It is the
same as hell or outer darkness, and all
unfaithful Christians will be imprisoned
in this underworld until after the millennium,
or after the thousand years. The
suffering there will be according to
works. There will be differing degrees
of chastisement.”
David Reagan calls this teaching “a sort
of Protestant Purgatory.”
The Catholic church has been dishonored
Jack Van Impe Ministries January/February 2004
Jack Van Impe 3
Every man’s
work shall be
made manifest:
for the day
shall declare
it, because it
shall be
revealed by
fire; and the
fire shall try
every man’s
work of what
sort it is. If
any man’s work
abide which
he hath built
thereupon, he
shall receive
a reward. If
any man’s
work shall
be burned,
he shall suffer
loss: but he
himself shall be
saved; yet so
as by fire.