Do people really think this is GOOD news?

From R.C. Sproul's chapter in Preaching the Cross:

The Roman (Catholic) view of justification starts with baptism. The benefits that accrue from baptism can be lost by committing mortal sin, but they can be recovered by penance. The regained justification lasts until another mortal sin is committed, and the cycle repeats. According to the Roman view, a believer's destiny is determined by the purity of his heart at the time of his death. Even if the believer does not die in a state of impenitent mortal sin, there may be impurities on the soul, necessitating purgatory until the impurities are cleansed...

The soul of the believer may be in purgatory for only a week if he or she is near to sainthood, but more likely the believer will remain there for several hundred years -- perhaps even two million, three million, or four million years -- until, in that place of purging, the believer is so cleansed from impurities that finally, when God looks at him or her, he sees an inherent righteousness."

According to Sproul, all this is presented in the most recent Roman Catholic catechism.

I can't imagine hearing worse news than this. The Church dealt with this bad news 2000 years ago in Acts 15, a passage I'll have the privilege of preaching on this Sunday. Their conclusion:

"Now, therefore, why are you putting God to the test by placing a yoke on the neck of the disciples that neither our fathers nor we have been able to bear? But we believe that we will be saved through the grace of the Lord Jesus, just as they will."

In other words: when Jesus said, 'It is finished!', He meant it.

Now that is good news!