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I'm going to use the same source as sock, which is James Akin, who is the head apologist at Catholic Answers or [catholicanswers.com] Here is what he has to say:

The concept of an after-death purification from sin and the consequences of sin is also stated in the New Testament in passages such as 1 Corinthians 3:11–15 and Matthew 5:25–26, 12:31–32.

The doctrine of purgatory, or the final purification, has been part of the true faith since before the time of Christ. The Jews already believed it before the coming of the Messiah, as revealed in the Old Testament (2 Macc. 12:41–45) as well as in other pre-Christian Jewish works, such as one which records that Adam will be in mourning "until the day of dispensing punishment in the last years, when I will turn his sorrow into joy" (The Life of Adam and Eve 46–7). Orthodox Jews to this day believe in the final purification, and for eleven months after the death of a loved one, they pray a prayer called the Mourner’s Kaddish for their loved one’s purification.

Jews, Catholics, and the Eastern Orthodox have always historically proclaimed the reality of the final purification. It was not until the Protestant Reformation in the sixteenth century that anyone denied this doctrine.

I will try and find some quotes by early church doctors [from before the bible was put together] to give also as examples.

OK, lets talk about 1 Cor 3:11-15.

v. 11 Pretty self explanatiory. JESUS is the only foundation.

v.12-13 If a man is saved, he then builds on the foundation of Christ with his works, not to get saved or stay saved because the foundation is there always. These works will be manifest, (made such as a physical substance) as gold, silver, etc.

v.14-15 Any works, works not souls, that withstands the test of fire will be rewarded. The works that do not survive the trying by fire, such as hay wood or stubble would not survive, will suffer a lose of a reward that they could have received if the work had been done pure.v.15 clearly indicates that the writer is speaking of works performed by each person, not the person himself.

Heb.10:12 But this man, after he had offered one sacrifice for sins forever, sat down n the right hand of God.

Heb.10:14 For by one offering he hat PERFECTED FOREVER them that are sanctified.

Perfected forever. You say you have to go to purgatory to be perfected, God says Jesus' did it for us forever.

Becky