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As an Orthodox Christian, I do not specifically believe in the Purgatory, but our theology is not that far from the Catholic concept of this stage of the life of a soul. We also believe that there is a "third" place in which the soul is purified before ascending to heaven...However, the concept of an intermediate state during which the soul is purified is a pretty much universal belief in most religions, monotheistic as well as pagan.

I didn't realize the Orthodox church bought into this error. One more reason to thank God for the Reformation.

THE GREATEST WORDS EVER SPOKEN

Luke 23:43 -- "And Jesus said unto him, Verily I say unto thee, Today shalt thou be with me in paradise."
These are the greatest words that Jesus ever spoke. They are the words of God's grace to pardon from all evil in the blood of His Son, and to earn the right of eternal life in glory. There is really only one question above all others. That question is this: Am I one who belongs to Jesus Christ? That is the only important question at death. Then to hear Jesus say, "Verily I say unto you, Today shalt thou be with me in paradise." Then all is well, no matter what...
Those who die in Christ do not go to purgatory. There is no purgatory.
Those who die in Jesus Christ do not die with a big question mark hanging over them. But those who die in Jesus Christ immediately are with Jesus in glory. Today, today shalt thou be with Me in paradise.

and...

SOLA FIDE: THE REFORMED DOCTRINE OF JUSTIFICATION

It was this conflict with the mediaeval message that occasioned the fivefold "only" in the slogans quoted above (Five Solas). Salvation, said the Reformers, is by faith (man's total trust) only, without our being obliged to work for it; it is by grace (God's free favor) only, without our having to earn or deserve it first; it is by Christ the God-man only, without there being need or room for any other mediatoral agent, whether priest, saint, or virgin; it is by Scripture only, without regard to such unbiblical and unfounded extras as the doctrines of purgatory and of pilgrimages, the relic-cult and papal indulgences as devices for shortening one's stay there; and praise for salvation is due to God only, without any credit for his acceptance of us being taken to ourselves. The Reformers made these points against unreformed Rome, but they were well aware that in making them they were fighting over again Paul's battle in Romans and Galatians against works, and in Colossians against unauthentic traditions, and the battle fought in Hebrews against trust in any priesthood or mediation other than that of Christ. And (note again!) they were equally well aware that the gospel of the five "onlies" would always be contrary to natural human thinking, upsetting to natural human pride, and an object of hostility to Satan, so that destructive interpretations of justification by faith in terms of justification by works (as by the Judaizers of Paul's day, and the Pelagians of Augustine's, and the Church of Rome both before and after the Reformation, and the Arminians within the Reformed fold, and Bishop Bull among later Anglicans) were only to be expected. So Luther anticipated that after his death the truth of justification would come under fresh attack and theology would develop in a way tending to submerge it once more in error and incomprehension; and throughout the century following Luther's death Reformed theologians, with Socinian and other rationalists in their eye, were constantly stressing how radically opposed to each other are the "gospel mystery" of justification and the religion of the natural man. For justification by works is, in truth, the natural religion of mankind, and has been since the Fall, so that, as Robert Traill, the Scottish Puritan, wrote in 1692, "all the ignorant people that know nothing of either law or gospel," "all proud secure sinners," "all formalists," and "all the zealous devout people secure sinners, in a natural religion," line up together as "utter enemies to the gospel..."

Luke 23:43 -- "And Jesus said unto him, Verily I say unto thee, Today shalt thou be with me in paradise."

Those who die in Christ do not go to purgatory. There is no purgatory.

That doesn't follow. First of all, we don't how exactly time works after we die. Purgatory could occur in an instant. Or it could take one day of time HERE on earth and countless ages in "afterlife" time. And secondly, which seems to go over most Protestant's heads, is that the dying crinimal was ALREADY suffering in THIS world for his sins, so it was certainly a distinct possibility that his punishment was being enacted while suffering his own crucifixion with Christ. We can pay Him now or pay Him later...

I have commented enough on the concept of Sola Fide being totally foreign to Scriptures, implied or explicit, so I won't further clutter this post.

Regards

...and praise for salvation is due to God only, without any credit for his acceptance of us being taken to ourselves. The Reformers made these points against unreformed Rome, but they were well aware that in making them they were fighting over again Paul's battle in Romans and Galatians against works, and in Colossians against unauthentic traditions, and the battle fought in Hebrews against trust in any priesthood or mediation other than that of Christ. And (note again!) they were equally well aware that the gospel of the five "onlies" would always be contrary to natural human thinking, upsetting to natural human pride, and an object of hostility to Satan, so that destructive interpretations of justification by faith in terms of justification by works (as by the Judaizers of Paul's day, and the Pelagians of Augustine's, and the Church of Rome both before and after the Reformation, and the Arminians within the Reformed fold, and Bishop Bull among later Anglicans) were only to be expected.

Men always demand that he should be able to save himself and have the decisive power in God's glory and mercy in salvation. And there are always men of the churches who will cater to that weakness. It is an ancient stumbling stone, along with attacks on the nature of the Trinity, particularly upon Christ Himself. The third snare involves attempts to Judaize Christians to bring them back under the Old Covenant through misapplication of Old Testament teachings.

From the ancient church to the modern, it is always the same three attacks on orthodox belief and the simplicity and purity of scripture's teachings.

Dr. E, in Bonhoeffer's Biblical Study, Creation and Fall, he writes about The Beginning, he states the following in terms of where man finds himself:

"The Beginning can only be spoken of by those in the middle and are anxious about the beginning and the end, by those who are tearing at their chains, by those -to anticipate something we shall discuss later- who only in their sin know they are created by God."

I learned not so long ago, that way back who knows when (and I don't know who to credit for it), when someone posed the question what was God doing before the Creation?, the reply was, building Hell for the curious. I don't believe the curious referred to here are those who in true humility seek to know God in the way a theologian might, or seek to help others know Him in the same way or at some sort of same level, but those who pretend to know what cannot be known by the Creature and is only known by the Creator.

I'm woefully ignorant of Scripture, and because of this I'm shy about using it for fear of abusing it. However, there are certain passages in which the tone of voice of the writer conveys something much deeper to me. A good example of this is St. Paul's oh so beautiful teaching on Love:

1Cr 13:1 Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, and have not charity, I am become [as] sounding brass, or a tinkling cymbal.
1Cr 13:2 And though I have [the gift of] prophecy, and understand all mysteries, and all knowledge; and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, and have not charity, I am nothing.
1Cr 13:3 And though I bestow all my goods to feed [the poor], and though I give my body to be burned, and have not charity, it profiteth me nothing.
1Cr 13:4 Charity suffereth long, [and] is kind; charity envieth not; charity vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up,
1Cr 13:5 Doth not behave itself unseemly, seeketh not her own, is not easily provoked, thinketh no evil;
1Cr 13:6 Rejoiceth not in iniquity, but rejoiceth in the truth;
1Cr 13:7 Beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things.
1Cr 13:8 Charity never faileth: but whether [there be] prophecies, they shall fail; whether [there be] tongues, they shall cease; whether [there be] knowledge, it shall vanish away.
1Cr 13:9 For we know in part, and we prophesy in part.
1Cr 13:10 But when that which is perfect is come, then that which is in part shall be done away.
1Cr 13:11 When I was a child, I spake as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child: but when I became a man, I put away childish things.
1Cr 13:12 For now we see through a glass, darkly; but then face to face: now I know in part; but then shall I know even as also I am known.
1Cr 13:13 And now abideth faith, hope, charity, these three; but the greatest of these [is] charity.

Who can grow tired of reading this? Who can say that this is who they are? Nobody! And I think that's what Calvin was getting at when he spoke of Total Depravity. No matter how much we try to be Christ-like, we fail and we fail everyday, and that's everybody. No man is excluded.

I had an interest in monastic life when I was a kid, because my second-grade Nun entered a cloistered order the following year. As I began to read more about this, I picked up the sense that monastics had a tendency towards misanthropy, and that the monastic life presented as a refuge from man.

I mention this because I believe that St. Paul's ad alta voce advance of the Salvation that is Christ's Sacrifice, is rooted in whatever is the direct opposite of misanthropy.