Is There A Purgatory?

The Bible never speaks of a place where one can go to be purified of his sin. Rather, it always speaks of a Person to whom we can go to be purified: Jesus Christ. God tells us that those who refuse to trust Christ to cleanse them from their sins are condemned: Whoever believes in Him avoids condemnation, but whoever does not believe is already condemned for not believing in the name of God's only Son (John 3:18). There are only two choices: Whoever believes in the Son has life eternal. Whoever disobeys the Son will not see life, but must endure the wrath of God (John 3:36; See also Revelation 20:15; Luke 16:19-31, especially verse 26). Anyone who accepts Christ is completely saved: There is no condemnation now for those who are in Christ Jesus (Romans 8:1). Saying that there is no condemnation, certainly eliminates the flames of purgatory.

Another passage which clearly excludes the idea of purgatory is, their sins and transgressions I will remember no more (Hebrews 10:17). If, as the Bible says, God no longer remembers the sins of those who are in Christ, He does not punish them for these sins. To do so would be saying that Christ had not made full payment for them and that God the Father still remembered them. (See also Romans 5:8-11; Hebrews 10:14-18; Psalm 103:12).

Anyone who does not believe that Christ has completely saved him, has not completely trusted Christ to save him. That is, he does not believe that Christ's sacrifice has paid for all of his sins, and thinks he must pay for some of them himself. However, we are saved when we stop trusting what we can do, and start trusting Christ to save us.

The idea that Christ's sacrifice is not sufficient to cleanse us from all of our sins would condemn a great sinner such as the thief who was crucified with Jesus to suffer a long time in purgatory if not for all eternity in hell! Instead, there was nothing left over that Christ's death on the Cross did not cover. When the thief placed his trust in Christ, Jesus said to him, I assure you: this day you will be with me in paradise (Luke 23:43).

If purgatory existed, and the mass helped people to get out, the rich would have a tremendous advantage by being able to pay for masses to shorten their suffering. The poor instead, would be left to the mercy of the occasional priest who might say an unpaid mass for them. One ex-priest wrote, "If we really believed that the mass would save people from the flames of purgatory, would we make them pay for it? I would even save a dog if I saw one in a fire, and I would never even think of asking to be paid!"

Purgatory was evidently a pagan idea. Virgil, the pagan Latin poet who lived 70 - 19 B.C. divided the departed souls into three different places in his writings: One for the good, one for the damned, and a third where the less bad could pay for their sins. Since the idea of purgatory existed outside of the church before it came into the church, it is probable that it was brought in by contact with pagans like Virgil. There was a great influx of non-Biblical ideas into the church around 300 A.D. when the Roman Emperor Constantine took many unsaved people in as members of the church.

In any event, there is no mention of purgatory in the Bible. Some would try, however, to make the idea sound somewhat Biblical by referring to 2 Maccabees 12:41-45, a passage in one of the apocryphal books written between the times of the Old and New Testaments. These books were never accepted as part of the Hebrew Old Testament, nor quoted in the New Testament, but they are included in the Catholic Bible, though usually with an explanation that they are of a less inspired category. Apart from this passage in 2 Maccabees, the apocrypha is little used by the Catholic church to support a doctrinal position.

It is important to notice that this passage does not speak of purgatory at all, but actually condemns idolatry, particularly the practice of wearing little images on a necklace or such. Hebrew soldiers were found wearing this sort of thing after a battle, and their buddies, on making this discovery, realized that they had died in the sin of idolatry. They then counseled prayer for their souls. The Roman Catholic position is that prayer for them would have been unnecessary if they were in heaven and useless if they were in hell, so there must be another place. The logic seems good, but the result contradicts the clear teaching of the inspired Scripture. Contradicting inspired Scripture with a philosophical response based on an apparent inference from the Apocrypha is a very weak argument indeed. The very word "Apocrypha," which comes from the Greek word for hidden, has come to mean "false," or "of doubtful authorship."

If my sins are all cleansed by believing in Christ, then why am I still sinning [and offending Him]? Believe me, I’d love to be like an RC saint [not that they were sin-free, but they were very good people], and sometimes I can imitate one for about twelve seconds, if I’m at Mass and not looking at anyone but God...

Excellent question. Paul asked the same question and his answer was found in Christ. He too struggled with sin. He wanted to do the right thing but realized his body was doing something else. His question and answer was:

...Who will set me free from the body of this death? 25Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, on the one hand I myself with my mind am serving the law of God, but on the other, with my flesh the law of sin (Romans 7:24-25).

As saints go straight to heaven; the rest of us putrid peeps [like myself] do our stint in purgatory, and we pray like mad it’s not much more than a few centuries [of earth time]...

If you are a believer in Christ YOU ARE A SAINT.

The New Testament in more than more passage addresses believers as saints (Romans 1:7; 1 Corinthians 1:2; Eph 4:12; Philippians 1:1 as examples). These believers were just like you, me, and Paul. They struggled with the day to day temptations yet believed that Christ had died for their sins and had nailed them to the cross (Colossians 2: 13-14).

As a believer in Christ you go to Heaven. There is no post-death cleansing needed as Christ has done that at the Cross. If His one-time sacrifice for all sin is insufficient for forgiving all of our sins, then what remains to take them away?

Paul addressed this in Romans 4:7-8. He notes that our lawless deeds have been forgiven and our sins have been covered. He further notes: blessed is the man whose sin the Lord will not take into account!

Getting to heaven is not easy! Work and toil and suffer and pray and fast and pray some more. And then, maybe .....

You're correct in a way. The Christian life is sometimes not the easiest in the world. We're swimming upstream if you will. If we are following Christ we are in opposition to the world. This will often bring ridicule upon us from the world. We may forgo activities others engage in and think we're missing out (when really we're not).

I think of those believers in Iraq, North Korea, Syria, etc. They are having the real hard time of being a Christian. We haven't seen that level of persecution here in the states....yet.

However, if we're relying upon what we do, getting to Heaven is not only hard, it's impossible.

For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; 9not as a result of works, so that no one may boast (Ephesians 2:8-9).

There are no works good enough to get us into Heaven. None.

The only 100% guaranteed way to Heaven is through faith in Christ. Just as Abraham believed God and it was credited to him as righteousness (Genesis 15:6 and Galatians 3:6) if we believe in Christ we are declared righteous.

But to be clear that being a follower of Christ doesn't mean you just sit on the sideline if I can use a football term.

We are expected to conduct our lives in accordance with HIS will....not ours. We are expected to produce fruit for the Kingdom (Galatians 5:16-25).

The Good News is that we aren't doing this on our own. We have the Holy Spirit as our Helper to guide us into all truth and Who is continually praying for us. (John 14:16, Romans 8:26).

Why can the believer be certain of all of this?

John 6:37-40

All that the Father gives Me will come to Me, and the one who comes to Me I will certainly not cast out. 38“For I have come down from heaven, not to do My own will, but the will of Him who sent Me. 39“This is the will of Him who sent Me, that of all that He has given Me I lose nothing, but raise it up on the last day. 40“For this is the will of My Father, that everyone who beholds the Son and believes in Him will have eternal life, and I Myself will raise him up on the last day.”

If you have any questions on this or anything you would like to discuss in private, please freepmail me.

I hope this helps answer your questions.

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