Purgatory versus the Bible
The Bible does not teach the Catholic doctrine that if you die in God's
friendship that you may need purification in purgatory before you get into
Heaven. The purification is from venial sin and also any punishment for
sin that you failed to do penance for.
The doctrine of Purgatory is at variance with the Bible. It is an invention of
the Roman Catholic Church which borrowed it from paganism.
It appears that the only praying for the dead that the early Church did was so
that Jesus would come soon and raise them up (page 4, Purgatory, Rev W E Kenny
BD). Augustine said no more about Purgatory than that some in his day believed
in it and that he would not argue against it for it might be true (De citivitate
Dei, lib. XXI. C. 25). This tells us that Purgatory was not in Christian
tradition when all it could get was a maybe. Augustine would have thought that
if it did exist it was not something that was meant to be revealed or declared
revealed by God and yet the Church declared it revealed by God in the second
millenium.
Pope St Gregory the Great liked the idea of Purgatory and gave it his
sanction in his The Dialogues about 590 AD. Gregory based his faith in Purgatory
on stories about visions of the dead. He was the first to teach it. Catholics
deny this saying that if he had just plucked this new doctrine out of nowhere
there would have been schisms and brutal protests but there were not so it was
believed by the Church all the time anyway. But there were several bizarre
doctrines in the Church that were tolerated. In those days, Christians fought
over serious disagreements on the divinity of Christ and the Trinity. Purgatory
never became a dogma that had to be believed until 1438, the year of the Council
of Florence. It and the doctrine of the need to make atonement for the dead were
made infallible dogma at Florence and later Trent.
The Gospel of John says that he who believes in the Son will be saved and he who
does not will be condemned. If belief in the Son means to boldly take the Son
and adhere to him as
Biblical Christianity says, it follows that Purgatory is asking us to keep away
from him and so brings us under the condemnation.
The thief must have had a lot of atoning to do and yet Jesus told him he would
be in Paradise that very day (Luke 23:43). Some Catholics say that Purgatory is
an instant nuclear blast of pain so it could be over in seconds or a few hours
but is as bad as a lifetime of pain. That gets around this verse and the others
which say it is better to be dead to be with God. Or does it? It implies that
the suffering is not for purification but for retribution only. The nuclear
blast idea is bringing in a new miracle to get around this verse. If you start
doing that you will never interpret anything properly. For example, if the Bible
said that the earth was the only planet you would end up saying that when the
author wrote that it was true and the Lord made more planets since. You will end
up gullible.
The Church says that those who have died in the Lord could be resting because
they are out of Purgatory (Revelation 14:13). But this is not a straightforward
interpretation.
Paul was clear that us sinful people with faulty bodies would rise up into
the air to meet the returning Jesus and be turned into holy beings with eternal
life and glorified saved bodies and hearts. He stressed it would happen in
an instant. Obviously if Jesus can change us so easily he is to blame for
what Hitler did for why didn't he change him? It implies that sin is some
kind of legal fiction not a real malice if it can be dealt with like a deep
quick clean.
Paul said in Philippians 1:23 that it would be better for him to die and leave
this world to be with Christ. Catholics say that this would only be true if you
died getting a plenary indulgence for if you had to go to Purgatory you would
have been better off not dying at all for it is awful. There is no trace of
indulgences in the New Testament and modern Catholics admit that they were
created by the Church centuries after the New Testament was created and are
disciplinary things that follow from the vicarious merit and Purgatory
doctrines. Paul then did not believe in Purgatory for he expected leaving this
world to bring him home to Jesus. He kept denigrating himself for his sins and
called himself the worst sinner so he did not think that there was a Purgatory
but he was too good to go to it. He would not boast for he forbade boasting, all
the time.
Philippians 1:21 says that the death of a saint is gain. The Catholic Church
says Purgatory is gain when it ensures that you will never be damned forever.
This is mistaken because suffering on earth is better than suffering in
Purgatory for it is milder. Also suffering on earth is meritorious and suffering
in Purgatory is not. It is because there is no merit there that the souls have
to suffer there to the end if nobody makes sacrifices for them. And the verse
definitely has the idea of escaping suffering on earth by going to Heaven in
mind. That is real gain. It makes no sense for Paul to want us to be free from
suffering on earth if worse could face us after death. A bit later we read that
to die is good for it will mean being with Christ which implies in its simplest
sense that the dead who are saved go to Christ and not to Purgatory which is
only a stop on the way to Christ. In this context, verse 21 does succeed in
refuting Purgatory. Paul’s stress on humility means he wouldn’t have dared
assume he would go straight to Heaven and none of the canonised saints did that
for they believed their tiny sins were extremely bad and abhorrent.
God hates the holy souls if they have no venial sin and are only in Purgatory to
pay back the debt of temporal punishment. There is something terribly amiss in a
system that says you can get rid of venial sins quicker than all the punishment
due to them. Logic says the sin should be the slowest to be cancelled for it is
worse. Sin attacks a good God while punishment is your come-uppance. The souls
would repent upon arrival for to stay in sin is a sin and there is no sin in
Purgatory except what is lying on the soul from earth-life. If somebody forgives
you for breaking their precious vase and still asks you to pay then the paying
is temporal punishment. But the person needs the payment and God who is
all-powerful does not. He does not ask for it to discipline us for the need for
discipline does not require unnecessary demands. God does not forgive at all. He
just lessens the punishment – he partially rewards or condones the crime which
is evil. God hates the souls in Purgatory and they are not purified when they
are becoming closer to such a hateful being. This aspect of Purgatory also
exposes the malevolence of the doctrine.
The doctrine of temporal punishment gives no backing for Purgatory for temporal
punishment is impossible to really believe. Even if it were not nonsense Jesus
could atone for any that remains to be paid at death.
When a person is in Purgatory God is saying, “Keep away from me for you are
impure and I am perfect.” In that case, the notion of God indwelling and having
a relationship with venial sinners on earth and the holy souls in Purgatory is
lies. If God is able to mystically unite with a venial sinner then he can let
that person into Heaven sins and all for the only difference is that in Heaven
you know that God exists and you sense him with your sight and other senses but
you don’t experience him like that on earth. But the most important thing,
having God in your heart is common to both. The interior union or fellowship is
the essential thing. It makes no sense to say that God unites with you
intimately and then that you can’t see him in Heaven for seeing him is less
important. So, the Purgatory doctrine is really insulting God and is denying
that he dwells inside you. The Bible says that if God is not inside you in the
sense of having a right relationship with you then you are not saved (Romans
8:9). Catholics are enemies of Jesus Christ and not real Christians.
The Roman Church claims that if you go to Purgatory, you are still in the
Church. The Church says that the one true Church is made up of the people who
are in Heaven. the members of the Catholic Church on earth and those who are in
Purgatory. It calls this doctrine the communion of saints. What if there is no
Purgatory? Rome reasons that there is probably more Catholics in Purgatory than
there is on earth. So a branch of the Church that is more important in numbers
and holiness than the Church on earth doesn't exist. The Church then cannot be
the true Church. It is like claiming to be a member of the largest Church in the
universe when the other members are supposed to be on non-existent planets.
There is no Church at all never mind a true one! A Church that has non-existent
members is not the true Church and cannot be guaranteed to teach without error.
Rome calls itself Catholic in view of being allegedly open to all nations and
all people and being spread out over earth and in Purgatory and Heaven. If there
is no purgatory then how could the Church be Catholic when there is no Purgatory
for it to be in? The Catholicity of the Church depends on the existence of
Purgatory. It is a grave sin then for a believer who knows this to support or
affiliate with the Catholic Church.
The Bible teaches that salvation has been earned for us in full by Jesus and
that all we have to do is believe and accept what Jesus did for us. This is
salvation by faith alone. Tradition in the Clementine literature complains about
Simon Magus teaching this doctrine. Simon Magus is a nickname the literature
gave St Paul and has Simon and Peter contending in Rome without mentioning Paul
indicating that Simon was what they were calling Paul. They couldn't name Paul
for the bigger Church regarded him as a true apostle despite warping some of his
teachings. Purgatory contradicts the idea that good works and holiness
contribute nothing to your salvation.
Paul in Ephesians 2:8,9 says that we are saved by grace through faith and not of
ourselves or our works. It says works not earnings. It would say earnings if it
just tried to correct the notion that you can earn salvation. It is uttered to
people who were saved some time before so the author is telling them that they
are still justified by faith without good works. He is not saying you are saved
by faith and repentance at the start and then after this gift and fresh start
you have to work for your salvation. This seems to attack Purgatory. But even
those who believe in salvation by faith alone still think that the purpose of
earth-life is to improve the Christian and purge them from their sinful faults.
So Ephesians does eliminate the idea of a Purgatory in which you earn your
salvation or work for it. It eliminates the idea of a Purgatory where you have
to make up for venial sin and atone for it. But it does not eliminate the idea
of a Purgatory that is for making the saved behave better. It certainly
eliminates the Catholic doctrine that you go to Purgatory to make up for sin.
Catholics ask that when there is a Purgatory for Christians on earth then why
can't there be one after our time in this world? But this Purgatory would have
to be for discipline not punishment while the Catholic purgatory is more about
punishment than discipline. For example, the Church gives indulgences. Just
kissing a relic can result in the whole punishment being cancelled by an
indulgence and nobody thinks doing that counts as discipline and self-mastery.
The indulgences do not discipline the sinner. Far from it. They remove, or at
least reduce the amount of, the punishment you are due from God. So indulgences
contradict the view that Purgatory is merely for discipline for they dispense
you from the need to discipline yourself.
The Bible teaching of salvation by faith only infers that there can be no such
place as a Purgatory that is for atoning sin.
Purgatory is based on the immoral idea that Jesus made enough atonement for all
people but still expects people to atone for their own sins to a certain extent.
That is ludicrous and unjust. Yet it is imagined to be supported in Colossians
(1:24) where we are told that Paul tries to suffer for what is lacking in the
sufferings of Jesus for the Church. But the line before and after speak of Paul
being a minister so what he means is that Jesus did not preach the gospel in his
suffering so somebody else has to suffer to do that.
Only false doctrine can be built on a foundation of error.