PURGATORY DENIES THAT YOU ARE SAVED

Protestantism and Roman Catholicism and Eastern Orthodoxy assert boldly that at death you are either saved forever or damned forever. There is no other category.

Roman Catholicism says that you are saved from Hell forever and nothing can change that if you die and go to Heaven or Purgatory.  You are in purgatory because you are saved but need purification from small sins and attachments to what is not divine or godly.  The Church says purgatory hurts as much as Hell does and if you are there you cannot help yourself.  Praying for yourself or others in purgatory will do no good.

Roman Catholicism teaches that the souls in Purgatory are saved from Hell and can't go there and just have something to endure before they are fit for Heaven. Their salvation is 100% guaranteed and they can't lose it or throw it away by sin. But God must do something to these souls to make sure they can't sin. This contradicts the Church doctrine that Satan was an angel in Heaven and still managed to sin and be thrown out.

The Church also maintains that God is not to blame for our sins in any way - he cannot be accused of making conditions that lead us into, or encourage, sin. So it seems the souls in Purgatory must have the power to sin and lose salvation but don't and won't use it. In that case, can they be described as saved? How can it be said that their entry into unending happiness in Heaven is unavoidable? They could avoid it if they so choose. Purgatory contradicts Catholicism's doctrine that your eternal destiny is decided at death. The Church holds that you may have a saint who can commit a mortal sin but who never will but that doesn't change the fact that he or she might sin and as long as she or he might sin she or he cannot be called saved. She or he is only saved at death. This teaching conflicts with the Catholic Purgatory and the doctrine that saved people go there.
 
What if you go to Purgatory forever? Can you be called saved then? Obviously not. Saved in the Bible means possessing a freedom and joy that you have from being with God. The key word is free. You are not free if you are in jail. If you are there a week or forever it makes no difference. So if you are not saved if you go to Purgatory forever you are not saved if you are there ten minutes either. You are not saved until you leave.
 
The Bible and Protestantism and Roman Catholicism all say that you are either saved or unsaved at death. Rome says that if you go to Purgatory you are saved but just need to get rid of some temporal punishment or pay for venial sin. You are saved from sin meaning you won't sin any more either in Purgatory or in Heaven. If temporal punishment is due to a refusal to attach oneself fully to God then no soul can have it without sinning. Rome says there is no sin in Purgatory except the sin you go there with but there must be. Your lack of attachment or love for God must be a new sin for you hold on to it and holding on to it is fresh sin. There must be fresh sin in Purgatory. So you are not saved after all!
 
God supposedly demands temporal punishment of you for your sins because when sin is forgiven you still have an attachment to sin to recover from and to fight. Yet people with this attachment have this debt cancelled if they get a plenary indulgence. So the attachment thing is only an excuse for punishing. God doesn't mind the attachment to sin at all but he is petty and vindictive. If you go to Purgatory are you really saved when God gives indulgences to get people off and you don't have one? He gives people indulgences so that the debt of temporal punishment is taken away or reduced and yet you have to pay. He has something against you when he does that if he is so fair. You must have started sinning again! You must not be saved at all! But suppose you can be called saved. You are still in Purgatory unnecessarily so you can't be saved. You are there unnecessarily when worse than you are let off in relation to temporal punishment. Anybody who is fit for Heaven and doesn't get in but has to go to Purgatory is not saved. Heaven is salvation full flowered and there you become fully virtuous or fully saved in Christian terms. If you are fit for the transformation of Heaven then you are not saved as long as you are kept out.
 
The Lutheran Reformation was right to accuse the Catholic Church of selling forgiveness of sin and selling salvation when the Church granted indulgences for the payment of money towards rebuilding St Peter's Basilica. The Church is still doing that today by granting indulgences for pilgrimages and those who buy holy objects.

Jesus told a story in Luke 18 which is mistaken for a parable but which is meant to be a true story.  It is the story of a rich man going to tormenting fire for ignoring the plight of a poor man Lazarus.  The story is about a damned person in Hell.  Some think the rich man is actually in purgatory not Hell for his sin of ignoring the poor man hardly counts as a serious sin.  But the story is definite that all sin puts you in Hell unless you get it forgiven.  There is no reason to think it means purgatory for there is no evidence in the gospel of such a place. There is evidence of Hell.  Anyway think about the alleged purgatory link.  Some argue that the story of the rich man and Lazarus in Luke 18 gives us some clues about Purgatory.  The man is punished in fire terribly for ignoring the poor man Lazarus and not feeding him.  He expresses concern for others.  He says they need to be warned in case they end up in the fire too.  The concern makes some think the man is not in Hell but Purgatory.  And he speaks to Abraham and begs him to help him and sees Lazarus enjoying paradise.  It is assumed you cannot talk to saints in Heaven or see Heaven if you are damned but why not? Jesus makes it plain the man cannot be helped and is in Hell. But if you find yourself in Hell and still worry about others and see Heaven you will think you are in purgatory as a Catholic would!

 And what if the soul is purified forever?  If purification always involves progress and then regressing like it does with us now on earth then why assume that purgatory will end?

Could it be that those who go to purgatory who are told it is as painful as Hell and not to pray for themselves only THINK they are in purgatory?  What if they are really in Hell?!  What if Catholic teaching about purgatory is just a trick for getting people to go to Hell.  What if it is a trick so that those who are in Hell stay in Hell because they think they are in purgatory?  If your prayers cannot save you and prayer is the main thing then clearly you are not saved and God does not love you or you don't think he really does.  What if the big torment of Hell is thinking you are in purgatory and you will get out and meet nothing but endless disappointment?

We conclude that if a soul in purgatory is purified by suffering and not by good works that is a twisted and evil doctrine.