Purgatory is a dogma of the Roman Catholic Church. It is an error concerning the intermediate state, which is the state of the soul between physical death and the final resurrection. Rome teaches three possible destinations for a departed soul. The first is heaven. A person in “a state of grace,” that is, one who has died without mortal sin, may enter heaven, if he is sufficiently holy at the point of death. In Roman theology the martyrs entered heaven. The apostles Peter and Paul, the deacon Stephen, and even the penitent thief who was crucified with Jesus immediately entered heaven. They are exceptions, however. Most people do not enter heaven immediately, for they are not sufficiently holy to enter into glory.
The second destination is hell. A person who dies in mortal sin—an impenitent murderer, idolater, adulterer, or thief—perishes in hell, where he is tormented forever in fire. The rich man in Christ’s parable perished in hell (Luke 16:19-31). After the Day of Judgment, hell or hades will be cast into the lake of fire (Rev. 20:14), where impenitent sinners will be tormented body and soul forever (Rev. 14:10-11; 20:10). “These shall go away into everlasting punishment: but the righteous into life eternal” (Matt. 25:46).
However, most people—even devout Roman Catholics, even bishops, archbishops, cardinals, and popes—do not immediately enter heaven. Although they die in a “state of grace,” in the good graces and favour of the Church, having been baptized, having received the other sacraments (of which Rome has seven), having made a confession of sin, and having been anointed with “extreme unction” before their death, venial sin remains. A “venial” sin in Roman Catholic theology is not as serious a sin as a mortal sin—whereas mortal sin kills the grace of God in the soul, venial sin merely weakens charity. The Catechism of the Catholic Church (1994) explains:
[Mortal sin] results in the loss of charity and the privation of sanctifying grace, that is, of the state of grace. If it is not redeemed by repentance and God’s forgiveness, it causes exclusion from Christ’s kingdom and the eternal death of hell (paragraph 1861).
One commits venial sin when, in a less serious matter, one does not observe the standard prescribed by the moral law, or when one disobeys the moral law in a grave matter, but without full knowledge or without complete consent. Venial sin weakens charity; it manifests a disordered affection for created goods; it impedes the soul's progress in the exercise of the virtues and the practice of the moral good; it merits temporal punishment. Deliberate and unrepented venial sin disposes us little by little to commit mortal sin. However venial sin does not set us in direct opposition to the will and friendship of God; it does not break the covenant with God. With God's grace it is humanly reparable. Venial sin does not deprive the sinner of sanctifying grace, friendship with God, charity, and consequently eternal happiness (paragraphs 1862-1863).
The Bible does not teach such a distinction. “The soul that sinneth, it shall die” (Ezek. 18:20). “The wages of sin is death” (Rom. 6:23). “Cursed is everyone that continueth not in all things which are written in the book of the law to do them” (Gal. 3:10). “For whosoever shall keep the whole law, and yet offend in one point, he is guilty of all” (James 2:10). “Whosoever committeth sin transgresseth also the law: for sin is the transgression of the law” (1 John 3:4).
So what if—according to Roman Catholic theology—a person is too good to perish in hell (for he is in a “state of grace”), but too bad to enter heaven immediately (for he is still not perfectly sanctified)? A third place is necessary.
Rome posits a third destination for souls after death, which is called purgatory. Most church members should expect to go to purgatory after death. Most church members should expect their relatives to go to purgatory after death. In fact, Romanism now holds out the prospect to most people—whether Roman Catholic or of some other church, whether Christian or some other religion, and even to irreligious people, such as atheists and agnostics, as long as they live a reasonably moral life—that they must spend time in purgatory after death.
The dogma of purgatory is intimately connected to Rome’s doctrine of salvation. Salvation in Romanism is not the work of God alone, but it is a work in which God—who supplies grace—and the sinner—who accepts grace—cooperate. God supplies grace, which is a spiritual virtue in the soul, to faithful Roman Catholics, through various means. (Incidentally, Romanism does to understand grace as God’s unmerited favour to unworthy sinners, but something that a sinner can merit with God’s help. That makes “grace” in Romanism the antithesis of “grace” in the Bible. “Merited grace” is more oxymoronic that “cold fire” or “dry water.” No mere creature can merit with God, as Jesus teaches in Luke 17:10). First, water baptism removes original sin (and provides pardon for any actual sins committed up to that point in life) and supplies sanctifying grace. Second, grace can be increased through the use of the sacraments, prayers, and good works. Third, grace may be forfeited through mortal sins and weakened through venial sins, but it can be restored to the soul through the use of the sacrament of penance.
Therefore, a Roman Catholic goes through life receiving and losing grace or having grace restored to him and increased in him. This grace, says Rome, can be merited:
Since the initiative belongs to God in the order of grace, no one can merit the initial grace of forgiveness and justification, at the beginning of conversion. Moved by the Holy Spirit and by charity, we can then merit for ourselves and for others the graces needed for our sanctification, for the increase of grace and charity, and for the attainment of eternal life. Even temporal goods like health and friendship can be merited in accordance with God's wisdom. These graces and goods are the object of Christian prayer. Prayer attends to the grace we need for meritorious actions (Catechism of the Catholic Church, paragraph 2010).
What happens to a faithful, devout, sincere Roman Catholic, who has led a godly life (according to the standards of the Church), but has not accrued enough grace to merit everlasting life? He must enter the place called purgatory to be cleansed in the fire. The Second Vatican Council explains:
Sins must be expiated. This may be done on this earth through the sorrows, miseries and trials of this life, and, above all, through death. Otherwise, the expiation must be made in the next life through fire and torments or purifying punishments ... The doctrine of purgatory clearly demonstrates that even when the guilt of sin has been taken away, punishment for it, or the consequences of it may remain to be expiated or cleansed. They often are. In fact, in purgatory the souls of those who died in the charity of God and truly repentant, but who had not made satisfaction with adequate penance for their sins and omissions, are cleansed after death with punishments designed to purge away their debt (Apostolic Constitution on the Revision of Indulgences, Art. 1, paragraphs 2-3 [Jan 1, 1967], pp. 63-64).
Two catechisms authoritative in Roman Catholic circles explain further the dogma of purgatory:
Among [the abodes of souls after death] is also the fire of purgatory, in which the souls of just men are cleansed by a temporary punishment in order to be admitted into their eternal country, into which nothing defiled entereth” (The Catechism of the Council of Trent [Article 5], p. 59).
All who die in God’s grace and friendship but still imperfectly purified are indeed assured of their eternal salvation, but after death they undergo purification, so as to achieve the holiness necessary to enter the joy of heaven” (Catechism of the Catholic Church, paragraph 1030).
So purgatory is a place of fire, where the fire is essentially the same as the fires of hell, but not of an everlasting duration. Rome speaks of “fire and torments and purifying punishments” or of “undergoing purification” in the next world.
The astute reader might wonder, “If Christ has died for our sins, why is purgatory necessary? Surely, Christ has endured the punishment necessary for our sins. Why, then, do believers have to suffer ‘purifying punishments’ in the fires of purgatory?” To answer this, the reader must understand that Rome’s doctrine of the atonement differs from the Reformed understanding of the atonement. While Rome teaches that Christ died for sin, even for all sin (in which she does not differ from Arminianism), Rome does not teach that all those for whom Christ died are saved (again, Arminianism agrees). In Roman Catholic theology Christ might die for a person, but that person could still perish in hell. It all depends on what that person does in response to Christ’s death for him—does he accept it, does he reject/despise it, or does he seek grace through it? Really, in Romanism, Christ died to make it possible for sinners to save themselves with the help of grace! In addition, Roman Catholicism denies that salvation in this life consists in the complete forgiveness of sins:
If any one saith, that, after the grace of Justification has been received, to every penitent sinner the guilt is remitted, and the debt of eternal punishment is blotted out in such wise, that there remains not any debt of temporal punishment to be discharged either in this world, or in the next in Purgatory, before the entrance to the kingdom of heaven can be opened (to him); let him be anathema” (Council of Trent, Sixth Session on Justification [Jan 13, 1547], Canon 30).
Rome distinguishes between the “debt of eternal punishment,” which Christ paid on the cross (and which would otherwise condemn a person to hell), and the “debt of temporal punishment,” for which Christ did not pay on the cross. Temporal punishment must be dealt with in this life—usually through sufferings and penances—or in the life to come, in purgatory.
This, of course, is contrary to the gospel of salvation in Jesus Christ. Our Saviour did not die on the cross in order to pay for only some of our sins, but for all of them. Our Saviour did not die on the cross in order to save our souls from hell, and then leave us “temporal punishment” that we must endure ourselves. Our Saviour died for us on the cross in order to remove all punishment from us. “When [Jesus] had by himself purged our sins, [he] sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high” (Heb. 1:3). “For by one offering [Jesus] hath perfected forever them that are sanctified” (Heb. 10:14). “Who his own self bare our sins in his own body on the tree” (1 Pet. 2:24). “The blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin” (1 John 1:7). “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness” (1 John 1:9). “And ye know that he was manifested to take away our sins; and in him is no sin” (1 John 3:5).
The sufferings that we endure in this life, the trials and miseries through which we pass as believers, and even death itself, are not punishments, and they do not satisfy for our sins. Although our sins bring consequences, and although God chastises us because of our sins (David, for example, was chastised because of his sin of adultery and murder), we do not satisfy God’s justice through such sufferings. We cannot make any satisfaction for our sins. Full satisfaction was made when Jesus obeyed the law for us, suffered on the cross for us, and died for us. Nothing can be added to the finished work of Jesus Christ.
In addition, there are no sufferings for the believer after death. As soon as the believer closes his eyes in death, he passes into glory, into the presence of his faithful Saviour. He does not pass into a place of fiery torments and purifying punishments.” “For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain” (Phil. 1:21). “I am in a strait betwixt two, having a desire to depart, and to be with Christ, which is far better” (v. 23). “We are confident, I say, and willing to be absent from the body, and to be present with the Lord” (2 Cor. 5:8). This is not the confidence only of the apostle: this is the confidence of all believers.
Nowhere in the Bible is purgatory mentioned. Therefore, Roman Catholic theologians have cobbled together a few texts, which they claim hint at the existence of such a place. Chief among these proofs is Paul’s teaching in 1 Corinthians 3:15, where he speaks of a man “saved, yet so as by fire.”
To understand the apostle’s teaching in 1 Corinthians 3 we must examine the context. Paul is not writing about the salvation of ordinary church members, but of pastors or preachers. Paul is a “wise masterbuilder” who has preached Jesus Christ as the only foundation (v. 10). The foundation having been laid, Paul is concerned about the ministry of those who preach in Corinth after him. They must build on the foundation of Jesus Christ: “another buildeth thereon… Let every man take heed how he buildeth thereupon. For other foundation can no man lay than that is laid, which is Jesus Christ. Now if any build upon this foundation…if any man’s work abide, which he hath built thereupon” (vv. 10-12, 14). Paul, therefore, is not addressing those who do not build upon Jesus Christ, who deviate from the teaching of the person and work of Jesus Christ. A heretic will not be saved—not even “as by fire” (v. 15). One who denies the deity of the Lord Jesus or who denies his atonement or bodily resurrection—a liberal theologian, an Arian or a cultist—will not be saved.
Paul describes two kinds of ministers/preachers with two kinds of ministries.
The first kind of preacher builds upon the foundation of Jesus Christ with gold, silver, and precious stones (v. 12). His work of preaching and teaching is faithful and in accordance with the Scriptures, although far from perfect. On the Day of Judgment, when he stands before God, the works of his ministry are scrutinized: his work is made manifest (v. 13), it is revealed by fire (v. 13), it is tried/tested (v. 13), and it abides (v. 14). God graciously rewards him according to his works on the Last Day: the reward is, however, not of merit, but of grace.
The other kind of minister builds upon the foundation of Jesus Christ with wood, hay, and stubble (v. 12). His work of preaching and teaching is unfaithful, often shoddily executed, and he does not carefully follow the Scriptures. On the Day of Judgment the works of his ministry are scrutinized, but they are “burned” (v. 15). Such a man suffers loss—he does not receive a reward—but he is saved, “yet so as by fire” (v 15).
Rome finds purgatory in the “fire” of verse 15—the man in question is saved (he does not go to hell), but he suffers loss. Therefore, the “fire,” argues Rome, must be purgatorial fire. We mention a number of objections. First, the “fire” of verse 15 is not literal fire: the activity of building is not literal (it refers to the work of preaching and teaching), the materials (gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, and stubble) are not literal (they refer to the content of the preaching and teaching, as well as to the faithfulness/unfaithfulness with which the man preached and taught), and therefore the fire is also not literal (it refers to the judgment of God). Second, the “fire” of verse 15 is not fire that burns in purgatory between physical death and the Day of Judgment: it is fire that burns, although not literally, on the Day of Judgment. Third, the “fire” of verse 15 is not the fire of God’s wrath, for the person who suffers loss—the builder with wood, hay, and stubble—is saved. He does not perish in hell; he is saved, “yet as by fire.” Fourth, the “fire” of verse 15 is not a cleansing fire. While it is true that fire sometimes cleanses in the Bible, it does not do so in verse 15—some work passes through the fire and it abides (v. 14), while other work is burned (i.e., burned up or consumed) in the fire. There is neither the cleansing of the person, nor of his works, in verse 15. Fifth, people do not pass through the “fire” of verse 15, but the works of preachers do: some men’s works survive the fire, and those men receive a reward; other men’s works do not survive the fire, and those men suffer loss (the loss of a reward), although they still inherit eternal salvation. Besides, as we have seen, the works in question pass through the fire on the Day of Judgment, not in a place called purgatory before the Last Day.
In 1 Corinthians 3, then, there is no proof for the dogma of purgatory.
In addition, Rome appeals to two statements made by the Lord Jesus.
The first is Matthew 5:26: “Verily I say unto thee, Thou shalt by no means come out thence, till thou hast paid the uttermost farthing.” Jesus speaks figuratively, as he often does. He speaks of someone remanded to a “prison” (v. 25). Rome identifies this prison not as hell (from which there is no possibility of escape), but as purgatory (from which all souls are eventually released, if they pay the required penalty). In this connection Roman Catholic theologians mention the “prison” of 1 Peter 3:19, but that prison was not purgatory—there were no righteous souls there, but the souls of “disobedient” people who lived in Noah’s day (v. 20). About Noah’s contemporaries we read, “And God saw that the wickedness of men was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually” (Gen. 6:5) and “All flesh had corrupted his way upon the earth” (v. 12) and “The earth [was] filled with violence through them” (v. 13). Therefore, these men were not “candidates for purgatory,” but justly damned to hell.
In Matthew 5:26 Jesus speaks of debtors, which is why we pray, “Forgive us our debts.” In Matthew 5:26 he speaks not of the sum of the debt—he does that elsewhere, for example, in the Parable of the Unmerciful Servant in Matthew 18:23-35—but of the “uttermost farthing.” He says, “Thou shalt by no means come out thence, till thou hast paid the uttermost farthing.” Is Jesus, then, giving hope to such a man—there is the possibility of release, if you pay off the last farthing of your debt? Not at all! If you owed me a million dollars, and I said, “You won’t be released from your debt until you pay me back the last cent,” I would not be offering you a way out. I would simply be emphasizing your hopeless indebtedness.
In fact, the sinner does not have anything with which to pay a debt, whether it is ten thousand talents, fifty pence, or a farthing. Indeed, the debt of the sinner is steadily increasing: if God (for the sake of argument) placed the sinner in purgatory, he would not pay off his debt—he would increase it! Jesus is simply speaking rhetorically: “You will never come out of prison.” That is why we need Jesus to pay our debt—thank God that Jesus has paid our debt (the whole thing), so that we never need to go to any kind of prison after death, but to paradise to be with our blessed Saviour!
If Jesus has not paid your debt on the cross—and you can only know if he has through faith in him—you will never be able to pay off your debt. Your debt is incalculably huge, you have nothing with which to pay, and your debt is steadily increasing. Settle quickly not by agreeing to pay (which would be folly), but by casting yourself as a bankrupt sinner at his mercy.
The second passage is Matthew 12:31-32:
Wherefore I say unto you, All manner of sin and blasphemy shall be forgiven unto men: but the blasphemy against the Holy Ghost shall not be forgiven unto men. And whosoever speaketh a word against the Son of man, it shall be forgiven him: but whosoever speaketh against the Holy Ghost, it shall not be forgiven him, neither in this world, neither in the world to come.
The argument of the Roman Catholic goes like this: all sins are pardonable, except one (the nature of the unpardonable sin is not relevant to our discussion of purgatory). That sin, says Jesus, “shall not be forgiven…neither in this world, neither in the world to come” (v. 32). Since Jesus says that this sin shall not be forgiven “in the world to come,” the implication is that some sins (the ones that are not unpardonable—other sins and blasphemies) shall be forgiven in the world to come.
But that is not at all the meaning. Jesus simply means to emphasize the impossibility of pardon for this sin: the sin is question shall not be forgiven in this world or in eternity; it shall never be forgiven. Besides, the phrase “the world to come” does not refer to the intermediate state or to purgatory (which does not exist), but to eternity. The unpardonable sin against the Holy Spirit shall not be forgiven in this life, or at the point of death, or on the Day of Judgment, or in the endless ages of eternity. In Mark 10:30 and 18:30 Jesus speaks of “eternal/everlasting life” in “the world to come.” The world to come will be ushered in after the Day of Judgment, when Christ makes all things new and forms the new creation in which righteousness dwells. In that world there shall be no sinner who was guilty of the unpardonable sin.
There are only two destinations for the soul after death: heaven, for those who have been forgiven on the basis of the finished work of Jesus Christ received by faith alone; and hell, for those who have died in impenitence and unbelief, even if they were outwardly religious and moral. There is no halfway house or purgatory. Purgatory is a deadly fiction of Satan, which denies the perfect work of Jesus Christ.
John Calvin was right:
We must cry out with the shouting not only of our voices, but of our throats and lungs, that purgatory is a deadly fiction of Satan, which nullifies the cross of Christ, inflicts unbearable contempt upon God's mercy, and overturns and destroys our faith … The blood of Christ is the sole satisfaction for the sins of believers, the sole expiation, the sole purgation; what remains but to say that purgatory is simply a dreadful blasphemy against Christ?” (Institutes III, V, 6).