Purgatory

A commenter recently suggested that the idea of purgatory exists among "most Christians" and is supported in Scripture. The suggestion was that to disbelieve in purgatory was to "align yourself against the biblical grain". Now, of course, I wasn't trained in Roman Catholicism; all my training has been in non-Catholic theology. I've only had a smattering of Catholic teaching to examine. So I thought I'd look into purgatory for myself and anyone else who might not have much Catholic teaching under their belts.

First, I need to note a distinction. There is "Roman Catholic", often abbreviated to just "Catholic", which is distinct from "catholic" with a lowercase "c". The uppercase versions refer to a specific group. The lowercase version refers to "catholic," an adjective meaning "including a wide variety of things; universal." Thus, while I don't believe in the Catholic church, I do believe in the catholic Church -- the Church that Christ has made that encompasses all Christians. Just in case you weren't aware of the distinction.

Moving on, what about purgatory? The term is from Latin, purgatorium. I'm sure if you think about it you can easily catch the intent. It is a place to get purged. The doctrine is found in a reference in 2 Maccabees 12 regarding praying for the dead. Now, most Protestants (non-Catholics) would say, "2 Maccabbees? That's not in my Bible." Yes, that's right. It is found in the Apocrypha which Roman Catholics believe to be Scripture but not Protestants (or Jesus). So there's the first rub. The Catholic church regards "Sacred Tradition" to be of equal (greater?) authority to Scripture and hold that Sacred Tradition (some writings from Origen, Ambrose of Milan, Pope Gregory the Great, etc.) established the doctrine of purgatory as well. Purgatory, according to the Catechism of the Catholic Church, is the final purification for "All who die in God's grace and friendship." (Does that strike anyone else as odd?) The catechism lists two Bible references as proof of a fire (1 Cor 3:15; 1 Peter 1:7). It is linked to the Catholic practice of praying for the dead and is also linked to the Catholic practice of giving alms, buying indulgences, and performing acts of penance on behalf of the dead. The idea, then, is that no one (or at least almost no one) gets out of this life "clean" and everyone needs some measure of purification -- "purging" -- which is accomplished through painful but temporary fire. Thus, by prayer and paying off some of their debt, you can speed up this process for dead loved ones. The concept is predicated on three states of being. Non-Catholic Christians see two -- unsaved or saved, in sin or not, guilty or forgiven. Catholic doctrine holds out for a third state -- sort of saved, still tainted by some sin, mostly forgiven. It goes along with their "mortal sins" versus "venial sins", where mortal sins incur eternal punishment and venial sins just temporal punishment. The former is in direct opposition to God and the latter is simply moral disorder.

According to the commenter, "most Christians" believe in purgatory. Let's see if that's true. First, there is a necessary assumption. When John the Baptist said, "Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!" (John 1:29) he was wrong. He only partly takes sin away. When Jesus said, "It is finished" (John 19:30), He was wrong. More was required. When John wrote, "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) he was wrong. "All unrighteousness" is an overreach. When Paul wrote, "For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God," (Eph 2:8) he was wrong. You will be contributing to your salvation. The requirement for purgatory to be true would be that Christ's death on our behalf was incomplete, that sin was not fully paid for, that, in fact, we pay for our own sin. Peter said that Christ suffered once for sins (1 Peter 3:18), but the doctrine of purgatory says that there is more required. So, what's my point? If purgatory is true -- we need to be further purged after death -- then Scripture in general and Jesus in particular are all wrong. The Gospel is not one of grace and mercy and salvation is earned (with great effort). In other words, the very fundamentals of the Christian Gospel are false. Therefore, the doctrine of purgatory falls under the heading of "another gospel" which Paul declared "anathema" -- accursed (Gal 1:6-10). In other words, if you are placing your faith in purgatory to get you to heaven, it disqualifies you from being a Christian.

I should be clear here. I am not saying that it is impossible to be in a Roman Catholic church and be saved. I am not suggesting that there are no Roman Catholic Christians. What I am saying is that Roman Catholic doctrine, where it deviates (sometimes knowingly) from Scripture, will not produce biblical Christians. The truth is that most Roman Catholics don't follow Roman Catholic doctrine. As such, it is possible, even reasonable, that there would be genuine believers in the Roman Catholic church. In other words, I believe there are catholic Christians in a variety of places, including the Catholic church. But if purgatory is your plan to get to heaven, I'd suggest you think again. Think about the sufficiency of Christ's sacrifice (Col 2:13-14; Heb 9:26) and the righteousness of Christ applied to us (2 Cor 5:21). Further, if you have the capacity to pay for your own sin, it's just not that bad, is it? Jesus did it because we lack the capacity. Purgatory, then, diminishes Christ and the Scriptures, and that's not a good thing from a genuinely Christian perspective.