PURGATORY

    One of the fundamental beliefs of Roman Catholicism is the existence of an intermediate state called Purgatory.  As a young boy growing up in the parochial school system, I was thoroughly indoctrinated with this belief and accepted it without question.  Only as I grew and found out that most of the religious bodies in the world that claim to worship Jesus did not believe in Purgatory did I begin to examine for myself.  What I discovered surprised me and I am sure would surprise many of the Roman Catholic laity.  Hopefully, this article will raise some questions that the Catholic authorities need to answer.

WHAT IS PURGATORY?

    As usual, we will allow the Catholic writers to define the subject for us.  In the Baltimore Catechism, No. 3, page 162, we find this question and answer:

    475.  “What is Purgatory?  Purgatory is a state in which those suffer for a time who die guilty of venial sins, or without having satisfied for the punishment due to their sins.  The Bible says that nothing defiled shall enter into Heaven, (Apoc. 21,27).  Will those, who at death are not spotlessly holy, have to go to Hell?  Christ says no, because many will be forgiven in the next world (Math. 12,32).  There is therefore a place of cleansing in the next world, and this place we call Purgatory.  Hell is only for those who die as enemies of God.”

    To further define the subject, we turn to the book, 25 Questions Non-Catholics Ask, by Rev. John A. O’Brien and bearing the Nihil Obstat of Edward A. Miller and the Imprimatur of Leo. A. Pursley.  On page 25 we find:

    “The word Purgatory does not occur in Scripture, but the reality it symbolizes is referred to both in the Old and the New Testament and in the writing of the Fathers in the East and in the West.  Since the belief in the efficacy of prayers for the dead was universal in the infant Church, it follows that the belief in Purgatory was likewise universal; for without a Purgatory, prayers for the dead would be meaningless.”

     So, by combining what we have read, we can determine that Purgatory, according to Catholic writers, is a state between death and our eternal reward, in which those who died guilty of venial sins or without having satisfied the punishment due for their sins, are cleansed by means of punishment.  While the word Purgatory does not appear in the scriptures, the reality behind it is said to be taught in the Old and New Testaments, as well as in the writings of the early church Fathers.  We are told that the infant church universally believed in the efficacy for prayers for the dead and that it naturally follows that they also universally believed in Purgatory.

    We want to determine if this doctrine of Purgatory is taught in the scriptures and if it truly was universally held by the “infant church” as the Catholic writers have told us.

WHEN DID THE DOCTRINE BEGIN?

    Very early after the death of the last of the apostles, we begin to find germs of this doctrine.  In the writings of Marcion and in the Shepherd of Hermes, both of which can be dated in the second century, we find the idea of an abode of the dead in which their eternal destinies can be changed.  Then in the writings of Origen, a learned early church figure who died in 254 A.D., we read:

    “For if on the foundation of Christ you have built not only gold and silver and precious stones (I Cor. 3) but also wood and hay and stubble, what do you expect when the soul shall be separated from the body?  Would you enter into heaven with your wood and hay and stubble and thus defile the kingdomGod…?  It remains then that you be committed to the fire which will burn the light materials…But this fire consumes not the creature, but what the creature has himself built…It is manifest that he fire destroys the wood of our transgressions, and then returns to us the reward of our good works” (Pg. 13, 445, 448, 3^rd. cent.).

    Little is fond concerning this subject after Origen with the exception of some statement s about it from Gregory of Nyssa and Ambrose, both of the 4^th century.  The came the noted theologian, Augustine, in the 5^th century.  He gave the doctrine of Purgatory definite form, but expressed doubts about it himself.  Augustine said, “The question whether such is the case is justified and may yield to a solution or remain in doubt: the question whether some of the faithful are saved by a sort of purgatorial fire, and this sooner or later according as they have loved more or less the goods that perish” (Enchiridion, pg. 69-5^th cent.).

    It remained for Gregory the Great, who held the office of Pope from 590-604 A.D., to formally define and shape the doctrine.  This he did in his Dialogue.  Gregory wrote, “It is to be believed that before the judgment there is a purgatorial fire for certain minor sins.  For the Truth says that if anyone blasphemes against the Holy Ghost, it shall not be forgiven him, either in this world or in the next.  From which we learn that certain sins may be forgiven in the world and certain the next…We must know, however, that a man will not be cleansed in purgatory of even the least sins, unless during his lifetime he deserved by his good works to receive such favor” (Pg. 4, 39 – 6^th cent.).

   About 900 years later the doctrine was decreed an article of faith by the Council of Florence.  This can be found in Laetentur Coeli, 1439.  Then 124 years later, due to the public outrage surrounding the sale of indulgences which is tied so closely to the idea of Purgatory, the Council of Trent confirmed the doctrine.  The Council decreed:

    “Whereas the Catholic Church, instructed by the Holy Ghost, has from the sacred writings and the ancient tradition of the fathers taught in sacred councils and very recently in this oecumenical synod that there is a purgatory, and that the souls there detained are helped by the suffrages of the faithful, but principally by the acceptable sacrifice of the altar; the holy synod enjoins on bishops that they diligently endeavor that the sound doctrine concerning purgatory transmitted by the holy fathers and sacred councils, be believed, maintained, taught, and everywhere proclaimed by the faithful of Christ” (Decree of the Council of Trent, Session 25, Dec.3, 1563).

    So that details the historical development of the doctrine of Purgatory.  It is interesting to notice some of the flights of imagination the Catholic clergy has engaged in over the years, particularly during the Middle Ages.  For instance:

    “The Franciscans claimed that the head of their order descended annually into purgatory, and delivered all the brotherhood who were detained there.  The ;Carmelites asserted that the Virgin Mary had promised that no one who died with the Carmelite scapulary upon their shoulders, should ever be lost.”  (Systematic Thology III, p. 770, Dr. Charles Hodge).

    The point is this – over 100 years after the time of Christ, we find the first inkling of the idea behind the doctrine of Purgatory.  Over 200 years after Christ, Origen writes concerning an intermediate state of cleansing.  Approximately 400 years after the time of Christ, the greatest theologian the Catholic Church had to offer, Augustine, began to give definite form to the doctrine, but did himself doubt parts of it.  Almost 500 years after the time of Christ, Gregory the great, the architect of the medieval papacy, formally defined and shaped the doctrine.  Over 1400 years after the time of Christ, the doctrine was decreed and article of faith; and over 1500 years after Christ, the doctrine was officially confirmed.  There is simply no way tat it can truthfully be said that he “infant church” universally believed in Purgatory.  History proves that this is undeniably false.  We have seen that it took the Catholic officials 600 years to sufficiently discover the so-called Biblical doctrine, to formally define and shape it, and 1500 years to officially confirm it.  This is not a doctrine that originated with Christ; it is a doctrine that evolved in the minds of men over a 1500 year period.  About such things Jesus did say: “But in vain they do worship me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men” (Matt. 15:9)

SCRIPTURAL SUPPORT FOR PURGATORY?

As the Catholic authorities seek to find some sort of scriptural support for their doctrine, they will cite a number of New Testament passages. Their main ones are Matt. 12:32, I Cor. 3:13-15, Jude 22 & 23, I Pet. 3:18-20. None of these passages mention Purgatory or even imply the doctrine. To get such an idea from these passages requires incredible assumptions on the part of the reader and requires that other New Testament passages that refute such an idea as Purgatory will be ignored. However, do not take my word for it; examine them for yourself.

The primary scriptural support cited by the Roman Catholic authorities (it has been included in every defense I have read) is found in 2 Maccabees 12:39-45. 2 Maccabees is an Old Testament book found in the Catholic Bible. It was not accepted by the Jews as being inspired and was written after their Bible was completed. It is an apocryphal book and is accepted only by the Catholic authorities. But what does it say?

“And the day following Judas came with his company, to take away the bodies of them that had been slain, and to bury them with their kinsmen, in the sepulchres of their fathers. And they found under the coats of the slain some of the donaries of the idols of Jamnia, which the law forbiddeth to the Jews: so that all plainly saw, that for this cause they were slain. Then they all blessed the just judgment of the Lord who had discovered the things that were hidden.

And so betaking themselves to prayers, they besought him, that the sin which had been committed might be forgiven. But the most valiant Judas exhorted the people to keep themselves from sin, forasmuch as they saw before their eyes what had happened because of the sins of those that were slain. And making a great gathering, he sent twelve thousand drachmas of silver to Jerusalem for a sacrifice to be offered for the sins of the dead, thinking well and religiously concerning the resurrection. For if he had not hoped that they that were slain should rise again, it would have seemed superfluous and vain to pray for the dead. And because he considered that they who had fallen asleep with godliness, had great grace laid up for them. It is therefore a holy and wholesome thought to pray for the dead that they may be loosed from sin.”

I find nothing here about an intermediate state of suffering for those who died with venial sins or still owing punishment for sins already forgiven. I find mention of prayers for the dead, and from that the doctrine of Purgatory is to be inferred? Besides, these dead were guilty of the sins of idolatry. Their death was a judgment of God according to the passage. Idolatry is a mortal sin according to Catholicism. Those dying in mortal sin do not go to Purgatory. This passage either proves too much as far as Purgatory is concerned or nothing at all.

So, the primary scriptural support for Purgatory offered by the Catholic authorities is an apocryphal book, accepted by no one other than Catholics, and the passage cited does not refer to Purgatory; indeed it cannot, based upon their own definition of who is to go there.  This is mighty slim support for such an important doctrine.

   The Catholic doctrine of Purgatory cannot be supported either scripturally or historically.