The doctrine of Purgatory teaches that the souls of the faithfully departed go to a place of purgation (cleaning, purging) for their venial sins. It is not hell (inferno) or heaven (paradiso) but something of a preliminary to the latter.
Protestants do not believe in purgatory in the least and challenge Catholics on what seems to be an antiquated theological concept outside the descriptions of the Bible. Protestants may also claim it is a convenient invention to keep living Catholics enslaved to the Church which dispenses indulgences (another topic for later) that requite the temporal punishment of sin in Purgatory. According to Protestant teaching, one either goes to a well-merited Hell or is saved by a full blown grace in Heaven, one of which is your final, final, final destination–irrevocable after death and in which no forgiveness is operational.
The Church teaches that Purgatory is a necessary stage to remove our earthly attachments and prepare us for standing in the presence of the most Holy God. Contrary to Protestant belief the concept of Purgatory, although not explicitly mentioned in Scripture (but neither is the concept of Trinity), is a logical conclusion based on Scripture and the Church’s Sacred Tradition overall.
First, we are called to perfection:
Matthew 5:48 You, therefore, must be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect.
Rev 3:2 Awake, and strengthen what remains and is on the point of death, for I have not found your works perfect in the sight of my God.
And that Heaven is a place for those made perfect:
Hebrews 12:22 But you have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to innumerable angels in festal gathering, 23and to the assembly of the first-born who are enrolled in heaven, and to a judge who is God of all, and to the spirits of just men made perfect, 24and to Jesus, the mediator of a new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood that speaks more graciously than the blood of Abel.
Revelation 21:27 But nothing unclean shall enter it, nor any one who practices abomination or falsehood, but only those who are written in the Lamb’s book of life.
And so we have a need for a place / process called Purgatory most explicitly described in the Book of Maccabees (12:43-46) which Protestants deleted from the Canon of Scripture—baffling, since it fills in the missing 400 years between Malachi and Matthew also.
Analysis
A given model is judged by how well it explains reality. In this instance, the concept of Purgatory is the model and the reality is scripture (for the sake of Bible Christians). Let’s see how well this model works.
In Luke 12:56-59 we hear Jesus teaching His followers to settle with their accuser, otherwise they may find themselves before the Judge (Jesus) who will hand them over to the officer who will bounce them to prison where “you will never get out till you have paid the very last copper.” Can this be Hell? If so, how is it that one can possibly “get out”? No, this is not Hell, nor is it Heaven, but a third in-between place which the Catholics call Purgatory.
In 1 Corinthians 3:10-15, Paul describes a process in which one’s works (there’s that word again) is tested with purifying fire as a stage of the Christian life, from which one will be saved ultimately but only after suffering loss. Heaven doesn’t quite fit since there is no pain and only perfection in that firmament. How about Hell? This is a bad model because the reality of scripture describes Hell as a place of eternal fire and no one passes through those flames. The Catholic Church calls this Purgatory.
Matthew 12:32 we see that baffling passage “And whoever says a word against the Son of man will be forgiven; but whoever speaks against the Holy Spirit will not be forgiven, either in this age or in the age to come”, implying that there is some forgiveness in the age to come. Could this be Heaven? Not a good model since Heaven is a place of perfection and no forgiveness is warranted. How about Hell? Nope—that’s a place where there is no escape and no forgiveness (Luke 16:26). So here again, the concept of purgatory is a more suitable model, a place where some types of sin (venial) are forgiven.
Aside from these passages of scripture, we see prefiguration of Purgatory in the lives of the saints. Moses, who stood in the presence of God, was purified by 40 years in the desert. Paul suffered a thorn in the flesh never to be delivered in this life. John on the island of Patmos suffered exile. John the Baptist in the desert wearing camel hair and eating locust was preparing the way for Jesus. So then, the concept of Purgatory is present on the Bible and presents as a good model to explain certain theological concepts.
CODA
Floating around in the minds of Bible Christians is the idea that they will meet Jesus in the afterlife and greet him as one would greet an old friend —but let’s think about this. Who is this we are talking about in this ultimate encounter? How would we react to meeting the very Maker of Heaven and Earth?
Here is the prophet Isaiah’s (6:5) response:
And the foundations of the thresholds shook at the voice of him who called, and the house was filled with smoke. 5And I said: “Woe is me! For I am lost; for I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips; for my eyes have seen the King, the LORD of hosts!”
Here is Peter’s response:
Luke 5: 8 But when Simon Peter saw it, he fell down at Jesus’ knees, saying, “Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord.”
How about John who saw the risen and glorified Jesus in Revelation, a man Jesus knew as the beloved disciple, a man Jesus was related to by human birth, a man who suffered as an Apostle, the only man who did not abandon Jesus at his passion, a man most qualified to stand in front of God Almighty if any—what does he say in the first chapter of Revelation.
“When I saw him, I fell at his feet as though dead.”
If we are fortunate (or unfortunate) to encounter the living God, we will be terrified in the extreme because he is all Holy and we are not. It may seem Purgatory is a bad place of suffering but it’s actually a welcome place for those that wish to achieve the perfection God expects in order to ultimately stand blamelessly in His presence.