Purgatory — paying for admission
 From
the title it might seem there is some relationship between
purgatory and getting to heaven. There is not. In fact,
there is no such thing as purgatory at all. Not in biblical
history and not in Bible prophecy. Just because 1.1
billion people might believe in it does not make its
existence a fact. Remember that the Catholic church,
the major advocate of the doctrine of purgatory, also
once taught her adherents the earth was flat.
Interestingly, though, Bible prophecy
does speak of a belief system that will characterize
some end-times religions, and among those characteristics
is the falling away from the faith. Note the definite
article “the”. Instead of “the”
faith that comes by hearing the word of God (Romans
10:17), untold multitudes are associated with a faith
that is based upon human dogma, tradition, opinion,
supposition, etc. Jesus did not ask, “When the
Son of Man comes will he find faith”, but in the
Greek He asked if the Son of Man would find “the”
faith when He comes (Luke 18:8 marginal note and Greek).
Faith is not in short supply in our
world. In fact, the entire world is eaten up with faith.
You see, faith can be based upon just about anything.
There is faith in education, prosperity, politics, family
name — you name it! Billions of people even have
faith in religion, including 1.4 billion who believe
in Allah, the Moslem moon-god. In context of salvation
subjectivity is not worth a plug nickel because it is
based upon human thought and supposition and not upon
what God has said exclusively in His word, the Bible.
The doctrine of purgatory is believed
by a lot of people because it is taught in their religious
catechism, not because it is found in Holy Writ. We
are not surprised to see many people turn over their
health care to those in the medical field without so
much as even asking probing questions and doing their
own research. Of course, that can be very dangerous
physically and devastating financially. Even more so,
multitudes turn over the welfare of their immortal souls,
of far greater importance than their bodies, to some
religious authority without so much as a single question
or challenge. Neither do they study for themselves as
the Bible instructs us to do (2 Timothy 2:15). This
siren song of carelessness often becomes the death knell
for the soul.
It is frequently difficult to discuss
the issue of purgatory because those who believe in
it accept religious traditions as being equivalent to,
or even superseding, the Bible. Those who do not believe
in it accept the Bible as their only rule and guide.
It comes down to a matter of standards. In order to
debate and objectively consider an issue there must
be an agreed upon standard of reference. When anything
other than the Bible is given spiritual credibility
a problem immediately presents itself, for no person
can make a logical conclusion on an issue by using two
different and mutually exclusive standards (Bible and
tradition). The fact of the matter is no man can make
a truth-based conclusion by using something other than
the Bible as the standard.
Purgatory is unbiblical for several
reasons. First, it is not mentioned in the Bible. Contrary
to the belief system of some, every biblical text presented
as referring to purgatory does not. And that includes
every one from Daniel 12:10 to Revelation 21:27. And
regarding the writings of Clement, Cyprian, Gregory,
Chrysostom, Augustine, etc., those men were not inspired
by the Holy Spirit whatsoever. As is the case with many
ancient writers and historians there is some historical
benefit to be realized from those men in that they offer
insight into such things as social norms of their day.
However, their religious instruction and interpretation
of biblical texts is anything but infallible.
A second reason for the denial of the
doctrine of purgatory is its association with praying
for the dead. Nowhere does the Bible endorse praying
for dead people. Two things are evident about the rich
man in Hades in Luke 16:19ff. First, he is was in Hades,
not purgatory. His condition was permanent. Second,
nothing, including prayer, could help him. Even Abraham
could not intercede on his behalf. His eternal condition
was sealed forever without regard to prayers, intercession,
candles, money...whatever. When the lights go out it
is all over.
Third, the sole purpose for purgatory
seems to be a money-generating doctrine. If you have
a loved-one in constant fiery torment and their escaping
that torment is based upon your paying someone to pray
and light candles on their behalf, how much would you
be willing to give for that purpose? How much is enough?
How does a spiritual leader associate that person’s
venial sin and insufficient temporal punishment for
temporal sins with the required amount of money, prayers,
candles, etc.? How does that same religious leader know
when that person suddenly escapes the fires of purgatory
and is ushered into the “regions of bliss”?
Where can a student find any of this in the Bible? It
can’t be found.
Without doubt the greatest reason for
the rejection of the doctrine of purgatory is its purported
reason for existence to begin with — so that a
person can personally pay for at least some of his sins.
There is no way to put this delicately: such an idea
is nothing less than insulting to the blood of Jesus
Christ. That a person would have to personally pay for
some of his sin is to say that the death of Jesus on
a Roman cross was insufficient to cover that person’s
sin. That flies in the face of everything in both the
Old and New Testaments!
When Jesus said, “It is finished”
and died He meant just that; it was finished. The context
of His cross was that of sacrifice; the payment for
the sins of all humanity. Every sin of every person
in the entire world was paid for at that moment. That
which no man could ever do for himself or for anyone
else was done by Jesus Christ in that moment in time
on that day for the whole world. The very best heaven
had to offer willingly left His regal status at the
right hand of the Father, took on a human body, lived
an absolutely perfect life in His 33 years, allowed
some Jews to ask for His death and some Gentiles to
kill him and poured out His God-in-human-flesh blood
on a Roman cross located at a crossroads just outside
old Jerusalem.
God was so repulsed by the sin His
own Son took upon Himself on that cross that He turned
away from Him. That which caused God-the-Father to turn
away from God-the-Son, His only Son, was your sin and
mine. And to say His blood was insufficient to pay for
all our sins is more than simply insulting. It is blasphemous.
That such doctrines are flourishing
is not by mere chance. There are any number of biblical
texts that predict a pronounced and decrepit spiritual
condition in the days just prior to the second coming
of Jesus. Satan is in a full run as he heads for the
coming showdown with Jesus. He is pulling out all stops
in order to corrupt the truth and deceive as many as
possible. He does not care what a person believes about
any number of things, but if he can influence one to
accept fraudulent teaching regarding the cardinal doctrines
of Christianity he has won the day.
Believing in God is okay with him along with believing
Jesus is the Son of God (demons believe that much! James
2:19; Mark 1:34), that Moses led the people of Israel
through the Red Sea on dry land, that the walls of Jericho
fell down, that Jesus turned water into wine, that Peter
walked on water, that the dead were raised, etc. What
he wants is for people to be deceived regarding those
doctrines that form the basis of salvation. And one
of those key doctrines is the doctrine of Jesus’
propitiatory blood atonement.
Study for yourself 1 Timothy 4, 2 Timothy
3, 2 Peter 3, Jude 17-18, 1 John 4, etc. Based upon
those and other prophetic texts it does not come as
a surprise that someone would invent a system of self-payment
for sin; a system that is in direct conflict with sound
biblical doctrine by saying we earn our salvation at
least partly by suffering for some of our sins.
One final thought on purgatory. From
everything written about the death of unbelievers we
know they go to a place of torment, Hades, at death
to wait the Great White Throne Judgment at which time
they will be judged and sent to Hell. Presently there
is no one in Hell, for the first occupants will be anti-Christ
and his false prophet who will be thrown into the lake
of fire after Armageddon (Revelation 19:20). The next
occupant will be Satan himself just after his final
rebellion and just before the Great White Throne Judgment
(Revelation 20:10). Next will be the unsaved of all
ages after the judgment (Revelation 20:11-15).
For unbelievers death is a fearful
matter, for it is the door to eternal punishment with
no reprieve; no purgatory from which one might eventually
escape.
It is quite different for believers,
though. At death Christians go immediately into the
presence of the Lord (Philippians 1:21-23; 2 Corinthians
5:6-8). There are no stops, no delays, no layovers,
no purgatory, no anything that will interfere with one’s
being immediately placed into the presence of Jesus.
For the Christian death is not some sort of room where
one exists until the resurrection, but is a threshold
over which one steps into heaven. For Christians death
is just a split-second in time, and though we do not
gravitate toward the prospect of dying, yet death itself
possesses no coldness, no fear, no sense of foreboding
and no sense of pain. It is not an entity that has a
horrid personality of some kind, but is rather an inanimate
object over which one crosses from earthly life to eternal
life. Sort of like speeding over a tar-strip on a highway.
Any fear having to do with death is before it happens;
that is, the prospect. The event itself is benign.
As Christians we do not have to save
money for an eventual break-out from purgatory. We do
not have to worry about someone lighting a candle for
us. Nor do we have to worry about the fiery pain of
paying for sin, any sin. We rejoice in the altogether
perfect and sufficient work of Jesus on the cross. Let
no man rob you of this truth. DLM |
