Where is Purgatory in the Bible?
All we have to do to uncover just how confused people can be about Catholic teaching, especially on the topic of purgatory, is scroll down on any social media platform. Right now I am in a conversation on Facebook with one such post. Because of this I once again went to the Scriptures as well as The Catechism of The Catholic Church at an attempt to clear some things up.
Believe me I know it's probably futile because no one is really confused who is honestly seeking the truth and who is open to hearing the truth also. Most of the time these confused or conflicted people are just looking to spread anti-Catholic rhetoric, which doesn't do any honest person any good. Anti-Catholic rhetoric herts those who want to follow Christ and it hurts the body of believers, also known as the body of Christ. And that offends Christ!
But lucky me I usually find myself answering them. But I praise God because it is because of them that I find myself going back to the Scriptures and Catechism. And this always pleases me because my faith is always confirmed through doing this. The topic of purgatory is what is on the agenda today and it is on this topic that I will be sharing in this post.
Like all of my apologetics posts, this is how I come to write them. I consider them to be inspired by those anti-Catholic posts and separated brothers and sisters who I love and pray for all the time. "so that they may all be one, as you, Father, are in me and I in you, that they also may be in us, that the world may believe that you sent me." John 17:21
Let's get to it!
Despite what anti-Catholics say, the concept of purgatory is taught in Scripture. It is the oral tradition of the Church which comes from Christ to His Apostles, in succession through The Church that has given us not only the Sacred Scriptures but our very understanding of how salvation works and everything contained in the bible writings, and everything pertaining to faith and morality. So that is the first thing to understand. Non Catholic Christians read the bible (which is first a Catholic book) and interpret it for themselves and design a church which fits into their own understandings of what it says. From this they get thousands of different denominations who just do things the way that they want.
In the Catholic Church however, we first have Christ, and His Word as handed down in an unbroken oral tradition that is safeguarded by the Holy Spirit from BEFORE the bible was completed and certainly before any books of the New Testament was written. In fact it was the Catholic Church who used her authority to select which books belonged in the bible and which did not. This happened in the 3rd and 4th centuries by various Church councils.
Ok now for the topic of purgatory.
Purgatory is often confused with a "second chance" as some mistakenly have called it. Purgatory is NOT a second chance at salvation. Once we are dead that is it, we will be judged in the state of holiness or mortal sin that we died with. What purgatory is, is a cleansing from the attachment to sin that has been left on our souls. The Church understands that as sinners, while we may have gone to confession every week or once a year which is proscribed by The Church, and received The Holy Eucharist as often as possible, we may still be attached to some sins, whether we ever commit them again or not, whether we have been absolved of them or not.
This attachment to sin and to the world is what is cleansed from our souls when we die and go to purgatory. The bottom line here is if we wish to go to heaven, we must be perfectly detached from the world and especially sin. "Do not love the world or the things of the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world, sensual lust, enticement for the eyes, and a pretentious life, is not from the Father but is from the world. Yet the world and its enticement are passing away. But whoever does the will of God remains forever." 1 John 2:15-17
The Catechism of The Catholic Church explains purgatory like this...
1030 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. III. The Final Purification, or Purgatory
So purgatory is God's Mercy for the world, for those of us who are friends of God who have fallen short in some ways in this life, but who continued in life to strive for that holiness which comes from Christ. Purgatory is not a second chance for those who are damned or condemned to hell. Nevertheless the Church makes no judgment on who is in hell or not. Therefore this teaching goes along with the Catholic practice of praying for our beloved dead. Since God is Mercy, and we know that He does not live in time and space as we do, and all are dear to Him. "who wills everyone to be saved and to come to knowledge of the truth." 1 Timothy 2:4
While we hope that all might be saved, we know that not all will be saved, but we still pray, asking God for forgiveness for the world and for our loved ones. I will provide some of those verses below. And if you click that link for the Catechism and continue reading you will begin to understand more about what the Church teaches on all of these topics.
The CONCEPT of purgatory is taught in Scripture.
It is the oral tradition of the Church which comes from Christ to His Apostles, that has given us not only the Sacred Scriptures but our understanding of it, especially how salvation works and everything on faith and morality.
IF WE CAREFULLY READ THE CATECHISM PARAGRAPHS & FOOTNOTES WE WOULD SEE THAT THE TEACHING WAS MORE CLEARLY DEFINED IN THE 15th 16th CENTURY. (Council of Florence (1439) Council of Trent (1563) THIS WAS DURING A TIME WHEN MORE CLARIFICATION ON CERTAIN ASPECTS OF THE FAITH WAS NEEDED AND BEING CHALLENGED.
And the Catholic Church which is founded by Christ Himself has every authority to do this. "And so I say to you, you are Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church, and the gates of the netherworld shall not prevail against it." I will give you the keys to the kingdom of heaven. Whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven; and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.” Matthew 16:18-19
For more information on how doctrines develop, here is an article that may help.
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Scriptures which show us that the early Church had a concept of Purgatory
Mt 5:26 "Amen, I say to you, you will not be released until you have paid the last penny."
(The Church has always understood this to be an analogy for purgatory.)
Mt 12:32 "And whoever speaks 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."
Mt 12:36 "I tell you, on the day of judgment people will render an account for every careless word they speak."
(Here Jesus is speaking about sin being forgiven or not "in this age or in the age to come." The Church has always understood "the age to come to be the final judgment after death.)
2 Macc 12:44-46 "for if he were not expecting the fallen to rise again, it would have been superfluous and foolish to pray for the dead. But if he did this with a view to the splendid reward that awaits those who had gone to rest in godliness, it was a holy and pious thought. Thus he made atonement for the dead that they might be absolved from their sin."
(I think this one is clear. It is a good thing to pray for the dead, that they might be absolved from their sin. The Church has always understood that praying for the dead to be a spiritual work of mercy.)
1 Cor 3:15 "But if someone’s work is burned up, that one will suffer loss; the person will be saved, but only as through fire."
(Here Paul speaks about being "saved, but only as through fire" The Church has always understood this to be the purifying fires of purgatory.)
1 Pet 3:18-20 "For Christ also suffered for sins once, the righteous for the sake of the unrighteous, that he might lead you to God. Put to death in the flesh, he was brought to life in the spirit. In it he also went to preach to the spirits in prison, who had once been disobedient while God patiently waited in the days of Noah during the building of the ark, in which a few persons, eight in all, were saved through water."
1 Pet 4:6 "For this is why the gospel was preached even to the dead that, though condemned in the flesh in human estimation, they might live in the spirit in the estimation of God."
(If there was no hope of Salvation for those who have already died in their sin, why would Jesus preach the Gospel to the dead? Also the Church has always understood that these spirits "in prison" vs 1 Pet 3:18-20 were in what we call purgatory. Not in the hell of the damned.)
2 Tm 1:16-18 "May the Lord grant mercy to the family of Onesiphorus because he often gave me new heart and was not ashamed of my chains. But when he came to Rome, he promptly searched for me and found me. May the Lord grant him to find mercy from the Lord on that day. And you know very well the services he rendered in Ephesus."
(Here Paul's prayer is for the Lord to have mercy on Onesiphorus who died before this letter was written.)
We believe that in order to reach heaven and the beatific vision, seeing God as He is, in all of His Glory, we must be holy as God is Holy. The Church also understands that most people will not be ready for heaven at the moment of death, yet still in friendship with God, and will need to go through a purifying process we call purgatory in order to enter heaven. Here are some verses.
Mt 5:48 "So be perfect, just as your heavenly Father is perfect."
(We are called by Christ to perfection, that is in perfect holiness)
Heb 12:14 "Strive for peace with everyone, and for that holiness without which no one will see the Lord."
Jam 3:2 "for we all fall short in many respects. If anyone does not fall short in speech, he is a perfect man, able to bridle his whole body also."
Rev 21:27 "but nothing unclean will enter it, nor any[one] who does abominable things or tells lies. Only those will enter whose names are written in the Lamb’s book of life."
(Read in context, this verse is speaking of heaven which nothing unclean shall enter)
1 Jn 5:16-17 "If anyone sees his brother sinning, if the sin is not deadly, he should pray to God and he will give him life. This is only for those whose sin is not deadly. There is such a thing as deadly sin, about which I do not say that you should pray. All wrongdoing is sin, but there is sin that is not deadly."
(Not all sin will bring death. The Church has always understood this to be speaking of the difference between venial and mortal sin.)
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These are the scriptures that show us that those in the Old Testament traditions as well as the early Christians such as St. Paul certainly had a concept of what we know today as Purgatory. Even though this teaching was begun by Christ and the Apostles our understanding of it in the Church had to develop over time. This is evident when we read through these Bible passages as well as read through the writing of the Early Church fathers of the following centuries after Christ founded the Church.
If I have more time I will do a separate post about some of these early Christian writers in the Church and their teachings on Purgatory. But if you would like to know more about that please read this article by Catholic Answers. What did The Early Church Believed about Purgatory?
I hope that these scriptures can help you when you are talking about this topic with others. I would like to encourage you to go over these scriptures, read them in context, pray about them and get to know them. As far as speaking about them with the typical anti-catholic online or in person, don't expect to get very far. But remember that prayer works, and we must always pray that God will open their hearts to what Christ through His Beautiful faith has to offer them.
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| Gertrude, below, is one of the most famous of the prayers for Souls in Purgatory. St. Gertrude the Great was a Benedictine nun and mystic who lived in the 13th century. According to tradition, our Lord promised her that 1000 souls would be released from Purgatory each time it is said devoutly. |
As always comments are appreciated, thank you for taking the time to read this. God bless you!
Sincerely JU
