Exploring the Biblical Validity of Purgatory
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"Biblically speaking, first Corinthians 3:10 to 15 is the most common biblical proof for it. There we read that each one's work will become manifest for the day we'll disclose it because it will be revealed by fire, and the fire will test what sort of work each one has done. That's verse 13, and if anyone's work is burned up, he will suffer loss although he himself will be saved but only as through fire. That's verse 15." [00:54:40]
"As much as I love C.S. Lewis and stand in awe of his gifts of logic and poetic vision and his capacities to express things in vivid concrete, inimitable analogical ways, nevertheless, his position and his reasoning on purgatory miss the mark. He says flat out in Letters to Malcolm, chiefly on prayer, page 108, quote, 'I'll give you a longer quote than was given to us, I believe in purgatory.'" [01:41:04]
"Now before I go into particular texts that make purgatory, I think, untenable biblically, let's define it the way the Roman Catholic Church does because they're the ones who promote this doctrine. And let's see whether Lewis's argument stands on its own terms. So here's what the Catholic Church, the Catechism of the Catholic Church says in defining purgatory: '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.'" [03:57:04]
"There is no doubt that we must be purified completely without sin in order to enter the very presence of God in our final state, otherwise we'd be incinerated and God would be defiled and dishonored. None of us believe that is going to happen, so we're all in agreement about that. That's not going to happen. Nobody's going into the very presence of God with any stain or inner sin left." [05:06:00]
"Why would we not rather assume that God does it first progressively in this life, and then at the end finishes it instantaneously? But enough with our human reasoning, let's go to the Bible. The Roman Catholic Church includes some books in their Bible, the Apocrypha, it's called the Apocrypha, which Protestants don't have in our Bible. One of those books is Second Maccabees, and in chapter 12 verses 42 to 45 there is this sentence: 'Therefore Judas Maccabeus made atonement for the dead that they might be delivered from their sin.'" [06:00:00]
"Now from that statement, the Catholic Church infers that not only should you pray for the dead, but the dead have sins from which they must be delivered, which leads them to postulate purgatory. Now Sydney in his question points out that if you're going to go after any New Testament text at all to support purgatory, the one you would go to most is First Corinthians 3:13 to 14." [07:22:56]
"Each one's work, so each Christian's work, will become manifest for the day we'll disclose it. So this is the judgment day in which we are going to be shown to be true or false, and our works are going to be shown to be stubble or valuable because it will be revealed by fire, and the fire will test what sort of work each one has done." [08:02:56]
"Now in that text, there's no hint of passing through an extended period of time with the aim of cleansing us from our own impurities. This is a picture of a single one-time event where our works from this life are shown to be either stubble, for which there's no reward, or precious stones, for which there will be a reward. There's no foundation here for purgatory in a text like this." [08:49:20]
"Several texts point in the opposite direction about what happens when we die as Christians. Here's what Paul says in Philippians 1:23: 'My desire is to depart, let's die, and be with Christ, for that is far better.' So the picture is death and an immediate joyful fellowship with Jesus. Same thing confirmed in Second Corinthians 5:6 to 9, only it's even clearer." [09:26:40]
"We are always of good courage. We know that while we are at home in the body, we are away from the Lord. We would rather be away from the body and at home with the Lord. So whether we are at home or away, we make it our aim to please him. I don't know how it could be much clearer than to say away from the body is at home with the Lord." [10:00:52]
"That's our immediate hope, not any intervening purgatory between being away from the body and being at home with the Lord. But to be away from the body is to be at home with the Lord, which Paul says is far better. So let me go back and suggest why what C.S. Lewis imagined between the dirty saint and God happening at the pearly gates, this discussion they had, would in fact never happen." [10:35:20]
"When the apostle Paul pictured the resurrection of all the imperfect saints in First Corinthians 15, he said, 'Behold, I tell you a mystery: We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead in Christ will be raised imperishable, and we shall be changed.'" [12:06:32]
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"As much as I love C.S. Lewis and stand in awe of his gifts of logic and poetic vision and his capacities to express things in vivid concrete, inimitable analogical ways, nevertheless, his position and his reasoning on purgatory miss the mark. He says flat out in Letters to Malcolm, chiefly on prayer, page 108, quote, 'I'll give you a longer quote than was given to us, I believe in purgatory.'" [01:41:04]
"Now before I go into particular texts that make purgatory, I think, untenable biblically, let's define it the way the Roman Catholic Church does because they're the ones who promote this doctrine. And let's see whether Lewis's argument stands on its own terms. So here's what the Catholic Church, the Catechism of the Catholic Church says in defining purgatory: '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.'" [03:57:04]
"There is no doubt that we must be purified completely without sin in order to enter the very presence of God in our final state, otherwise we'd be incinerated and God would be defiled and dishonored. None of us believe that is going to happen, so we're all in agreement about that. That's not going to happen. Nobody's going into the very presence of God with any stain or inner sin left." [05:06:00]
"Why would we not rather assume that God does it first progressively in this life, and then at the end finishes it instantaneously? But enough with our human reasoning, let's go to the Bible. The Roman Catholic Church includes some books in their Bible, the Apocrypha, it's called the Apocrypha, which Protestants don't have in our Bible. One of those books is Second Maccabees, and in chapter 12 verses 42 to 45 there is this sentence: 'Therefore Judas Maccabeus made atonement for the dead that they might be delivered from their sin.'" [06:00:00]
"Now from that statement, the Catholic Church infers that not only should you pray for the dead, but the dead have sins from which they must be delivered, which leads them to postulate purgatory. Now Sydney in his question points out that if you're going to go after any New Testament text at all to support purgatory, the one you would go to most is First Corinthians 3:13 to 14." [07:22:56]
"Each one's work, so each Christian's work, will become manifest for the day we'll disclose it. So this is the judgment day in which we are going to be shown to be true or false, and our works are going to be shown to be stubble or valuable because it will be revealed by fire, and the fire will test what sort of work each one has done." [08:02:56]
"Now in that text, there's no hint of passing through an extended period of time with the aim of cleansing us from our own impurities. This is a picture of a single one-time event where our works from this life are shown to be either stubble, for which there's no reward, or precious stones, for which there will be a reward. There's no foundation here for purgatory in a text like this." [08:49:20]
"Several texts point in the opposite direction about what happens when we die as Christians. Here's what Paul says in Philippians 1:23: 'My desire is to depart, let's die, and be with Christ, for that is far better.' So the picture is death and an immediate joyful fellowship with Jesus. Same thing confirmed in Second Corinthians 5:6 to 9, only it's even clearer." [09:26:40]
"We are always of good courage. We know that while we are at home in the body, we are away from the Lord. We would rather be away from the body and at home with the Lord. So whether we are at home or away, we make it our aim to please him. I don't know how it could be much clearer than to say away from the body is at home with the Lord." [10:00:52]
"That's our immediate hope, not any intervening purgatory between being away from the body and being at home with the Lord. But to be away from the body is to be at home with the Lord, which Paul says is far better. So let me go back and suggest why what C.S. Lewis imagined between the dirty saint and God happening at the pearly gates, this discussion they had, would in fact never happen." [10:35:20]
"When the apostle Paul pictured the resurrection of all the imperfect saints in First Corinthians 15, he said, 'Behold, I tell you a mystery: We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead in Christ will be raised imperishable, and we shall be changed.'" [12:06:32]
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