Catholic Rehab #2 – Purgatory is Not Real

By John Ceccon

Romans 6:23 For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

I don’t even know where to start on this one. The concept of purgatory is so far out in left field, you would think that it was something straight out of Scientology or a Wes Craven horror movie. It’s another one of the multitudes of scary components of Catholicism that they bank on. Fear and guilt go a long way to ensuring compliance in the Catholic Church.

I was in the second grade at Cathedral Grammar School when I was introduced to Catholic catechism. This is where they begin to scare the Krap out of you by introducing you to spooky Catholic make-believe stuff – like purgatory. I found purgatory scarier than hell because, in my mind, I was going to heaven. I just didn’t want to stop off at a flaming waiting room first.

This centuries-old dogma of the Roman Catholic Church is derived from the Latin purgare, which means “to cleanse” or “to purify. It really is a waiting room for heaven with absolutely no biblical foundation. None. ZERO! The word purgatory does not appear once in the Protestant or Catholic Bible, not once. Seriously? It’s NOT in the Catholic Bible? Who was responsible for that oversight? If you can find it, I’ll Venmo you 100 bucks. The topic of hell comes up over and over in scripture. Don’t you think they would have mentioned purgatory at least once? They didn’t – not even in the Catholic Bible.

And get this – there was a time in the Catholic Church when you could buy your way out of purgatory. Yup, you read that right. Skip the waiting room altogether. They were called indulgences and it was one of the primary complaints that Martin Luther had with the Catholic Church which only fueled the Protestant Reformation in 1517. In 1563, the Catholic Church outlawed indulgences.

Lesson 2 – There is no purgatory. The primary verse Catholics point to for evidence of Purgatory is 1 Corinthians 3:15 – If anyone’s work is burned up, he will suffer loss, though he himself will be saved, but only as through fire. That’s it, and a real stretch at that. This is a major violation of basic Biblical contextual study. There are some verses in scripture that stand on their own and don’t need context or an explanation. This ain’t one of them. If you read starting in verse 1 through to verse 15, you will see that Paul (the author of 1 Corinthians) is clearly not talking about a fiery waiting room for heaven. Sometimes, context is everything in Bible study. This is one example.

According to Roman Catholicism, the souls of Christians who die burdened by venial or remitted mortal sins (which is everybody BTW) are transfered to purgatory, where they undergo a process of cleansing for those sins. A mortal sin is a sin causing spiritual death, and a Venial sin is a sin that can be forgiven. It’s like the difference between a spiritual misdemeanor and a life sentence. There are a couple of problems with this approach to sin. First, only Catholics divide sins into the categories of venial and mortal. In the Protestant/Evangelical world, a sin is a sin. All sins are mortal. James 2:10 – For whoever keeps the whole law but fails in one point has become guilty of all of it. This is one of those verses that stands on its own. Read all of James 2 and you will see what I mean. Second, and most importantly, purgatory completely negates the sacrifice Christ made on the cross. Have you ever heard the phrase, Christ died for our sins? Do you know what it means? (that’s a rhetorical question because I’m about to tell you). To sum it up, all of your sins, past, present, and future are forgiven through the blood of Christ. How does that happen? It happens through faith in Jesus and not through works. Does that mean that you can go out and just sin, sin,sin. Nope – sorry, doesn’t work that way either. So, for your homework, please read Romans 6, and for crying out loud, READ THE BIBLE. Don’t rely on a Catholic priest to interpret God’s word.

If you are a recovering Catholic, I’d love to hear from you. I have worked in church ministry for the last 10 years dealing with people who are in all forms of recovery, especially recovering Catholics. You don’t have to live with Catholic guilt anymore. You don’t have to confess to a priest ever again – go straight to Jesus. He is listening and He wants to hear from you. With every step you take toward Him, He will take two steps toward you. No Catholic priest, archbishop, or pope can compare. Do it, take that step.