What Does the Bible Say About Purgatory?

[Music] purgatory is the topic today we uh briefly touched on purgatory in three past abjs in episode 1150 1162 and 1290 but nothing at length and that changes today with a question from sydney who lives in the beautiful state of arizona along with me hi pastor john i know that some older christians believed in a secondary refinement or purgatory a purging of the soul after death and before heaven c.s lewis once rhetorically wrote our souls demand purgatory don't they he explained that christians should want purgatory as a sort of self-cleaning up before we're ready to enter into the eternal presence of god he said this in his book letters to malcolm chiefly on prayer page 108 coming from lewis purgatory seems like a humble preparatory step before we enter eternity 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 but does the bible confirm purgatory it's really interesting that this question would come just now because i am listening to lewis's book letters to malcolm chiefly on prayer interesting this very moment it's on my phone uh so i'm i'm sort of primed as much as i love c.s lewis and stand in all 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 our souls demand purgatory don't they would it not break the heart if god said to us it's true my son that your breath smells and your rags drip with mud and slime but we are charitable here meaning in heaven and no one will upgrade you with these things nor draw away from you enter into the joy should we not reply uh with submission sir if there's no objection i'd rather be cleansed first it may hurt you know even so sir end quote it's good writing yeah i love it i love it it's dead wrong but i love it no it's not quite dead wrong i'll try to explain now what's what's typical of louis here as most places is that he rarely quotes scripture if you've read lewis i've read almost you you don't go to c.s lewis to watch serious biblical exposition in the making you don't no doubt he knows his bible goodness gracious he can quote his greek new testament probably better than i can he's got parts of it memorized and his theology is generally true he's not a heretic but if he had tried to support this belief with scripture he would have been hard put to do it now before i go into particular texts that make uh 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 quote 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 the church gives the name purgatory to this final purification of the elect which is entirely different from the punishment of the damned close quote so that's all from the catechism of the catholic church 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 but here's the assumption that lewis and the catholic church bring to the situation their assumption is that it requires another process beyond the process of this life to get abiding sin out of our lives now why would they assume that since we had a relatively long process of purification or sanctification in this life by the holy spirit and it did not perfect us we realize it's going to take a divine stroke or word of purification by the hand of god or the word of god the way jesus purified people instantaneously with a word in order to finish this purifying work 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 maccabeeus made atonement for the dead that they might be delivered from their sin close quote 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 and i'll quote it again to show how inapplicable it is to purgatory 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 if the work that anyone has built on the foundation survives he will receive a reward if anyone's work is burned up he will suffer loss though he himself will be saved but only as through fire 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 on the contrary 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 five six to nine only it's even clearer he says 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 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 now you recall lewis pictures god saying it's true my son that your breath smells your rags drip with mud and slime but we are charitable here and no one will upgrade you with these things nor draw away from you so enter into the joy now if that were to happen the saint surely would indeed say yes lord nothing impure shall enter your presence would you now then in great mercy complete the purchase of your son namely my cleansing and simply say the word be clean the way your son did 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 now that instantaneous change of our bodies at the resurrection is a better more biblical picture of what happens to the imperfect soul at death in a moment in the twinkling of an eye god says to us just like jesus said to the leper in luke 5 13 be clean and immediately his leprosy left him that will happen physically at the resurrection and for those who die before the resurrection it happens spiritually at death glorious there is a metamorphosis to be had before we can enjoy eternity forever and it happens in the blink of a camera flash we will see christ become like him in the same moment beautiful thank you pastor john and thank you for joining us today you can ask a question of your own search our growing archive or subscribe to the podcast all that can be done at desiringguide.org forward slash ask pastor john well you don't have to be a christian to see the destructive power of pornography in the human brain you don't have to be a christian to discern the difference between love and lust you certainly don't have to be a christian to know that adultery destroys marriages but you must be a christian to see the battle for sexual purity within its fullest reality so how do we battle lust like christians and how does sexuality find its ultimate purpose and right place in our lives next time we will take a look at the key to it all the key to it all that's no overstatement the key to it all don't miss it i'm your host tony ranky and we'll see you on wednesday thanks for listening

Channel: Desiring God

Views: 50,014

Rating: 4.9200001 out of 5

Keywords: Desiring God, John Piper, God, Jesus Christ, Christianity, Christian Hedonism, Ask Pastor John, APJ, Bible, Purgatory, Hell, C.S. Lewis, Afterlife, Cleansing, Purification, Redemption, Heaven

Id: WRlh9u4S9fA

Length: 14min 29sec (869 seconds)

Published: Mon May 17 2021