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| Image by Jeroným Pelikovský from Pixabay |
I was asked very recently about witnessing to Roman Catholics, especially how we might speak intelligently about the myriad of issues that arise in such a conversation. You will, no doubt, be familiar enough with some of them: the veneration of Mary; the authority of the pope; prayers to the saints; the nature of the elements in communion; praying for the dead and purgatory and so many more.
First of all, in any discussion on faith, we must find the shortest route to the cross, for it is at the cross salvation is found. In that journey, then, we must clear away any and all obstacles that may seriously impede our progress. In other words, we must deal with those issues first that have direct bearing on our understanding of salvation. So we come to the question of purgatory.
Purgatory
The Roman Catholic teaching is very familiar. It is that the sacrifice of Christ makes it possible for me to make amends, here and in purgatory, for my venial sins. A mortal sin is one we knowingly and wilfully commit that turns us away from God to worship something else. A venial sin is a lesser sin that weakens the soul, but is not eternally fatal. The Catholic Encyclopaedia explains:
Purgatory (Lat., "purgare", to make clean, to purify) in accordance with Catholic teaching is a place or condition of temporal punishment for those who, departing this life in God's grace, are, not entirely free from venial faults, or have not fully paid the satisfaction due to their transgressions.
The Council of Trent declares anathema (cursed, condemned) anyone who refutes the teaching on purgatory:
If any one saith, that, after the grace of Justification has been received, to every penitent sinner the guilt is remitted, and the debt of eternal punishment is blotted out in such wise, that there remains not any debt of temporal punishment to be discharged either in this world, or in the next in Purgatory, before the entrance to the kingdom of heaven can be opened (to him); let him be anathema. (Council of Trent, session 6, canon 30)
It is familiar inasmuch as it is common to all the cults that Christ puts us on a footing that allows us to gain heaven by our own efforts and trials. In purgatory our sins are purged through a time of punishment. Mat Slick, on his CARM website, shows how Early Church Fathers have disagreed on the issue. In light of this, and as Bible believers, we must turn to God’s written word for answers, and that is where the problems begin for purgatory.
The Verses
We can say with confidence there is no biblical basis for this teaching, although several passages are appealed to in support of it. The first is not Scripture, but taken from the deuterocanonical books.
2 Maccabees 12:38-46 tells that the Maccabeans, on collecting the dead after a certain battle, found idols in their clothes. The Jewish general, Judas Maccabeus, sent money to Jerusalem to offer sacrifices and prayers for the dead, to propitiate for their sin.
The people of the Old Testament, and during the intertestamental period, were governed by the Law of Moses. It was Moses to whom the prophets appealed when calling God’s people to humility, repentance, and obedience. Nothing in the precepts Moses gave points to prayers and sacrifices for the dead.
1 Corinthians 3:11-15 speaks of each man’s work being tested as though by fire. However, Paul is writing about works being tested and says nothing about sins being purged through the suffering of purgatory.
In Matthew 12:32 Jesus speaks of those whose sin against the Holy Spirit will not be forgiven, ‘neither in this age, nor in the age to come.’ (ESV) From this Catholics reason some sins will be forgiven in the age to come. Jesus is talking about the totally unforgivable nature of the sin, that neither now nor in the future age will the sinner know a state of forgiveness.
Revelation 21 describes the new Jerusalem, verse 27 telling us, ‘Nothing unclean will ever enter it, nor anyone who does what is detestable or false, but only those who are written in the Lamb’s book of life.’ It is thought there must, therefore, be a period of purging of those minor sins we die with. The passage says nothing about hope through purging, only that no unclean thing may enter.
Further, we read about the Lamb’s book of life in chapter 20 and it is made clear, ‘the dead were judged by what was written in the books according to what they had done.’ (v.12) It is essential we remember, those whose names are in the Lamb’s book of life are those who have been redeemed by ‘the Lamb who was slain.’ (13:8) The judgement of their works determine rewards not redemption.
Conclusion
An inference has been drawn from a mistaken understanding of a story in a sub-canonical book that is not accepted by Jewish tradition as scripture, nor by Protestant denominations, and with confounding testimony from the Early Church Fathers on its authority.
An assumption has been made that the story in Maccabees is prescriptive. It is a common error to assume everything in the Bible is prescriptive, but while some things are prescriptive, some are proscriptive, and still others descriptive.
A good rule to remember is narrative isn’t normative. An example to illustrate this is from Judges where Jephthah vowed to God that if he prevailed in battle against the Ammonites he would sacrifice whatsoever (or whosoever) first comes from his house to meet him. (Judges 11:29-40)
Jephthah made a foolish vow, possibly prepared to accept this might be a human sacrifice, which was forbidden in the Law of Moses. The passage tells us he kept the vow, although there is some debate about whether he literally sacrificed her, or whether he committed her to perpetual virginity as a figurative sacrifice. Either way, Jephthah is not an example to follow, but a warning. Catholics, I think, are not lining up to follow the example of Jephthah.
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