Christians of the Reformation are generally convinced that after death there are only two possibilities: an eternal heaven or an eternal hell. Roman-Catholics believe that after death there is yet a third possibility, which is called purgatory — a temporary state.

In this chapter my aim is to explain to Protestants what Roman-Catholics exactly mean with purgatory. In order to enable a fruitful discussion with each other it is in the first place a requirement that we have a proper insight into what the other person is teaching and what he means with his doctrine.

At the same time I want to depict as authentically as possible the grounds for this doctrine as alleged by Roman-Catholics, either from the Bible or from argumentation as to why they are of the opinion that there is a purgatory; simultaneously I want to explore the reasons why Protestants think that such a purgatory after death does not exist.¹

Purification in order to Appear Before God⤒🔗

In the first place then we ask: what does a Roman-Catholic understand with purgatory? It will serve us well to start as much as possible with the official teaching of the RC Church and then to provide a description of how this doctrine is experienced in practice, and how it has been coloured at various times.

In the official language of the RC Church, Latin, people do not talk about a state of “limbo” but about a “purgatorium”. The Latin “purgare” means to cleanse, to purify, to make clean. It is derived from “purus”, which means “pure” or “immaculate”. The purgatorium is therefore a means to become entirely pure. It is a place of cleansing, where man is purified through fire. Through suffering in purgatory the soul is refined such that it ends up like pure gold and so becomes worthy to face God directly in his glory. The words “vagevuur”  (Dutch) or “Fegefeuer” (German) both remind of “fire” and for that reason they reflect indeed the doctrine of Rome. According to the Roman-Catholics such purification through fire is necessary after death. They quote among others the text from Revelation 21:27, “but nothing unclean will ever enter it”.

Allow me to state here that as far as this is concerned there is no difference of opinion. We too teach that nothing unclean can enter heaven. Our views diverge when we try to answer the question of how we can become clean, so that we are found worthy to enter into heaven.

Christ Has Paid In Full←⤒🔗

According to Protestant teaching we are ultimately made clean through Christ’s blood. To back this up we refer for instance to Revelation 5. It deals with a sealed scroll in the right hand of God. An angel calls out, “Who is worthy to open the scroll and break its seals?” (v. 2). And no one, not even a single saved person who dwells in heaven, appears to possess such worthiness. Only the Lamb, Jesus Christ, is entitled to it. And when the Lamb steps forward a song of praise resounds through heaven: “Worthy are you to take the scroll and to open its seals, for you were slain, and by your blood you ransomed people for God from every tribe and language and people and nation” (v. 9).

And in Revelation 7:9-17 we find an innumerable multitude of people who are clothed in white robes, who may stand before God’s throne. When John inquires how these people obtained their white robes he receives the reply: “They have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb” (v. 14). We believe that we may conclude from this that we cannot obtain the purity that is needed to enter heaven by our own efforts, through a tremendous exercise of our will, or through a patient endurance of suffering in a process of purification, but that we can only receive this purity from Christ as a gift of grace, by way of a confident faith in him.

The Council of Florence←⤒🔗

After this introduction of the meaning of the word “purgatorium” we will now take a look at the official doctrine of Rome concerning purgatory.

We can find the first official pronouncement in the Council of Florence, according to Rome the 17^th Ecumenical Council, which was held from 1439 to 1445 under Pope Eugene IV.

At this council many delegates of the separated Greek-Orthodox Churches were present, seeking political and military support from the West against the ever more challenging Turkish armies. The pope demanded as compensation that they would recognize his supreme authority and that as much as possible any doctrinal differences would be moved out of the way. One of these different teachings concerned purgatory.

The Greek-Orthodox did not want to hear about a fire with which believers needed to be punished as yet. They did however accept the possibility that there needed to be purification after death. A compromise was reached in the “Decree for the Greeks”. The council expressed in this matter:

It has likewise defined, that, if those truly penitent have departed in the love of God [i.e., have passed away], before they have made satisfaction by the worthy fruits of penance for sins of commission and omission, the souls of these are cleansed after death by purgatorial punishments; and so that they may be released from punishments of this kind, the suffrages of the living faithful are of advantage to them, namely, the sacrifices of Masses, prayers, and almsgiving, and other works of piety, which are customarily performed by the faithful for other faithful according to the institutions of the Church” Denziger Enchiridion, editio 36, # 1304.

Incapable of Doing Any Good←⤒🔗

Based on this statement of the council we would do well to point to another difference of opinion between Rome and the Reformation.

According to Rome, when we patiently bear the suffering that God sends upon us, or which we put on ourselves as penance, we can by that fact make satisfaction for the wrongs we have done or for what good we have failed to do. In this way we settle the bill of the punishments that in the book of God’s righteousness are still recorded as our debts.

To the minds of Christians of the Reformation we are unable to do any good work — inclusive of patiently bearing the suffering that God brings us, in such a perfect way that the perfect God would be satisfied, and that he would accept it as a full payment for the guilt that is outstanding with him on account of our sins. In our view, something of our sinful self clings to all of our good works, often such that we are not even aware of it.

The only one who could present a perfect payment, a perfect work, and who has actually presented it in satisfaction for our guilt, is Jesus Christ. Justifiably he could exclaim on the cross, “It is finished!” (John 19:28). His work of satisfying God was entirely complete. We do not need to add anything to it. This perfect satisfaction of all of our guilt is imputed to us. We share in it when, in confidence of faith, we personally surrender ourselves to him.

Punishment For Forgiven Sins←⤒🔗

The Council of Trent once again occupied itself with purgatory, and it decreed in 1563:

“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” Trent, 6th Sessions, Canon XXX.

In addition Trent has clearly formulated the distinction between the guilt of sin (reatus culpae) and the punishment for sin (reatus poenae), which had been avoided at the Council of Florence because the Greeks did not want to accept this distinction.

What was meant with this difference? In order to clarify this we are directed to David’s sin with Bathsheba. The prophet Nathan has to tell David that his sins are indeed forgiven, but that there will yet be a punishment that will be executed upon him, namely the baby boy who will be born as a result of David’s adultery will die soon; see 2 Samuel 12.

We reply that this distinction in itself can be made, but according to us this punishment for a believer does not have the character of retaliation, with which he has to expiate as yet a portion of the punishment, while Christ has taken upon himself the greater part of this punishment on his account. We confess that Christ is a perfect Saviour, who has not only paid in full for our guilt, but also took the punishment that we had deserved with our sins.

In addition we are convinced that the Bible makes no mention anywhere of an interim situation, a place for purification where believers need to be purified as yet in a bath of fire, before they can be admitted to God.

And certainly there is no place in Scripture where it is stated that we who are still alive would be able to shorten the suffering of souls by means of masses for the soul, indulgences or good works.

Luther←⤒🔗

What exactly is an indulgence, according to Rome? I quote from the new Code of Canon Law, which was promulgated by the pope in 1983. In Canon 992 we read:  

An indulgence is the remission before God of temporal punishment for sins whose guilt is already forgiven...

According to Rome, after death there are no more sins to be forgiven. The forgiveness of sin can only take place during the time we are alive or at the moment of death, but not after that. However, as we have noted, according to Rome often-temporary punishments need to be expiated as yet in purgatory.

The practice of indulgences has been the motive for the schism that occurred in the 16^th century, by which the churches of the Reformation have arisen. Each year many Protestants remember on October 31^st that Martin Luther on that day in 1517 published and nailed his 95 theses against indulgences on the door of the castle chapel of Wittenberg.

Canon 992 says that the RC Church has received the authority to “dispense and apply authoritatively the treasure of the satisfactions of Christ and the saints”. Canon 995 par. 1 states that only the Roman pontiff has the supreme authority to exercise this right of the RC Church (or to whom it is granted by the pope).

Complete or partial indulgences are still being granted. For instance, between Sept. 27, 1990, and July 31, 1991, the Jesuits commemorate the origin of their order, and for this occasion the pope has issued a full indulgence for every Roman Catholic who will visit the Church of the Gesù, the main church of the Jesuits in Rome. According to Rome, Protestants cannot earn any indulgence because they do not acknowledge the authority of the pope. Protestant believers therefore need to fully endure their punishment in purgatory.

As Christians of the Reformation, we are convinced that there is only one treasure of satisfaction, namely the sacrifice of Christ on the cross. That treasure does not need and cannot be supplemented by satisfactions of RC saints.

We are equally convinced that we can only get a share in the treasures that Christ has gained for us by putting our trust through faith in him alone, and not by putting our trust in indulgences that are promulgated by popes.

From this you will see that purgatory, according to Rome, is a temporary punishment. There will be an end to it, some time. This is in contrast to hell, which also according to Rome is eternal. Once you have ended up in hell, there is no escape. No “Hail Mary” can help you anymore. But purgatory has an end station. The length of time can even be shortened by masses for the soul, by indulgences or through good works.

A New Teaching About Purgatory←⤒🔗

Perhaps you would like to ask an urgent question: “About how long does purgatory last?” The RC Church has never made an official pronouncement about this. It has left the answer to this question to the theologians, who in the course of the centuries have had different thoughts on this matter. The well known (Dutch) New Catechism that appeared in 1966 with the approval of the Dutch bishops, limits the time of purification to the moment of death. We quote:

The prayer for the dead is a tradition of the church. What purpose does it serve? It is because there is still so much aversion, unwillingness, and indifference in man, even though he dies in grace. (Would we want to meet everyone again in heaven the way they are now?) There is as yet so much to set straight, to cleanse away, to purify from our old self-centeredness. This happens in death. In earlier days, in an effort to make this as visible as possible, this was clearly presented in paintings and plays. People imagined a certain place, a fire, a set time, the calling away of an angel, as clearly as a doctor’s consulting room. However, as far as our impression is concerned we need to go back to the early Christian way of austerity, and regard purification as an integral part of dying, instead of turning it into an “extreme event.

By order of Pope Paul VI a committee of cardinals was put to work to purify this New Catechism from non-RC flaws. This committee then published an “Addendum to the New Catechism” (Paul Brand, 1969), where corrections to the doctrine were included. In this way, what the New Cat. had written about purgatory was expanded with, “But after this death — so the church believes — there is room for a final purification, purgatory, connected with the definitive total turnaround toward the light of God”. Thus the committee of cardinals expressly disclaims the earlier idea of the New Cat. as if purgatory would consist only of purification at the point of dying.

No Purgatory in the Bible←⤒🔗

In conclusion we will take a look at some texts that RC theologians sometimes reference from the Scripture as proof of purgatory.

To that end I am quoting from an article of Prof. Dr. I.W. Driessen, O.P., in “Theological Dictionary” (Roermond, Neth. 1958). “In the Holy Scripture we find no clear data about purgatory yet in light of the tradition we are certainly able to identify some scriptural lines. In this connection we need to pay more attention to the biblical idea of individual retribution than to direct references to purgatory.”

I am pleased with this acknowledgement of Prof. Driessen that purgatory cannot be proven straight from Scripture. Therefore in any exchange of thoughts between Roman- Catholics and Christians of the Reformation, we can proceed straight away to the core questions that lie behind this doctrine of purgatory.

Prof. Driessen already mentioned the notion of individual retribution. Did retribution of all our sins then not take place on Golgotha? Is Christ a complete Saviour, who has settled all our guilt such that we do not need to add anything to it anymore? Is this teaching of the Reformation an exaggeration of the fully satisfactory work of Christ? By any chance, do we acknowledge him too much honour? Do we need to make a small contribution of ourselves in the atonement and is Christ’s work in this incomplete?

In the doctrine about purgatory and indulgences the different views of Rome and the Reformation clearly come to the fore. This becomes clear also from the fact that according to Rome, the souls of purgatory who ensured an early release from purgatory, expressed their gratitude in exchanging it for ready spiritual cash. To illustrate this I will cite some paragraph headings of a prayer book from 1881: “The poor souls (of purgatory) obtain health for their benefactors in case of sickness”. “A soul of purgatory delivers support to her devotee in her poverty”. “Suffering souls of purgatory extend counsel and protection to their benefactors in travels and in dangers”. “Faithful souls of purgatory keep and increase the possessions of their supporters”. “The believing souls are also very helpful to their benefactors in terms of the salvation of their souls”. “The faithful souls support their benefactors in their struggle of death”. “The faithful souls support their benefactors in the judgment and they accompany them to heaven”.

In the second part of this prayer book all kinds of ecclesiastically approved prayers for the saints in purgatory are included. We quote from a prayer to Mary:

O Mary, Mother of mercies and full of love, regard the souls that sigh and call to you from their fiery prison. O Mary, sorrowing Mother, oh, have regard for their tears. Listen to their supplications and their urgent prayers. Remind your divine Son of the great love, which you especially bore him in his childhood, and all the cares with which you have surrounded him. Show him your motherly lap on which he has rested after his death. And obtain in this manner for your suffering children the eternal rest they so ardently desire. Show these suffering souls soon the fruit of your body, Jesus.

In answer to those questions and in the matter of the different views of faith between Rome and Reformation, in closing I will declare this:

From the bottom of my heart I believe that Jesus Christ is my only and my complete Saviour. In him I know I am always safe. After my death, he will not at first send me into purgatory for a while, before I may see him who loves me and whom I also love with all my being, from face to face. I live in and through that joyful, purifying faith and at my death I will fully entrust my soul in the hands of the Father of my Lord Jesus Christ.