Purgatory

The Roman Catholic Church is a false religion and a false church. One thing the Roman Catholic Church teaches that is outside of what the Bible teaches is the concept of purgatory — the idea that when you die, you still need your sins purged away. The Bible is very clear that when you believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, all of your future sins are forgiven and you have eternal life. You do not have to wait until later on to get them forgiven. You get saved and forgiven immediately when you believe.

The teaching of purgatory does not actually come from the word of God. It comes from the Apocrypha, specifically 2 Maccabees 12:39–46. Now here is the thing — I agree with the Roman Catholic Church that 2 Maccabees does teach purgatory. But 2 Maccabees is not the word of God. It is not infallible scripture. It is actually false scripture that they are using to prop up false ideas.

When you look at the Bible itself, in Luke chapter 16 you have the story of the rich man and Lazarus. The Bible says: "The rich man also died, and was buried; and in hell he lift up his eyes, being in torments." And what it said about the beggar was that "he was carried by the angels into Abraham's bosom." The beggar immediately goes to heaven and the rich man dies, is buried, and is immediately in hell. Neither one of them goes to purgatory. The beggar did not have to go to purgatory to get his sins purged away. The rich man immediately went to hell. What the Bible is showing you is that when you die, you are either immediately in heaven or immediately in hell — and that is forever.

What the Catholic Church does is misuse scriptures like 1 Corinthians chapter 3, where the Bible talks about the Judgment Seat of Christ and our works being burned up. As saved people we can lose rewards, and they will say — well, see, you get burned up. But it is the works that are getting burned up, not the person. The Bible does not teach that you go to purgatory after you die to get your sins purged away.

When you die, you are either going to be like the rich man or you are going to be like Lazarus. You are either immediately going to be in heaven or immediately in hell. And wherever you go, it is for all eternity.

Since the Bible does not contain the word or the concept of purgatory, the Roman Catholic Church is a false religion and a false church.

Pastor Matthew Stucky