Good News for Those Who Fear Going to Purgatory!

This is a tract for Catholics I am working on to print out and hand to my Filipino neighbors and those I meet daily. It’s based on the previous article about Purgatory and is not finalized at this point. When I do finalize it I will update this article. When the text is finalized, it will be translated into the predominant language of the Philippines, Tagalog. I will make PDF files of both the English tract and the translation in Tagalog and post them here.

The Philippines is still largely a Roman Catholic nation due to 300 years of Spanish influence. Together with Guam and Puerto Rico, it was ceded by Spain to the United States in 1898. Because of both Catholic and later influence from Protestant missionaries, there’s no talk about the concept of sin in the tract. As a former Roman Catholic, I knew I was a sinner! The Catholic Church is really good at convincing people they are sinners. My mother used to tell me I’m a sinner. Unless a person realizes he or she is a sinner, there’s no reason to seek salvation. The Filipinos understand the concept of sin. No Catholic would be interested to read this tract about Purgatory if they didn’t already know they’re a sinner.

There’s no concept of sin in Buddhist culture and this, in my opinion, is why the Japanese and Buddhist nations are so resistant to the Gospel. Sin is breaking God’s moral law, and there’s no Creator God in Buddhism. No God means no sin. There’s only civil law. What are considered to be sins in the Bible such as adultery, fornication, idol worship, etc. are not in violation of Japan’s civil law, and yet the word for “sin” in the Japanese Bible is the same word for “crime.” Hence a “sinner” in Japanese has the same nuance as the word criminal. Japanese resent being called criminals. They’ll tell you they are a law-abiding people. I therefore had to spell out to them exactly what I mean by the word sin, breaking God’s moral laws. Some of God’s moral laws like the sin of murder are also crimes in man’s civil law, but strong hatred toward someone is not a crime according to man’s civil law. It is according to God’s law. Leviticus 19:17 Thou shalt not hate thy brother in thine heart.

Good News for Those Who Fear Going to Purgatory!

The Roman Catholic Church has developed a doctrine in which it is held that all who die at peace with the Church, but who are not perfect, must undergo penal and purifying suffering in an intermediate realm known as purgatory. Only those believers who have attained a state of Christian perfection go immediately to heaven. All unbaptized adults and those who after baptism have committed mortal sin go immediately to hell. The great mass of partially sanctified Christians dying in fellowship with the Church, but who nevertheless are encumbered with some degree of sin, go to purgatory where, for a longer or shorter time, they suffer until all sin is purged away, after which they are translated to heaven.

The doctrine of purgatory is not based on the Bible!

The doctrine of purgatory rests on the assumption that while God forgives sin, His justice nevertheless demands that the sinner must suffer the full punishment due to him for his sin before he will be allowed to enter heaven. But such a distinction is illogical even according to human reasoning. For it manifestly would be unjust to forgive a criminal the guilt of his crime and still send him to prison to suffer for it.

The Roman Catholic people are taught that the souls of their relatives and friends in purgatory suffer great torment in the flames, that they are unable to help themselves, that not even God can help them until His justice has been satisfied, and that only their friends on earth can shorten or alleviate that suffering.

Since none but actual saints escape the pains of purgatory, this doctrine gives to the death and funeral of the Roman Catholic a dreadful and repellent aspect. Under the shadow of such a doctrine, death is not, as in evangelical Protestantism, the coming of Christ for His loved one, but the ushering of the shrinking soul into a place of unspeakable torture.

The Money Motive in the Doctrine of Purgatory

The doctrine of purgatory has sometimes been referred to as “the gold mine of the priesthood” since it is the source of such lucrative income. It is held that the period of suffering in purgatory can be shortened by gifts of money, prayers by the priest, and masses, which gifts, prayers, and masses can be provided by the person before death or by relatives and friends after death. The Catholic Church sells salvation from purgatory for money.

You don’t have to fear going to purgatory because The Bible says nothing about any such place! And you don’t have to fear going to hell either because the Bible says,

“He that heareth my word, and believeth him that sent me, hath eternal life, and cometh not into judgment, but hath passed out of death into life” (John 5:24) Hence eternal life is already possessed by the soul that believes on Christ, and there can be no possible condemnation of that soul.

When Jesus said to the penitent thief on the cross, “Today shalt thou be with me in Paradise” (Luke 23:43), the clear inference was that at his death he would go immediately to heaven.

“The blood of Jesus his Son cleanseth us from all sin. … If we confess our sins, he is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness” (1 John 1:7,9). Hence our sins, all of them, are forgiven through the sacrifice of Christ, and none are left to be purged away by human merit.

The Apostle Paul anticipated no purgatory. He wrote while we are “at home in the body,” we are “absent from the Lord”; but to be “absent from the body” is to be “at home with the Lord” (2 Corinthians 5:8).

The Apostle Peter declared: “Christ also suffered for sins once, the righteous for the unrighteous, that he might bring us to God” (1 Peter 3:18). Hence we cannot be made to suffer for that sin a second time.

God’s justice has been fully satisfied once and for all by the sacrifice of Christ, and God cannot exact double punishment, once from Christ, and again from those for whom He died.

The sacrifice of Christ on the Cross of Calvary was sufficient to purge all our sins without the need of any “purgatory.”

“He (Jesus Christ) had by Himself purged our sins” – Hebrews 1:3

The is no suffering for the soul who loves Jesus Christ beyond the grave! Just confess your sins to Jesus and ask Him to be your Savior!

All the following quotes are from the Holy Bible:

“For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord (Jesus) shall be saved.” – Romans 10:13

“That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved.” – Romans 10:9

“Much more then, being now justified by His (Jesus’) blood, we shall be saved from wrath through Him.” – Romans 5:9

“Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that heareth my word (the Bible), and believeth on Him (God) that sent me (Jesus), hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation; but is passed from death unto life.” – John 5:24