![\"\"](\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/305\/2025\/11\/20888031236_2412bf5df2_c.jpg\")
<\/a><\/p>\nPurgatory seems to be coming back into vogue, even among some Protestants<\/a>.<\/p>\n Now the Wall Street Journal<\/em>, no less, has published an article by Catholic author Joseph Bottum entitled \u00a0Three Cheers for Purgatory<\/a>.\u00a0 He writes,<\/p>\n Purgatory matches our sense of faith and fallen nature: our awareness that we can be saved, snatched by God\u2019s grace, and yet still not be ready for heaven.<\/p>\n Purgatory, in the thinking of the old ecumenical councils, is the place or condition in the next world where the souls of those who die in a state of grace but not yet free from all imperfection are scoured of guilt for venial sins and purged of the inclination to sin.<\/p>\n Everyone in purgatory is saved, salvation has come, but that doesn\u2019t mean we need to track into heaven the muck we got on ourselves in life. It\u2019s as much a human desire as a divine one, for the ordinary person\u2019s reaction to the Gospel would be to ask for a chance to wash, freshen up a little, put on some clean clothes, before strolling into the beautiful mansion. In\u00a0C.S. Lewis\u2019s words, \u201cOur souls demand Purgatory, don\u2019t they?\u201d<\/p>\n\n Bottum admits that there isn\u2019t much if any Biblical warrant for this teaching. \u201cBut more telling than proof texts,\u201d he says, \u201cis the human experience, the sense of a thick, rich world in which we live among the dead, praying with and for them.\u201d<\/p>\n His main argument for Purgatory is the value of praying for the dead.\u00a0 \u201cPrayer is possibly at its most efficacious, certainly its most selfless, when we pray for the souls in purgatory. We do serious metaphysical work for them\u2014aiding their future, speeding their purgation, and keeping them present in the thick cosmos that surrounds us.\u201d<\/p>\n Setting aside the biggest issues\u2013the assumptions that our salvation is a function of our good works and that Christians should hold beliefs that are unsupported by the Bible\u2013it seems to me that the belief in the efficacy of prayer for the dead contradicts the belief that souls need a time of purgation to prepare them for Heaven.<\/p>\n If prayer can get souls out of Purgatory, what happens to the souls\u2019 need \u201cto wash, freshen up a little, put on some clean clothes, before strolling into the beautiful mansion\u201d?\u00a0 If souls need, or even desire, that cleansing, surely those who love them should not pray for them to miss out on this preparation.<\/p>\n Of course, the reason for praying for the dead is the traditional belief that Purgatory is nothing like taking a shower or getting all dressed up for a party.\u00a0 Rather, it is a horrible place.\u00a0 It is a realm of burning fire, just like Hell only temporary.\u00a0 (Read this<\/a> from a modern-day conservative Catholic, who quotes saints and authoritative theologians.)\u00a0 Tetzel in Luther\u2019s day<\/a> taught that souls must spend 7 years in that fire for every sin until it is purged away, so that people expected to be in purgatorial fires for thousands<\/em> of years.\u00a0 That\u2019s an unofficial opinion, but it\u2019s based on a saint\u2019s supposed revelation and I\u2019ve heard other Catholics reference it.\u00a0 (Read this<\/a> from a modern Catholic on Purgatory\u2019s duration.)\u00a0 Progressive Catholics have been saying that Purgatory occurs outside of time, so it\u2019s over in an instant, but the whole point of the teaching according to the theologians is that sinners must endure a \u201ctemporal\u201d penalty, that is, one that is within time.<\/p>\n So if you believe such things, of course you are going to want to pray for the dead, that God would spare them such torment.\u00a0 The prayers for the dead are often addressed to the saints, asking them to intercede for the loved one.\u00a0 If they do or if God heeds what Bottum calls the \u201creal metaphysical work for the dead\u201d that our prayers perform, God might extend His mercy and free the soul from Purgatory early.<\/p>\n Which brings me to further questions.\u00a0 If God\u2019s grace is such that He can release a soul from some of the punishments of Purgatory, what makes us think that He cannot release us from the punishments we deserve altogether?<\/p>\n And if our prayers or the intercession of a saint can get someone out of Purgatory, think what Christ\u2019s intercession would do.<\/p>\n The Bible may not say anything about Purgatory, but it does say a great deal about how Christ bears our sins, takes the punishment that we deserve into Himself on the cross, bestows upon us His righteousness, and thus atones for us.\u00a0 Insofar as we are in Christ by grace through faith, where are our sins that need to be purged away?<\/p>\n But don\u2019t we need to be purged of our sinful nature before we can enter Heaven?\u00a0 Death is what does that, as the \u201cflesh\u201d and with it our sinful nature is turned to dust.<\/p>\n Don\u2019t we need to be cleansed and washed before we can enter Heaven?\u00a0 Christ\u2019s blood cleanses us.\u00a0 Our baptism \u201cwashes\u201d us.<\/p>\n Don\u2019t we want to \u201cput on some clean clothes\u201d so that we will be presentable in Heaven?\u00a0 We are clothed in Christ (Galatians 3:7).<\/p>\n I think belief in the all-sufficient sacrifice of Christ \u201cmatches our sense of faith and fallen nature\u201d and gives us \u201cthe sense of a thick, rich world.\u201d<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n Illustration:\u00a0 Holy Souls in Purgatory<\/a> by Fr. James Bradley via Flickr,\u00a0 CC BY 2.0<\/a><\/em><\/p><\/div>\n<\/blockquote><\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" A “Wall Street Journal” article entitled “Three Cheers for Purgatory” argues that souls after death need to be cleansed and that it’s good for us to pray for the dead. But those arguments contradict each other.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1281,"featured_media":86687,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8,10,11,47],"tags":[17330,10543,17333,1827,17336],"class_list":["post-86618","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-bible","category-christ","category-church","category-theology","tag-arguments-for-purgatory","tag-christs-atonement","tag-prayers-for-the-dead","tag-purgatory","tag-salvation-by-grace-through-faith"],"yoast_head":"\n\n