Biblical Basis for Purgatory

John Salza, Esq. 

Jesus taught us about it, and for centuries the Church has faithfully defined and defended it. Protestants deny it even exists, while many Catholics accept but fundamentally misunderstand it. Certain saints experienced a harrowing taste of it, and from it the Holy Souls cry out night and day.

It is purgatory: that place of purifying penance where souls saved by Christ are made perfect and acceptable to spend life eternal in heaven.

In The Biblical Basis for Purgatory, author and apologist John Salza (Why Catholics Cannot Be Masons) offers the definitive scriptural explanation of this distinctively Catholic doctrine. Building on the teachings of Christ and St. Paul, he shows how the existence of a place of temporal punishment after death is not only a logical extension of what we know about the reality of sin and God's justice, but is also a supreme expression of God's love and mercy.

Salza also treats the common errors and misunderstandings that plague both Catholics (in their efforts to comprehend purgatory) and Protestants (in their efforts to refute it) alike. With clear and powerful arguments, using evidence from the Bible and from the early Church, he dismisses simplistic prooftexts against purgatory and demonstrates:

-that purgatory is for those who are already saved; it's not a “second chance” for redemption after death, or an “alternative destination” for souls too good for hell but not good enough for heaven

-how God's temporal punishments are not only just, they’re also medicinal and instructive, guiding us towards holier lives

-how the doctrine of purgatory confirms that salvation is an interior transformation; the elect must be refined by fire and rendered truly worthy to stand in God's presence – not merely “covered” by Christ's righteousness

-that Jesus' death on the Cross, although it paid the debt for all sin, does not preclude the need for penitential suffering, but in fact makes such suffering meaningful

And The Biblical Basis for Purgatory does more than defend and explain purgatory – it provides a solid plan, drawn from the Church's perennial spiritual wisdom, for staying out of purgatory. For although purgatory is a place of mercy, its pains are real, and they are severe. But by God's grace, ministered through the Church, we can merit perfection while on earth, conquering in this life the sins that must otherwise be burned out of us in the next.