Hmm.
Obvious Protestant bias. Let’s try another translation.
And finally, for the KJV inclined folks *drumroll please*:
Now I know that not all fancy theology jargon terms are named in the Bible, if I typed in “Trinity” or “omnipotence” I would get the same result. But this is a little different situation, because the Bible actually uses multiple words to describe where dead people go.
Sheol: Hebrew word for where dead people go regardless of moral condition.
Hades: Greek term for where dead people went regardless of moral condition. (Anyone remember the Odyssey where Odysseus went to Hades, the River of the dead? Same word.)
Paradise: where righteous people go after death aka those who believed in Jesus and claimed His righteousness on their behalf.
Gehenna (Hell): where people who reject the Gospel go after death.
A common teaching I’ve heard is that Paradise left Sheol/Hades after Christ’s death and resurrection and went to heaven along with all the people in in it, thus leaving Sheol/Hades to only be a current torture chamber for the unbelieving dead, which then led back around to the confusion that Sheol and Hades = hell.
And, to further substantiate my point:
So the Bible gives us all the other names where dead people go and describes the fate of the dead in some detail, but somehow neglects to mention this third location. Even the Catholic Bibles don’t have it, and the NRSVCE has the Apocrypha, so it’s not in there either. I find this to be suspect.
I do think that Purgatory exists, though, but it’s not a place where dead people go. We’re all in Purgatory now, here on Earth. Now I got some Scripture to back that up that opinion courtesy of the Apostle Paul:
Philippians 2:12-13 said:
Therefore, my beloved, just as you have always obeyed me, not only in my presence but much more now in my absence, work on your own salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who is at work in you, enabling you both to will and to work for his good pleasure.
1 Thessalonians 4:3-8 said:
For this is the will of God, your sanctification: that you abstain from sexual immorality; that each one of you know how to control your own body in holiness and honor, not with lustful passion, like the gentiles who do not know God; that no one wrong or exploit a brother or sister in this matter, because the Lord is an avenger in all these things, just as we have already told you beforehand and solemnly warned you. For God did not call us to impurity but in holiness. Therefore whoever rejects this rejects not human authority but God, who also gives his Holy Spirit to you.
The sanctification process is happening now, our sins are being purged now. We are told to cooperate with this process and not try to resist it. We are told that the blood of Christ sanctifies us in the Holy Spirit and not to quench the Spirit. Romans 6:19 is another good verse to describe what I mean.
So I don’t think the Catholic teaching is far wrong - money does speed your way through this life and make it easier with more opportunities for indulgence, so they got purgatory right in that respect. I think the error made is that they didn’t place it in the right lifespan. Purgatory is for the living, not the dead.
What I think is most interesting is that there are multiple Scriptures that strongly imply that we are sanctified instantly on salvation- and that’s the point. For entrance into Paradise and Heaven,etc, it’s not our righteousness that gets us there. In that respect, a person who gets hit by a car the day after the accept the Gospel and a Christian who has undergone the sanctification process for decades both end up in the same spot. On the other hand, a gradual purging of sin does happen in our lives here as we continue in Christ. That is Scriptural, and that is the doctrine of purgatory that makes sense.
