The Catholic Church teaches a doctrine that after you die, some people can go to purgatory. They are saying that you can go to this in-between place called purgatory, where one is not really sure if they are saved or lost. Rather than going to hell (if you’re lost), or going to heaven (if you’re saved), you can stay in this in-between place and burn in there for a certain number of years. Once the flames “purge off one’s sins”, one is finally clean enough to go to heaven eventually. The Bible says that this is heresy.

First of all, if there is a fire that “purges sin”, it is not an in between place, it is actually HELL. Notice that John the Baptist, when he gave his first preaching, he described hell in a manner as a person who will be purged in that unquenchable fire.

Matthew 3:10 “And now also the axe is laid unto the root of the trees: therefore every tree which bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down, and cast into the fire. I indeed baptize you with water unto repentance. but he that cometh after me is mightier than I, whose shoes I am not worthy to bear: he shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost, and with fire: Whose fan is in his hand, and he will throughly purge his floor, and gather his wheat into the garner; but he will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire.”

The unquenchable fire is HELL.

Mark 9 talks about hell being an unquenchable fire too.

Mark 9:43-48 “And if thy hand offend thee, cut it off: it is better for thee to enter into life maimed, than having two hands to go into hell, into the fire that never shall be quenched: Where their worm dieth not, and the fire is not quenched. And if thy foot offend thee, cut it off: it is better for thee to enter halt into life, than having two feet to be cast into hell, into the fire that never shall be quenched: Where their worm dieth not, and the fire is not quenched. And if thine eye offend thee, pluck it out: it is better for thee to enter into the kingdom of God with one eye, than having two eyes to be cast into hell fire: Where their worm dieth not, and the fire is not quenched.”

This “fire that shall not be quenched” is hellfire. This purging of sins by fire is actually hell. It is not some in-between place or purgatory. Purgatory is hell. It is not some temporary place, it is an ETERNAL place.

Paul also tells us that a person who has gained salvation will know that they are going to heaven.

2 Corinthians 5:1-2 “For we know that if our earthly house of this tabernacle were dissolved, we have a building of God, an house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. For in this we groan, earnestly desiring to be clothed upon with our house which is from heaven:”

Paul says that if our earthly house, referring to our body, is dissolved, we CAN KNOW that we go to heaven. We will leave this body and go to heaven.

2 Corinthians 5:6 “Therefore we are always confident, knowing that, whilst we are at home in the body, we are absent from the Lord:”

Paul knows and is confident where he is going, not like Catholics who never know where they are going to go. Paul says that when one is absent from the body, one is automatically present with the Lord. One is saved and going to heaven! Purging fire of sins is hellfire, NOT PURGATORY!

The Bible shows us what has already purged our sins. There are only two places where purging of sins is talked about. If a person is lost, hell will purge your sins. If a person is saved, the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ purges all one’s sins. In reality, purgatory is eternal hellfire. It is not a made-up fairytale place where one temporarily burns. There is absolutely no verse in the Bible that shows this.

Hebrews 9:14 “How much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without spot to God, purge your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?”

This verse is another problem for the Catholic Church. Not only does the blood of Jesus Christ purge one’s sins, but it also says here that works are dead, so works do not count. But the Catholic Church teaches that one’s works do count when one is in burning purgatory. They teach that the number of years that one burns in purgatory is dependent on one’s good works. But this verse tells us that works do not count, it is only by the blood of Jesus Christ.

So this tells us that purgatory is a made-up fairytale by the Catholic church.