Is there a purgatory?
Thank you for your question. Although the doctrine of purgatory is valid, I don’t hold to it in the Roman Catholic sense, as a process of purification where believers acquire the holiness necessary to enter heaven. This doctrine is somewhat complex, but I’ll try to summarize it here.
When Old Testament people died, their bodies went into a grave, but apparently, there was a temporary holding place for their souls. The Bible uses a term called hell, such as in Matthew 5:22, but the terminology is slightly different than what we normally use. Hell is the lake of fire where all unbelievers will spend eternity (Revelation 20:14-15). Apparently, however, the temporary holding place (sometimes called Sheol, or Purgatory) had separate compartments for believers and unbelievers. (This is where the Catholics (mistakenly) built their doctrine of purgatory.) Those who died were taken to one of these temporary chambers, awaiting their transaction: either from Paradise to heaven; or from Hades to hell. We learn more about this in the story of the rich man and Lazarus in Luke 16. Unbelievers spent this period in the part called Torments, or “Hades” (Luke 16:23), which is where the rich man was. However, the believers spent this time in a place called Paradise (Luke 23:43), or “Abraham’s bosom” (Luke 16:22), which is where Lazarus was.
However, with the resurrection of Jesus (the first resurrection), these Old Testament believers were transferred from paradise to heaven. This is apparently what was going on in Matthew 7:53, which is a very difficult passage. Now, for us, it’s completely different. Since the resurrection of Christ has already occurred, and He has ascended to heaven, when believers die today, our bodies go to a grave, and our spirits go straight to heaven (2 Corinthians 5:1-8) to be with Christ.
I hope this helps.
Thanks,
Owen