Counter Points is a series of books that bring together various Christian leaders and thinkers to debate differing view points within the church.
My goal in this series is to review each of the four points of view shared in the book ‘Counter Points-Hell’ so that you get exposed to different viewpoints that you may not have known even existed as well as share my thoughts as I encountered these various viewpoints.
Our fourth and final perspective on Hell is called the ‘Hell and Purgatory’ View. This view is held by Jerry L. Walls in the book.
What is the ‘Hell and Purgatory’ View of Hell?
Purgatory has been understood traditionally as a temporary abode or stage on the way to heaven. It is only for persons who die in a state of grace and who will eventually make it to heaven.
Jerry L. Walls
Purgatory has two functions historically, that of sanctifying the believer and satisfying God’s sense of justice.
What Did I Appreciate?
I did not grow up in the Catholic tradition or anywhere close to it. I’ve only met a handful of Catholics in my life and none of them were serious enough about their faith to have explained the deep nuances of catholic doctrine.
So here is where my first appreciation came from Jerry(who is not catholic either though he holds to this view of purgatory).
Jerry cites four out of the six points Dorthy L. Sayer’s writes in her introduction: ‘Purgatory’ of Dante’s ‘The Divine Comedy.’
1.) Purgatory is not a place of probation, from which the soul may go either to heaven or hell. All souls admitted to purgatory are bound for heaven sooner or later, and are forever beyond the reach of sin.
2.) Purgatory is not a ‘second chance’ for those who die obstinately unrepentant. The soul’s own choice between God and self, made in the moment of death, is final.
3.) Repentance in the moment of death is always accepted. If the movement of the soul is, however feebly, away from self and towards God, its act of contrition is complete, whether or not it is accompanied by formal confession absolution; and the soul enters purgatory.
4.) The divine acceptance of a repentance in articulo morris does not mean that the sinner ‘gets away with it’ scot free. What it does mean is that the soul is now obliged, with prolonged labor and pains, and without the assistance of the body, to accomplish in Purgatory the entire process of satisfaction and purification, the greater part of which should have been carried out on earth.
Dorthy L. Sayers
Along with this bit of information, I also enjoyed his challenge towards the Protestant view of sanctification.
One of evangelicalism’s greatest problems right now is that we are so “grace oriented” that we oppose “good religion”(James 1:27). This is where the work of John Mark Comer has greatly impacted my life. Comer brings us back to the conversation of spiritual disciplines that we need in our lives and that historically was the way in which Christians in the ancient world grew to become more Christ-like.
Grace seems to be reduced essentially to justification and forgiveness, and sanctification is trivialized as some sort of legalistic “visa.”
Jerry L. Walls
Where Did I Struggle With This View?
Now when we speak of sanctification, me and Jerry are talking about two different things. Jerry puts a lot of emphasis on sanctification as a means to get you into heaven when you die. So if the work of making you more Christ-like is not completed by the time you die, you will enter into purgatory where you will then have ample opportunity to be conformed into the image and likeness of Jesus.
Jerry believes this because of how he reads passages like Hebrews 12:14 which says: “holiness without which no one will see the Lord.”
According to Jerry we must become holy(perfect) so that we can enter into glory.
But that is not how sanctification works or why it works. Sanctification is us becoming more like Jesus because of what Jesus has offered to us by his death and resurrection as well as what the Spirit does in us over the rest of our lives here on earth. Sanctification is rather the result of Jesus’ effect on our lives, by way of the Holy Spirit. Sanctification is not the means by which we have to attain fully in order to enter into glory.
In Jerry’s view becoming more like Jesus is something we must have accomplished in order to be with the Father, but according to Protestant doctrine, we become like Jesus because of what Jesus and the Spirit has done for us and in us. And specifically because of what Jesus did for us, that is the means by which we are able to enter into glory when we die.
We do not have to be perfect to enter into glory when we die, because “God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God”(2 Corinthians 5:21).
Again, this is where I agree with Jerry’s set up where he says “Protestants think of grace primarily, if not exclusively, in terms of justification.” When we think of God’s grace exclusively in terms of how Jesus makes us “right with God” that is where we have erred. But the grace by which we are sanctified is not in order for us to “become good enough” for us to experience the Father, rather it is so we can experience the “life unto the age” right now, not just in eternity.
Jerry says: “many believers are far from perfect when they die and are accordingly not ready to meet God” which is something I agree with. We are not perfect and are in a sense not “ready to meet God”; which is why Jesus’ gift to us overcomes our “not-readiness.”
Following that, purgatory, though may be somewhat of a neat idea, is not biblical. And as you read Jerry’s essay you see how unbiblical it is by his constant need to quote everyone but the Bible. Including people I love like C.S. Lewis. But C.S. Lewis does not instruct our theology, God’s Word does.
Do You Think This View Is Right?
Jerry’s challenge to us as Protestants in our need to emphasize grace in our experience to become more like Jesus is right, but his view on purgatory is just uncited in the Bible. There is no argument except from when we pull from people outside of Scripture which again is not where we should be constructing our theology primarily or solely.
Leave a comment