Do Protestants believe in purgatory?

1537 · Martin Luther, The Smalcald Articles Article II: Of the Mass

Here they carried their trade into purgatory by masses for souls, and vigils, and weekly, monthly, and yearly celebrations of obsequies, and finally by the Common Week and All Souls Day, by soul-baths so that the Mass is used almost alone for the dead, although Christ has instituted the Sacrament alone for the living. Therefore purgatory, and every solemnity, rite, and commerce connected with it, is to be regarded as nothing but a specter of the devil. For it conflicts with the chief article [which teaches] that only Christ, and not the works of men, are to help [set free] souls. Not to mention the fact that nothing has been [divinely] commanded or enjoined upon us concerning the dead. Therefore all this may be safely omitted, even if it were no error and idolatry.

c. 1553 · John Bradford, Sermons and Tracts repentance

In heaven and in earth was there none found that could satisfy God's anger for our sins, or get heaven for man, but only the Son of God, Jesus Christ, the Lion of the tribe of Judah, who by his blood has wrought the work of satisfaction, and alone is worthy all honour, glory, and praise, for he has opened the book with the seven seals. Dearly beloved, therefore abhor this abomination, even to think that there is any other satisfaction toward God for sin, than Christ's blood only. Blasphemy it is, and that horrible, to think otherwise. "The blood of Christ purifies (says St. John) from all sin," and therefore he is called the Lamb slain from the beginning of the world, because there never was sin forgiven of God, nor shall be from the beginning unto the end of the world, but only through Christ's death, though the pope and his prelates prate as please them, about their pardons, purgations, placeboes, trentals, dirges, works of supererogation, super-abomination, &c.

1566 · Martin Luther, Table Talk 19

Augustine, Ambrose, and Jerome held nothing at all of purgatory. Gregory, being in the nighttime deceived by a vision, taught something of purgatory, whereas God openly commanded that we should search out and inquire nothing of spirits, but of Moses and the prophets. Therefore we must not admit Gregory’s opinion on this point; the day of the Lord will show and declare the same, when it will be revealed by fire.

1558 · Jean du Bourdel, Matthieu Verneuil, Pierre Bourdon, and André la Fon, The Guanabara Confession 17

Concerning the dead, Saint Paul, in 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18, forbids us to mourn for them, for this suits the pagans, who have no hope of a resurrection. The Apostle does not command nor teach to pray for them, something which he would not have forgotten, if it was convenient. Saint Augustine, speaking about Psalm 48, says that the spirits of the dead receive according to what they have done in life; and that if they have not done anything, and are still living, they will receive nothing when dead.

1566 · Heinrich Bullinger, The Second Helvetic Confession 26

Other care for the dead we do not enjoin. Therefore, we do greatly mislike the Cynics, who neglected the bodies of the dead, or did carelessly and disdainfully cast them into the earth, never speaking so much as a good word of the deceased, nor any whit regarding those whom they left behind them. Again, we disapprove of those who are too much and preposterously officious to the dead; who, like the heathen, do greatly lament and bewail their dead (although we do not censure that moderate mourning which the apostle does allow [1 Thessalonians 4:13], since it is unnatural not to be touched with sorrow); and who do sacrifice for the dead, and mumble certain prayers, not without their penny for their pains; thinking by these prayers to deliver their friends from torments, wherein, being wrapped by death, they suppose they may be rid of them again by such lamentable songs. For we believe that the faithful, after bodily death, do go directly unto Christ, and, therefore, do not stand in need of helps or prayers for the dead, or any other such duty of them that are alive.

1566 · Heinrich Bullinger, The Second Helvetic Confession 26

In like manner, we believe that the unbelievers are cast headlong into hell, from whence there is no return opened to the wicked by any offices of those who live. But as touching that which some teach concerning the fire of purgatory, it is directly contrary to the Christian faith (‘I believe in the forgiveness of sins, and the life everlasting’), and to the absolute purgation of sins made by Christ, and to these sayings of Christ our Lord: ‘Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that heareth my word, and believeth on him that sent me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation; but is passed from death unto life’ (John 5:24). Again, ‘He that is washed, needeth not save to wash his feet, but is clean every whit: and ye are clean’ (John 13:10).

1647 · Westminster Assembly, The Westminster Confession of Faith 21.4

Prayer is to be made for things lawful; and for all sorts of men living, or that shall live hereafter: but not for the dead, nor for those of whom it may be known that they have sinned the sin unto death.

1658 · Congregational Churches (Savoy Assembly), The Savoy Declaration of the Congregational Churches 31.1

The souls of the righteous being then made perfect in holiness, are received into the highest heavens, where they behold the face of God in light and glory, waiting for the full redemption of their bodies: and the souls of the wicked are cast into hell, where they remain in torment and utter darkness, reserved to the judgment of the great day: Besides these two places for souls separated from their bodies, the Scripture acknowledgeth none.

1875 · Reformed Episcopal Church, Articles of Religion of the Reformed Episcopal Church 31

The Romish doctrines concerning purgatory, penance, and satisfaction have no support from the Word of God, and are, besides, contradictory of the completeness and sufficiency of the redemption in Christ Jesus, of justification by faith, and of the sanctifying efficacy of God the Holy Ghost. Praying for the dead is man's tradition, vainly invented, and is in violation of the express warnings of Almighty God to the careless and unconverted.

1555 · John Calvin, Commentary on a Harmony of the Evangelists Matthew, Mark, and Luke, part 2 Matt.12.32

Who knows not their distinction, that sins are freely pardoned in respect of guilt, but that punishment and satisfaction are demanded? This is an acknowledgment, that there is no hope of salvation to any one whose guilt is not pardoned before death. To the dead, therefore, there remains no forgiveness, except as regards punishment; and surely they will not venture to deny that the subject of this discourse is guilt. Let them now go and light their fire of purgatory with these cold materials, if ice can kindle a flame.

1555 · John Calvin, Commentary on a Harmony of the Evangelists Matthew, Mark, and Luke, part 3 Luke.23.43

Whoever then in dying shall commit to Christ, in true faith, the keeping of his soul, will not be long detained or allowed to languish in suspense; but Christ will meet his prayer with the same kindness which he exercised towards the robber. Away, then, with that detestable contrivance of the Sophists about retaining the punishment when the guilt is removed; for we see how Christ, in acquitting him from condemnation, frees him also from punishment. Nor is this inconsistent with the fact, that the robber nevertheless endures to the very last the punishment which had been pronounced upon him; for we must not here imagine any compensation which serves the purpose of satisfaction for appeasing the judgment of God, (as the Sophists dream,) but the Lord merely trains his elect by corporal punishments to displeasure and hatred of sin. Thus, when the robber has been brought by fatherly discipline to self-denial Christ receives him, as it were, into his bosom, and does not send him away to the fire of purgatory.

1559 · John Calvin, Institutes of the Christian Religion 3.5.7

The next passage they produce is the parable in Matthew: “Agree with thine adversary quickly, whiles thou art in the way with him; lest at any time the adversary deliver thee to the judge, and the judge deliver thee to the officer, and thou be cast into prison. Verily, I say unto thee, Thou shalt by no means come out thence, till thou hast paid the uttermost farthing,” (Mt. 5:25, 26). If in this passage the judge means God, the adversary the devil, the officer an angel, and the prison purgatory, I give in at once. But if every man sees that Christ there intended to show to how many perils and evils those expose themselves who obstinately insist on their utmost right, instead of being satisfied with what is fair and equitable, that he might thereby the more strongly exhort his followers to concord, where, I ask, are we to find their purgatory?

1710–1714 · Matthew Henry, Commentary on Luke 16.19-31

He puts him in mind of Lazarus's present bliss, and his own misery: But now the tables are turned, and so they must abide for ever; now he is comforted, and thou art tormented. He did not need to be told that he was tormented; he felt it to his cost. He knew likewise that one who lay in the bosom of Abraham could not but be comforted there; yet Abraham puts him in mind of it, that he might, by comparing one thing with another, observe the righteousness of God, in recompensing tribulation to them who trouble his people, and to those who are troubled rest, 2 Thess. i. 6, 7. Observe, [1.] Heaven is comfort, and hell is torment: heaven is joy, hell is weeping, and wailing, and pain in perfection. [2.] The soul, as soon as it leaves the body, goes either to heaven or hell, to comfort or torment, immediately, and does not sleep, or go into purgatory.

1834 · Albert Barnes, Notes on the Bible: 2 Corinthians 5.8

To be present with the Lord - The Lord Jesus; see the note on Act 1:24; compare Phi 1:23. The idea of Paul is, that the Lord Jesus would constitute the main glory of heaven, and that to be with him was equivalent to being in a place of perfect bliss. He had no idea of any heaven where the Lord Jesus was not; and to be with him was to be in heaven. That world where the Redeemer is, is heaven. This also proves that the spirits of the saints, when they depart, are with the Redeemer; that is, are at once taken to heaven. It demonstrates: (1) That they are not annihilated. (2) that they do not sleep, and remain in an unconscious state, as Dr. Priestley supposes. (3) that they are not in some intermediate state, either in a state of purgatory, as the Papists suppose, or a state where all the souls of the just and the unjust are assembled in a common abode, as many Protestants have supposed; but, (4) That they dwell with Christ; they are with the Lord (πρὸς τὸν Κυρίον pros ton Kurion). They abide in his presence; they partake of his joy and his glory; they are permitted to sit with him in his throne; Rev 3:21.

1899 · Charles Haddon Spurgeon, Spurgeon's Sermons, Volume 45 (1899) 2651

When a Christian dies, his soul at once ascends to Heaven. Not so his body—that continues in the grave until the Resurrection morning and, sometimes, we are anxious to know what will be our lot while our souls are separated from our bodies. Let me say then, for a certainty, according to God's Word, that before our bodies rise, we shall be in Paradise, for Jesus said to the penitent thief, "Today shall you be with Me in Paradise." There is no "purgatory" into which souls are dragged in order to be prepared and made fit for Heaven!

1930–1933 · A. T. Robertson, Word Pictures in the New Testament: 1 Corinthians 3.15

The man's work (εργον) is burned up (sermons, lectures, books, teaching, all dry as dust). But he himself shall be saved (αυτος δε σωθησεται). Eternal salvation, but not by purgatory. His work is burned up completely and hopelessly, but he himself escapes destruction because he is really a saved man a real believer in Christ. Yet so as through fire (ουτως δε ως δια πυρος). Clearly Paul means with his work burned down (verse 15).

1531 · Philip Melanchthon, The Apology of the Augsburg Confession Article VI: Of Confession and Satisfaction

But, nevertheless, the adversaries acknowledge that satisfactions are of no profit for the remission of guilt. Yet they imagine that satisfactions are of profit in redeeming from the punishments, whether of purgatory or other punishments. For thus they teach that in the remission of sins, God [without means, alone] remits the guilt, and yet, because it belongs to divine justice to punish sin, that He commutes eternal into temporal punishment. They add further that a part of this temporal punishment is remitted by the power of the keys, but that the rest is redeemed by means of satisfactions. Neither can it be understood of what punishments a part is remitted by the power of the keys, unless they say that a part of the punishments of purgatory is remitted, from which it would follow that satisfactions are only punishments redeeming from purgatory. And these satisfactions, they say, avail even though they are rendered by those who have relapsed into mortal sin, as though indeed the divine displeasure could be appeased by those who are in mortal sin. This entire matter is fictitious, and recently fabricated without the authority of Scripture and the old writers of the Church.

1559 · John Calvin, Institutes of the Christian Religion 3.5.10

The only support of this dogma is, that as a custom of praying for the dead prevailed, the duty ought not to be despised. But granting that ancient ecclesiastical writers deemed it a pious thing to assist the dead, the rule which can never deceive is always to be observed—viz. that we must not introduce anything of our own into our prayers, but must keep all our wishes in subordination to the word of God, because it belongs to Him to prescribe what he wishes us to ask. Now, since the whole Law and Gospel do not contain one syllable which countenances the right of praying for the dead, it is a profanation of prayer to go one step farther than God enjoins. But, lest our opponents boast of sharing their error with the ancient Church, I say, that there is a wide difference between the two. The latter made a commemoration of the dead, that they might not seem to have cast off all concern for them; but they, at the same time, acknowledged that they were doubtful as to their state; assuredly they made no such assertion concerning purgatory as implied that they did not hold it to be uncertain. The former insist, that their dream of purgatory shall be received without question as an article of faith. The latter sparingly and in a perfunctory manner only commended their dead to the Lord, in the communion of the holy supper.

1559–1566 · John Knox, The History of the Reformation of Religion in Scotland Appendix, The Book of Discipline, XIV. Of Burial

Singing of Mass, placebo, and dirge, and all other prayers over or for the dead, are not only superfluous and vain, but are idolatry, and are repugnant to the plain Scriptures of God. Plain it is that every one that dieth departeth either in the faith of Christ Jesus, or else departeth in incredulity. Plain it is that they that depart in the true faith of Christ Jesus rest from their labours, and from death do go to life everlasting, as by our Master and by His Apostle we are taught. But whosoever shall depart in unbelief or in incredulity shall never see life, but the wrath of God abideth upon him. And so we say that prayers for the dead are not only superfluous and vain, but are expressly repugnant to the manifest Scriptures and truth thereof.

1646–1690 · John Owen, Sermons of John Owen life.15

Hereunto, let them pretend what they please, the people under their conduct do trust a thousand times more for the purging of their sins than unto the blood of Christ; but it is only a cursed image of the virtue of it, set up to draw off the minds of poor sinners from seeking an interest in a participation of the efficacy of that blood for that end, which is to be obtained by faith alone, Rom. iii. 25. Only, they have placed this image behind the curtain of mortality, that the cheat of it might not be discovered. None, who find themselves deceived by it, can come back to complain or warn others to take care of themselves. And it was, in an especial manner, suited unto their delusion who lived in pleasures or in the pursuit of unjust gain, without exercise of afflictions in this world. From these two sorts of persons, by this engine, they raised a revenue unto themselves beyond that of kings or princes; for all the endowments of their religious houses and societies were but commutations for the abatement of the fire of this purgatory. But whereas in itself it was a rotten post, that could not stand or subsist, they were forced to prop it with many other imaginations. For unto this end, to secure work for this purgatory, they coined the distinction of sins into mortal and venial; — not as unto their end, with respect unto faith and repentance, nor as unto the degrees of sin, with respect unto the aggravations, but as unto the nature of them; some of them being such (namely, those that are venial) as were capable of a purging expiation after this life, though men die without any repentance of them.

1651 · Jeremy Taylor, The Rule and Exercises of Holy Dying Dedication

In the church of Rome they reckon otherwise concerning sick and dying Christians than I have done. For they make profession, that from death to life, from sin to grace, a man may very certainly be changed, though the operation begin not before his last hour; and half this they do upon his death-bed, and the other half when he is in his grave; and they take away the eternal punishment in an instant, by a school-distinction, or the hand of the priest; and the temporal punishment shall stick longer, even then, when the man is no more measured with time, having nothing to do with any thing of or under the sun; but that they pretend to take away too, when the man is dead; and, God knows, the poor man for all this pays them both in hell. The distinction of temporal and eternal is a just measure of pain when it refers to this life and another; but to dream of a punishment temporal, when all his time is done, and to think of repentance when the time of grace is past, are great errors, the one in philosophy and both in divinity, and are a huge folly in their pretence, and infinite danger if they are believed being a certain destruction of the necessity of holy living, when men dare trust them, and live at the rate of such doctrines.

1655–1662 · William Gurnall, The Christian in Complete Armour Part 14. Division Third.—The Inward Principle of Prayer. ‘In the Spirit.’ BRANCH FIRST

In praying for saints, we must be careful to comprehend and encircle all saints. I do not mean, as the Papists, for quick and dead. Prayer is a means to wait upon them in their way; at death, then they are at their journey’s end. Prayers are bootless for the dead sinner, and needless for the deceased saint. The wicked in that state are beneath, the saint above, our prayers. We cannot help the wicked. The tree is fallen, and so it must lie. We read of a change the body shall have after death. Vile bodies may, but filthy souls cannot, after death be made glorious. If they go off the body filthy, so they shall meet it at the resurrection. The time to pray for them is now while they live among you, or never; for death and hell come together to the sinner. No sooner Dives’ wretched soul is forced out of his body, but you hear it shriek in hell, ‘The rich man also died, and was buried; and in hell he lift up his eyes, being in torment,’ Luke 16:22, 23. But Abraham tells him ‘there is a gulf fixed,’ that forbids all intercourse betwixt heaven and him. Now what is that but an irrevocable decree with which the wicked are sealed under everlasting wrath? If God receive no prayers from them, then not from others for them. And as the wicked are beyond our help, so the saints above all need of our help; for they are in their port and haven. Prayer implies want, but saints departed are perfect, called therefore ‘the spirits of just men made perfect.’ We need not beg a pardon for them, for the Lord acquits them—they are ‘just;’ not for a supply of any good they want, they are ‘made perfect;’ not to remove any pain they feel, for ‘the Spirit saith, Blessed are they that die in the Lord, they rest from their labours.’

1695 · John Owen, Gospel Grounds and Evidences of the Faith of God's Elect 1

And this is that which gives the soul rest and satisfaction, as unto its entrance into glory, upon its departure out of this world. It is a great thing, to apprehend in a due manner that a poor soul that has been guilty of many sins, leaving the body, it may be, under great pain, distress, and anguish, it may be by outward violence, should be immediately admitted and received into the glorious presence of God, with all the holy attendants of his throne, there to enjoy rest and blessedness for evermore. But here also faith discerns and approves of this great, of this ineffable, divine operation, as that which becomes the infinite greatness of that wisdom and grace which first designed it, the glorious efficacy of the mediation of Christ, and the excellency of the sanctification of the Holy Spirit, without any expectation from any thing in itself, as a cause meritorious of an admission into this glory. Neither did ever any man know what it is, or desire it in a due manner, who looked for any desert of it in himself, or conceived any proportion between it and what he is or has done in this world. Hence some of those who have not this faith have invented another state, after men are gone out of this world, to make them meet for heaven, which they call purgatory; for on what grounds a man should expect an entrance into glory, on his departure out of this world, they understand not.

c. 1714 · Simon Browne, Commentary on 1 Corinthians 3.11-15

On this passage of scripture the papists found their doctrine of purgatory, which is certainly hay and stubble: a doctrine never originally fetched from scripture, but invented in barbarous ages, to feed the avarice and ambition of the clergy, at the cost of those who would rather part with their money than their lusts, for the salvation of their souls. It can have no countenance from this text, (1.) Because this is plainly meant of a figurative fire, not of a real one: for what real fire can consume religious rites or doctrines? (2.) Because this fire is to try men's works, of what sort they are; but purgatory-fire is not for trial, not to bring men's actions to the test, but to punish for them. They are supposed to be venial sins, not satisfied for in this life, for which satisfaction must be made by suffering the fire of purgatory. (3.) Because this fire is to try every man's works, those of Paul and Apollos, as well as those of others. Now, no papists will have the front to say apostles must have passed through purgatory fires.

1823 · Robert South, Sermons Preached Upon Several Occasions, Volume 7 53

The papists indeed hold that the souls of the saints, at least of the plebeian and ordinary saints, are not immediately, upon the dissolution of the body, freed wholly from the being and inherency of sin, but are sent into a place called purgatory, where the fire is to calcine and purge off the dross of sin from the soul, before it can be fitted for the society of the blessed. But this is a fabulous and a gross conceit, and, were it not gainful, unworthy the patronage of any learned popish writer. For how can the fire burn the soul? and then how can it burn off sin? Do we think that sin sticks upon the soul like rust upon a piece of iron? But these things are so ridiculous and absurd, that to repeat them is to confute them.

1823 · Robert South, Sermons Preached Upon Several Occasions, Volume 4 9

In the sixth place; Does the church of England hold purgatory, together with its appendant doctrine, of the pope’s power to release souls out of it, and without which the pope would be little or nothing concerned for it? No, our church rejects it as a fable, and has quite put out this fire, by withdrawing the fuel that only can keep it alive; to wit, the doctrine of venial sins, with that other of merit, and of works of supererogation.

1872 · Charles Hodge, Systematic Theology, vol. 3 (Part III, chapters XV-XX; Part IV, Eschatology) 4.1.4

Another decisive argument against the doctrine of purgatory is drawn from the abuses to which it has led, and which are its inevitable, being its natural consequences. It is à priori evident that a power committed to weak and sinful men which is safe in no other hands but those of God Himself, must lead to the most dreadful abuses. The doctrine, as we have seen, is, (1.) That the priest has power to remit or retain, the penalty of eternal death denounced against all sin. (2.) That he (or the appropriate organ of the Church) has power to alleviate, to shorten, or to terminate, the sufferings of souls in purgatory. That this power should fail to be abused, in the hands of the best of men, is impossible. Vested in the hands of ordinary men, as must be generally the case, or in the hands of mercenary and wicked men, imagination can set no limit to its abuse; and imagination can hardly exceed the historical facts in the case.

1872 · John Wesley, Sermons on Several Occasions 112

See the near resemblance between the ancient and the modern purgatory! Only in the ancient, the heathen purgatory, both fire, water, and air, were employed in expiating sin, and purifying the soul; whereas in the mystic purgatory, fire alone is supposed sufficient both to purge and expiate. Vain hope! No suffering, but that of Christ, has any power to expiate sin; and no fire, but that of love, can purify the soul, either in time or in eternity.

1882 · Charles Haddon Spurgeon, Spurgeon's Sermons, Volume 28 (1882) 1685

Look at that fiction of "purgatory" which is coming back into the English Church and is hankered after by certain Dissenters. They are beginning to believe in a modified form of "purgatory" and this is a dark sign of the times. "Purgatory" has always paid the Pope well—it is the fattest province of his dominions and has furnished his treasury plentifully. But how can God's people go to "purgatory"? For if they go there at all, they go there for sins which God does not remember and so He cannot give a reason for sending them there! I have no authentic communication by which to describe "purgatory," but by Romish report it is a terrible place. Now, if true Believers go there, then God either does remember their sins, which He says He will not do, or else He punishes them for sins which He does not remember! Did you ever hear of a judge sending a man to prison for a crime which the judge did not remember?

1907 · Augustus Hopkins Strong, Systematic Theology Part VIII. Eschatology, Or The Doctrine Of Final Things

According to the doctrine of the Roman Catholic church, “all who die at peace with the church, but are not perfect, pass into purgatory.” Here they make satisfaction for the sins committed after baptism by suffering a longer or shorter time, according to the degree of their guilt. The church on earth, however, has power, by prayers and the sacrifice of the Mass, to shorten these sufferings or to remit them altogether. But we urge, in reply, that the passages referring to suffering in the intermediate state give no indication that any true believer is subject to this suffering, or that the church has any power to relieve from the consequences of sin, either in this world or in the world to come. Only God can forgive, and the church is simply empowered to declare that, upon the fulfilment of the appointed conditions of repentance and faith, he does actually forgive. This theory, moreover, is inconsistent with any proper view of the completeness of Christ's satisfaction (Gal. 2:21; Heb. 9:28); of justification through faith alone (Rom. 3:28); and of the condition after death, of both righteous and wicked, as determined in this life (Eccl. 11:3; Mat. 25:10; Luke 16:26; Heb. 9:27; Rev.22:11).