Many people, particularly those who regard themselves to be Roman Catholics, believe that it is beneficial to pray for people who have died relatively recently. Those for whom they are praying are people they believe are waiting in a place called “purgatory” until they are permitted to enter heaven.
Official Catholic doctrine states with regard to the term purgatory: “Purgatory . . . in accordance with Catholic teaching is a place or condition of temporal punishment for those who, departing this life in God’s grace, are, not entirely free from venial faults, or have not fully paid the satisfaction due to their transgressions.” In other words, purgatory is regarded as a place or state of being that is temporarily inhabited by the souls and spirits of Christians who are not being allowed to enter heaven until they have served a period of penance to make amends for sins that they committed while they still were living on the earth – sins for which it is supposed that they have not yet been fully forgiven.
As for the practice of praying for people who are in purgatory, official Catholic doctrine says: “[S]ince our prayers and our sacrifices can help those who are still waiting in purgatory, the saints have not hesitated to warn us that we have a real duty toward those who are still in purgatorial expiation.”
However, the doctrine regarding purgatory was not officially affirmed by the Roman Catholic Church until the Second Council of Lyons in 1274. That was several hundred years after the ecumenical councils that defined central Christian doctrines such as the Incarnation and the Trinity. Because the doctrine regarding purgatory was approved so long after the earlier decisions regarding central Christian doctrines, there is reason to question the validity of this doctrine.
Also, purgatory is not mentioned anywhere in the Bible. Furthermore, purgatory is not mentioned in the apocryphal writings that are regarded by Roman Catholics as canonical (i.e., additional divinely inspired books of the Bible), but most Protestants do not regard the apocryphal writings as canonical.
The following comments on the website carm.org focus on both (a) the significance of the term purgatory to Roman Catholics and (b) whether or not the term purgatory can be found in the apocryphal writings – specifically, Maccabees, chapter 12, verses 39-45, which some people think supports belief in the existence of purgatory:
The Roman Catholic doctrine of purgatory teaches that people who die while in God’s grace but who are not sufficiently purified of their sinfulness to enter God’s presence must undergo a time of purification through temporary suffering in the torments of purgatory. Unlike hell, purgatory is not a final judgment on the wicked but rather a finite period of purging for the insufficiently righteous. It is a place where one suffers for one’s own remaining sin before entering into heavenly bliss. Such a doctrine would seem to imply that Christ’s sufferings were insufficient to sanctify the believer, and so the issue is no small matter. Roman Catholics will often claim that purgatory is affirmed even before the time of the New Testament in the Jewish Apocryphal book of 2 Maccabees. Contrary to Roman Catholic dogma, the Apocrypha should not be considered authentic Scripture,, so finding the doctrine of purgatory there would not grant it biblical authority. If the claim that 2 Maccabees teaches purgatory were correct, however, this would at least demonstrate the idea of Purgatory to be an ancient tradition rather than a late innovation developed centuries after the time of the New Testament, as it otherwise appears to be. Unfortunately for the Roman Catholic apologist, however, the passage in 2 Maccabees doesn’t say anything about purgatory, nor does it in any way imply the Roman Catholic dogma.
Summary and Conclusions
There are not any scriptures in either the Bible or the apocryphal writings that mention or allude to a place called purgatory where, after people die, they must stay until they are allegedly vindicated for sins that they committed while they were living on the earth. In other words, there is no scripture that supports the belief that anyone will spend time in purgatory before they are permitted to enter heaven. Furthermore, the doctrine regarding purgatory was not officially affirmed by the Roman Catholic Church until several hundred years after the ecumenical councils that defined central Christian doctrines.
Therefore, it is reasonable to conclude that there is no credible reason to think that it is beneficial to pray for the absolution of the sins of deceased people so that they will enter heaven sooner. True Christians enter heaven immediately after they die. This conclusion is supported by our article entitled “Do Christians Go Immediately to Heaven When They Die?,” which can be accessed by clicking on its title.”
As for people who are not true Christians, Scripture provides no reason to believe that praying for them after they have died will have any benefit for them either. The time to pray for these people is before they die. And, one of the primary objectives of praying for them before they die should be that they will trust in Jesus Christ as their Savior, because there will not be an opportunity for them to do so after they die. [Note: To get additional perspective in this regard, click on “What Must a Person Do to Be Assured of Eternal Salvation?”]