-Qtntttnrotu
m~tn1ngital :lInntt,lg
Continuing
LEHRE UNO WEHRE
-MAGAZIN FUER Ev.-LuTH. HOMILETIK
THEOLOGICAL QUARTERLY-THEOLOGICAL M ONTHLY
Vol. :xvn June, 1946 No.6
CONTENTS
r.p
The Protestant Purgatory. Th. EngeJder _______ __________________________ 401
God's Direction in Our Lives and the Element of Chance
Eo W.llimichs --------__________________ _________________________________ 425
Outlines on the Standard Epistle Lessons ______________________ __ ______ :__ -;-_ 440
Miscellanea _ _________________________________ ___________________________________ 455
Theological Observer _____________________________________________ 462
Book Review _________________________________ ______________________________________ 476
Ein P rediger muss nicht allein wei-
den, also dass er die Schafe unter-
w eise. wie sie r echte Christen sollen
sein. sondern auch daneben den Woel-
f en wehTen, dass sie die Schafe nicht
angreifen und mit falscher Lehre ver-
,fuehren und Irrtwn einfuehren.
ItutheT
Es ist kein Ding. das die Leute
rnehr bei der Kirche behaelt denn
die gute Predigt. - Apologie, An. 24
If the trumpet give an uncertain
sound. who shall prepare himself to
the battle? -1 COT. 14:8
Published by the
Ev. Luth. SYnod of Missouri, Ohio, and Other States
CONCORDIA PUBLISHING BOUSE, S1. Louis 18, Mo.
PIlINTED IN 11. S . A.
Concordia
Theological Monthly
Vol. XVII JUNE, 1946
The Protestant Purgatory
By TH. ENGELDER
No.6
The Hades gospel promises various classes of unbelievers
that in Hades they will get another opportunity to be con-
verted. See CONCORDIA THEOLOGICAL MONTHLY, 1945, May,
June, September, and December issues. But it has a message
also for the believers. It tells them that after their death they
will be purged in Hades of the remnants of sin still clinging
to them and thus be fitted for heaven. This Hades institution
is not exactly the Catholic purgatory, but a purgatory it is
still, a needed purgatory. - It is known as the Protestant
purgatory.
The function of the Romish purgatory is to prepare the
souls of the departed believers for heaven. While "the guilt
is remitted to every.penitent sinner," there remains a "debt
of temporal punishment to be discharged in this world, or in
the next in purgatory, before the entrance to the kingdom of
heaven can be opened to him." So say the Canons and Decrees
of the Council of Trent, Sess. VI, Canon XXX. Cardinal Gib-
bons explains: "The Catholic Church teaches that, besides
a place of eternal torment for the wicked and of everlasting
rest for the righteous, there exists in the next life a middle
state of temporary punishment, allotted for those who have
died in venial sin or who have not satisfi~d the justice of God
for sins already forgIven. She also teaches that, although the
souls consigned to this intermediate state, commonly called pur-
gatory, cannot help themselves, they may be aided by the suf-
frages of the faithful on earth." (The Faith of our Fathers,
26
402 THE PROTESTANT PURGATORY
p.205.) Di Bruno explains further: "Purgatory is a state of
suffering after this life in which those souls are for a time
detained which leave this world guilty only of venial sins.
In purgatory these souls are purified and rendered fit to enter
heaven, where nothing defiled enters. . .. After being purified
there from the stain of these venial or lesser faults they are
admitted into heaven." (Catholic Belief, p. 161. -1922.)
"Rome teaches that 'the pains of purgatory are very severe,
surpassing any endured in this life' (Bellarmine), so terrible
and agonizing that they differ only from the pain of the damned
in the fact that there is an appointed limit to the one, not to
the other." (H. M. Luckock, The Intermediate State, pp.71,
76.) "The papists hold that one hour of purgatory is as painful
as a thousand years of temporal bodily suffering." (Luther,
IV: 1661). "A passage in the Catechismus Romanus says:
(Poena purgatorii excedit omnem poenam temporalem huius
vitae'; i. e., 'The punishment of purgatory surpasses all tem-
poral punishment of this life.' This is in accordance with what
Cardinal Bellarmine says (de Purgat. . . . p. 410): 'Theologi
fere omnes docent eodem in loco esse, et eodem igni torqueri,
damnatos et animas purgatorii'; i. e., "Almost all theologians
teach that the damned and the souls in purgatory are in the
same place and tortured in the same fire.''' (E. J. Stearns,
The Faith of Our Forefathers, p.237.)
The doctrine of purgatory involves a fundamental error.
It holds that Christ did not fully satisfy the justice of God.
It denies the chief article of the Christian religion, that through
faith we have full remission of the guilt and punishment of all
sins. It denies the heart of the Gospel and strikes at the
heart of Protestantism. Luther: "Purgatory is one great lie;
it is throughout pure wickedness and is based on unbelief.
For they deny that faith saves and hold that man must
satisfy the justice of God in order to be saved." (I: 1462.)
The Smalcald Articles: "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." (Triglotta, p.465.)
That is the Catholic purgatory. And what is the Prot-
estant purgatory? The Hades theologians, particularly those
who believe in salvation by faith alone, refuse to embody
THE PROTESTANT PURGATORY 403
all the Romish features in their reconstructed purgatory. But
they have taken over this feature: the dying Christian carries
remnants of sin with him into the next world and must go
through a purgatorial, purifying process in Hades before he
enters heaven. Let us hear a few typical statements.
The Gospel of the Hereafter, by J. Paterson-Smyth, de-
clares: "What of the souls who had gone out of earth from
the beginning of the world without knowing Him? He was
about to go forth in a few moments, 'quickened in His Spirit'
(1 Pet. 3: 18), to bring His glad Gospel to the waiting souls.
At the Reformation time there were terrible abuses connected
with the Church's doctrine of the intermediate life: the prac-
tice of purchased masses, and pardons, and indulgences, and
all the absurdities connected with the Roman purgatory.
One does not wonder - though one may greatly regret-
that the indignant reformers, in sweeping away the falsehood,
sometimes swept away also the underlying truth. . .. So for
centuries this has been the 'lost article of the Creed.' . . .
Think that the great majority of those who die, even though
penitent and striving after right, have much of evil clinging
to them; that even the best is not without many faults and
stains. If nothing that defileth shall enter heaven, if growth
is a law of all life as far as we know it, are we not practically
compelled to believe that much of the growth and purification
needed to fit us for God's presence shall take place in the
great waiting life? . .. Weare asking from Him blessing for
them. For surely they are not above wanting His blessings
still- not even the best of them - though safe with Him,
though forgiven their sins, they are still imperfect, still need-
ing to grow in grace, in purification, in fitness for the final
heaven by and by. And we can help their growth. . .. Char-
acter is fixing eternal destiny. Hades life is dependent on
character. Judgment is a sifting according to character ....
It is character that makes heaven." (Pages 63, 65, 124, 129,
163 c, 202,)1
1 Note that the Hades gospel according to J. Paterson-Smyth pro-
claims both a second probation for the unbelievers and a purification
for the believers. Not all who teach a second probation teach the
Protestant purgatory. But the great majority does. When Schleier-
macher spoke of "a continued probation after death," he had in mind
also the believers and their need of progress in sanctification. He said:
"If the believers would be the same ethically that they were at the
time of death, sin would also dwell with them at the resurrection."
404 THE PROTESTANT PURGATORY
The gospel of the hereafter according to H. M. Luckock
declares: "In the intermediate state the spiritual element in
his [the believer's] being is free to prepare itself, by a course
of progressive advancement, for the goal of its ambition, the
vision of God. . .. The Westminster divines committed an
egregious blunder in laying it down as a dogma [in the West-
minster Confession, chap. XXXII] that 'the souls of the right-
eous being then (i. e., at death) made perfect in holiness are
received into the highest heavens, where they behold the face
of God in light and glory.' . .. It seems almost impossible to
form any other conclusion than that the souls of the departed
pass through some purifying process between death and judg-
ment. By far the majority of those who die are imperfect;
they are not deserving of hell, but, at the same time, are quite
unfit for heaven. Everyone who dies with the blemishes
and stains of a sinful nature uneffaced, even though he may
have received pardon and forgiveness, will obviously require
spiritual cleansing and purification. It has been authoritatively
pronounced to be the indispensable qualification for admis-
sion to the vision of God. . .. It was a Lutheran divine of
the greatest eminence who defied the narrow-mindedness of
his sect and boldly taught that 'in a purely spiritual sense
there must be a purgatory determined for the cleansing of
the soul in the intermediate state.' - Bishop Martensen." (Op.
cit., pp. 15, 18, 26, 62 f., 72.) - Luckock adds these thoughts:
"There must, then, be souls in the intermediate state at dif-
ferent stages of progressive holiness, and such inequality
almost necessitates the belief that the more advanced will be
able to help those who are behind and less perfect themselves."
(P.169.)
E. H. Plumptre puts it thus: "Grant, as fully as you please,
that a man is justified by faith and that one who dies in faith
(I do not now discuss the nature of that saving faith) is there-
fore saved; it yet remains a fact of experience that the great
majority of men die with characters imperfectly developed,
with many weaknesses and sins. Are we to assume, and if so,
(Glaubenslehre, § 161, 1. - See The Lutheran Church Quarterly, 1944,
p. 452.) When Prof. Charles Augustus Briggs, who disturbed the
Church in 1893, spoke of "progressive sanctification," he meant these
two things: in Hades certain unbelievers would have another oppor-
tunity, for conversion, and the believers would have the opportunity
to perfect their sanctification. (See Lehre und Wehre, 1893, p. 162.)
Most Hades theologians follow this pattern.
THE PROTESTANT PURGATORY 405
on what ground of Scripture or of reason, that death, as in
a moment, transfigures the whole man into the likeness of the
Lord, and effects a complete sanctification? It can scarcely be
supposed that the character, with all its weaknesses, or worse
than weaknesses, continues stereotyped, as it were, at the hour
of death. . .. That the 'sleep' (1 Thess. 4: 13 f.; 1 Cor. 15: 20)
was not one of unconsciousness, and that some were capable
of rising to a higher stage of knowledge and holiness seemed
to be implied in the statements that Christ 'went and preached
to the spirits in prison' and that the 'Gospel was preached to
the dead' (1 Pet. 3: 19; 4: 6) . It cannot be wondered at that
the conclusions of Christian eschatology have seen in the in-
termediate state the region in which a work of illumination
and purification might be carried on behind the veil." (The
Spirits in Prison, pp. 124, 308.) Plumptre adds the thought
"There is no a priori reason why we should not pray for the
growth in holiness, and therefore in blessedness, of those who
are behind the veil as well as for those who are still militant
on earth." And there is that "wider hope. Our purgatory,
if we may venture to seek to rehabilitate that abused and
dishonored word, will not be confined to the baptized or to
those who have known historically and through human teach-
ers the revelation of God in Christ, but will include all who
have lived according to the light they had." (pp. 308, 309.)
F. W. Farrar, Dean of Canterbury: "I do not by any
means hold the 'Romish doctrine of purgatory.' . .. But this
'Roman doctrine' is not to be confused with the opinion of
many of the Fathers that there is some intermediate state
wherein souls which, at the time of death, are still imperfect
and unworthy and not yet in a state of grace - and of such
are the vast majority of us all- may still be reached by
God's mercy beyond the grave. The learned and thoughtful
Lutheran Bishop Martensen holds 'that the Romish doctrine
... nevertheless contains the truth that the intermediate state
must, in a purely spiritual sense, be a purgatory destined for
the purifying of the soul.''' (Eternal Hope, p. XXVII f.)
Statements like these do not constitute exceptions but
represent the normal teaching of modern theology. Dr. Wal-
ther said in class: "AIle Neueren lehren ein Fegfeuer." He
was commenting on Luthardt's statement: "Die Dogmatik
laesst, ungeschichtlich, die Entscheidung mit dem Tod schon
406 THE PROTESTANT PURGATORY
voellig abgeschlossen sein. . .. Seit der Zeit des Pietismus
kam aber die Lehre von einem Zwischenzustand wieder auf
und wurde in der neueren Zeit beliebt, wobei es sich besonders
um die Fragen der Zwischenleiblichkeit, der Entwicklungs-
faehigkeit und Bekehrungsmoeglichkeit und der Moeglichkeit
vollendeter Heiligkeit handelt." (Compendium, 291-293. Sub-
stantially the same in the Luthardt-J elke Kompendium,
p.432.) - To show how great a vogue the Protestant purga-
tory has attained in modern theology a few additional state-
ments should be submitted.
Writing in The Living Church of 1944, W. M. Hay affirms:
"Death, marking a definite period of progress here ended,
ushers life into not two, but three possibilities - either hell
(final fixation of the will against God) or heaven (final but
ever-expanding rest of the good will in God), or a condition
to be described as not-quite-heaven or not-yet-heaven. The
common name is purgatory - the place or condition of cleans-
ing from all vestiges of sin. The Scriptural basis for a belief
in purgatory is very slight. The doctrine arises psychologically
and philosophically." "There can be, then, for the intensely
alive soul after death either heaven for the clean, a further
preparation for the stained but heaven-worthy (nota magical
change, not instantaneous, for the human will must co-oper-
ate); as for the hopelessly out of tune, they go to a place
where hope is no more." "'Purgatory: A Hope and an Escape.'
For K. and all like him there is an experience (how pro-
longed no man knows) wherein and whereby all that is fault,
wrong, undone, all that unfits him for the vision and nearer
presence of God, will be purged and done away. Purgatory
is the name of the sphere and the process by which those who
(by faith, penitence and perseverance - though each of these
be of the slightest) are destined for heaven, are purged,
cleansed of all that unfits them for that high destiny." Des-
mond Morse-Boycott: "We may look beyond the purgatorial
stage to the life of bliss in heaven. But before I direct your
mind to a consideration of the holy city, let me remind you
again that it is no part of the Christian faith to believe that
we reach that stage of ultimate bliss as an automatic result
of death. There are the greater saints of God, like St. Francis
of Assisi, who live in such an intense communion with God
here on earth, and are bathed in the fire of such abnormal con-
THE PROTESTANT PURGATORY 407
tact, that their sins and frailties are conceivably purged away
before they died, so that death becomes to them the portal of
heaven itself. But for most of the family of God, even the
very saintly, death is a portal to a place of preparation for
heaven." (The Living Church, Dec. 3, 1941.) The Living
Church, May 14, 1944: "To the editor: I want to thank you
for publishing the deeply moving article 'Purgatory - A Hope
and an Escape.' . .. I find my only comfort in praying for
the dead. . .. St. Peter in his First Epistle tells us that our
Lord in the interval between His death and resurrection
'preached to the spirits in prison.' Our Lord's own words
to the penitent thief were: 'This day shalt thou be with me
in paradise.' He did not go into heaven on that day but into
the 'place of the dead,' which was where the penitent thief
must have gone also. Hence I am forced into the belief that
the doctrine of a 'purgatory,' an 'intermediate state,' a 'larger
hope,' is Scriptural and a part of the holy catholic faith."
H. C. Sheldon (Methodist): "The principal considera-
tions which may be urged in favor of the supposition that pro-
gressive sanctification and distinct moral transitions may have
place in the intermediate state are . . . (2) Peter's reference
to the preaching of Christ, apparently in the interval between
death and resurrection. . .. (3) Great multitudes of men who
may be regarded as possessing the root of Christian character
do not appear to have been completely sanctified before death.
Therefore, since death cannot be regarded as transforming
man's spiritual nature, the reason of the case seems to dictate
that the completion of sanctification must be effected by a
process covering a greater or less interval. At least no rational
warrant can be found for the supposition that multitudes,
whom the providence and grace of God fail to bring to entire
holiness during the years of earthly life, encounter means of
complete spiritual transformation the moment they pass out
of this life." (System of Christian Doctrine, p. 555 f.) Edwin
Lewis (Methodist): "It is frequently supposed that Chris-
tianity teaches that every man's eternal destiny is fixed at the
moment of his death. That this belief has been taught here
and there in the Church - especially in certain Protestant
churches - is undoubtedly true. But it is not the proper
meaning of the Gospel. It is not the uniform Christian tradi-
tion. When Scripture is quoted in support of the teaching,
408 THE PROTESTANT PURGATORY
it is usually some highly metaphorical passages which may
have a quite different significance. . .. What we surmise is
that between this world and the next - and the next - and
the next - is moral continuity. . .. That purgatorial dis-
cipline will continue into the future life is an idea implicit
in the total Christian view of things. . .. Inevitably the human
soul passes through a succession of worlds until one of two
unchangeable states is reached - the heaven, which is eternal
life, or the hell, which is eternal death." (The Christian Ad-
vocate, July 1, 1943.)
Richard Rothe (follower of Schleiermacher) affirms: "In
the Totenreich salvation will be offered once more to those
who died in unbelief. . .. Because of the corruption of their
ethical nature it is much harder, and it takes a much longer
time, to effect their renewal than is the case with the believers,
who in Hades need to eliminate only some dross." (See W.
Oelsner, Die Entwicklung der Eschatologie von Schleiermacher
bis zur Gegenwart, p. 32.) 1. A. Dorner (follower of Schleier-
macher): "The passages which make the pious enter at once
a better place exclude a purgatory as a state of punishment
or penance, but by no means exclude a growth in perfection
and blessedness. Even the departed righteous are not quite
perfect before the resurrection. There is, therefore, a status
intermedius even for believers, not an instantaneous passage
into perfect holiness." (System of Christian Doctrine, IV,
p.410.) And that is the absolute truth, say the Swedenbor-
gians, for "most people do not become altogether fitted for
heaven in this world"; they must be "led from one society to
another" in the next world (see Popular Symbolics, p.394)
"and in the next - and in the next," as Edwin Lewis has it.
"Some are taken up into heaven immediately after death,
some after a short stay with good spirits, where the grosser
things of their thoughts and affections are removed." (Sweden-
borg's Heaven and Hell, paragraphs 491, 498, 511 ff.)
Among the Lutherans too there are many, very many
theologians who are spreading the fable of the Protestant
purgatory. We read in the Lutheraner of 1945, page 195:
"Blind muss ja derjenige sein, der nicht sieht, dass die Lehre
vom Fegfeuer ein Schwindel ist. Leider gibt es lutherisch
sich nennende Professor en und Doktoren, die dem Fegfeuer,
wenn auch in feinerer Weise, das Wort reden. Zu Narren
THE PROTESTANT PURGATORY 409
sind sie geworden trotz ihrer Gelehrsamkeit." Dr. H. Marten-
sen, Bishop of Seeland, Denmark, writes: "As no soul leaves
this present existence in a fully complete and prepared state,
we must suppose that there is an intermediate state, a realm
of progressive development in which souls are prepared and
matured for a final judgment. Though the Romish doctrine
of purgatory is repudiated because it is mixed up with so
many crude and false positions, it nevertheless contains the
truth that the intermediate state must in a purely spiritual
sense be a purgatory, designed for the purifying of the soul.
... The departed live in a deep spiritual life. The soul now
enters into its own inmost recesses, resorts to that which is
the very foundation of life, the true substratum and source of
all existence. Hence arises the purgatorial nature of this
state. . .. Even the blessed in Hades have still an inner his-
tory, they still need a purifying, an increase and growth in
holiness and in bliss." (Christian Dogmatics, p. 457 f. 463.)2
Kahnis, another leading Lutheran theologian, is fighting
side by side with Martensen for the Protestant purgatory.
He says: "Underlying the concept of purgatory there is this
truth, that many Christians still need further cleansing. . . .
There are very many Christians who, as far as men can judge,
have true faith, but their faith is still so much debased by the
dross of the Old Adam that we cannot but judge that they
cannot, if they remain what they are, enter paradise, if
paradise is to remain what it is. . .. Do not tell me that with
the body also much of the Old Adam will be shuffied off ....
The nature of a person cannot be changed by one magic stroke.
How could a Christian, who is deficient in love, attain through
death, suddenly at one stroke, perfect love? Weare thus
driven to assume that in yonder world purification and de-
velopment is called for." (Dognwtik, II, p. 498. - Quoted and
analyzed in Pieper's Christliche Dogmatik, III, p.567.)
2 The Protestant-purgatory theologians make much of this affirma-
tion by Bishop Martensen. Luckock and Farrar, as we have seen, made
use of it. So also Plumptre: "The Christian Dogmatics of Bishop Mar-
tensen takes its place side by side with Nitzsch's Christian Doctrine,
or perhaps as standing on even a higher level as to clearness of vision
and profoundly reverential thought." His lengthy excerpt from Mar-
tensen contains the quotation given above. It was also favorably
received by the Catholics. The Catholic Cyclopedia writes: "Modern
Protestants, while they avoid the name purgatory, frequently teach
the doctrine of 'the middle state,' and Martensen writes: 'As no soul ...
in which souls are prepared for the final Judgment.'''
410 THE PROTESTANT PURGATORY
There is Seeberg, who also believes in a "purgatory not
of satisfaction but of grace" in yonder world, that "being the
real truth at the bottom of the Romish teaching of purgatory"
(see W. Oelsner, op. cit., p. 74; P. Althaus, Die Letzten Dinge,
p. 203); and even Hengstenberg teaches: "In the realm of
death the lowest compartment is the place of torment, the
antechamber of hell, and the upper compartment is paradise,
the antechamber of heaven. There the blessed dead dwell ....
The believer has already here on earth the assurance of sal-
vation, and this assurance grows when death relieves him of
the misery of this world and brings him closer to the Lord.
However, he cannot see God until he is perfectly sanctified
(Matt. 5: 8; Heb. 12: 14; Rev. 21: 27). How and when does he
obtain perfect holiness? We do not know how much influ-
ence the hour of death may have. But however great it be,
the laying aside of the body cannot bring about perfect puri-
fication and sanctification, since the body alone is not the seat
of sin. And remember that purification cannot take place in
a moment. Now, since it is certain that in most cases the souls
enter yonder world with their sins indeed forgiven but not
completely eradicated, we are compelled to assume that the
souls continue the process of cleansing, interrupted by death,
in the Totenreich." (Kirchenzeitung, 1853. See Proceedings,
Illinois District, 1886, p.60.)
We have space for one more pronouncement. In his book
The Faith of the Church C. M. Jacobs advocates both the
possibility of conversion in Hades 3 and the Protestant pur-
gatory. "While speaking to you of the future life, there is one
thought that I would suggest. It is not taught in the Scrip-
tures and has no authority save that of probability. The
thought of resurrection implies a time of waiting, and to me
at least that means a time of growth, a preparation of the
soul for entrance upon its higher form of life. This is the
truth, it seems to me, that lies in the idea of a purgatory. To
most Protestants the very word is abhorrent. It recalls to our
minds the teaching of the Roman Church, which all of us re-
3 "Christians of all times have been concerned over the fate of
those who in this life have never heard the name of Christ. . .. Are
they to spend eternity in the outer darkness? . . . Does not this clause
of the Creed [descended into hell] suggest-I will not venture to say
that it teaches - another possibility? He descended into Hades, the
place of the departed, that He might be their Savior too" (pp. 61, 62).
THE PROTESTANT PURGATORY 411
ject. It makes us think about a place of torment to which
departing souls are taken, a place of punishment for those
whose sins have been forgiven, a place of pain upon the road
of heaven. But is there anyone of us who believes that he
is really ready to enter heaven now and be with a holy God,
even though all his sins are forgiven? And may we not
reverently hope that after death we shall be progressively
prepared for a life that is so far beyond us that we are not
ready for it now? Many have thought so, and I share that
hope." (P.111.)
Karl Hase (rationalist) thus sums up the case for the
Protestant purgatory: "Die meisten Sterbenden sind wohl zu
gut fuer die Hoelle, aber sicher zu schlecht fuer den Himmel.
Most men are at death too good for hell, but certainly not
good enough for heaven." And after presenting Moehler's
description of the Catholic purgatory, he declares: "Our Prot-
estantism is pretty much in accord with this enlightened
view of a purgatory, whose flames have been extinguished."
(Quoted in P. Althaus, Die Letzten Dinge, p. 203.) - Althaus
adds this: "Selbst ein lutherischer Dogmatiker wie Rud. Hof-
mann in Leipzig erklaert sich mit Hase's Satz einverstanden.
(Herzog, Realenzyklopaedie 3, Artikel "Fegfeuer")." 4
4 J. A. Moehler: "The doctrine of an ulterior state of purification,
of a purgatory in fine, is involved in the Catholic dogma of justification
and is absolutely inseparable from the same .. " We shall speak here
only of the peculiar mode of communion which is kept up between
us and the poor souls that are delivered over to the cleansing fire. . . .
But as to the mode of punishment and the place which purgatory occu-
pies the Church teaches nothing further; for she has, on this point,
received no special revelations; and where we use the expression
'purifying fire,' we employ it only in the usual figurative sense." (Sym-
bolism, p. 352 f.) - Farrar agrees with Hase: "In point of fact the
taunt of the Romish controversialist Moehler that a 'Protestantism must
either admit many into heaven stained with sin, or imagine that a magi-
cal change is wrought merely by death' is unanswerable, unless we
reply with Karl Hase that both views are untenable, since most men
at death are indeed not wicked enough to deserve an endless hell, yet
not holy enough to be admitted into heaven. And Hase proceeds to
argue with justice that our Protestantism is perfectly reconcilable (not
indeed with a dogmatic and definite) but with 'a subdued and en-
lightened view of purgatory,' i. e., of progressive amelioration, of a puri-
fying process, after death." COp. cit., p.182.) - In his "Widerruf vorn
Fegfeuer" Moehler retains the heart of the Catholic doctrine of purga-
tory - the denial of the Gospel. We said above: "The doctrine of
purgatory involves a fundamental error. It holds that Christ did not
fully satisfy the justice of God. It denies the chief article of the
Christian religion, that through faith we have full remission of the
guilt and punishment of sin." Now note Moehler's declaration that the
souls in purgatory suffer "punishment." On page 356 he repeats it:
"In the other world the believer has still to endure punishment." And
412 THE PROTESTANT PURGATORY
Justin Martyr felt very strongly on this matter. He
declared: "Those who hold that when men die their souls are
at once taken to heaven are not to be accounted Christians or
even Jews." (Quoted in The Gospel of the Hereafter, p.36.)
The moderns will hardly use the extreme language of Justin
Martyr; but believing that most Christians cannot be taken
into heaven at death, they insist, vehemently and passionately,
that the Protestant purgatory is an absolute necessity.
Now, all of this is contrary to Scripture. Holy Scripture
teaches that the souls of the believers are taken at death
directly into heaven. Luke 23: 43: "Jesus said unto him,
Verily I say unto thee, Today shalt thou be with Me in
paradise." 5 Luke 16: 22: "And it came to pass that the
beggar died and was carried by the angels into Abraham's
bosom." 6 Acts 7: 55,59: "Stephen looked up steadfastly into
in chapter 23, pages 170-176, he shows "that the doctrine of a place
of purification is closely connected with the Catholic theory of justi-
fication," the Catholic teaching on justification being that in order to
be justified, to be saved, "the Law must be fulfilled inwardly in us"
(p. 175), that justification is essentially sanctification, "is considered
an infusion of the love of God in our hearts" (p. 105). We cannot
understand how men who believe in the sola fide are ready to accept
Moehler's teaching on purgatory as being a more "enlightened view"
than that of the Tridentine generation of Catholics. Did Cardinal
Gibbons have a more enlightened view? We had his statement that
purgatory is for those "who have not satisfied the justice of God for sins
already forgiven."
5 Lutheran Companion, May 14, 1932: "Does the 'today' deny
purgatory? - I believe it does. Here was a sinner who certainly needed
purifying in the fires of purgatory if any man ever did; yet the promise
is for immediate salvation. As Erdman says: 'Out of a life of sin and
shame he passed immediately into a state of blessedness.''' It denies
both the Catholic and the Protestant purgatory. Lenski's Commentary:
"Here all the perversions about sheol and hades are brought in, plus
even the descent into hades, confounding even confusion. Yet all this
muddle furnishes no proof whatever for more than two places in the
other world .... Also Jesus did not say: 'Today thou shalt be in purga-
tory.' Yet, if ever a sinner deserved a long term in purgatory, this
malefactor was one. His immediate transfer into heaven is proof fatal
to the idea of a purgatory or of any intermediate place." - We have
shown in the preceding articles that in Scripture "paradise" and "Abra-
ham's bosom" are synonymous with "heaven."
6 The Pulpit Commentary: "From our Lord's way of speaking of
the great changes in the cases of both Lazarus and Dives it would seem
as though there was absolutely no pause between the two lives of this
world and the world to come." "It would seem" - make it stronger!
Stoeckhardt, Biblische Geschichte, p. 207 if.: "The beggar died and was
carried by the angels into Abraham's bosom, that is, into paradise, the
home of the blessed. . . . The end of the believers is eternal bliss, the
fullness of joy in blissful communion with God and all the elect."
Kretzmann's Commentary: "The beggar died. But his death provoked
an embassy from heaven: he was carried up by the angels into the
bosom of Abraham . . . was joyfully received into the eternal home
and found a place of honor by the side of Abraham."
THE PROTESTANT PURGATORY 413
heaven and saw the glory of God and Jesus standing on the
right hand of God. And they stoned Stephen, calling upon
God and saying, Lord Jesus, receive my spirit." Is this one
of the "highly metaphorical passages" which Edwin Lewis
had in mind? Phil. 1: 23: "Having a desire to depart and to be
with Christ." Is this another highly metaphorical passage? 7
2 Tim. 4: 7 f.: "I have finished my course .. " Henceforth there
is laid up for me a crown of righteousness." Metaphorical? 8
Heb.12: 22 f. In "the heavenly Jerusalem," the home and
dwelling place of God, are now dwelling "the spirits of just
men made perfect." They are not waiting for the Last Day
to be pronounced perfect. Luke 2: 29: "Lord, now lettest
thou thy servant depart in peace." The day of Simeon's death
brought this peace. Rev. 14: 13: "Blessed are the dead, which
die in the Lord from henceforth. Yea, saith the Spirit, that
they may rest from their labors; and their works do follow
them." Luther: "'Vom Fegfeuer.'. .. 'The righteous perish-
eth, and no man layeth it to heart. . .. He shall enter into
peace' (Is. 57: 1,2). That is all we need to know about the
saints, who die in Christ. Theirs is a peace and security that
is beyond our comprehension. . .. After the dissolution of
their bodies they rest in peace and security till Christ comes
for the Judgment. Rev. 14: 13 plainly indicates that. They
that die in the Lord are in eternal bliss. Therefore, since
the text states that they are at rest, it follows that there is no
purgatory. If they died in the Lord, they rest from their labor.
Oder du musst die Worte der Oflenbarung ganz und gar
leugnen. . .. It is enough that we know that according to
Luke 16: 23 fl. Abraham and Lazarus are in peace and rest.
7 Charles Hodge: "Two things are here perfectly plain: first, that
Paul regards the state of the soul after death as more exalted than its
condition while in the flesh, and, secondly, that this change for the better
takes place immediately after death. He was confident that as soon
as he departed he would be with Christ. Both these points are con-
ceded even by those who deny the doctrine which they evidently
involve." (Systematic Theology, III, p. 729.) - Herzog, R. E. 3, s. v. Hades:
"According to 1 Thess. 4: 16 and 1 Cor. 15: 25 it would seem that the de-
parted Christians too remain in Hades till the resurrection. The con-
trary teaching is found in Phil. 1: 23, where it is said that the believers
are after death GUV XQt