View source for Purgatory Necessary After Death for Final Purification

"All who die in God's grace and friendship, but still imperfectly purified, are indeed assured of their eternal salvation, but '''after death they undergo purification''', so as to achieve the holiness necessary to enter the joy of heaven" (Catechism, 1030).

"The Church gives the name Purgatory to this final purification of the elect" (Catechism, 1031).

Scripture testifies that to be absent from the body, i.e., dead, is to be present with the LORD. "6 <span style="color:darkred">Therefore we are always confident, knowing that, whilst we are at home in the body, we are absent from the LORD: </span style="color:darkred"> 8 <span style="color:darkred">We are confident, I say, and willing rather to be absent from the body, and to be present with the LORD"</span style="color:darkred"> (2Corinthians 5:6,8). 

No intermediate place of purgatory for purification is mentioned in Scripture. The Master told of Heaven and Hell as the destination of the departed, giving no Scriptural foundation for Purgatory. "22 <span style="color:darkred">And it came to pass, that the beggar died, and was carried by the angels into Abraham's Bosom: the rich man also died, and was buried; </span style="color:darkred"> 23 <span style="color:darkred">And in Hell he lift up his eyes, being in torments, and seeth Abraham afar off, and Lazarus in his bosom"</span style="color:darkred"> (Luke 16:22-23). Instead, the Scriptures warn of the necessity of preparation for '''Heaven prior''' to departure from this life. <span style="color:darkred">"Follow peace with all men, and holiness, without which no man shall see the LORD"</span style="color:darkred"> (Hebrews 12:14).

Only judgment follows death. <span style="color:darkred">"As it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment"</span style="color:darkred"> (Hebrews 9:27). The purification that makes man fit for Heaven was accomplished solely by the sacrifice by the Son of God on the Cross. <span style="color:darkred">"We are sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all"</span style="color:darkred"> (Heb 10:10). If we obstinately refuse to trust the LORD Jesus Christ's sacrifice as the sole foundation of our forgiveness and acceptance with God, then we shall not escape God's judgment. <span style="color:darkred">"See that ye refuse not Him that speaketh. 

For if they escaped not who refused Him that spake on Earth, much more shall not we escape, if we turn away from Him that speaketh from Heaven"</span style="color:darkred"> (Heb 12:25). Neither sacraments nor purgatory, but the blood of Christ can purge and make us fit to stand before the Living God. <span style="color:darkred">"How much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the Eternal Spirit offered Himself without spot to God, purge your conscience from dead works to serve the Living God?" </span style="color:darkred"> (9:14).


[[Transubstantiation Changes the Bread and Wine Into Christ]]