Common Objections: Purgatory

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“Paul taught that when Christians die they go immediately to be with Christ. There is no purgatory.”

  Gary Hoge

Actually, what Paul wrote was, “We are of good courage, I say, and prefer rather to be absent from the body and to be at home with the Lord” (2 Corinthians 5:8). Obviously, Paul was simply stating his preference, not establishing a soteriological doctrine. He would rather be at home with the Lord than remain in the body. Who wouldn’t? But unfortunately, his statement of preference has been interpreted by many as a statement of equivalence: “to be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord.” 

But that’s not what Paul wrote, and even if that were what he meant it would not necessarily preclude the possibility of having to pass through a state of purification on the way to be at home with the Lord. 

An analogy may help. Suppose that I were in Pennsylvania. I might say, “I prefer to be absent from Pennsylvania and at home in Virginia.” I don’t have to explicitly state that I have to pass through Maryland on the way, even though that is true.

Likewise, Paul doesn’t have to explicitly state that some may have to pass through a state of purification on their way to being at home with the Lord, and in fact elsewhere he writes that there are some who “shall be saved; yet so as by fire” (1 Corinthians 3:15).