Sabbath, 12-19-09, 10:11 AM EST USA
Quite simply, there is no such place. Of course there is Heaven and hell. We know this because God tells us so in His Holy Word, the Bible. However, if you do a search for this word in the entire Bible there is no such place - whatsoever.
Let's look at it from another point of view - the role it is supposed to play. With a little thought you will see that it is not only not real, it is utterly contradictory (in other words opposite) to God's Will.
Let's look at each one of these ideas in turn and see how it is not valid.
1) Purgatory is the place where the saved go
First of all, why are the saved going to a place other than Heaven? Shouldn't they be going straight to Heaven? The supposed answer to this conundrum is that these saved aren't fully saved - yet. They have to sit in a "weigh station" until their time is up. But Paul told us that once we die, believers - in a flash - appear in Heaven. So either this interpretation is wrong or Paul was a liar (or didn't know what he was talking about. This is very unlikely since he was directed by God to preach the Word. Also, and even more importantly, by faith we know God's Word is utterly true. So this "weigh station" idea is fictitious.
2) Purgatory is the place where the saved wait to enter Heaven
Secondly, this is not even close to true. In fact b/c of (1) above this notion is also clearly false. Waiting does happen, but in Revelation God tells us that the believers are waiting in Heaven. This contradiction also applies to (1) above.
3) Purgatory is the place where the saved pay for their sins
Finally, this last idea is so far off the mark that it undermines the very work of our Lord Jesus Christ - the ONLY ONE Who can pay for our sins against our LORD God Almighty. Christ is the intercessor; Christ paid for the sins of the elect; Christ is our Salvation. With God all things are possible; with man, nothing is possible. This last point is at the least antithetical to our faith. The idea of a "purgatory" is a fantasy.
As you can (I hope) clearly see, this idea is so opposite to God's Holy Word that it begs to be dropped from our myth about being a Christian. We should be followers of Christ. 2 Timothy 2:3-4 "Endure hardship with us like a good soldier of Christ Jesus. No one serving as a soldier gets involved in civilian affairs — he wants to please his commanding officer." Indeed, we Christians should obey our Commanding Officer - the Lord Jesus Christ.
In the end, what can we say about "purgatory" - it is against God's Holy Word and therefore is actually anti-Christ!