Then it happened, as they continued on and talked, that suddenly a chariot of fire appeared with horses of fire, and separated the two of them; and Elijah went up by a whirlwind into heaven.

II Kings 2:11 NKJV

Yesterday we considered glorification (the reunion of body and soul for all eternity with Christ) and the place of Heaven in the Old Testament. Today we will consider the third and final lesson.

Elijah’s entrance into glory reminds us that our entrance into glory will be swift and that there is no intermediate state of purgatory for the soul in the New Testament era. Jesus told the thief on the cross, “Assuredly, I say to you, today you will be with Me in paradise” (Luke 23:43). 

The Roman Catholic doctrine of the intermediate state of purgatory between death and Heaven is a foreign concept to Scripture and must be rejected by believers and contended against for the salvation of those currently bound by the chains of Rome. I can think of no older and crueler, more horrible and soul crushing financial scheme than that of the Roman teaching on purgatory. Bernie Madoff could have only dreamed of such a program. 

Purgatory is an old scheme in that it has been taught and monetized for well more than 500 years. 

It is cruel in that it removes all sense, thought, or hope of assurance of salvation from God in this life. It binds the heart, soul, strength, and mind of men and women to the dungeon, toil, anguish, and chains of endless work and monetary payments to merit the mercy of God. This mercy can never be merited by man’s works or money, making the pursuit of such impossibly cruel. It is cruel in that the doctrine is used to keep the souls of papists in constant fear of destruction, both in life and in death, and in need, not of Christ and His free grace and righteousness, but of the Roman Catholic Church and its doctrinal house of horror. 

It is horrible for it creates a structure for followers where the only hope in the next life is hundreds, thousands, or more likely, millions of years in a hell-like state before the possibility of entrance into Heaven.*

It is a financial scheme in that people are told they can buy their way out of some but not all of purgatory and therefore gain Heaven for themselves or their relatives more quickly. The church assumes power over souls it does not have; sells promises from a treasury of merit** that it does not control; promises escape from a horrible place of purgatory that does not exist; all while hiding the free gift of God in Christ that is freely offered to all and received by faith alone. 

Elijah’s entrance into Heaven is of God’s grace alone, through faith alone, not of Elijah’s work, lest He should boast. There is no purgatory, an intermediate state; there is only Heaven for believers and hell for unbelievers. You cannot buy your way out of the one or into the other. 

Many Christians today came out of the Roman Catholic Church. There are still more than one billion souls inside Rome. May the Lord use His Word to bring Roman Catholics to Jesus today without money but by faith in Christ and with repentance of sin. In Christ they will find that He alone is all sufficient to save and He alone gives eternal life. Nothing can be added to His work and nothing remains after His work that still needs to be accomplished. He did not almost accomplish salvation but accomplished salvation to the uttermost. Neither Mary, the saints, your relatives, nor you can help yourself into glory, but it is all of Christ who saves by His grace alone through faith alone. If you will take hold of Him by faith today you will receive everlasting life today! 

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*See “Martin Luther” by Eric Metaxas, page 77. A tour of the relics just of Frederick’s collection in Wittenberg could shave exactly 1,902,202 years and 270 days off of your time in purgatory. Of course no one knows the secret number of years souls supposedly stay in purgatory, so millions of years off is nothing if your allotted time is in the billions. Metaxas also outlines the business scheme of indulgences in the Middle Ages, showing it was as fine-tuned as any scheme in our present era. Lest we think that indulgences are a thing of the past, walk into a Roman Catholic Church and see about lighting a candle, having the priest dedicate a mass, or receiving the prayers of a certain monastic order. All of these things and more are available to you and your dead relatives… for a fee. 

**The Treasury of Merit is the supposed bank that the Pope controls and dispenses with as he pleases. According to the Roman Catholic Catechism it includes the infinite merit of Christ as well as “the prayers and good works of the Blessed Virgin Mary.  They are truly immense, unfathomable, and even pristine in their value before God.  In the treasury, too, are the prayers and good works of all the saints, all those who have followed in the footsteps of Christ the Lord… In this way they attained their own salvation and at the same time cooperated in saving their brothers in the unity of the Mystical Body” (Roman Catholic Catechism #1477). If Christ’s merit is infinite what merit can Mary and the saints supposedly add?

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