Hello!
I left the Church at 14 and came back about 30 years later. I experienced the broad spectrum of Protestantism: I attended a Pentecostal college, served as a United Methodist youth pastor, pursued Reformation theology and became an Anglican priest.

One thing I came to recognize is that Protestantism is not a united front. The theological differences from Baptists to Lutheranism are huge. Some Baptists will say a prayer and believe that will do it no matter how you live afterward while Methodists will preach perfectionism.

While allot of Scriptural quotes are thrown at Purgatory it is my opinion that there is an ignorance of the Bible as a whole. While there is a proclamation of Sola Scriptura I think most of the time the Bible is read selectively if at times at all. In dealing with most Baptists (and Evangelicals) you will notice that they NEVER quote the words of Jesus in this discussion.

I am convinced that most Baptists and Evangelicals have never even thought of dealing with the personal sin of a Christian and the judgment seat of Christ after death.

I am confident that those against purgatory have not dealt with this Scripture ( and probably doesn’t even know it is in the Bible):

2 Corinthians 5:9-11:

9 Therefore we make it our aim whether present or absent, to be wellpleasing to Him.

10 For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, that each one may receive the things done in the body, ACCORDING TO WHAT HE HAS DONE, GOOD OR BAD.

11 Knowing, therefore, the terror of the Lord, we persuade men…
Paul realized that we are saved by grace but we will be held accountable with what we do with that grace.

After death there will be the judgment seat of Christ, and purgatory is part of that judgment. We have been bought with a price and Christ will not let us go, but He will not let unrepentant sin go. Just as we are saved by His finished work, He still chastises us Heb. 12:5-7.

“that each one may receive the things done in the body, ACCORDING TO WHAT HE HAS DONE, GOOD OR BAD.”

We can deal with not forgiving now or before His judgment seat, the same with pride, idolatry, and lust. Just like you don’t get a free ticket from chastisement now, you won’t then.

“I feel sorry for you and all the rest of you guys that decide to remain Catholic”

RON K by your comments and the spirit evident in them the only thing that I realize is that I am glad I’m not like you.

You need to stop getting your information from anti Catholic literature (Loraine Beottner, John Ankerberg, etc.) and read Catholic resources to get the right “thing”, and quite frankly you need to stop being a hater.
I have been where you are now. I found that I needed to open my heart to the love of Christ and to love Him. When we love Christ we must love our brother. It is much better to be one that loves than hates.