~ by C.H. Spurgeon

Where, then, did the mass come from, and of what avail is it? The Lord’s Supper was intended to be the remembrancer to us of our Lord’s sufferings; instead of which it has been prostituted by the Church of Rome into the blasphemy of a pretended continual offering up of the body of the Lord Jesus Christ, a continual sacrifice. According to the Romish doctrine the offering upon Calvary is not enough-the atonement for sin is not finished- it has to be performed every day, and many times a day, in the Catholic churches, by certain appointed persons, so that that sacrifice is always being offered. Oh! brethren, the Mass is a mass of abominations, a mass of hell’s own concocting, a crying insult against the Lord of glory. It is not to be spoken of in any terms but those of horror and detestation. Whenever I think of another sacrifice for sin being offered, by whoever it may be presented, I can only regard it as an infamous insult to the perfection of the Savior’s work. Popery swarms with worshipers of the god whom the baker bakes in the oven, and whom they bite with their teeth.

What of the Catholic sacrament of penance? Is not penance in its essence an offering for sin? I do not care who it is that prescribes the penance, nor what it is, whether it is licking the pavement with your tongues, or wearing a hair-shirt, or laying on the whip- if it be supposed that by the mortification of the flesh, men can take away sin, the Scripture is like a two-edged sword to pierce the inmost heart of such teaching. Take off your hair-shirt, poor fool! Wash the stones with a dish-cloth and keep your tongue clean. There is no need for these fooleries! Christ has completed the atonement; you need not suffer thus. You need not, like Luther, go up and down the stone staircase on your knees, and think that your poor sore knees will find favor with God. Christ has suffered; God exacts no more. Do not try to supplement His gold with your dross. Do not try to add to His matchless robes, the rags of your poor penance.

Hebrews 9: 24-27 For Christ has entered, not into holy places made with hands, which are copies of the true things, but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God on our behalf. ²⁵ Nor was it to offer Himself repeatedly, as the high priest enters the holy places every year with blood not his own, ²⁶ for then He would have had to suffer repeatedly since the foundation of the world. But as it is, He has appeared once for all at the end of the ages to put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself. ²⁷ And just as it is appointed for man to die once, and after that comes judgment… *

“It is finished.” – John 19:30*

How these verses shut the gates of purgatory! It is held that there are some who die who are believers, but who are not quite purified from sin, and in an after state they must undergo a purgatorial quarantine to be purged by fire, so that they may become quite complete.

Beloved, when the thief died on the cross he had but just believed, and had never done a single good work, but where did he go to? Well, he ought to have gone to purgatory by rights, if ever anybody did, but instead of that the Savior said to him, “Today you shall be with Me in Paradise.” Why? Because the ground of the man’s admission into Paradise was perfect. The grounds of his admission there was Christ’s work, and that is how you and I will get into heaven, because Christ’s work is finished. The thief did not go down to purgatory, nor, blessed be His name, neither shall you nor I if we trust in the finished work of the Lord Jesus.

A Bible study of the false doctrine of purgatory

(* – my add)