Purgatory and 1 John 2:28-3:10

I still haven't gotten around to writing much about purgatory as I said I was hoping to do last summer.  I'll get around to it eventually.  At any rate, I was reading 1 John the other day and it occurred to me that it perhaps makes better sense if there is a purgatory--in fact, I'm with C.S. Lewis: we'd better hope there is one (unless of course Calvinism is true and God will unilaterally zap us holy in an instant...but then one wonders why he hasn't done that already and a long, long time ago).    

1 John 2-3

28 And now, dear children, continue in him, so that when he appears we may be confident and unashamed before him at his coming.

29 If you know that he is righteous, you know that everyone who does what is right has been born of him.

3 See what great love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are! The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know him. 2 Dear friends, now we are children of God, and what we will be has not yet been made known. But we know that when Christ appears,[a] we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is. 3 All who have this hope in him purify themselves, just as he is pure.

4 Everyone who sins breaks the law; in fact, sin is lawlessness. 5 But you know that he appeared so that he might take away our sins. And in him is no sin.6 No one who lives in him keeps on sinning. No one who continues to sin has either seen him or known him.

7 Dear children, do not let anyone lead you astray. The one who does what is right is righteous, just as he is righteous. 8 The one who does what is sinful is of the devil, because the devil has been sinning from the beginning. The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the devil’s work. 9 No one who is born of God will continue to sin, because God’s seed remains in them; they cannot go on sinning, because they have been born of God. 10 This is how we know who the children of God are and who the children of the devil are: Anyone who does not do what is right is not God’s child, nor is anyone who does not love their brother and sister.

Why Protestants Shouldn't Dismiss Purgatory

I've been reading Houston Baptist professor, Jerry Walls' book, "Purgatory: The Logic of Total Transformation."  It's his third book in his trilogy on Hell, Heaven, and Purgatory.  It's interesting in particular because Walls is a Protestant who believes in Purgatory (he gave a very brief argument for it in his book on heaven).  Ever since thinking through C.S. Lewis's thoughts on the matter--himself a believer in Purgatory--I've found myself inclined to believe as well.  (Aside: I don't know if I do believe, however, since it's sometimes hard to tell whether one is merely inclined to believe or inclined such that one is believing.  But if forced to choose I'd bet on it.  Have there been any Inquisitions for being inclined to bet on something?)

So I hope to post some of Jerry's thoughts on the matter as I get the chance.  But I'll begin by trying to show why I think an all too common Protestant objection to Purgatory is terribly wrongheaded, and why Protestant's shouldn't dismiss the notion in the way they often do.  Unfortunately, I have heard Protestant-Evangelical theologians, apologists, and Biblical scholars who should know better (and perhaps do!) make this very objection. 

The objection is that Purgatory is not mentioned in Scripture.