Luke 16:19-31—Is the rich man in Hell or Purgatory?

Apparently you are making reference to the parable of Lazarus and the rich man in Luke chapter 16.

The first thing we must remember is that it is a parable, and not an actual incident. Jesus often taught the people in Parables, (or made up stories, to illustrate Heavenly truths); so that they could relate to the world as they knew it.

Far too often we tend to judge the events of the Bible in our modern knowledge, but we need remember, things which are common knowledge to us, were far fetched ideas to people in those days.

Just imagine if Jesus were to say to those people "I'm going to fly to Rome this weekend" none of them would envision an airplane, but it is the first thought we would have today. Their World did not extend beyond their immediate area. Rome consisted of their immediate oppressors. No one of the general public thought of Rome as an actual place it was only the place where their taxes went.

Likewise; Heaven and Hell are abstracts, and Jesus often referred to Heaven as 'the kingdom of Heaven'.

Matthew 3:2 KJV  And saying, Repent ye: for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.

Matthew 5:10 KJV  Blessed are they which are persecuted for righteousness'. sake: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. 

That would have conjured up images, similar to the Kingdom of David, or of Solomon. While the Kingdom Jesus was referring to is a Spiritual Kingdom.

In this particular parable Jesus could have said that Lazarus went to the Kingdom of Heaven, but it would have conjured up vision of some material Kingdom and not an abstract, in the minds of those people. They were well aware that Abraham was no longer alive to be in some material Kingdom, but he was now in the place people went after death of the physical body, but was now still alive in some place known as the Kingdom of Heaven.

AS far as where the rich man was now Jesus was literally telling the that he was in Hell.

Luke 16:23 KJV  And in hell he lift up his eyes, being in torments, and seeth Abraham afar off, and Lazarus in his bosom. 

Notice that Jesus pointedly stated that the rich man was in Hell and torment. Since Hell was also an abstract, He also had to associate not being in the Kingdom of Heaven with torment and as undesirable.

Often when studying the Bible, I try to place myself in Jesus' place, and think of how hard it would be for me to explain things to the people of that day. I don't even explain things very well to people today let alone a bunch of people to whom most of what I say is like some foreign language to them.

Hope this helps.

It's highly unlikely that the rich man is in Purgatory, as opposed to Hell, for at least a few reasons, as I see it:

1) This seems to be a parable about real persons, but related in parabolic form (characters in parables do not usually have names). So that seemingly mutually contradictory aspects therein are simply Jesus including all He needs to teach about the in the one simple story (i.e. Hebrews 9:27).

2) Jesus famously taught that it is extremely hard for anyone who clings to their riches or possessions to enter heaven (Lk 18:24-25). So that using a rich man as an example of someone who 'got off with it'¹ would seem undesirable here.

3) "If they do not listen to Moses and the Prophets, they will not [believe]² even if someone rises from the dead" describes an unforgiven sin—one of not believing unto salvation. This does not constitute a mere venial sin, but a damnable, that is, mortal one (cf. Matthew 18:17b).

4) The use of "father" and "son" doesn't necessarily mean amicability, especially because it's a parable, but also as neither does "friend" in Jesus' usage elsewhere.³

5) "between us and you there is a great chasm fixed" and "saw Abraham far away" would seem to put this place of torment out reach of any hope—"in order that he may warn them, so that they will not also come to this place of torment" seems to be the didactic focus of the parable, and so here Jesus eases out of the parable a little here towards the end and into the conclusion or point He wants to get across (as I find He does with others). In this case, the point He is getting across is the inability to change yours or others' situation once you die.

^Footnotes

^{1 Purgatory isn't 'getting off with it' but as far as this rich man being in Purgatory instead of Hell, it would give the same, counterproductive impression here.}

^{2 πείθω—to be persuaded or conviniced; by implication: believe (root of the word for 'faith' πίστις)}

^{3 e.g. in Matthew 20:13; 22:12; 26:50 Jesus terms reprobates 'friend.'}

The Catholic Haydock Commentary says this about St. Luke 16:26:

Ver. 26. Between us and you is fixed a great chaos, or gulf; i.e. God's justice has decreed, that the bad should forever be separated from the good [i.e., hell is eternal]. We may here take notice that the Latin and Greek word, (ver. 22) translated hell, even in the Protestant translation, cannot signify only the grave. (Witham)

Those in purgatory eventually go to heaven, so the rich man cannot be in purgatory, else he would not "forever be separated from the good."