Last jugdments
Last Judgment
Introduction:
We all believe that there is
another life after death, and this belief is the part of our Catholic doctrine.
The Church teaches that just after death the soul of individual person will be
judged by Christ and will get the individual judgment depending on the earthly
life. It also teaches finally at the end there will come another day when Jesus will sit in a
universal judgment of all mankind. This final judgment, according to Church teaching,
will bring an end to human history and mark the beginning of a new and better
heaven and earth ruled by God in righteousness.
Definition:
‘The `Day of the Lord’ refers to
a Day of Judgment (Hos 5:9) full of fury and the burning anger of God (Is
13:6-9), a day of terror for the whole world (Zeph 1:14 -18; 3:8). Together with its frequent use
in the prophets (cf Mal 3:2; Zech 14:1), this expression for a divine judgment
of condemnation occurs also in the rest of the Old Testament (Lam 2:1, 22; Pro
11:4; etc)’[1]
“The day of the Lord is also
called the Day of Yahweh, Day of the Lord is an oft-repeated term in the Bible
and is referred to as ‘that day’ (dies
illa) (Is 2:11 ; Mt 7:22 ; Lk 10:12 ), and
the ‘day of the Lord’ (Acts 2:20 ).
It is that day when the judgment of God will come upon all men and the ungodly
will meet with their destruction in justice. It is the day of the parousia, the
second coming of Christ (1 Thes 4:13 -17;
1Cor 1:8), the culmination of all living when the Lord will claim those of His
own (Rev 20:11 -15), and
when the sin of men will end (1 Thes 4:14 -18).”[2]
And that is why the ‘Day of the Lord’, the ‘Day of Judgment’, the ‘Day of the
Yehweh’ are called the Day of the ‘Last Judgment’.
Old Testament View:
Crucial to understanding the biblical passages of the last judgment is the
concept of the throne of God. The imagery of God seated on a throne arises
naturally from God’s primary Old Testament role as King of the universe. It is
surely noteworthy that King David’s psalms are the earliest source of throne
imagery. There the language occurs in the context of judgment (Ps. 9:4-7;
11:4-7). Later psalms picture God seated on His throne to communicate His
rulership over everyone and everything (Ps. 45:6-7; 47:7-9; 93:1-2; 97:1-2;
103:19).
A more certain
reference to end-time judgment comes in a psalm David composed late in His
reign, when He brought the ark to Jerusalem: “Then the trees of the forest will
sing for joy before the LORD; / for He is coming to judge the earth” (1 Chr.
16:33; parallels in Ps. 96:12-13; 98:8-9). The context relates this judgment to
a deliverance of Israel from the hostile nations.
“According to texts coming from
the earliest Old Testament period, the Israelites expected the humiliation of
all their national enemies in the divine judgment (Ex 14:14 ; 23:22 ;
Num 10:35 ), since Yahweh
was conceived of as the friend of his chosen ones and the enemy of all others
(Judg 5 etc).”[3]
Generally this term refers to that time in the future when God or some divinely
authorized agent would intervene in history, condemning the unrighteous and
vindicating the faithful and obedient.
‘Often, expressions like “that
day” refer to the future time when God or Yahweh would act in judgment against
foreign nations, Israel Judah Israel 23:10 ; 36:19. Hosea
5:11-12 seems to say that Ephraim was then being judged; but the context (vv
9,14) points to future punishment. In most cases references to Yahweh’s judging
or judgment look to future. A few texts state that- from the speaker’s or
writer’s standpoint-judgment would lake place soon, e.g., Ezek 7:3,8.’[4]
Frequently, the writing prophets describe a future time when the Lord will
come down to deliver Israel from being besieged by an alliance of nations, and
to establish His kingdom on earth. A courtroom-style judgment appears only in
Daniel. Daniel’s first such vision involves the judgment of the “little horn”:
I kept looking until thrones were set up,
And the Ancient of Days took His seat;
His vesture was like white snow
And the hair of His head like pure wool.
His throne was ablaze with flames,
Its wheels were a burning fire.
A river of fire was flowing
And coming out from before Him;
Thousands upon thousands were attending Him,
And myriads upon myriads were standing before Him;
The court sat, and the books were opened. (Dan. 7:9-12). Verses 13-14
describe the Son of Man coming with the clouds and being given rule over the
whole earth.
Daniel also prophesies regarding the judgment of the righteous and the
wicked. Following a time of unprecedented distress on earth, “your people,
everyone who is found written in the book, will be rescued” (Dan. 12:1). Then
the resurrection will occur. Some will awake “to everlasting life,” and the
rest “to disgrace and everlasting contempt” (v. 2). Daniel closes with
his instructions from the angel, “But as for you, go your way to the
end; then you will enter into rest and rise again for your allotted
portion at the end of the age” (v. 13).
New Testament View:
In the New Testament the day or
time of judgment is generally associated with the future coming or Paroisia of
the Son of Man, the resurrection of the dead, and entrance into the Kingdom of God 10:15 ; 11:22 , 24. 12:36 ; Mark 6:11; 2 Peter 2:9; 3:7; 1 Jn 4:17 cf. 2 Tim 4:8; Heb 10:25-27;
Jude 6).’[5]
‘In John 5:25-29, Jesus seems to build on Daniel’s discussion of the
resurrection. He says, “Truly, truly, I say to you, an hour is coming and now
is, when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God, and those who hear
will live. For just as the Father has life in Himself, even so He gave to the
Son also to have life in Himself; and He gave Him authority to execute
judgment, because He is the Son of Man. Do not marvel at this; for an
hour is coming, in which all who are in the tombs will hear His voice, and will
come forth; those who did the good deeds to a resurrection of life,
those who committed the evil deeds to a resurrection of judgment.”
Jesus makes these statements in a discourse concerning His identity and His
relationship to the Father. In fact, this is one of the few times Jesus refers
to Himself as the Son of God. Here for the first time in Scripture, the
afterlife as pleasant or unpleasant is explicitly said to depend on the deeds
one has done in this life. Also, Jesus indicates that there will be two
resurrections, and that the final judgment will take place after these
resurrections. Finally, the judgment will be meted out by Christ Himself. Jesus
indicates further in John 12:47 that His revelation of the Father’s truth will
be the standard by which all will be judged on the last day.
Jesus’ other references to the last judgment appear in Matthew. The first
and most famous is in Matthew 7:21-23. “Many will say to Me on that day” refers
to the day of judgment, when entrance into “the kingdom of heaven” is
determined, and Jesus Himself orders some to “depart” from Him (quoting from
Ps. 6:8). Those whom He orders away are the ones who failed to do the will of
the Father. Jesus also refers to the day of judgment with reference to the
cities that reject His ministry (Matt. 10:14-15; 11:21-24). His statements here
match Luke 12 by indicating that some will be punished more harshly on the
basis of their many opportunities to repent.
The longest eschatological judgment passage in the Bible is Matthew
25:31-46. Following the Olivet Discourse, Jesus speaks of coming with His
angels to sit on “His glorious throne,” using the same language found in 16:27
and 19:28. All the nations are gathered together, and they are separated “as
the shepherd separates the sheep from the goats.” Jesus commends the “sheep”
who have served Christ by helping His brothers and welcomes them into “eternal
life.” He then condemns the “goats” who have neglected His brothers and sends
them to “eternal punishment.”
Paul also speaks of judgment with regard to believers. After clarifying in
Romans 8:1-2 that believers face no further condemnation (echoing 1 Thes.
5:9-10), he says that “we will all stand before the judgment seat of God” (Rom.
14:10-12). There all of them will give account to God. In support, Paul quotes
Isa. 45:23, which says “every knee will bow” and “every tongue shall give praise
to God.” The believers’ judgment comes up again in 1 Corinthians 3:10-15. He
likens the deeds of believers to materials which are either flammable, or are
purified when refined by fire. The deeds are then tested by fire, and those
which have Christ as their foundation remain. Those with deeds left over
receive a reward, and those with none are saved without additional reward.
As in Romans 14, Paul warns the Corinthians not to make hasty judgments
about motives, for everything will be revealed when the Lord comes and
discloses secrets. Then “each man’s praise will come to him from God” (1 Cor.
4:4-5). Paul later repeats his statement about believers being judged according
to their deeds, this time referring to “the judgment seat of Christ” (2 Cor.
5:9-10).’[6]
‘Biblical belief, therefore, is that the judgment of God is final, that it
is outside and beyond history, and that it is the act by which evil is overcome once for all. On the other hand,
the judgment also occers even now in our acceptance or rejection of Christ and
the Gospel (Mt 25:31-46). In faith and hope the future judgment and salvation
are already a reality (Jn 5:24; 12:31; 16:8).’[7]
So we can say that in the New Testament Bible, “in Synoptics, judgment is
often condemnation of sinners (Mt 5:22; 23:33; Lk 12:58). In paul such judgment
is not only in the future (Rom 2:1-3, 16; 3:5-6) but also in the past (Rom
5:16, 18) and in the present (1 Cor 11:29, 32). In any event the judgment of
God is unreachable (Rom 11:33). In John the judgment is always in the present
(3:18; 5:24; 12:31; 16:11). Heb looks to the resurrection of the dead and
eternal judgment (6:2). It will not go well with those who were
unfaithful teachers (3:1). On the other hand, we should be careful not to judge
others (4:12). God will judge the living and the dead (1Peter 4:5) and that
precess will begin with the Church (4:17). In 2 Peter and Judethe judgemnt has
an apocalyptic tone, comparable to judgment of Sadom and Gomorrah (2Peter
2:6,9; 3:7). This is even more explicit in Revalation, where judgment is the
downfall of a world power (17:1-19:2). All will be judged in the end (11:18;
10:12-13).”[8]
The Church’s View:
The exaltation of Christ and His future kingdom were a part of apostolic
preaching (Acts 2:29-35; 3:21). Peter refers to Jesus as “appointed by God as
Judge of the living and the dead” (Acts 10:42). Paul preaches that God “has
fixed a day in which He will judge the world in righteousness” through Christ
(Acts 17:31). It is in the early days of the church that James speaks of the
“crown of life, which the Lord has promised to those who love Him” (Jam. 1:12).
Here, James specifies that the “crown” believers receive is “life,” meaning
eternal life. These early church teachings are essentially a continuation of
Jesus’ own statements about the judgment.
The last judgment is universal, literally “catholic”, in character. it is
pronounced on the whole mass of mankind, on all men, “the living and the dead”.
it will be delivered on all nations, in some way assembled and formed one family.
And this is how “the Church will enter the glory of the Kingdom only through
this final Passover, when she will follow her Lord in his death and
Resurrection. The Kingdom will be fulfilled, then, not by a historic triump of
the Church through a progressive ascendancy, but only by God’s victory over the
final unleashing of Evil, which will cause his Bride to come dowm from Heaven.
God’ triumph over the revolt of Evil will take the form of the Last Judgment
after the final cosmic upheaval of this passing world.” [9]
On the last day Jesus will say “Truly I say to you, as you did it it to one
of the least of these my brothern, you did it to me”(Mt 25:40). Christ is the
Lord of eternal life. He “acquired” this right by his cross. The Father has
given “all judgment to the Son”. Yet the Son didi not come to judge but to save
and to give the life he has in himself.(Jn 3:17; 5:26). On the judgment day at
the end of the world, Christ will c[ome in glory to achieve the definitive
triumph of good over evil which, like the wheat and the tares, grown up
together in the course of history.[10]
Theological View of the Modern
theologians:
Numerous biblical texts,
particularly in the New Testament, refer to the coming day or time of judgment.
Nevertheless, little scholarly attention has been devoted to this topic, in
contrast, for an example, to closely related topic like the coming of the Son
of Man and the Kingdom
of God Brandon Dalton
There are many who believe that
judgment day is the eschatological orientation within apocalyptic Judaism.
Among them Weiss (1985), Schweitzer (1985), Burrows (1945), Hiers (1973), and
Milikowsky (1988). They acknowledge that Jesus’ teaching, and the New Testament
churches are prepared to recognize the nature and the importance of their
belief and expectations concerning the coming time or Day of Judgment. A few
scholars who take the position that Jesus did to some extent proclaim or embody
the presence of the Kingdom of god also undertake to examine his message of
coming eschatological judgment. Among them are Jeremias (1963), Manson (1951),
Kümmel (1957), and Hooker (1967).
Proponents of “realized
eschatology” do not ordinarily find any NT passages suggesting that Jesus
looked for a future Day of Judgment. Glasson (1982) urges that faithful
followers of Jesus would not have to face the last judgment and cautions
against a literal reading of the NT judgment passages. Instead, he concludes, “The Judgment should
be regarded as a pictorial representation of a transcendent reality”. Perrin
(1974) went so far as to suggest that all gospel says that anticipate a future
judgment are inauthentic, i.e., originated in the concerns of the Palestinian
church. Though Bultmann sometimes
acknowledged that Jesus expected a future time of Judgment, both he and the
so-called post-Bultmannians urged that the real meaning of Jesus’
eschatological preaching was that human beings continually face an existential
“crisis of decision.” Proponents of the recent “theology of hope,” such as
Moltmann and Pannenberg, tended to ignore the biblical expectation of
prospective adverse judgment or condemnation.[11]
Official Teaching of the
Church:
The fact of the final judgment is
attested to throughout the history of
the Church: In the Apostles’ Creed
(“... he shall came again to judge the living and the dead”); the Nicene Creed (325) (“He ascended to the
heaven and shall come again to judge the living and the dead”); the Nicene-Constantinopolitan Creed( 381)
from the Council of Constantinople (“He shall come again in glory to judge the
living and the dead...”); the so-called Athanasian
Creed (end of the fifth century) (“...He shall come to judge the living and
the dead”); the fourth Lateran Council(1215),
which added the words: “and to render to each one according to his works, to the reprobate as well as to the elect”;
the Second Council of Lyons (1242),
which said essentially the same thing as Lateran IV; the Constitution Benedictus Deus(1336) of Pope Benedict
XII (d.1342); and the Council of Florence
(1439).[12]
Vatican II makes this meaningful
to modern man: “Mindful of the Lord’s saying: ‘By this will all men know that
you are disciples, if you have love for one another’ (John 13:35 ), Christians can not yearn for anything
more ardently than to serve the men of the modern world even more generously
and effectively. Therefore, holding faithfully to the Gospel and benefiting
from its resources, and united with every men who loves and practices, justice,
Christians have shouldered a gigantic task demanding fulfillment in this world.
Concerning this task they must give a reckoning to Him who will judge man on
the Last Day” (GS 93).[13]
Catechesis of the Catholic
Church:
The resurrection of the all the
dead “of both the just and the unjust,”(Acts 24:15) will precede the Last
Judgment. This will be “the hour when all who are in the tombs will hear [the
Son of man’s] voice and come forth, those who have done good, to the
resurrection of, and those who have done evil, to the resurrection of
judgment.”(John 5:28-29). Then Christ will come “in his glory, and all the
angels with him... Before him will be gathered all the nations, and he will
separate then one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the
goats, and he will place the sheep at hid right hand, but the goats at the
left... And they will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into
eternal life” (Mt 25:31, 32, 46).
“In the presence of Christ who is
Truth itself, the truth of each man’s relationship with god will be laid bare”
(Jn 12:14 ). The Last
judgment will come when Christ returns in glory. Only the Father knows the day
and the hour; only he determines the moment of its coming. Then through his Son
Jesus Christ he will pronounce the final word on all history. We shall know the
ultimate meaning of the whole work of creation and of the entire economy of
salvation, and understand the marvelous ways by which his Providence
The message of the Last Judgment
calls men to conversion while God is still giving them “the acceptable
time”...the day of salvation (2 Cor 6:2). It inspires a holy fear of God and
commits them to the justice of the Kingdom
of God 2:13 ; 2Th 1:10 )[14]
Church Father’s View:
In his sermon mentioned regarding
the Last Judgment where he says that the Last Judgment will reveal even to its
furthest consequences the good each person has done or failed to do during his
earthly life:
All
that the wicked do is recorded, and they do not know, when “our God comes, he
does not keep silence.”.. he will turn towards those at his left hand:... “I
placed my poor little ones on earth for you. I as their head was seated in
heaven at hte right hand of my Father- but on earth my members were suffering,
my members on earth were in need. If you gave anything to my members, what you
gave would reach their head. Would that you had known that my little ones were
in need when I placed them on earth for you and appointed them your stewards to
bring your good works into my treasury. But you have placed nothing in their
hands; therefore you have found nothing in my presence.”(St. Augustine
St. Polycarp of Smyrna
In
his second letter to the Philippians wrote about the judgment, that “everyone
who does not confess that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is an antichrist,
whoever does not confess the testimony of the cross, is of the devil; and whoever
perverts the sayings of the Lord for his own desires, and says that there is
neither resurrection nor judgment, such a one is the first-born of Satan. Let
us, therefore, leave the foolishness and the false-teaching of the crowd, and
turn back to the word which was delivered to us in the beginning”[15]
Conclusion:
Only at the end of the world will
those who sleep in Christ share in his triumph and, in their turn, be
victorious over death. All men, of course, will rise again. But, as we have
said, only that resurrection deserves the name which gives the body its share
in the glory and joy of the Lord, not in the pains of hell already endured by
the soul. The final redemption is our bodily resurrection (Rom 8:10 ). The bodily resurrection and
the last judgment are one and the same thing. And this judgment itself prolongs
and consecrates that which is pronounced in the heart of every human creature.
Whence we see that in asense the day of our death is already the end of the
world for each one of us.[16]
Bibliography
- BAUER, Johannes B. (ed): Encyclopedia of the Biblical Theology. Sheed and Ward,
- BECQUE, Maurice C.SS.R. and Louis Becque: Life After Death, ed. by Henri
- BRODERICH, Robert C. ed.: The Catholic Encyclopedia. New York, Thomas Nelson INC., Publishers, 1976.
- Catechism of
the Catholic Church, Theological Publications in
- JURGENS, William A, trans.: The Faith of the Early Fathers. Vol-3, TPI,
- MCBRIEN Richard P.: Catholicism.
- The Anchor Bible Dictionary, 1st ed., v.2, s.v. ‘Day of Judgment’ by Richard H. Hiers.
[1] Johannes Bauer, B. (ed): Encyclopedia of the Biblical Theology. Sheed and Ward, London
[2] Robert
Broderich, C. ed.: The Catholic
Encyclopedia. New York, Thomas Nelson INC., Publishers, 1976,p.153.
[3] Johannes
Bauer, B. (ed): Encyclopedia of the
Biblical Theology. Sheed and Ward, London
[4] The Anchor Bible Dictionary, 1st ed., v.2,
s.v. ‘Day of Judgment’ by Richard H. Hiers, pp. 79-80
[5] The
Anchor Bible Dictionary, 1st ed., v.2, s.v. ‘Day of Judgment’ by
Richard H. Hiers, p. 79
[6] www.bibleprophecytoday.wordpress.com/ last judgment
as revealed in the scriptures/24/07/2008.
[7] Catechism of
the Catholic Church, Theological Publications in India Bangalore
[8] ibid,
p.1139.
[10] ibid,
pp.137-138.
[11] The
Anchor Bible Dictionary, 1st ed., v.2, s.v. ‘Day of Judgment’ by
Richard H. Hiers, p.81.
[12] Richard Mcbrien P.: Catholicism. Minneapolis
[13] Robert Broderich, C. ed.: The Catholic Encyclopedia. New York, Thomas Nelson INC.,
Publishers, 1976, p.318.
[15] William Jurgens A, trans.: The Faith of the Early Fathers. Vol-3, TPI, Bangalore
[16] Maurice Becque C.SS.R. and Louis Becque: Life After Death, ed. by Henri
Daniel-Rops, New York
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