Bible references: Joel 3:12, Amos 2:13-16, Amos 8:9-10, and 1cor. 15:52
BY
ABONYI HYGINUS EBUKA
0.1. INTRODUCTION
As Christians we all know and believe that the Four Last Things (Latin: quattuor novissima) we should always remember are that after death, comes judgment which decides whether you will be in heaven or in hell. However, even humanity outside the Church instinctively knows something about these four things.
Based on what we see in this world, how injustice prevails over justice, mans innate sense of justice tells him that there must be an ultimate reckoning, a day that no one can cheat the moral law and gets away with it or suffer undeserved injustices throughout life and not be justly compensated.
This instinctive conviction that there must be a higher, more-than-human justice is nearly universal. Thus the second of the Four Last Things, judgment, is also widely known. As Scripture says, Whoever would draw near to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him (Heb 11:6). The final judgment is an encounter with Christ.
The ultimate question then is, "What will happen on the day of the last judgment?" This and the last judgment becomes the subject matter of this article. It is of paramount importance to understand what the last judgment is before knowing what will happen on that day.
0.2. THE LAST JUDGEMENT
The Bible references the Day of Judgment as the time we will be judged by Christ for our behavior on earth. This is according to the scripture where it is said that God has set a day in which he will judge the inhabited earth. (Acts 17:31). Thus, the Day of Judgment, also known as the Final Judgment, is when Jesus, the Son of God, will judge "the living and the dead". Jesus Christ will act as the justice on the last judgment, as the Bible states "Moreover, the Father judges no one, but has entrusted all judgment to the Son," (John 5:22).
0.3. TWO TYPES OF JUDGMENT
We should note that there are two types of judgment namely: PARTICULAR AND UNIVERSAL JUDGEMENT.
1. Yes, we must believe as Catholics that there is what the Church refers to in the Catechism (CCC 1022) as the particular judgment immediately upon the death of each human person: Each man receives his eternal retribution in his immortal soul at the very moment of his death, in a particular judgment that refers his life to Christ: either entrance into the blessedness of heaventhrough a purification or immediatelyor immediate and everlasting damnation.
This truth is attested to in texts of Scripture like Hebrews 9:27: it is appointed for men to die once, and after that comes judgment. And it is implied in Luke 16:19-23, when Jesus gives us his famous parable of Lazarus and the rich man. The rich man lived lavishly in this life, while poor Lazarus languished in poverty, but upon their respective deaths they each went immediately to their eternal reward. Poor Lazarus entered into paradise while the rich man entered into eternal damnation (CCC 1021, footnote 593). The particular judgment of each is a necessary inference in order to make sense of the text.
N: B It should be noted that there will be exceptions to the death part of this equation. St. Paul tells us those who are alive and remain at the time of Christs coming will never taste death (1 Thess. 4:16-17; cf. 1 Cor. 15:51). Thus, presumably, this will be same from a particular judgment as well. They would seem to proceed immediately to the final judgment.
2. We must also acknowledge as Catholics that there will be what the Church refers to as the final judgment at the end of time, in which all will be judged corporately and publicly. According to Sacred Scripture this is clearly separate and distinct from the particular judgment, as CCC 1038 declares: The resurrection of 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 mans] voice and come forth, those who have done good, to the resurrection of life, 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 them one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats, and he will place the sheep at his right hand, but the goats at the left. . . . And they will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life (Matt. 25:31, 32, 46).
0.4. THE NEED FOR THE LAST JUDGMENT
It is fitting that there be a final judgment after the particular judgment for three essential reasons.
First, and most importantly, the final judgment will reveal in full the justice and glory of God for all to see. This is not accomplished in each mans private and particular judgment. Even on this side of the veil it is an enormous source of comfort for all to know that at that final judgment, as CCC 1040 says.
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 [Gods] Providence led everything towards its final end. The Last Judgment will reveal that Gods justice triumphs over all the injustices committed by his creatures and that Gods love is stronger than death. But when the unveiling of eternity actually occurs, the level of joy and consolation will be beyond what we can even imagine now. For no eye has seen, nor ear heard, nor the heart of man conceived, what God has prepared for those who love him (1 Cor. 2:9).
Furthermore, the full implications of the good and evil that we do in our lifetime will not be fully realized at the time of our particular judgment. These will have ripple effects on our children, our childrens children, etc., and on those around us, and those around them, down through the years between our particular judgment and the end of time. All this will be fully revealed at the final judgment. Finally, since we sin and perform virtuous acts as a body/soul composite, it is fitting that we be judged as a body/soul composite as well. This too does not occur at our particular judgment, but at the final judgment.
BUT WHAT ABOUT THE SEEMING ABSURDITY OF THE DAMNED BEING TAKEN OUT OF HELL, JUDGED, AND THROWN BACK INTO HELL?
This question may well betray a faulty notion of the nature of heaven and hell that needs correction. Both heaven and hell are not principally locations; rather, they are states of being. Hell is, as CCC 1033 says, [the] state of definitive self-exclusion from communion with God and the blessed. And when it comes to the punishments of hell (and we could add purgatory here as well), CCC 1472 says: These two punishments (speaking of purgatory and hell) must not be conceived of as a kind of vengeance inflicted by God from without, but as following from the very nature of sin.
Thus, again, hell is not so much a place that one can be thrown into in a literal sense as it is a state of being. So in that sense, one cannot be taken out of hell, because hell is wherever the damned are!
Moreover, because the damned do not have bodies before the end of time, they do not have location as you and I understand it. They are pure spirits. So we cant really speak of hell being a place right now, at least, not as we understand places. However, after the resurrection, because those in hell will have bodies we could certainly speak of them having a location or place of sorts.
But even there we have to be careful. It is not as though either the damned or the just can leave hell or heaven by walking out either. Heaven and hell do not have location in that sense. Again, hell and heaven are still essentially present wherever the damned and the just are located, even after the resurrection of the body.
0.5. WHAT HAPPENS ON THE JUDGEMENT DAY
On the judgment day, God will give to each person according to what he has done (Romans 2:5-6). However on the judgment day, the following will happen:
1. The nations, be aroused and come up to the valley of Jehoshaphat, for there I will sit to judge All the nations round about (Joel 3:12). The valley of Jehoshaphat is any place where God may choose to display his judgments against his enemies (Jehoshaphat ..." has the meaning of, "The Lord judges, or has judged"). The emphatic repetition of the word, awaken or arouse, seems intended to hint at the great awakening, to Judgment, when they who sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake from the sleep of death
.
2. On the judgment day, alll of us will lie powerless before the sovereign judge (God). It will be on the day where your money cannot buy your way out, when you cannot do bribe to pass. Rather you will receive what your conduct deserves (Cf. Amos 2:13-16).
3. Our expectation will be turned down. Those who think they are righteous may see themselves into hell fire whereas those whom they think are sinners will be in heaven. This is why in Amos 8:9-10, God pointed out that he will turn their feasts into mourning and all their songs song into lamentation...
Rf. The story of the parable of the Pharisee and the Publican (Luke 18:9-14) and Luke 13:24-30 (Very important in the explanation of Our expectation will be turned down").
4. The whole nation will be divided into two groups: The righteous and the sinners. The righteous will enter into eternal glory while the sinners will enter into eternal damnation (cf. Matt. 25:31-46).
SUMMARY
On the final judgment or on the last day, all the dead will be resurrected. Their souls will then be reunited with the same bodies they had before dying. The bodies will then be changed, those of the wicked to a state of everlasting shame and torment, those of the righteous to an everlasting state of celestial glory.
0.6. QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS ABOUT THE JUDGMENT DAY AND WHAT WILL HAPPEN ON THAT DAY
N: B... These questions and answers are copied from the Catholic News Agency (CNA).
Q. 1371. When will Christ judge us?
A. Christ will judge us immediately after our death, and on the last day.
Q. 1372. What is the judgment called which we have to undergo immediately after death?
A. The judgment we have to undergo immediately after death is called the Particular Judgment.
Q. 1373. Where will the particular judgment be held?
A. The particular judgment will be held in the place where each person dies, and the soul will go immediately to its reward or punishment.
Q. 1374. What is the judgment called which all men have to undergo on the last day?
A. The judgment which all men have to undergo on the last day is called the General Judgment.
Q. 1375. Will the sentence given at the particular judgment be changed at the general judgment?
A. The sentence given at the particular judgment will not be changed at the general judgment, but it will be repeated and made public to all.
Q. 1376. Why does Christ judge men immediately after death?
A. Christ judges men immediately after death to reward or punish them according to their deeds.
Q. 1377. How may we daily prepare for our judgment?
A. We may daily prepare for our judgment by a good examination of conscience, in which we will discover our sins and learn to fear the punishment they deserve.
Q. 1378. What are the rewards or punishments appointed for men's souls after the Particular Judgment?
A. The rewards or punishments appointed for men's souls after the Particular Judgment are Heaven, Purgatory, and Hell.
0.7. CONCLUSION
To get a better understanding of God's last judgment, one should look at these Bible references:
1. Therefore judge nothing before the appointed time; wait until the Lord comes. He will bring to light what is hidden in darkness and will expose the motives of the heart. At that time each will receive their praise from God. 1 Corinthians 4:5.
2. 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, whether good or bad." 2 Corinthians 5:10
3. But I tell you that everyone will have to give account on the Day of Judgment for every empty word they have spoken. For by your words you will be acquitted, and by your words you will be condemned. Matthew 12:36-37.
4. I solemnly charge you before God and Christ Jesus, who is to judge the living and the dead, and by his manifestation and his Kingdom 2 Timothy 4:1.
5. Then I saw a great white throne and Him who sat on it, from whose face the earth and the heaven fled away. And there was found no place for them. And I saw the dead, small and great, standing before God and books were opened. And another book was opened, which is the Book of Life. And the dead were judged according to their works, by the things which were written in the books. Revelation 20:11-15.
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