Home › Forums › All Things Catholic › judged on judgement day or right after death?
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April 24, 2009 at 5:01 am #1906AnonymousInactive
why does it say Jesus will come to judge the living and the dead… if the dead are already gone then why judge them again?
April 24, 2009 at 5:23 am #9329AnonymousInactiveThere are two judgements, at death we have a particular judgement, and at the end of the world there is a General Judgement.
The Catholic doctrine of the particular judgment is this: that immediately after death the eternal destiny of each separated soul is decided by the just judgment of God. Acts 1:25; Apocalypse 20:4-6, 12-14. In confirmation of this opinion the text of St. Paul is cited: “Who shew the work of the law written in their hearts, their conscience bearing witness to them, and their thoughts between themselves accusing, or also defending one another, in the day when God shall judge the secrets of men by Jesus Christ (Romans 2:15-16). The “Book of Judgment”, in which all the deeds of men are written (Apocalypse 20:12), and the appearance of angels and demons to bear witness before the judgment seat are regarded as allegorical descriptions (St. Augustine, City of God XX.14). The common opinion is that the particular judgment will occur at the place of death. The judgment will embrace all works, good or bad, forgiven as well as unforgiven sins, every idle word (Matthew 12:36), every secret thought (1 Corinthians 4:5). With the exception of Peter Lombard, theologians teach that even the secret sins of the just will be made manifest, in order that judgment may be made complete and that the justice and mercy of God may be glorified. This will not pain or embarrass the saints, but add to their glory, just as the repentance of St. Peter and St. Mary Magdalen is to these saints a source of joy and honour.
Those who denied what the early Church taught about the particular judgement included,
the Hypnopsychites and the Thnetopsychites believed that at death the soul passed away, according to the former into a state of unconsciousness, according to the latter into temporary destruction. They believed that souls would arise at the resurrection of the body for judgment. This theory of “soul slumber” was defended by the Nestorians and Copts, and later by the Anabaptists, Socinians, and Arminians. -
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