Final Judgment
God will judge the living and the dead.
This doctrine defines Christian orthodoxy. Denial places one outside the historic faith.
Who binds this (creedal)
Every affiliated congregation inherits its denomination's position. Follow a chip to see the confession's language.
Key scriptures
- 1Pet 4:5 — Who shall give account to him that is ready to judge the quick and the dead.
- 2Cor 5:10 — For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ; that every one may receive the things done in his body, according to that he hath done, whether it be good or bad.
- 2Tim 4:1 — I charge thee therefore before God, and the Lord Jesus Christ, who shall judge the quick and the dead at his appearing and his kingdom;
- Acts 17:31 — Because he hath appointed a day, in the which he will judge the world in righteousness by that man whom he hath ordained; whereof he hath given assurance unto all men, in that he hath raised him from the dead.
- Dan 12:2 — And many of them that sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt.
- Eccl 12:14 — For God shall bring every work into judgment, with every secret thing, whether it be good, or whether it be evil.
- Heb 9:27 — And as it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment:
- John 5:28 — Marvel not at this: for the hour is coming, in the which all that are in the graves shall hear his voice,
- John 5:29 — And shall come forth; they that have done good, unto the resurrection of life; and they that have done evil, unto the resurrection of damnation.
- Matt 25:31 — When the Son of man shall come in his glory, and all the holy angels with him, then shall he sit upon the throne of his glory:
- Matt 25:46 — And these shall go away into everlasting punishment: but the righteous into life eternal.
- Rev 20:11 — And I saw a great white throne, and him that sat on it, from whose face the earth and the heaven fled away; and there was found no place for them.
- Rev 20:12 — And I saw the dead, small and great, stand before God; and the books were opened: and another book was opened, which is the book of life: and the dead were judged out of those things which were written in the books, according to their works.
- Rev 20:15 — And whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire.
- Rev 21:8 — But the fearful, and unbelieving, and the abominable, and murderers, and whoremongers, and sorcerers, and idolaters, and all liars, shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone: which is the second death.
- Rom 14:10 — But why dost thou judge thy brother? or why dost thou set at nought thy brother? for we shall all stand before the judgment seat of Christ.
What the confessions say
Articles of the historic confessions that address this doctrine.
- Reformed Westminster Confession of Faith 33.2 — Of the Last Judgment
- Reformed Belgic Confession Art37 — The Last Judgement
- Reformed Westminster Confession of Faith 33.1 — Of the Last Judgment
- Reformed Baptist 1689 London Baptist Confession 32.2 — Of the Last Judgment
- Lutheran Augsburg Confession Article 17 — Of Christ's Return to Judgment
- Roman Catholic Council of Trent (Canons) On Justification · Canon 26 — On Justification
The Church Fathers
The earliest Fathers who commented on the Scriptures above.
...I desire to guard you beforehand, that ye fall not upon the hooks of vain doctrine, but that you may rather attain to a full assurance in Christ, who was begotten by the Father before all ages, but was afterwards born of the Virgin Mary without any intercourse with man. He also lived a holy life, and healed every kind of sickness…
"Wherefore, girding up your loins," "serve the Lord in fear" and truth, as those who have forsaken the vain, empty talk and error of the multitude, and "believed in Him who raised up our Lord Jesus Christ from the dead, and gave Him glory," and a throne at His right hand. To Him all things in heaven and on earth are subject. Him every…
Let our opponents-that is, they who speak against their own salvation-inform us [as to this point]: The deceased daughter of the high priest; the widow's dead son, who was being carried out [to burial] near the gate [of the city]; and Lazarus, who had lain four days in the tomb, -in what bodies did they rise again? In those same, no…
Those who drag in a doctrine of moral indifference do violence to some few passages of Scripture, thinking that they support their own love of pleasure; in particular, the passage "Sin shall have no authority over you; for you are not subject to sin but to grace." But there are other such passages, which there is no good reason to…
None will, after such words, be able to interpret the dead "that are in the graves" as any other than the bodies of the flesh, because the graves themselves are nothing but the resting place of corpses. It is incontestable that even those who partake of "the old man," that is to say, sinful people—in other words, those who are dead…
And so of the things which will be in this way he adds saying, "And many of they who sleep in the dust of the earth shall arise, some to eternal life and some to reproach and eternal shame and they who understand shall shine as the splendor of the firmament and the many righteous as the stars in the age to come." [Daniel 12:2-3] And…