Last Things: General Judgment

The general judgment is passed publicly by Christ on all people gathered together at the end of the world. It'll happen after the general resurrection of the dead. Each person, reunited with his body, will receive a public repetition of his particular judgment already pronounced privately on death. In John 5:28–29 Christ says, "[T]he hour comes wherein all that are in the graves shall hear the voice of the Son of God. And they who have done good shall come forth unto resurrection of life; but they who have done evil unto resurrection of judgment."

In Matthew 25:31–46 Our Lord describes this event:

[T]hen he shall sit on the seat of his majesty. And all nations shall be gathered together before him ... and he shall set the sheep on his right hand, but the goats on his left. Then the king shall say to them that shall be on his right hand: "Come, blessed of my Father, possess you the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world." ... Then he shall say to them also that shall be on his left hand: "Depart from me, you cursed, into everlasting fire which was prepared for the devil and his angels." ... And these shall go into everlasting punishment: but the just, into life everlasting.

In Apocalypse 20:11–15 St. John also describes the general judgment:

I saw a great white throne ... . And I saw the dead, the great and the small, standing in the presence of the throne, and the books were opened; ... and the dead were judged by those things which were written in the books, according to their works. And the sea gave up the dead that were in it, and death and hell gave up their dead that were in them; and they were judged every one according to their works. ... And whosoever was not found written in the book of life, was cast into the pool of fire.

Learn more about death, judgment, Heaven and Hell in Church Militant's Premium show Father Pablo Says—The Four Last Things.