When Is The Judgement?

[Holly3278]

I know that according to the Nicene Creed, the judgement will be when Jesus comes again because it says He will come again to judge the living and the dead but I need some help. There is this Mormon guy I am talking to and he says that the judgement only happens after the 2nd coming of Christ but the waiting time, people go to a spirit prison and they get the Gospel preached to them. He says that is why they do baptism for the dead. Well, if I understand theology right, there is a first judgement after we die which determines whether we’ll eventually make it to Heaven or Hell and then those who will go to Heaven may go to Purgatory or directly to Heaven. Those who go to Hell will go directly to Hell. Then after the 2nd coming there is a final judgement for believers. Am I right? If not, please clear up my beliefs.

 

[thistle]

I know that according to the Nicene Creed, the judgement will be when Jesus comes again because it says He will come again to judge the living and the dead but I need some help. There is this Mormon guy I am talking to and he says that the judgement only happens after the 2nd coming of Christ but the waiting time, people go to a spirit prison and they get the Gospel preached to them. He says that is why they do baptism for the dead. Well, if I understand theology right, there is a first judgement after we die which determines whether we’ll eventually make it to Heaven or Hell and then those who will go to Heaven may go to Purgatory or directly to Heaven. Those who go to Hell will go directly to Hell. Then after the 2nd coming there is a final judgement for believers. Am I right? If not, please clear up my beliefs.

When we die we immediately face The Particular Judgement at which we are either saved (go straight to Heaven or via Purgatory) or we are condemned and go to Hell (for eternity).

At the Final Judgement those already dead (both the condemned and the saved) have their Particular Judgements confirmed (the result of the Particular Judgement does not change).
For the living at the Final Judgement they are either saved or condemned.

 

[Ron_Conte]

I know that according to the Nicene Creed, the judgement will be when Jesus comes again because it says He will come again to judge the living and the dead but I need some help. There is this Mormon guy I am talking to and he says that the judgement only happens after the 2nd coming of Christ but the waiting time, people go to a spirit prison and they get the Gospel preached to them. He says that is why they do baptism for the dead. Well, if I understand theology right, there is a first judgement after we die which determines whether we’ll eventually make it to Heaven or Hell and then those who will go to Heaven may go to Purgatory or directly to Heaven. Those who go to Hell will go directly to Hell. Then after the 2nd coming there is a final judgement for believers. Am I right? If not, please clear up my beliefs.

Everyone who dies prior to the Day of Judgment receives first the particular judgment, where they are alone with God and they find out their eternal final resting place, Heaven or Hell. Of course, many souls go to Purgatory prior to Heaven.

The man you were talking to is denying the particular judgment, as if our final destination is not determined by our lives and revealed immediately after death in the particular judgment. That is why he is saying the dead can be baptized. In other words, he is taking the particular judgment and delaying it until the Judgment Day, so that souls would still be evangelized and converted and even baptized after death but before that day.

But in the Catholic view, that is not possible because Judgment Day is not the particular judgment, it is the day of the general resurrection, when the just are rewarded with glorified bodies and the unjust with horrible bodies.

Ron

 

[Todd_Easton]

This might help…

From the Compendium of the Catechism of the Catholic Church (CCC):

208. What is the particular judgment?
(CCC 1021-1022, 1051)
It is the judgment of immediate retribution which each one after death will receive from God in his immortal soul in accord with his faith and his works. This retribution consists in entrance into the happiness of heaven, immediately or after an appropriate purification, or entry into the eternal damnation of hell.

214. In what does the final judgment consist?
(CCC 1038-1041, 1058-1059)
The final or universal judgment consists in a sentence of happiness or eternal condemnation, which the Lord Jesus will issue in regard to the “just and the unjust” (Acts 24:15) when he returns as the Judge of the living and dead. After the last judgment, the resurrected body will share in the retribution which the soul received at the particular judgment.

For support that there is a particular judgment immediately after death, see what Jesus said about the rich man and poor Lazarus (Luke 16:19-31) and what Jesus said to the repentent thief on the cross (Luke 23:43).

 

[Fidelis]

When each of us dies, our souls are immediately taken to the presence of God and judged. This is called the Particular Judgment. At this point we begin our eternal destiny. If we are going to hell, our souls go directly there. If we are deemed worthy of heaven, our souls will go directly to heaven, or if we are going to heaven but are in need of purification, we may go to Purgatory first for a while (everyone in Purgatory will eventually go to heaven). Whatever our fate, our souls will stay there (heaven or hell) until the end of time, at which time the Second Coming will occur.

At the Second Coming at the end of time, those Christians still alive will be taken to heaven (what some Protestants think of as of the rapture). Then will occur the General Judgment. At that time the souls of the living and the dead will be reunited with their bodies and brought together in God’s presence and judged before all. Those who have already been judged in the Particular Judgment will be brought from wherever their souls were -heaven, hell or Purgatory-- and have their judgment confirmed before all, so that both the justice and mercy of God will be manifest to all.

After this, time and Purgatory will be no more and all will enter with their souls and bodies into their eternal destiny, either hell or heaven.

This is an extremely bare-bones sketch, so if you want to get the details, see the five articles I linked below:

rosary-center.org/ll57n1.htm
rosary-center.org/ll57n2.htm
rosary-center.org/ll57n3.htm
rosary-center.org/ll57n4.htm
rosary-center.org/ll49n6.htm

…