Christ Our Hope: An Introduction to Eschatology

5. Final Judgment

130 5 Final Judgment Then you will know I am the Lord. —Ezekiel 24:24 In the evening of our life, we will be judged by love. —John of the Cross1 A world which has to create its own justice is a world without hope. —Benedict XVI2 Christian faith openly proclaims that when Jesus comes in glory at the end of time, not only will the dead rise up by the power of God in the likeness of the risen Christ, not only will the cosmos be renewed, but the whole of humanity will be judged by the Lord of heaven and earth. The Symbols of the faith are virtually unanimous in proclaiming final judgment as the primary motive of Christ’s glorious coming: he “will come again in glory to judge the living and the dead.”3 Pope Benedict’s encyclical Spe salvi pays special attention to the doctrine of judgment . In it we read: “The prospect of Judgment has influenced Christians in their daily living as a criterion by which to order their present life, as a summons to their conscience, and at the same time as hope in God’s justice.”4 The Church teaches that judgment takes place in two stages: at death, humans are judged by God for the life they have lived; at the end of time, humanity as a whole will be judged by the Lord Jesus who comes in glory. The latter is usually termed “final, or universal, judgment,” the former “particular judgment,”5 which we shall consider later on. 1. “En la tarde de nuestra vida, seremos juzgados por el amor,” John of the Cross, Palabras de luz y de amor, n. 57. 2. SS 42. 3. DS 150. 4. SS 41–48, here n. 41. 5. Thomas Aquinas, Comp. Theol., 242; IV C.Gent., 91; Catechismus Romanus, I, art. 7, CCC 1022. See pp. 280–85. Final Judgment 131 Judgment in Scripture The Old Testament provides a constant testimony of the judgment of God over humanity, especially over the People of the Covenant.6 Through the prophets God taught his people to do his will and live as “his people” through a pedagogy of reward and punishment. In a myriad of different ways he showed them whether or not they were being faithful to the covenant. All the successes, failures , catastrophes, triumphs, all favorable or adverse happenings, were seen to come from God, who protected, instructed, consoled, corrected, and punished his people. However, judgment, such as it was, was depicted principally as referring to the people as a whole. It was taken for granted that the sins of parents would be visited on their children (Jer 31:29).7 Besides, God’s judgment and punishment were limited in the main to this life, to the world as it is (Jb 42:7–17). The doctrine of eschatological (post mortem) judgment, reward, and punishment remained somewhat undeveloped.8 At a deeper level, however, the affirmation of divine judgment is strictly theological in character, in the sense that it is equivalent to (or is a consequence of) Yahweh’s total sovereignty over the universe.9 “Then you will know I am the Lord” (Ez 24:24). At heart, the affirmation of divine judgment is anti-idolatrous in character: God alone is judge over the universe, because God alone is Lord. It is interesting to note that both Tertullian and Aquinas derive the doctrine of judgment from that of creation: everything that exists, without exception, comes directly from God; hence, at the final reckoning each person and every single thing will receive what is its due.10 The Transition from the Prophetic to the Apocalyptic According to the prophets, the People of the Covenant, in the midst of the desolation that characterized the post-exilic period, were tempted to think that God no longer cared for them, that no new prophets would arise, that the Spirit had been “put out,” to use an expression of Paul (1 Thes 5:19). Some began to take it for granted that God’s people would no longer triumph on earth, that full justice would never be achieved.11 At best, justice would be only obtained after 6. On judgment in Scripture, see W.Schneider, “Judgment,” in NIDNTT 1, 362–67; CAA 96–99; 159–62. 7. On the Old Testament notion of corporate personality, CAA 72–73. 8. See J.J.Alviar, Escatología, 195. 9. On the fundamental notion of God as Lord, at the...