And that the whole story of Last Judgment ... has been made very beautiful - 2

[Guest guest]

" In between Jesus Christ and His destroying Incarnation of Mahavishnu

called as Kalki there is time given to human beings to rectify

themselves, for them to enter the Kingdom of God which in the Bible

is called as Last Judgment - that you will be judged. All of you will

be judged on this Earth.

 

The population of the Earth is at the maximum these days because all

those - practically all those who had aspirations to enter into the

Kingdom of God - are born in Modern Times and are going to be born

very soon. This is the most important times because Sahaja Yoga is

the Last Judgment. It is fantastic to hear this but that's the fact.

It's the Truth!

 

Though you can understand that Mother's Love makes it very easy for

you to get to your Realization and that the whole story of Last

Judgment - which looks such a horrifying experience - has been made

very beautiful, and very tender, and delicate, and does not disturb

you. "

 

Shri Mataji Nirmala Devi

Bombay, India - September 28, 1979

 

 

THE LAST JUDGMENT

Jeffrey B. Russell

Professor of History

 

University of California Santa Barbara

 

Judgment in the theological sense connotes a moral discernment

between good or evil actions. By extension, it applies to discernment

between good and evil persons, a good person being one whose general

character, despite any number of faults, is inclined toward love of

God and of fellow creatures, and an evil person being one whose

character is inclined rather to self-love at the expense of others.

Humans are entitled to judge whether an action is good or evil (Luke

12.57; John 7.24; 1 Cor 6.2-3), but judgment of a person is reserved

to God (Matt 7.1; Luke 6.37): Do not judge, and you will not be

judged. The parable of the wheat and the tares (Matt 13.24-30) has

often been cited as a prooftext against human judgment: we are to let

the weeds grow with the wheat and let the Lord distinguish between

them at the time of the harvest--that is, at the time of divine

judgment.

 

In his eternal knowledge and wisdom, God is always sifting the hearts

of his creatures and judging their characters. But early Christian

teaching, rooted in the Hebrew Bible (Old Testament, OT), also

affirms a Last Judgment at the end of the world. The Last Judgment

was defined as God's judgment of the characters of all humans (and

other free and intelligent beings such as angels), a judgment based

on God's eternal and certain knowledge, and therefore immutable.

One's character cannot be changed after the judgment; this fact

follows the emphasis of the Hebrew Bible on the absolute importance

of this present life on this earth, the only life that we have in

which to make our moral choice and form our character.

 

Belief in a Last Judgment became common, indeed credal, in

Christianity because scripture says it; tradition asserts it; reason

supports it; and literature and art proclaim it. Though the Last

Judgment does not occupy an especially prominent place in the Bible,

many OT and NT texts are relevant: Psalm 98.9 says that the Lord will

come to judge " the world with righteousness and the peoples with

equity; John 12.48 says that on the last day, the Lord will judge

those who reject him. The tradition is enshrined in the Nicene Creed

formulated at the First Council of Constantinople in 381 and still

used in most churches: " He will come again in glory to judge the

living and the dead. " Reason applied to scripture confirms the idea:

humans have free will to choose to follow the commandment to love God

and neighbor (Deut 6.5; Matt 22.37-39). The responsibility lies both

on the community (the human race in Adam and Eve, the Bene Israel,

the Christian community and on the individual man or woman. Reason

also shows that at the end of the world God's eternal judgment of

each person will be made manifest; the end recapitulates and

finalizes what has gone before in time, and eschatology declares the

eternal divine knowledge of souls. Art and literature reflect this

theology, the first depiction of the Last Judgment appearing in an

early stage of Christian art, in the sixth century.

 

The Last Judgment was early established as one of the four essential

eschatological moments (different from the later tradition of

the " Four Last Things: " death, judgment, heaven, and hell) namely the

parousia (return of Christ), the resurrection of the body, the Last

Judgment, and the end of this world (whether the world is understood

as the end of the physical cosmos or as the end of the present world

order, kosmos or aiôn). These four eschatological moments are closely

linked in early and medieval Christian theology, but this present

article concentrates on the judgment, examining the idea in the

Bible, patristic period, and Middle Ages. The Last Judgment was

generally accepted as a necessary prelude to the reality of the

kingdom of God in which all are recognized as their true selves; it

is an occasion of terror for the evil and of joy for the loving, for

the harvest of the kingdom is the poor, the dispossessed, the humble,

the persecuted (Mt 5.3-12), who will be gathered up as rich wheat and

baked into loaves that are heartwhole, heavenly, and fine.

 

In the OT, the " Day of the Lord, " though not yet defined as the day

when a court of judgment would be held, was a day to be feared by

those who had not kept the Covenant. The earlier OT writings seem to

assume that at death one is either obliterated or sent to the

underground (Sheol) to dwell as a fluttering shadow. Since the

afterlife was vague at best, the emphasis remained on this present

world; consequently, the punishment envisioned for the unfaithful was

devastation and ruin in this life. In the later OT writings emerged

the concept of a division between the faithful and the unfaithful in

the Lord's kingdom to come. The day of the Lord would usher in his

kingdom on earth, in which the righteous would be rewarded while the

faithless would be eternally destroyed in the fires of Ge-hinnom

(Gehenna; hell). Such a radical, dire, and eternal division demanded

a solemn judgment. By the time of King Josiah (640-609 B.C.E.), it

was believed that God would resurrect and judge the dead on the Mount

of Olives or on the Temple Square (expanded by metonymy to Jerusalem,

to the kingdom of Judah, or the whole Land of Israel). Ezekiel

declared (37) that the dry bones that the Lord would raise would be

clothed in flesh, brought out of their graves and returned to Israel,

where they would live in peace and faithfulness to the Covenant.

 

Even before the idea of a future judgment developed, the OT viewed

the Lord as the judge of inner hearts. The metaphor for his eternal

knowledge of souls was the book. Since the Book of the Law (Torah)

contains the words of the covenant, it is by the book that we shall

be judged; the idea was extended to the book in which our characters

are written (Exod 32.32-33). The Lord is a righteous judge (Ps 7.11)

who will judge all the peoples of the earth (Ps 82.8; 98.9) and

Israel itself (Ezek 18.30). He judges not only peoples and nations

but individuals, each according to his or her character (Ps 7.8; Ezek

33.20; Eccl 11.9). He judges both the righteous and the wicked,

condemning the unfaithful and rewarding the poor and the humble (Eccl

3.17; Isa 11.4). The place where the Lord will judge is not in heaven

but on earth (Ps 58.11), in Israel, in Jerusalem, or, as in Joel

3.12, " I will sit in the `valley of Jehosaphat' to judge all the

nations. " He will sit upon the throne of judgment (Ps 9.4-7; 122.5)

and mete out justice with fire and sword (Isa 66.16).

 

The apocalyptic Jewish thought of the second century B.C.E. to the

first century C.E.--that is, at the end of the time the OT was

written and just afterwards--arose during times of great historical

tribulation for Israel. Accordingly, its proponents doubted and

feared that justice and righteousness could ever be achieved in this

world (understood again as kosmos or aiôn, meaning the current state

of human society) and therefore hoped and believed that the end-time

was imminent. The Lord would come immediately, at any moment, and

establish a new cosmos or aion: the kingdom of God or the kingdom of

Heaven. At his coming, the Lord would judge and reward the faithful

according to their deserts. Apocalyptic thought bound the day of the

Lord and the judgment more tightly together than before. On the last

day, the Judge would lead the faithful into the new eon, the new

world, and forever cast out the faithless.

 

The most important of the OT apocryphal texts for the question of

judgment is the Apocalypse of Daniel (Dan 7-12). Here a throne

of " fiery flames...its wheels burning with fire " was set up for

the " Ancient One, " whose clothing is " white as snow. " The Ancient one

presides over a court of justice: " The court sat in judgment, and the

books were opened " (Dan 7.9-10). The Ancient One bestows " dominion

and power and kingship " upon " one like a human being coming with the

clouds of heaven (Dan 7.18), " and " judgment was given for the holy

ones of the Most High, and the time arrived when the holy ones gained

possession of the kingdom (Dan 7.22). "

 

Imminence of judgment was one characteristic of apocalyptic thought;

another was transcendence. Whatever the end of the world and the new

eon and the kingdom of God meant, they meant a complete change,

whether by obliteration and new construction or by transformation of

the existing world. The nature of the new eon, the kingdom of God,

varied considerably among these writers. It might be a world not of

this earth, or it might be a completely new order on this earth. It

might be the end of time or the beginning of a new sort of time. For

all the apocalyptic writers, however, it meant the final, eternal,

and complete triumph of justice, in which the good would be rewarded

and the evil punished, not just on earth and in time, but in eternity.

 

Even more clearly than in the OT, apocalyptic writers insisted that

at the resurrection both the just and the unjust would be judged.

Where Isaiah had prophesied the liberation of the faithful from pain

and death without mentioning the punishment of the faithless (14.3),

Daniel foresaw a trial of both the righteous and the wicked, with

eternal joy for the former, " who shall shine like the brightness of

the sky, " and eternal punishment for the latter (Dan 12.2-10). Enoch

concurred: " And to all the righteous He will grant peace. He will

preserve the elect, and kindness shall be upon them. They shall all

belong to God and they shall prosper and be blessed; and the light of

God shall shine upon them " (1 Enoch Book 1, ch. 1.7-9; cf. 1 Enoch

45.3-6).

 

Apocalyptic, best known for its prophecies of doom, really emphasized

the joy and goodness of the judgment as much as its fear. That is why

apocalyptic thought flourished: it was a message of hope for the poor

and the oppressed:

 

On that day, they shall lift up in one voice, blessing, glorifying,

and extolling in the spirit of faith, in the spirit of wisdom and

patience, in the spirit of mercy, in the spirit of justice and peace,

and in the spirit of generosity.... All the elect ones who dwell in

the garden of life (shall bless you); every spirit of light that is

capable of blessing, glorifying, extolling, and sanctifying your

blessed name (shall bless you) and all flesh shall glorify and bless

your name with an exceedingly limitless power forever and ever (1

Enoch 61.10-13).

 

The judgment would be a judgment of all the peoples of the world, but

the Jewish apocalyptic writers were naturally most concerned with the

judgment of Israel itself, where the criterion was clear: loyalty or

disloyalty to the Covenant. A peculiar emphasis of Jewish apocalyptic

was messianic speculation. Mashiach, " the anointed one, " was a title

of the kings of Israel and Judah since Samuel had anointed Saul. With

the repeated defeat and occupation of the Land of Israel by foreign

empires, the conviction grew in the last two centuries B.C.E. that a

mashiach, Messiah, of supernatural strength and power would soon

emerge to liberate Israel. For some, the Messiah would lead the Jews

in a military revolution against their oppressors and restore the

earthly kingdom; for others, this earthly kingdom was to be

transformed, and the Messiah would rule it for ages or even forever;

for yet others the Messiah was to usher in a kingdom that completely

and eternally transcended the present cosmos. The coming of the

Messiah was then linked to the day of the Lord and, accordingly, to

the Last Judgment. The Messiah would act as the agent of the Lord, or

sit in judgment with the Lord. The functions of the Lord and of the

Messiah at the Last Judgment were gradually fused.

 

In the crucial period of the first century B.C.E. and the first

century C.E., the dominant OT, Deuteronomic, priestly Judaism of the

Second Temple period divided into a number of competing movements,

including Zealots, Sadducees, Pharisees, Essenes, and Christians. The

shattering of the Second Temple consensus was completed with the

literal demolition of the Second Temple by the Romans following their

crushing of the Jewish rebellion in 70 C.E.

 

The two most successful of these groups were the Christians and the

Pharisees, the latter the founders of the rabbinic, Talmudic

tradition that is the mark of orthodox Judaism. Rabbinic Judaism held

that God and/or his Messiah would come at the end of the world, raise

the dead in Jerusalem, judge the people of the world, and lead the

just to paradise (however defined) and the unjust to eternal

punishment.

 

New Testament Christianity, founded in the midst of the apocalyptic

period, drew upon the OT, apocalyptic Judaism, and the teachings of

the rabbis. Like the OT and the rabbis, it did not emphasize the Last

Judgment; in fact, the only Evangelist that gave it much attention is

John, both in his Gospel and in the Book of Revelation, although it

also appears in Matthew's " Little Apocalypse " (Matt 25.31-46). NT

Christianity shared the conviction that the end-time was at hand and

that each person would be judged according to his or her works: " For

the Son of man shall come in the glory of his Father with his angels,

and then he shall reward every man according to his works " (Matt

16.27; cf. Rev 20.13; 11.18). On the last day, God would be our judge

(John 12.48), and that last day is imminent: the " hour is coming and

now is " (John 5.25; cf. 12.31). The apostle Paul firmly linked the OT

day of the Lord with the resurrection of the body, the coming of the

Messiah, and the Last Judgment (1 Cor 15).

 

The greatest difference between the Christians and the other Jewish

groups in the first century was of course their belief that the

Messiah had already come in the person of Jesus, whom they called

Christos, the Greek translation of the Hebrew mashiach, " anointed

ruler. " By his life and by his voluntary, loving death on the cross,

Christ removed the block of sin that had separated humans from God

since our original choice, in Adam and Eve, to seek our own will

rather than God's love. So the Messiah had come, and he had redeemed

the world, but he had not come to judge on the last day, for the last

day was patently not here yet. The Messiah, therefore, would come a

second time, and it was at his second coming (which was at hand,

since he had promised to come even before " this generation " passes

away: Matt 24.34; Mark 13.30; Luke 31.32) that he would judge the

living and the dead.

 

The other Jewish groups of the time had already conflated the roles

of God and Messiah at the judgment, but the Christians made it

specific and overt. Though NT Christianity had not yet defined what

it meant to claim that Christ was God--a task left to the church

fathers--it clearly assumed that Christ was the Son of God the Father

in an absolutely unique way. " The Father judges no one, but has given

all judgment to the Son " (John 5.22): judgment had already begun with

Jesus in his first coming, and he would return to judge the living

and the dead (2 Tim 4.1; cf. 1 Pet 4.5). The Little Apocalypse of

Matthew foretells that

 

when the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him,

then he will sit on the throne of his glory. All the nations will be

gathered before him, and he will separate people one from another as

a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats, and he will put the

sheep at his right hand and the goats at his left. Then the king will

say to those at his right hand, `Come, you that are blessed by ny

Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of

the world. . . . Then he will say to those at his left hand: " You

that are accursed, depart from me into the eternal fire prepared for

the devil and his angels. . . . And these will go away into eternal

punishment, but the righteous into eternal life (Matt 25.31-46).

 

Here are assembled many motifs of the NT Last Judgment. Christ,

rather than the Father, will judge, though of course in accordance

with his Father's will. He will sit in glory upon a royal throne

appropriate to the Anointed King (cf. Rom 14.10; 2 Cor 5.10). The

throne appears even more dramatically in John's Revelation: " Then I

saw a great white throne and the one who sat on it; the earth and the

heaven fled from his presence " (Rev 20.11; cf. Rv 20.4). Christ will

judge all people and all nations, and both the just and the unjust

(John 5.19-30; Rev 20.11-15; 2 Cor 5.9-10): " And I saw the dead,

great and small, standing before the throne " (Rev 20.12). He will

discern the character of all: " And the dead were judged according to

their works, as recorded in the books [of life] (Rev. 20.12).

According to their character he will welcome the righteous into

heaven and send the unrighteous to suffer eternal punishment in fire

(2 Pet 3.7).

 

The Last Judgment is now tied firmly and permanently to the general

resurrection of the body. At the last day, Christ will judge both the

living and the dead. Those living at the time of the Second Coming

will not suffer physical death (1 Thess 4.17) and will be judged in

the bodies that they have in this life. Those who have already

suffered physical death will be raised in the bodies that they had in

life. The resurrected human being will be, as the living human being

is, an indivisible union of body and soul. The judgment would produce

two effects of the resurrection, which John sometimes refers to

as " two resurrections, " namely a resurrection to eternal life for the

just; and the resurrection to " judgment " (here restricted in meaning

to condemnation) for the unjust (Jn 5.29). John also uses a similar

equivocity in the term " death, " speaking of the first death as the

physical death and the " second death " as the death or damnation

limited to the unjust. The just, though dead, will rise and live

forever, and " over these the second death has no power " (Rev. 20.60);

the unjust will die and then die again in eternity.

 

Angels as well as humans are judged. The Devil, the " ruler of this

world, " is judged (John 16.11; cf. Rev 20.2-3), and all the evil

angels are reserved for the Last Judgment to be cast into hell (2 Pet

2.4; Jude 6). Christ is usually said to judge alone, but several

texts indicate that he will be joined by the apostles and the

saints: " You who have followed me will also sit on twelve thrones,

judging the twelve tribes of Israel " (Matt 19.28); the idea was

extended to all peoples by Paul: " Do you not know that the saints

will judge the world? " (1 Cor 6.2).

 

The perennial question whether God, Christ, is evil because he

condemns the unjust to hell was already raised by Paul: Is

God " unjust to inflict wrath on us? . . . By no means! For then how

could God judge the world? " (Rom 3.5-6). The judgment of God

is " righteous " (2 Thess 1.5). The essential message is positive, even

joyful: those who love will at the judgment love with unhindered

joy: " God himself will be with them; he will wipe every tear from

their eyes. Death will be no more; mourning and crying and pain will

be no more. . . . see, I am making all things new " (Rev 21.3-5).

 

The Christian Apocrypha (books written in the first three centuries

C.E. that were accepted by some as revealed but not included in the

canon of the NT) offer a similar view to that of the canonical NT.

Jesus tells the apostles that he is coming again " as the sun bursts

forth; thus will I, shining seven times brighter than it in glory,

while I am carried on the wings of the clouds in splendor with my

cross going before me, come to earth to judge the living and the

dead " (Epistola apostolorum ca. 150 C.E., 16-17). The Apocalypse of

Peter, the Letter of the Apostles, and the Sibylline Oracles are

among the apocryphal texts confirming the NT view of the Last

Judgment. (The Sibylline Oracles were so widely respected throughout

early and medieval Christianity that the thirteenth-century author of

the great hymn, " Day of Wrath, " cites " the Sibyl " as well as the

Psalmist [ " David " ] as the two great guarantees of the judgment to

come.)

 

The exceptions are the Gnostic Apocrypha, such as " The Gospel of

Thomas. " Gnosticism (as opposed to Gnostic thought in general, some

of which was Jewish) was a variety of Christianity that faded by the

third century C.E.. Gnosticism was incompatible with emerging

orthodox Christianity primarily because most Gnostics attempted to

explain the existence of evil by claiming that the material world and

the body were the evil creation of an evil deity or subdeity

( " demiurge " ) hostile to the Lord, who is the Lord of spirit alone.

This immensely powerful opponent of God is the source of all evil. A

human being is a spark of divine spirit that Satan has entrapped in

loathsome flesh. Our duty is to escape the flesh and return our

spirit to God. We can achieve this only by embracing gnôsis, divinely

revealed knowledge. Since bodies are disgusting and evil, Christ did

not have a body, nor will our own bodies rise again. Christ, in order

to communicate with us wretched humans, took on only the appearance

of a body. He saves us not by becoming flesh and dying on the cross,

but by serving as an angelic, bodiless messenger bringing from God

the gnosis that we must escape our prison house of flesh. In such a

system, there could be no resurrection of the body, no Last Judgment.

Rather, the soul is judged at death, and it is either reimprisoned in

another body or, liberated by gnosis, ascends through a series of

spheres, becoming ever more spiritual and less material until, having

cast all filthy matter aside, it shines forth as pure spirit (pneuma)

and reunites with the pure, spiritual Light from which Satan had

kidnapped it.

 

The Christian fathers of the first few centuries C.E., dismissing

this Gnostic hatred of the body, affirmed and developed the teachings

of the NT, maintaining the union of the eschatological moment: at the

end of time Christ would return as the judge of the whole world,

including the living and the dead, who would be resurrected in the

flesh. The further development of the concept of the Last Judgment

would take place within the boundaries of these teachings.

 

The most important shift between the NT point of view and that of the

fathers of the second century was occasioned by the fact that time,

rather than coming to a rapid end in the generation of the apostles,

was observed to continue. Though the end of the world was still

believed to be about to happen at any moment, the longer it delayed,

the more vague was its date in the future. Bernard McGinn has argued

that there was a shift from " predictive " historical imminence to

psychological imminence. Each person continued to expect judgment at

any moment, but the historical time of the judgment faded into an

indefinite future. Indeed, it is a common principle that the longer

an event that is not certain to occur is postponed, the less likely

it becomes. Though Christians still affirm imminence psychologically,

the delay of the end-time by now commands little historical credence

indeed.

 

This so-called delay of the parousia had the effect of causing a

growing tension in the idea of judgment, a tension between the so-

called particular judgment and the Last Judgment. So long as it was

believed that no significant time would elapse between a person's

physical death and the end of time, the tension itself was not

significant. But it became clear by the middle of the second century

that Christians were dying scores, even a hundred years, before the

Last Judgment. The question whether they underwent a

personal, " particular " judgment while awaiting the Last Judgment

gradually became a significant problem, and though it was not a

central concern until later, it appeared early in the second century.

Those historians who have mistakenly argued that the particular

judgment was a creation of the later Middle Ages have been refuted by

Anton Gurevic's demonstration that it was found in the early Middle

Ages as well. But Gurevic did not go far enough. The ideas of the

individual judgment and of the Last Judgment both existed, although

in unresolved tension, together from at least the second century.

 

In the NT itself, the parable of Dives and Lazarus (Luke 16.19-31)

suggests the idea of a particular judgment. Clement of Rome (96-98

C.E.) said that Peter and Paul went directly to " the holy place " at

their deaths and that they found there a throng of martyrs and

saints " made perfect in charity (1 Clement 5.4-7; 6.1; 50.3). This

holy place must be presumed to be heaven itself or at least a blessed

antechamber to heaven: in either event, the judgment passed upon

these saints would surely not be changed or even modified at the Last

Judgment. The anonymous Martyrdom of Polycarp (ca. 170 C.E.) implied

the particular judgment with the notion that the martyrs, even if no

one else, went directly into God's presence (to heaven) immediately

at their death (Mart. Poly. 17.1). This implication left the question

what God was doing with other people between their death and their

resurrection: whether there was some kind of intermediate state

between death and resurrection; or one between death and judgment. It

posed the further theological question how the Last Judgment could

possibly obtain a different result from the particular judgment,

since the dead do not change their characters and God does not change

his mind.

 

The fathers affirmed that the Last Judge would be Christ (Barnabas

7.2; 2 Clement 1.1; Polycarp, Phil 2.1) and expand upon it. Justin

Martyr (fl. 150 C.E.) explained that just as Christ came for the

first time in humility and died in anguish, he would come for the

second time in glory to establish his eternal kingdom. The worthy he

makes immortal; the unworthy he sends to eternal hell (Dial. 40.4;

45.4; 49.2; 80.5; 81.4; 1 Apol. 52). He sends them to hell not out of

cruelty and vengeance, but rather because they merit it and indeed

have chosen it for themselves in their hateful lives. Marcion (d. ca.

160 C.E.) attempted to distinguish between justice and mercy, but

Tertullian (fl. ca. 200 C.E.) replied that the two are inseparable: a

god that would not love justice and hate iniquity would be no god at

all (Adv. Marc. 1.26). It would be no mercy to the oppressed and

persecuted to bring their tormentors into the midst of their joy.

 

Hippolytus (fl. ca. 225 C.E.) posited hades (a Greco-Roman word and

concept similar to that of the OT Sheol) as the place where all the

dead await resurrection and the Last Judgment. But he also stipulated

that in the meanwhile the blessed dead repose in a place that he

called " Abraham's bosom " (Against Plato, 1; cf. Lk. 16.22) awaiting

the general resurrection. The unjust wait in the shadows for the

final judgment, when angels as ministers of justice drag them off to

hell, a lightless place beneath the earth. Again the reason that the

angels thrust them into hell was not malice, but because the damned

have already made the choice that put them there.

 

Irenaeus (fl. ca. 200 C.E.), the most influential of the early

fathers, attacked the Gnostic idea that at death the soul passed

directly to heaven (De haer. 5.31). Even the Savior, he pointed out,

first descended to the dead before rising again. But the Gnostics,

unlike the orthodox Christians, had no problem with the interim

period, because the Gnostics totally rejected the resurrection of the

body and the need for a Last Judgment. The Gnostics, with their

loathing of the body, declared the soul the only genuine part of a

human person and therefore had no difficulty with the idea that the

blessed entered into their journey as disembodied souls directly at

the time of their death.

 

The fathers followed the OT tradition of the resurrection and worked

on unpacking the idea. Athenagoras (fl. 180 C.E.) confronted both the

Gnostics and the Platonists in his defense of the judgment of body

and soul conjoined. He explained that the demonstrable decomposition

on bodies after death made a resurrection necessary, since a human

being is composed of both body and soul and no separation of the two

can be permanent. If God intended humans to end up as disembodied

souls, he would not have created them body and soul to begin with.

The end and goal of human lives, including our lives after death, is

to live as complete, harmonious, human beings, which requires both

body and soul. Human nature could not exist without the resurrection

of the body. Judgment, Athenagoras continued, is thus judgment of the

whole person, both body and soul; furthermore, since the passions of

the body can urge us to sin, it would be unjust or absurd to judge

the soul without the body; the opposite is true also: the body, which

has labored and suffered, deserves its reward.

 

Athenagoras (Plea), Lactantius (d. ca. 330, and Ephrem the Syrian (d.

373) introduced a new difficulty based upon their reading of Ps 1.5,

Jn 5.28-29, and Ac 24.15. Lactantius (Div. Inst. 7.20) argued that at

the End, not all will be judged. Those who fundamentally reject

( " they who have not known God " ) God are not judged, for they have

already been judged and condemned. Those who have known God are

judged: if their virtues outweigh their vices, they go to heaven; if

not they are destroyed or else suffer in eternal fire. Yet in Div.

Inst. 7.26, he says that all shall be resurrected and then divided

into the good and the evil. Even more inconsistently, Lactantius

seems to have two judgments: one at the beginning of the millennium

and the other a second and final judgment at the end of the

millennium, which of course confirms the first but ushers in the

absolute end.

 

Ephraim divided humanity into three groups: those " above judgment "

(the saints), those " under judgment, " and those " beyond judgment "

(the damned). All pass through fire, but the first group do not

suffer, the second group do not remain suffering but are purified,

the damned do not remain at all. Athenagoras refuted the idea that

the Last Judgment is the very purpose of Christ's second coming, he

argued that since though all human beings who die rise again, not all

who rise again are to be judged. The judgment is of the wicked alone,

for the righteous do not need to be judged, much less judged again.

The cement binding the Last Judgment to the second coming and the

resurrection showed a crack here, for if the judgment and the general

resurrection are not causally linked, it is not logically necessary

that they occur at the same time. But neither Athenagoras or the

other fathers pried further into that particular fissure.

 

The most important tension between the particular and last judgments

has to do with time. If the souls of the dead must pass through a

period of time between death and the Last Judgment, where do they do

this? Where are they now? Have they not been judged at all? But if

they have been judged in the particular judgment, then why must they

wait for the inevitable confirmation of that in the Last Judgment?

But if no time elapses between death and Last Judgment, then the soul

is never disembodied. If the particular judgment and the Last

Judgment occur outside of time, in an eternal moment, then why does

time elapse on earth while bodies decay? Does the Last Judgment occur

on the last day of time (or any day in time) or in an eternal moment

or past the end of time? Only to the last question did the fathers

give a clear and unambiguous answer: on the last day of time, the

parousia would occur, the Lord would judge, and all persons would be

set eternally in heaven or hell.

 

The question left by John's distinction between the resurrection of

life and the resurrection of condemnation (Jn 5.29) left doubt among

the fathers as to who would be judged at the Last Day. To be sure,

all are judged, but perhaps not all are judged at the Last Judgment.

Hilary of Poitiers, for example, divided the dead into three

categories. The impious have been judged already at the particular

judgment and do not need to be judged again; the just do not need to

be judged at all; only those whose lives were mixed need the final

judgment (In Ps. 1.15-18). This view, never significant in the East,

was roundly rejected by Augustine (354-430) for the West. The

judgment of each person is determined at death, Augustine said--that

is, at the particular judgment-- but since that judgment is not known

to us humans, God " has reserved a day on which his wisdom and justice

will be proclaimed together before everyone " (De civ. Dei, Book 20).

 

Yet another question left unresolved by the NT for the fathers was

the defining moment of beatitude. Is it at baptism, when a person is

incorporated into the Body of Christ; is it at conversio, the moment

when the conscious will to surrender to Christ occurs; is it the

particular judgment, when death has made changes of mind impossible;

or is it the Last Judgment?

 

By all accounts, the second coming of Christ forever breaks the power

of evil, completing the conquest of the Devil, whose power has

already been broken by the Passion. The parousia ushers in the new

eon, the new age, the new Jerusalem, the kingdom of God. Whether that

reign of God will take place on this earth (however transformed an

earth it is), or in heaven, or whether there will be a thousand-year

reign of Christ on earth before the Last Judgment and the end of time

are questions that form the core of millenarianism (q.v.), a

phenomenon that the present article has no room to explore.

 

 

Bibliography

 

Brandon, Samuel G. F. The Judgment of the Dead. New York, 1967

Caie, Graham D. The Judgment Day Theme in Old English Poetry.

Copenhagen, 1976.

Christe, Yves. La vision de Matthieu (Matth. XXIV-XXV): Origines et

développement d'une image de la Seconde Parousie. Paris, 1973.

Court, J. M. Myth and History in the Book of Revelation. London,

1979.

Daniélou, Jean. The Theology of Jewish Christianity. London, 1964.

Griffiths, J. Gwynn. The Divine Verdict: A Study of Divine Judgement

in the Ancient Religions. Leiden, 1991

Gurevic, Anton. *Ref

Heist, William W. The Fifteen Signs of Doomsday. East Lansing, MI,

1952

*McGinn, Bernard. " The End of the World and the Beginning of

Christendom. " In Malcolm Bull, ed., Apocalypse Theory and the Ends of

the World. Oxford: Blackwell, 1995.

Travis, Stephen H. Christ and the Judgment of God: Divine Retribution

in the NT. Basingstoke, 1986.

 

http://www.veritas-ucsb.org/library/russell/Judgment.html

 

" But they should also understand that this is the Golden Age of

Emancipation, Resurrection and Last Judgment; if we can achieve it,

all of us, including them also, will have the blessings of the Divine

love which has been promised a long time back. "

 

Shri Mataji Nirmala Devi

 

 

" This is the Last Judgment time, and everyone can judge him or

herself through the light of the Spirit. "

 

Shri Mataji Nirmala Devi

 

 

" The Last Judgment is done by the Kundalini. On the fingertips one

can feel oneself and can judge oneself. "

 

Shri Mataji Nirmala Devi

 

 

" These are the times described in the Holy Bible as the " Last

Judgment " and in the Koran as " Qiyamah " , the Resurrection Time.

Astrologically it is also called the Age of Aquarius, the time of

rebirth and of great spiritual development on the Earth. "

 

Shri Mataji Nirmala Devi

 

 

" And in this great happening of the Last Judgment and the

Resurrection Time, one need not, and should not, believe blindfolded

in whatever is said about ascent or salvation, but should treat it

like a hypothesis, and observe the facts with an open mind like a,

scientist. "

 

Shri Mataji Nirmala Devi

 

 

" In my opinion, every Westerner has, as a matter of urgency, to

understand the vital role he has to play in this great Age of

Transformation and of the Last Judgment. "

 

Shri Mataji Nirmala Devi

 

 

" Thus, the establishment of global peace can only come through people

who have achieved this state in modern times which is very special

and I call it a Blossom Time. In the Bible, it is described as the

Last Judgment, also in the Koran it is called as Qiyamah (the

Resurrection time). "

 

Shri Mataji Nirmala Devi

 

 

" This is the Last Judgment. Either you will go to heaven or you will

go to hell. It's already working out like that. So let's see. Where

are you? So I have to again and again tell you as your mother, I have

to correct you and tell you that remember this is the Last Judgment

and please, don't take anymore to the activities which are

antichrist. "

 

Shri Mataji Nirmala Devi

 

 

" Now this is the Last Judgment and those who miss will miss in any

case. Christ has said, " You will be calling Me Christ, Christ, but I

will not recognize you. " "

 

Shri Mataji Nirmala Devi

 

 

" So in this Last Judgment a new race, new race of great people is

created. It is your own. It is your own power. Only to know how

glorious you are. How great you are. Absolutely free because you get

that superior intelligence. In the light of Spirit you know what is

constructive for you. You know absolute knowledge. "

 

Shri Mataji Nirmala Devi

 

 

" So, as it is, you are already marked, you have already been chosen

by Christ in his Last Judgment, and you are there. But still one

should know that there is also the possibility that you are

hypocrites, that you are playing with only words. Could be that we

still have to cleanse ourselves, so just put your mind into yourself,

and just see for yourself that where have I gone wrong. "

 

Shri Mataji Nirmala Devi

 

 

" People do not know what time has come. It is the last chance. You

won't get any more chance. In Bible it has been described as the Last

Judgment. Your Last Judgment is in Sahaja Yoga and how it will be

done can be judged by yourself. "

 

Shri Mataji Nirmala Devi

 

 

" This is the Last Judgment. Let us see what happens. Whatever people

come is alright for me. Even if they do not come, it's still alright.

Remember, God will not bow before you. "

 

Shri Mataji Nirmala Devi

 

 

" For us, in between Christ and this destroying incarnation of

Mahavishnu called as Kalki, there is a time given to human beings to

rectify themselves, for them to enter in the Kingdom of God, which in

the Bible is called as the Last Judgment. That you will be judged,

all of you will be judged on this earth. "

 

Shri Mataji Nirmala Devi

 

 

" This is the most important time because Sahaja Yoga is the Last

Judgment. It is fantastic to have this but that's a fact & is the

truth. Though you can understand, that Mother's love makes it very

easy for you to get through your realization and that the whole story

of the Last Judgment looks such as horrifying experience has been

made very beautiful and very tender and delicate and does not disturb

you. But this is the Last Judgment I tell you, and you all are going

to be judged through Sahaja Yoga, whether, you can enter into the

kingdom of God or not. "

 

Shri Mataji Nirmala Devi

 

 

" I have to warn all the Sahaja Yogis who are here because Sahaja Yoga

is the Last Judgment; not only that you will be judged, that you are

entering into the Kingdom of God, but you become the citizens of God

is correct. "

 

Shri Mataji Nirmala Devi

 

 

" I am here to work for you day and night. You know that I work very

hard for you. I spare no efforts, to help you, and do everything that

is possible to make you all right; to make you pass this examination

of Last Judgment; but you have to cooperate with me, and you have to

go headlong about it, and devote most of your time for Sahaja Yoga

and for imbibing all that is great and noble. "

 

Shri Mataji Nirmala Devi

 

 

" This is the greatest of the greatest things which can happen to

anyone that you know. Also you know, this is the greatest happening,

which was prophesied long time back as the Last Judgment. You know

that this is the way, you are going to be judged. So we have to work

very hard. We have to work. It is effortlessly given to you, alright.

But to maintain it, keep it up to go high, we have to religiously

work it out. "

 

Shri Mataji Nirmala Devi

 

 

" And that your Last Judgment is also now. Only through Kundalini

awakening God is going to judge you. How is he going to judge you

otherwise? You think of somebody now, a person comes in now. Here is

somebody sitting to judge you. How? By how many hair-dressers you

have been to? Or how many suits you have stitched for Christmas? Or

what presents you have bought or how many cards you have sent? and to

how many people you have sent some other things which may not be very

palatable. That's not the way. "

 

Shri Mataji Nirmala Devi

 

 

" The Last Judgment has started. We are facing the Last Judgment

today. We are not aware of it. And all the satanic forces have come

out like the wolves in sheep's clothes. And they are trying to

attract you and you do not judge them. You only sit down and judge

the Reality. It has started, it is a fact. It has started. "

 

Shri Mataji Nirmala Devi

 

 

" That Krishna has said once you get your realisation your problems

are solved, physical, emotional, mental, all problems are solved and

you become absolutely relaxed. That goes without saying. But I'm not

here to sort of cure people and go to hospitals. Nothing of the kind.

It's just who are the seekers will be blessed because this is the

reward of this Last Judgment. "

 

Shri Mataji Nirmala Devi

 

 

" Christ has said very clearly in the second chapter of Matthew 2nd

verse " You'll be calling me Christ! Christ! I won't recognize you. "

That's very true. It is not a question of who recognises Him, but He

should recognize you because the advent of Christ is going to be

absolutely terrible. He is not going to talk to you, convince you or

comfort you or give you any council as I am trying my level best, but

He will just come for the Last Sorting out because I declare that the

Last Judgment has started. The Last Judgment takes place only through

Kundalini awakening. There is no other way out. God is going to do it

through living process. "

 

Shri Mataji Nirmala Devi

 

 

" But, logically, you must understand. Where should we reach? What

should happen to us? As seekers, what are we expecting? This is a

very, very precarious and important time is more to say. The Last

Judgment has started. That has started. That's how you are all here

and you are seeking. The way it will judge, is the Kundalini has to

rise. Your have to become self realized. Then you start feeling your

centers on your fingers. "

 

Shri Mataji Nirmala Devi

 

 

" Sahaja Yoga is for the emancipation of the whole world, at every

level. Once we have people of a certain number in Sahaja Yoga, it

will start triggering understanding of real righteousness,

religiousness and our love for God, and enlightened faith in God.

This is how the Resurrection time is going to be worked out. This is

the Last Judgment time, and everyone can judge him or herself through

the light of the Spirit. "

 

Shri Mataji Nirmala Devi

 

 

" If we have to change this world, and if we have to save our people

from complete destruction, we have to take to wisdom, and that is

only possible when the brain is enlightened by Kundalini. This is

what is very important today, when we see that this world is on the

verge of destruction. Of course, the Creator himself is very anxious

to save us and that is why he has in these modern times which are

called Kali Yuga, made the all-pervading power activated.

 

So, now a new age has started which is called the Age of Aquarius,

 

(Kumbha) meaning the pitcher carrier of spiritual holy water that is

the work of Kundalini. The activity of the Kundalini is like the sap

of the tree that rises and nourishes all parts of the tree and does

not get stuck at one flower (centre). Moreover these are special

times. This is the resurrection time. The Last Judgment is done by

the Kundalini. On the fingertips one can feel oneself and can judge

oneself. "

 

Shri Mataji Nirmala Devi

 

 

" Of course, this is also the age of science and technology in which

human beings have progressed beyond the stage of blind faith. And in

this great happening of the Last Judgment and the Resurrection Time,

one need not, and should not, believe blindfolded in whatever is said

about ascent or salvation, but should treat it like a hypothesis, and

observe the facts with an open mind like a, scientist. Of course, if

a hypothesis is proved, then any honest, scientifically minded modern

person has to accept it. "

 

Shri Mataji Nirmala Devi

 

 

" Now this is the Last Judgment and those who miss will miss in any

case. Christ has said, " You will be calling Me Christ, Christ, but I

will not recognize you. " So understand you have to become the Spirit

as Christ has said, " You are to be born again. " You may have faith in

me or not - doesn't matter. You must have faith in yourself to begin

with. "

 

Shri Mataji Nirmala Devi

 

 

" But in a way is good because this is Last Judgment. If by marriage,

by temptations, by wrong doings, by conditionings if you have to go

out, you have to go out.

 

I must tell you that also there's very little place in the Kingdom of

God. Unless and until you prove to be good Sahaja Yogis, there is no

place for you, for mediocre there is no place. You have to serious,

deep, seeking, dedicated Sahaja Yogis otherwise you have no place. "

 

Shri Mataji Nirmala Devi

 

 

" So this is the Last Judgment and you will be judged for everything

that you do for Sahaja Yoga. One has to be very careful as to how you

behave, what is your attitude is and how you should change. "

 

Shri Mataji Nirmala Devi

 

 

" Shri Krishna, as I have told you, was the incarnation of diplomacy.

So He plays around quite a lot and ultimately He brings forth the

untruth and the falsehood. But in doing that He judges people so it's

very important that Shri Krishna's powers of His diplomacy were to be

manifesting at this time when it is the Last Judgment. "

 

Shri Mataji Nirmala Devi

 

 

" Have full confidence, if you want to have your realisation, yo all

will get it

Ayez une confiance totale, si vous voulez votre réalisation du Soi,

vous l'aurez

 

I cannot force on you, because I respect your freedom

Et je ne peux pas forcer ce processus à l'intérieur de vous, parce

que je respecte votre liberté

 

Immediately we'll know those who are not capable of knowing the Truth

Immédiatement nous verrons ceux qui ne sont pas capables de connaître

la Vérité

 

All such people should leave the hall

Et tous ces gens devraient quitter la salle maintenant

 

It is not civil to disturb others if they want to have their ascent

everybody has this right, legal right

Et il n'est pas poli du tout de déranger tous les gens qui veulent

avoir cette ascension spirituelle, les gens qui ont le droit d'avoir

cette ascension spirituelle

 

If you want to miss your own ascent, you can go ahead, you can chose,

the choice is yours, this is the Last Judgment

Si vous voulez passer à côté de votre ascension spirituelle, c'est

votre choix, c'est maintenant le Jugement Dernier

 

And with this Last Judgment, you have to judge yourself

Et dans ce Jugement Dernier, vous devez vous juger vous-même

 

In the Koran it is very clearly said at the time of Resurrection,

your hands will speak and will give witness against you

Dans le Coran il est dit très clairement que au jour du Jugement

Dernier, vos mains parleront et témoigneront contre vous

 

There is a very big chapter on Resurrection, but the fundamentalists

don't want to look at it

Il y a un grand chapître sur la Résurrection dans le Coran, mais les

fondamentalistes ne veulent pas le regarder

 

They believe their religion is the best

Ils pensent que leur religion est la meilleure

 

But what would it has done to anyone?

Mais quels bienfaits a-t-elle apportés à qui que ce soit?

 

It is so much misinterpreted... so much misinterpreted

Cela a été tellement mal interprété...

 

Now the time has come, this is a special time which is the time of

Resurrection, this is the Qiyamah

Et maintenant le temps est venu, c'est le temps de la résurrection,

c'est le Qiyamah

 

It is the special time of Last Judgment

C'est le temps très spécial du Jugement Dernier

 

where you have to judge yourself

Où il vous faut vous juger vous-même

 

Shri Mataji Nirmala Devi

 

 

" This is the most important time because Sahaja Yoga is the Last

Judgment. It is fantastic to have this, but that's a fact and is the

truth, though you can understand that Mother's Love makes it very

easy for you to get through your realisation, and that the whole

story of the Last Judgment looks such as horrifying experience, has

been made very beautiful and very tender and delicate and does not

disturb you.

 

But this is the Last Judgment, I tell you, and you are all going to

be judged through Sahaja Yoga, whether you can enter into the Kingdom

of God or not. "

 

Shri Mataji Nirmala Devi

 

 

" Today, Sahaja Yoga has reached the state of Mahayoga, which is en-

masse evolution manifested through it. It is this day's Yuga Dharma.

It is the way the Last Judgment is taking place. Announce it to all

the seekers of truth, to all the nations of the world, so that nobody

misses the blessings of the Divine to achieve their meaning, their

absolute, their spirit. "

 

Shri Mataji Nirmala Devi

 

 

" The main thing that one has to understand is that the time has come

for you to get all that is promised in the scriptures, not only in

the Bible but all the scriptures of the world. The time has come

today that you have to become a Christian, a Brahmin, a Pir, through

your Kundalini awakening only. There is no other way. And that your

Last Judgment is also now. "

 

Shri Mataji Nirmala Devi

 

 

" Of course there are some absurd things which grew with

misinterpretation and interference from unholy people, which are

common in these religions. For example, Jews, Christian and Muslims

believe that when they die their bodies will come out of their graves

and they will all be resurrected at the Time of Resurrection, at the

Time of Last Judgment, at the Time of Qiyamah. It is illogical to

think what will remain inside those graves after five hundred years.

Nobody wants to think and understand that it is not the body but the

soul that will come out of these bodies, be born again as human

beings and be saved through Qiyamah and Resurrection. "

 

Shri Mataji Nirmala Devi