A. Immediately after the resurrection shall follow the general and final judgment of angels and men;¹ the day and hour whereof no man knoweth, that all may watch and pray,
and be ever ready for the coming of the Lord.²

We saw in our previous question that there will be a general resurrection of both the just and unjust. What happens after that?

The Scripture teaches us, and our present question affirms, that immediately after that will be a general and final judgement.

Some, namely the premillenialists, believe that as there will be two resurrections separated by a thousand years, so there will be two judgements separated by a thousand years. The first judgement, they say, is the Bema Seat Judgement, which is a judgement of reward for believers; whereas the second judgement is the Great White Throne Judgement, which is a judgement about whether one goes to heaven or hell. This separation not only produces some rather difficult problems (such as what happens to converts during the supposed Millennium?), but also fails to do justice to the teachings of Scripture. For example, the Lord himself says:

Notice firstly, that the Lord speaks of the resurrection occurring at ‘the hour’, which suggests that the righteous and the wicked will be raised at the same time. Notice secondly, that the wicked will be raised "unto the resurrection of damnation." The word ‘damnation’ may equally be translated as ‘judgment’, for it is the same word (krivsi"). Our translators use the word ‘damnation’ to suggest that the wicked will be condemned through judgement. This passage therefore suggests that not only would the just and unjust be raised at the same occasion, but that the judgement will follow immediately after the resurrection.

This is also confirmed by our Lord’s parable of the Sheep and Goat, which pictures a day at which the people of all nations shall be gathered before the Lord to be judged (Mt 25:31-32). When the judgement is completed, "[the wicked] shall go away into everlasting punishment: but the righteous into life eternal" (Mt 25:46).

The Day of Judgment will therefore be a day of universal judgement. Indeed, our catechism speaks also of the judgement of angles in that day. This is taught in Jude 6-7. In that day all injustices will be righted, and all sins left unpunished will be punished while all rewards there is to be awarded would be awarded. It will be a day of finality that would usher in an eternity of perfect justice.

When will that day come? No one knows. God has chosen not to reveal when that day will be to His creatures. "Of that day and hour knoweth no man, no, not the angels of heaven, but my Father only" (Mt 24:36) says our Lord.

This clearly teaches us that we should not try to speculate when the Lord is coming back. We must not try to calculate from the Scriptures, for it is impossible; neither should we look at the signs of time nor suggest that the Lord will return during our lifetime. We really do not know. The Lord suggests that He will return anytime. We must take His word seriously, but we must never assign a probability to whether He will come in this generation or in the next generation. It is enough that we should be prepared always to meet Him whether He comes back in our lifetime, or we go to Him when our present life ends.

Thus the Lord teaches us:

If there is one word that we must bear in mind in view of the returning King, it is "Watch!" (see also Mk 13:37). No, we are not to watch for the signs. We are rather to watch ourselves! We are to be prepared to meet the Lord! W