Historical Background
The creeds bind the story's end to its middle: Christ will come to judge the living and the dead, the body will rise, life everlasting follows. Augustine systematized the Latin West's account in City of God Books XX-XXII. Medieval theology developed purgatory, which Trent defended and the Reformers rejected as without scriptural warrant and as derogating from Christ's finished work. The modern period reopened the extent of final loss: annihilationism or conditional immortality has been argued by evangelicals such as John Stott on the language of destruction; universal restoration, taught by Origen in a speculative key and condemned in its crude forms, returned in the twentieth century with Barth's election doctrine and Hans Urs von Balthasar's guarded hope. Historic premillennial, amillennial, and postmillennial readings order the events differently while confessing the same judgment.
Scripture References
- Matthew 25:31-46
- Romans 14:10-12
- 1 Corinthians 3:10-15
- 2 Corinthians 5:10
- Revelation 20:11-15
The Questions
- By what criteria does the final judgment judge: faith, works, or faith shown in works? Work on this question in the Workshop
- Is hell eternal conscious punishment, destruction, or a state God may yet empty? Work on this question in the Workshop
- Do the dead wait consciously, sleep, or pass immediately to their final state? Work on this question in the Workshop
- What is purgatory: a place of punishment, of purification, or a doctrine to be rejected? Work on this question in the Workshop
The Positions on This Subject
Catholic
Those who die in God's grace but imperfectly purified undergo a purification after death, the church's doctrine of purgatory, so as to achieve the holiness necessary to enter heaven.
Progressive
The kingdom of God concerns this world's transformation: salvation's final judgment falls on histories and systems as well as souls, and the church's hope takes form as work for justice in the present age.
Objections
Eternal conscious punishment is objected to as disproportionate for finite sin and as a final, unredeemed corner of creation standing against God's victory. Annihilationism is objected to on the creeds' life everlasting and the parallelism of Matthew 25:46. Universalism is objected to on the judgment texts themselves. Purgatory is objected to by Protestants as unscriptural and pastorally cruel in its historical abuses, and defended by Catholics as the necessary purification of those who die in grace yet imperfect.
Sources
Primary: Augustine of Hippo, The City of God, Books XX-XXII (c. 425-426); Council of Trent, Decree on Purgatory, Session XXV (1563); Second Vatican Council, Lumen Gentium, ch. VII (1964).
Secondary: N. T. Wright, Surprised by Hope (HarperOne, 2008); Hans Urs von Balthasar, Dare We Hope 'That All Men Be Saved'? (German original 1986; English, Ignatius Press, 1988).