JUDGMENT, FINAL. The ultimate trial of the human race when judgment will be passed upon all Melt according as their works have peen good or evil, the present order of things will be brought to an end, and a new dispensa tion inaugurated. The idea of a coming destruc tion of the world by tire is found among many peoples. (See Est ATOLOGY. ) It was especially among the ancient na tions. The worshipers of Ahura Mazda believed that this world-consuming lire would destroy only the wicked, while the good would pass through it unscathed. With this judgment there associated itself gradual ly in _1\ lazdayasnian thought the expectation of a Saosliyant (the Mes siah) who would raise the dead. ( See SAOSII ANT. ) The various elements of this Persian eschatology found their way into Jewish and Christian speculation. That the conception of the ordeal by lire was thus transplanted is evident from the ,';ibylline Oracics, ii.. 252 sqq.. viii. 411; Lactantius. vii. I. 6: and the same is true of the coming of the Messiah with flaming fire, the resurrection of the dead, and the connection of the Messiah With this resur reetion. But these foreign ideas found accept ance because could ally themselves already existing tendencies of thought. In an cient Israel the day of a hattle which decided the fate of a nation was called a 'day of Yahweh.' While popularly this day was looked upon as bringing deliverance or victory to Israel. the great prophets before the Exile Who. on moral and religious grounds. regarded the destruction of the nation by the Assyrians or the Babylonians as inevitable. saw in it a day of judgment upon Israel for its sins. in this sense the term is used by Antos and Zephaniah, and the conception is found in Hosea, Isaiah. Micah. and Jeremiah. After the Exile judgment was naturally expected upon the arrogant world-power that oppressed Israel, and the 'day of Yahweh' became the day when lie would punish the nations and deliver Ills people. or at least the faithful Israelites. Signs of its coming were eagerly looked for. In Joel the Day of Judgment is preceded by great calamities. The apocalypse of Daniel. written B.C. 165, depicts a scene of judgment in heaven. Thrones are set for the celestial court: the de monic representative of the Ilneco-Macedonian power in the shape of a chaos-monster is con demned, and the angelic representative of 'Israel in the form of a man receives the empire. Toward the end of the second century B.C. the judgment upon the angels who sinned by marrying beautifu! women (see ANc.rt.1 and the angels of the nations already oecupied much attention. as is seen in the older parts of the Book of Enoch and in the apocalypse preserved in Isaiah xxiv.-xxvii. As the notion of a celestial judgment thus linked itself to the earlier ideas of a retribution and a change of power on earth, so the new doctrines of a resurrection and a connected themselves with earlier speeu lotions (see IlEsuituEcTioN ; MEsstAn), and the grand conception of a universal judgment was formed. It is doubtful whether the step was ever taken in Judaism of ascribing the final judgment and the resurrection to the Messiah. tin the other hand. the Persian idea of an ordeal by tire and On emergence of a new heaven and a • IICW earth from the linal conflagration may have come through Judaism to Christianity. if the Messiah's kingdom Was regarded as of limited duration. the judgment was thought of as follow• Mg it (Psalter of Solomon). Where the Greek doctrine of immortality (q.v.) was accepted rather than the idea of a resurrection, the judg ment of each individual was regarded as occur ring immediately :titer death. and there was no thought of a general judgment (Wisdom of Solomon: Philo). In the sew Testament different views arc represented. Whether Jesus himself believed in a final judgment cannot be ascer tained. His view of the resurrection (TN•)
renders it improbable. The Evangelists connect the last judgment with His parousiu, or appear ance upon the clouds. The scene of the last assize in Matthew NNiV. is remarkable by the emphasis put upon moral conduct, the nations being judged not by their religious beliefs, but by the manner in which they have treated some of their fellow-men, viz. the Christians. The Epistle of dude follows the teaehing of the Book of Enoeh on this subject.. II. Peter reflects the Persian concept ion of a. world -con ilagrat .(aegis expects the corning of the :Messiah to judge the world. The Epistles to the Thessalonians present the thought of a final judgment con fleeted with the porous/a, when Antiehrist and the godless Jews and Gentiles will be destroyed. In other Pauline Epistles 'the day of the Lord Jesus Christ' is described as the time when Christ shall return and render unto all men according to the deeds wrought in the body. In the Epistle to the Ilebrews. however. the judg ment follows immediately after death, and the conception of the future is that characteristic of Alexandrian thomyht. The saute is true of the Johannine writings. in which the current idea is allegorically interpreted and referred to the already existing distinction between the followers of the light and those re ma i i rig in darkness. In the ecumenical creeds of Christendom the return of l hrist to judge the quick and the dead maintained its place. and the importance of the final judgment was enhanced by the developing doctrine of a purgatory. The rejection of the doctrine by the Protestants tended to fix the eternal destiny of the individual at death; but as the resurrection was not. assumed to take place before the final judgment. the latter event still retained some of its si!miljcAnce. The reviving chiliastie speculation (see _MILLENNIUM ) had a tendency to find in the millennial reign of Christ and his saints on earth the judgment of the world. Swedenborg conceived of several final judgments at the end of the different dispensa tions—the Adamie. the Noachie. the Mosaic, and the first Christian, closing in 1759. Among those who adhere to the doctrine as set forth in the Christian creeds there is much difference of opinion as to the details of time. place. and circumstances. In the view of Catholic theolo gians. a 'particular judgment' is passed upon every soul at the moment of death. when the choice made by the human will is irrevocably fixed, and the sentence of God is passed in accord ance with its choice. There is general agreement that the final judgment is pronounced upon as sembled humanity, and includes in the basis of its award the consequences to the whole race of the acts of the individual. Its purpose is also partly the glorification of God by this public exhibition of His justice. The judge is Christ not only in His divine but also in His human nature; this triumphant exaltation is considered as the complement of 'His humiliation to the death of the cross. The place is supposed to be the earth ; the time, a secret in the counsels of God until it arrives. In scientific circles Herder's view that the history of the world is the judg ment of the world is widely prevalent. It is expected that the earth will some day become uninhabitable, and the life of the human race will cease, and that ultimately the planet will be destroyed by fire. But this disappearance of the earth is regarded as quite normal and with out serious effect upon the life of the infinite universe. Consult: Soderblom, La vie future ( Paris, 1901) ; Charles, Critical History of the Doctrine of a Future Life (London, 1899) ; Bousset, Die Religion des Judrntums inn. neutes tainrntlichen Zeitalter (Berlin, 1903) ; Bautz, Weltgericht unci Weltendc (Mainz, 1886). See ESCHATOLOGY; IMMORTALITY.