This page is about the Christian concept. For paintings of the same name, see Last Judgement (painting). Judgement Day redirects here - for other meanings see Judgement Day (disambiguation)

In Christian eschatology, the Last Judgment or Judgement Day is the ethical-judicial trial, judgment, and punishment/reward of individual humans (assignment to heaven or to hell) by a divine tribunal (God) at the end of time, following the destruction of humans' present earthly existence. Some Christians say that God does not judge, since He finds "all to be precious".

This eschatology has spawned numerous artistic depictions.

The equivalent in Islamic eschatology is Qiyama. Jewish eschatology is concerned with the Jewish Messiah.

Sources

The doctrine and iconographic features of a "Last Judgment" are drawn from many passages from the apocalyptic books of the Bible. It appears

When the Son of man shall come in his glory, and all the holy angels with him, then shall he sit upon the throne of his glory: And before him shall be gathered all nations: and he shall separate them one from another, as a shepherd divideth his sheep from the goats: And he shall set the sheep on his right hand, but the goats on the left. Then shall the King say unto them on his right hand, Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world..Then shall he say also unto them on the left hand, Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels..And these shall go away into everlasting punishment: but the righteous into life eternal. (Matt 25:31-34, 41, 46)

The doctrine is further supported by passages in Daniel, Isaiah and the Revelation of Saint John the Divine:

And I saw a great white throne, and him that sat on it, from whose face the



earth and the heaven fled away; and there was found no place for them. And I saw the dead, small and great, stand before God; and the books were opened: and another book was opened, which is the book of life: and the dead were judged out of those things which were written in the books, according to their works. (Rev 20:11-12)

Adherents of millennialism, mostly Protestant Christians, regard the two passages as describing separate events: the "sheep and goats" judgment will determine the final status of those persons alive at the end of the Tribulation, and the "great white throne" judgment will be the final condemnation of the unrighteous dead at the end of all time, after the end of the world and before the beginning of the eternal period described in the final two chapters of Revelation.

Catholicism

Belief in final judgment is held firmly by the Roman Catholic Church and its followers. The Roman Catholic Church believes this last judgement is not a literal trial. Those who have already died are either in Hell, Heaven, or awaiting Heaven in Purgatory. The last judgement is the resurrection of the dead, and the reuniting of the body and soul. Jesus will then cast the deceased into Eternal Life (Heaven) or Eternal death (Hell).

Artistic Representations

In art, the Last Judgment is a common theme in medieval and renaissance religious iconography. Like most early iconographic innovations, its origins stem from Byzantium. In Western Christianity, it is often the subject depicted on the central tympanum of medieval cathedrals and churches, or as the central section of a triptych, flanked by depictions of heaven and hell to the left and right, respectively (heaven being to the viewer's left, but to the Christ figure's right).

The most famous Renaissance depiction is Michelangelo Buonarroti's in the Sistine Chapel. Included in this is his self portrait, as St. Bartholomew's flayed skin.

See also

• Apocalypse
• Armageddon
• Bozrah deliverance
• End of the World
• End Times
• Eschatology
• Qiyamah Muslim view

Jüngstes Gericht Juicio Final יום הדין Dag des oordeels 最後の審判 Sąd Ostateczny Juízo Final Страшный суд Domedagen 最后的审判