Judgement
The Christian faith teaches that after death, people will be taken into the presence of God and they will be judged for the deeds they have done or failed to do during their lifetime.
Final judgement
Final judgement will come at the end of time. This is when all of humanity will be raised and people's body and soul will be reunited. Here, everyone will be judged by Christ who will have returned in all his glory. The teaching on judgement is reflected in the gospels.
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 the left.
The Parable of the Net explains how at the end of time the good will be separated from the bad, just like the fish in the net.
So it will be at the end of the age. The angels will come out and separate the evil from the righteous.
Free will
The Christian faith teaches that God created humans with free will. This is the idea that people can make their own decisions, rather than having life predetermined for them. According to Christianity, free will is what allows humans to be described as moral beings. The faith believes that humans have free will to make a conscious choice to live and act in a moral way.
The Christian faith believes that:
- it is important for people to use the free will given to them by God in a wise way and avoid committing sins
- as a result of this free will, humans are able to choose right from wrong, and therefore can sin if they choose to do so
The idea of free will is found in Genesis where Adam and EveThe first human beings according to Judeo-Christian and Islamic traditions., the first humans, are given the Garden of EdenAccording to the Bible, the perfect place that God made for man and woman at the start of creation. to live in.
Many Christians believe all humans are descended from Adam and Eve, which means that they all have the ability to disobey God. Original sin occurred when Adam and Eve were tempted and committed the first (original) sin.
Genesis 3 tells the story of how sin first entered the world when Adam and Eve were tempted by the Devil in the Garden of Eden. They ate an apple from the Tree of KnowledgeA tree in the garden of Eden that Adam and Eve ate from despite being forbidden by God. after God had instructed them not to, and for this they were banished from the garden.
Responsibility
The Christian faith teaches that it is the responsibility of humans to behave in the correct, moral way expected of them in the Bible. This includes:
- following the rules of the Bible, eg the Ten Commandments
- practising the teachings of the Bible, eg forgiveness and kindness
It is believed that it is these types of behaviours which will be judged, and these behaviours will determine what happens to people in the afterlife.
Question
What do Christians mean by judgement?
When Christians refer to judgement, they are referring to the belief that God will judge humanity on their actions. The Christian faith teaches that those who have followed Christ and his example will go to Heaven, but those who have not may go to Hell.