Dear Catholic Exchange:
When you die you are judged, and inherit heaven if you are good enough. I have been told there is another judgment. Is it possible to lose heaven at the second judgment?
Bob Pence
Dear Mr. Pence,
Peace in Christ! It is not possible for one to lose heaven once he or she has been judged. What your question involves is the difference between the “particular” and “final” judgment. Each person’s eternal destiny is sealed at the moment of death — “it is appointed for men to die once, and after that comes judgment” (Heb 9:27). Why then would there be another judgment at the end of time?
This final judgment is often spoken of in the New Testament and typically in conjunction with the final resurrection on the Last Day. Whereas in the particular judgment one’s destiny is sealed according to whether he accepted or refused God’s grace, the final judgment lays bare before all “the furthest consequences the good each person has done or failed to do during his earthly life” (Catechism, no. 1039). In addition, the final judgment is also called the general judgment in which all persons and nations are judged before all (cf. Mt 25:31-46).
Perhaps a simple way to describe particular and final judgment is that, in the former, you get your reward — heaven or hell — at the moment of death; in the latter, all the details come out and, in addition, you get your body back, transformed and glorified in the final resurrection just preceding final judgment.
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