General Resurrection and Final Judgment
As taught in the Reformed / Presbyterian tradition
The bodily resurrection of all people and the final account given before the throne of God.
The doctrine of the General Resurrection and the Final Judgment serves as the grand climax of the redemptive-historical narrative within the Reformed tradition. It answers the fundamental question: To what end is God conducting the course of human history? In the Reformed view, history is not a series of cyclical events or a purposeless drift toward entropy; rather, it is a linear, covenantal progression governed by the sovereign decree of God, moving inexorably toward a definitive day of accounting and restoration. This subtopic addresses the "not yet" of our salvation—the promise that the victory Christ won at His first coming will be consummated and made manifest to the entire cosmos at His second coming.
By the end of this lesson
- **Articulate** the Reformed "Two-Age" eschatological model and how it necessitates a single, general resurrection of both the righteous and the unrighteous.
- **Distinguish** between the "Intermediate State" (the soul's existence after death) and the "Final State" (the resurrected life in the New Heavens and New Earth).
- **Explain** the Christological nature of the Final Judgment, identifying why it is necessary for the Mediator Himself to be the one who sits upon the Great White Throne.
- **Trace** the relationship between the Covenant of Grace and the Final Judgment, explaining how "judgment according to works" is compatible with "salvation by grace alone."
- **Defend** the physical nature of the resurrection body against dualistic or purely spiritualised interpretations of the afterlife.
- **Identify** the historical and confessional developments that led to the Westminster Confession's statements on the Last Things.
- **Apply** the doctrine of the Final Judgment to Christian ethics, specifically regarding the pursuit of justice and the endurance of suffering in the present age.
- **Compare** the Reformed view of a single general judgment with the multi-stage judgment systems found in Premillennial Dispensationalism.
Scripture
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