The Last Things

Judgment and the Second Coming

48 passages, 4 quoted here · Broad agreement in this library

Christ will come again to judge the living and the dead.

Where they stood

Each row is one claim. Each name is a writer, placed at the date of the passage. Select a name to read what they said.

2 of the 3 writers here teach: “The Lord comes to judge the living and the dead.”

teaches it partly rejects it later writer, summary only

The Lord comes to judge the living and the dead2 teach

Didache Irenaeus ×2

The wicked are punished in eternal fire1 teach

Justin

What each writer said, earliest first

The Didache Teaches: The Lord comes to judge the living and the dead

c. 100 AD · Didache 16

Do not let your lamps go out, and do not let your loins be loosened. Be ready, because you do not know the hour when our Lord is coming (Matthew 24:42). Gather together frequently, and seek what is fitting for your souls.

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Greek

Γρηγορεῖτε ὑπὲρ τῆς ζωῆς ὑμῶν: οἱ λύχνοι ὑμῶν μὴ σβεσθήτωσαν, καὶ αἱ ὀσφύες ὑμῶν μὴ ἐκλυέσθωσαν, ἀλλὰ γίνεσθε ἕτοιμοι: οὐ γὰρ οἴδατε τὴν ὤραν, ἐν ᾗ ὁ κύριος ἡμῶν ἔρχεται.

Justin Martyr Teaches: The wicked are punished in eternal fire

c. 100–c. 165 AD · Second Apology 9

I will answer briefly so that no one can repeat the charge leveled by those who pass for philosophers: that our teaching on the eternal fire awaiting the unrighteous is nothing but fable and scare‑tactic, and that we urge virtue only from fear, not because it is good and pleasing in itself.

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Greek

Ἰνα δὲ μή τις εἰπῃ τὸ λεγόμενον ὑπὸ τῶν νομιζομένων φιλοσόφων, ὅτι κόμποι καὶ φόβητρά ἐστι τὰ λεγόμενα ὑφ ἡμῶν ὅτι κολάζονται ἐν αἰωνίῳ πυρὶ οἱ ἄδικοι, καὶ διὰ φόβον ἀλλ᾿ οὐ διὰ τὸ καλὸν εἶναι καὶ ἀρεστὸν ἐναρέτως βιοῦν τοὺς ἀνθρώπους ἀξιοῦμεν, βραχυεπῶς πρὸς τοῦτο ἀποκρινοῦμαι…

Irenaeus of Lyons Teaches: The Lord comes to judge the living and the dead

c. 130–c. 202 AD · Against Heresies 5.35

When the cities of the nations are deserted, when houses stand empty because no one lives in them, and the earth is left desolate, Isaiah declares: "Behold, the day of the Lord is coming, cruel, with wrath and fierce anger, to make the land a desolation and to destroy its sinners from it" (Isaiah 13:9).

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Irenaeus of Lyons Teaches: The Lord comes to judge the living and the dead

c. 130–c. 202 AD · Against Heresies, 5.28

When this man arrives, he will gather up the whole apostasy into himself by his own judgment; he will act entirely by his own will and choice; and he will sit in the temple of God, demanding the worship due to Christ from those he has deceived. Consequently, they will be justly thrown into the lake of fire.

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Other passages filed here (44)