Teach Mormons about Catholicism (Home)
Table of Contents:
1. Prophets of God 7. Man
13. The Restoration
19. Baptism
2. One God 8. The Image of God
14. Tradition
20. Confirmation
3. Jesus Christ
9. The Fall of Adam
15. Catholic
21. Marriage
4. The Holy Spirit 10. Original Sin
16. The Church
22. Purgatory
5. The Holy Trinity 11. Faith and Grace
17. Apostle
23. Heaven and Hell
6. The Creation 12. Authority
18. The Priesthood
24. Eternal Life
23. Heaven and Hell
Mormonism: At the Final Judgment we will
be sent to one of four places (GP
Chapter 46)
Catholicism:
- At Death, Blessedness of Heaven or Immediate Damnation
- Hell Is Eternal Separation From God
- A Willful Turning Away From God Is Necessary To Go To Hell
- Heaven Is The Blessed Community Of All In Christ
- At The Resurrection, All The Dead Will Rise To Judgment or To Life
- At Final Judgment, Either Eternal Punishment or Eternal Life
- God Will Dwell Among Men In The New Heaven
- Christ Kingdom Began At His Ascension
- Christ Presents An Eternal Kingdom To His Father At The End Of Time
Each man receives his eternal retribution in his immortal soul at the very moment of his death, in a particular judgment that refers his life to Christ: either entrance into the blessedness of heaven - through a purification or immediately, - or immediate and everlasting damnation. At the evening of life, we shall be judged on our love (CCC1022). Others have died and are being purified, while still others are in glory, contemplating 'in full light, God himself triune and one, exactly as he is"' [Mt 25:31; 1 Cor 15:26-27] (CCC954). In death, the separation of the soul from the body, the human body decays and the soul goes to meet God, while awaiting its reunion with its glorified body. God, in his almighty power, will definitively grant incorruptible life to our bodies by reuniting them with our souls, through the power of Jesus' Resurrection (CCC997).
Death puts an end to human life as the time open to either accepting or rejecting the divine grace manifested in Christ [2 Tim 1:9-10]. The New Testament speaks of judgment primarily in its aspect of the final encounter with Christ in his second coming, but also repeatedly affirms that each will be rewarded immediately after death in accordance with his works and faith. The parable of the poor man Lazarus and the words of Christ on the cross to the good thief, as well as other New Testament texts speak of a final destiny of the soul-a destiny which can be different for some and for others [Lk 16:22; 23:43; Mt 16:26; 2 Cor 5:8; Phil 1:23; Heb 9:27; 12:23] (CCC1021).
The Church affirms the existence of hell and its eternity. Immediately after death the souls of those who die in a state of mortal sin descend into hell, where they suffer the punishments of hell, "eternal fire." The chief punishment of hell is eternal separation from God, in whom alone man can possess the life and happiness for which he was created and for which he longs (CCC1035). Jesus often speaks of "Gehenna" of "the unquenchable fire" reserved for those who to the end of their lives refuse to believe and be converted, where both soul and body can be lost [Mt 5:22, 29; 10:28; 13:42, 50; Mk 9:43-48]. Jesus solemnly proclaims that he "will send his angels, and they will gather... all evil doers, and throw them into the furnace of fire," [Mt 13:41-42] and that he will pronounce the condemnation: "Depart from me, you cursed, into the eternal fire!" [Mt 25:41] (CCC1034).
Following the example of Christ, the Church warns the faithful of the sad and lamentable reality of eternal death, also called "hell" (CCC1056). Since we know neither the day nor the hour, we should follow the advice of the Lord and watch constantly so that, when the single course of our earthly life is completed, we may merit to enter with him into the marriage feast and be numbered among the blessed, and not, like the wicked and slothful servants, be ordered to depart into the eternal fire, into the outer darkness where "men will weep and gnash their teeth" [Mt 22:13; Heb 9:27; Mt 25:13, 26, 30, 31 46] (CCC1036).
God predestines no one to go to hell; for this, a willful turning away from God (a mortal sin) is necessary, and persistence in it until the end (CCC1037). By rejecting grace in this life, one already judges oneself, receives according to one's works, and can even condemn oneself for all eternity by rejecting the Spirit of love [Jn 3:18; 12:48; Mt 12:32; 1 Cor 3:12-15; Heb 6:4-6; 10:26-31] (CCC679). Anyone who deliberately refuses to accept his mercy by repenting, rejects the forgiveness of his sins and the salvation offered by the Holy Spirit. Such hardness of heart can lead to final impenitence and eternal loss (CCC1864).
We cannot be united with God unless we freely choose to love him. But we cannot love God if we sin gravely against him, against our neighbor or against ourselves: "He who does not love remains in death. Anyone who hates his brother is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life abiding in him" [1 Jn 3:14-15]. Our Lord warns us that we shall be separated from him if we fail to meet the serious needs of the poor and the little ones who are his brethren [ Mt 25:31-46]. To die in mortal sin without repenting and accepting God's merciful love means remaining separated from him for ever by our own free choice. This state of definitive self-exclusion from communion with God and the blessed is called "hell" (CCC1033).
Heaven is the blessed community of all who are perfectly incorporated into Christ (CCC1026). "Heaven" or "the heavens" can designate both the firmament and God's own "place" - "our Father in heaven" and consequently the "heaven" too which is eschatological glory. Finally, "heaven" refers to the saints and the "place" of the spiritual creatures, the angels, who surround God [Pss 115:16; 19:2; Mt 5:16] (CCC326). In the glory of heaven the blessed continue joyfully to fulfill God's will in relation to other men and to all creation. Already they reign with Christ; with him "they shall reign for ever and ever" [Rev 22:5; Mt 25:21, 23] (CCC1029). With their whole beings the angels are servants and messengers of God. Because they "always behold the face of my Father who is in heaven" they are the "mighty ones who do his word, hearkening to the voice of his word" [Mt 18:10; Ps 103:20] (CCC329).
Jesus Christ, the head of the Church, precedes us into the Father's glorious kingdom so that we, the members of his Body, may live in the hope of one day being with him for ever (CCC666). To live in heaven is "to be with Christ." The elect live "in Christ," [Phil 1:23; Jn 14:3; 1 Thess 4:17] but they retain, or rather find, their true identity, their own name [ Rev 2:17]. For life is to be with Christ; where Christ is, there is life, there is the kingdom (CCC1025). We believe that the multitude of those gathered around Jesus and Mary in Paradise forms the Church of heaven, where in eternal blessedness they see God as he is and where they are also, to various degrees, associated with the holy angels in the divine governance exercised by Christ in glory, by interceding for us and helping our weakness by their fraternal concern (CCC1053).
Heaven is the ultimate end and fulfillment of the deepest human longings, the state of supreme, definitive happiness (CCC1024). Our Father is in heaven, his dwelling place; the Father's house is our homeland. Sin has exiled us from the land of the covenant, [Gen 3] but conversion of heart enables us to return to the Father, to heaven [Jer 3:19-4; Lk 15:18, 21] (CCC2795). This mystery of blessed communion with God and all who are in Christ is beyond all understanding and description. Scripture speaks of it in images: life, light, peace, wedding feast, wine of the kingdom, the Father's house, the heavenly Jerusalem, paradise: "no eye has seen, nor ear heard, nor the heart of man conceived, what God has prepared for those who love him" [1 Cor 2:9] (CCC1027). Left to its own natural powers humanity does not have access to the "Father's house", to God's life and happiness [Jn 14:2]. Only Christ can open to man such access that we, his members, might have confidence that we too shall go where he, our Head and our Source, has preceded us (CCC661).
At The Resurrection, All The Dead Will Rise To Judgment or To Life
All the dead will rise, "those who have done good, to the resurrection of life, and those who have done evil, to the resurrection of judgment" [Jn 5:29; Dan 12:2] (CCC998). To rise with Christ, we must die with Christ: we must "be away from the body and at home with the Lord" [2 Cor 5:8]. In that "departure" which is death the soul is separated from the body [Phil 1:23]. It will be reunited with the body on the day of resurrection of the dead (CCC1005). We believe in the true resurrection of this flesh that we now possess. We sow a corruptible body in the tomb, but he raises up an incorruptible body, a "spiritual body" (1 Cor 15:42-44) (CCC1017). The "resurrection of the flesh" means not only that the immortal soul will live on after death, but that even our "mortal body" will come to life again [Rom 8:11] (CCC990).
Christ is raised with his own body: "See my hands and my feet, that it is I myself"; [Lk 24:39] but he did not return to an earthly life. So, in him, all of them will rise again with their own bodies which they now bear, but Christ "will change our lowly body to be like his glorious body," into a "spiritual body" [Phil 3:21; 2 Cor 15:44]. This perishable nature must put on the imperishable, and this mortal nature must put on immortality [1 Cor 15:35-37,42,52,53] (CCC999). When we rise on the last day we "also will appear with him in glory" [Col 3:4] (CCC1003). "It is in regard to death that man's condition is most shrouded in doubt." In a sense bodily death is natural, but for faith it is in fact "the wages of sin" [Rom 6:23; Gen 2:17]. For those who die in Christ's grace it is a participation in the death of the Lord, so that they can also share his Resurrection [Rom 6:3-9; Phil 3:10-11] (CCC1006).
As a consequence of original sin, man must suffer bodily death, from which man would have been immune had he not sinned (CCC1018). Jesus, the Son of God, freely suffered death for us in complete and free submission to the will of God, his Father. By his death he has conquered death, and so opened the possibility of salvation to all men (CCC1019). In death, the separation of the soul from the body, the human body decays and the soul goes to meet God, while awaiting its reunion with its glorified body. God, in his almighty power, will definitively grant incorruptible life to our bodies by reuniting them with our souls, through the power of Jesus' Resurrection (CCC997). The Christian who unites his own death to that of Jesus views it as a step towards him and an entrance into everlasting life (CCC1020). How great will your glory and happiness be, to be allowed to see God, to be honored with sharing the joy of salvation and eternal light with Christ your Lord and God,... to delight in the joy of immortality in the Kingdom of heaven with the righteous and God's friends (CCC1028).
At Final Judgment, Either Eternal Punishment or Eternal Life
The resurrection of all the dead, "of both the just and the unjust," [Acts 24:15] will precede the Last Judgment. This will be "the hour when all who are in the tombs will hear [the Son of man's] voice and come forth, those who have done good, to the resurrection of life, and those who have done evil, to the resurrection of judgment" [Jn 5:28-29]. Then Christ will come "in his glory, and all the angels with him .... Before him will be gathered all the nations, and he will separate them one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats, and he will place the sheep at his right hand, but the goats at the left.... And they will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life" [Mt 25:31, 32, 46] (CCC1038). We shall know the ultimate meaning of the whole work of creation and of the entire economy of salvation and understand the marvellous ways by which his Providence led everything towards its final end (CCC1040).
On the Day of Judgment all men will appear in their own bodies before Christ's tribunal to render an account of their own deeds (CCC1059). The glorious Christ will reveal the secret disposition of hearts and will render to each man according to his works, and according to his acceptance or refusal of grace (CCC682). Our attitude to our neighbor will disclose acceptance or refusal of grace and divine love [ Mt 5:22; 7:1-5]. On the Last Day Jesus will say: "Truly I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these my brethren, you did it to me" [Mt 25:40] (CCC678). In the presence of Christ, who is Truth itself, the truth of each man's relationship with God will be laid bare [Jn 12:49]. The Last Judgment will reveal even to its furthest consequences the good each person has done or failed to do during his earthly life (CCC1039).
The Church will receive its perfection only in the glory of heaven, at the time of Christ's glorious return. Only then will "all the just from the time of Adam, 'from Abel, the just one, to the last of the elect,'... be gathered together in the universal Church in the Father's presence" (CCC769). All those he has redeemed and made "holy and blameless before him in love," [Eph 1:4] will be gathered together as the one People of God, the "Bride of the Lamb," [Rev 21:9] "the holy city Jerusalem coming down out of heaven from God, having the glory of God" [Rev 21:10-11] (CCC865). Those who are united with Christ will form the community of the redeemed, "the holy city" of God, "the Bride, the wife of the Lamb" [Rev 21:2, 9] (CCC1045). In this new universe, the heavenly Jerusalem, God will have his dwelling among men [ Rev 21:5]. "He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning nor crying nor pain any more, for the former things have passed away" [Rev 21:4] (CCC1044).
Created in a state of holiness, man was destined to be fully "divinized" by God in glory. Seduced by the devil, he wanted to "be like God", but "without God, before God, and not in accordance with God" [Gen 3:5] (CCC398). God put us in the world to know, to love, and to serve him, and so to come to paradise. Beatitude makes us "partakers of the divine nature" and of eternal life [2 Pet 1:4; Jn 17:3]. With beatitude, man enters into the glory of Christ [Rom 8:18] and into the joy of the Trinitarian life (CCC1721). Christ "reflects the glory of God and bears the very stamp of his nature," in whom "the whole fullness of deity dwells bodily" [Heb 1:3; Col 2:9] (CCC2502). The Godhead of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit is one, their glory equal, their majesty coeternal (CCC266).
Scripture calls "glory," the radiance of his majesty [Ps 8; Isa 6:3]. In making man in his image and likeness, God "crowned him with glory and honor," but by sinning, man fell "short of the glory of God" [Ps 8:5; Rom 3:23; Gen 1:26]. From that time on, God was to manifest his holiness by revealing and giving his name, in order to restore man to the image of his Creator [Col 3:10] (CCC2809). Disfigured by sin and death, man remains "in the image of God," in the image of the Son, but is deprived "of the glory of God," [Rom 3:23] of his "likeness." The promise made to Abraham inaugurates the economy of salvation, at the culmination of which the Son himself will assume that "image" [Jn 1:14; Phil 2:7] and restore it in the Father's "likeness" by giving it again its Glory, the Spirit who is "the giver of life" (CCC705).
Being seated at the Father's right hand signifies the inauguration of the Messiah's kingdom, the fulfilment of the prophet Daniel's vision concerning the Son of man: "To him was given dominion and glory and kingdom, that all peoples, nations, and languages should serve him; his dominion is an everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away, and his kingdom one that shall not be destroyed" [Dan 7:14]. After this event the apostles became witnesses of the "kingdom [that] will have no end" [Nicene Creed] (CCC664). Christ the Lord already reigns through the Church, but all the things of this world are not yet subjected to him. The triumph of Christ's kingdom will not come about without one last assault by the powers of evil (CCC680).
Christ's Ascension into heaven signifies his participation, in his humanity, in God's power and authority. Jesus Christ is Lord: he possesses all power in heaven and on earth. He is "far above all rule and authority and power and dominion", for the Father "has put all things under his feet" [Eph 1:20-22] (CCC668). Though already present in his Church, Christ's reign is nevertheless yet to be fulfilled "with power and great glory" by the King's return to earth [Lk 21:27; Mt 25:31]. This reign is still under attack by the evil powers, even though they have been defeated definitively by Christ's Passover [2 Th 2:7]. Until everything is subject to him, "until there be realized new heavens and a new earth in which justice dwells, the pilgrim Church, in her sacraments and institutions, which belong to this present age, carries the mark of this world which will pass, and she herself takes her place among the creatures which groan and travail yet and await the revelation of the sons of God" [2 Pt 3:13; Rom 8:19-22; 1 Cor 15:28] (CCC671).
Christ Presents An Eternal Kingdom To His Father At The End Of Time
In the Lord's Prayer, "thy kingdom come" refers primarily to the final coming of the reign of God through Christ's return [Titus 2:13] (CCC2818). The kingdom will come in glory when Christ hands it over to his Father (CCC2816). When Christ presents to his Father an eternal and universal kingdom." God will then be "all in all" in eternal life [1 Cor 5:28] (CCC1050). "New heavens and a new earth" [2 Pet 3:13; Rev 21:1] will be the definitive realization of God's plan to bring under a single head "all things in [Christ], things in heaven and things on earth" [Eph 1:10] (CCC1043).
At the end of time, the Kingdom of God will come in its fullness. After the universal judgment, the righteous will reign for ever with Christ, glorified in body and soul. The universe itself will be renewed: The Church... will receive her perfection only in the glory of heaven, then will come the time of the renewal of all things. At that time, together with the human race, the universe itself, which is so closely related to man and which attains its destiny through him, will be perfectly re-established in Christ [Acts 3:21; Eph 1:10; Col 1:20; 2 Pet 3:10-13] (CCC1042).