Satanism Today - An Encyclopedia of Religion, Folklore and Popular ...

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Last Judgment
In religious traditions that distinguish between the
afterlife fates of morally good and morally bad
individuals, there are different mechanisms by
which souls can be sent to happy or unhappy
states. In Christianity and related religions, the
judgment of souls is believed to occur upon the
death of the individual, who will be assigned
either eternal condemnation or reward (hell or
heaven) or, in some Christian churches, Purgatory.
Beyond this particular judgment, Western religions
also propagate the idea of a final judgment
day at the end of time, which usually culminates in
the resurrection of the righteous for life in paradise
and the resurrection of sinners for either
extinction or eternal damnation.
In Western religions, the notion of a final judgment
originated in Zoroastrianism. The religion
of Zoroaster is best known for its dualism. The
god of light, Ahura Mazda, and his angels are
locked in a cosmic struggle with the god of darkness
and his demons. At the end of time, after a
great final battle between good and evil, there will
be a general judgment in which everyone will be
put through an ordeal of fire (a river of molten
metal), in which good individuals will have their
dross burned away and evil people will be
consumed. Thus the souls of the damned will
trade their ongoing torment in hell for a painful
annihilation. The souls of the blessed, on the other
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hand, will be resurrected in physical bodies, which
Ahura Mazda will make both immortal and eternally
youthful.
Many of the components of this vision of the
endtimes—a final battle between good and evil,
judgment of the wicked, resurrection of the dead,
and so on—were adopted by Jewish apocalyptic
thinkers. From texts composed by these apocalyptists,
such notions were adopted into Christianity
and Islam. Although seemingly a dreadful day,
many believers throughout the centuries have
looked forward to the final judgment as the day on
which their suffering for the faith will be vindicated,
and their persecutors and ridiculers
punished. This “revenge” motif finds expression
in, for example, the church father Tertullian, who
“could scarcely wait for the great moment”:
What a panorama of spectacle on that day!
What sight shall I turn to first to laugh and
applaud Mighty kings whose ascent to
heaven used to be announced publicly,
groaning now in the depths with Jupiter
himself who used to witness the ascent
Governors who persecuted the name of the
Lord melting in flames fiercer than those they
kindled for brave Christians Wise
philosophers, blushing before their students as
they burn together, the followers to whom
they taught that the world is no concern of