The Consummation of Man
A faithful reproduction of the 1892 Coptic Catechism
Q. You have learnt what has been said of the duty of the believer in this present life. What, then, is the consummation of every man?
A. The consummation of man is death, resurrection, judgment, and everlasting reward.
Q. What is death, and what befalls man after it?
A. Death is the complete separation of the reasoning soul from its body, after which, if it (the soul) is believing and good, it is carried by pure angels to Paradise, where the righteous and pious are (S. Luke xvi. 22, and xxiii. 43); and if it is infidel, or unbelieving and evil in its deeds, it goes to Hades, where the unbelievers and guilty are confined (S. Luke xvi. 22, 23). The body, however, is in all cases dissolved and changed, going back to the earth from which it was taken (Gen. iii. 19).
Q. Do believing souls profit by prayers and charity?
A. Yes; the prayers of the Church, the offering of the Holy Oblation, and alms-giving profit those souls departed, stained by certain human shortcomings and transgressions, not the souls plunged in sins and cruelty, and without repentance or forgiveness. This doctrine was held by the Catholic Church from the earliest centuries, and the Church of Israel used to offer sacrifices for the departed as the second book of Maccabees that Judas Maccabeus used to offer sacrifices for the departed soldiers (xii. 48-45).
Q. What is the Resurrection?
A. The general Resurrection is the return of all human souls, by the command of the Creator, and in the twinkling of an eye, to their bodies, to which they are united and rise up and ready for the Great Judgment (1 Cor. xv. 52, 58).
Q. How does the body return perfect and entire after dissolution and dispersion in the earth, in fire, water, or wind?
A. If God the Almighty, as you know, has made all existing things from nothing, and created from the earth the terrestrial animals, and from the water the aquatic animals and birds, and formed from the earth the body of Adam perfect, when they were not existing, will it be difficult for His mysterious power to gather the traces of the body and reform it perfectly, however widely dispersed its parts may be? And is not the creation of a thing from utter void much more difficult and marvellous than bringing together the scattered parts? If the more difficult is easy to the Creator, how much more the less difficult!
Q. But how do the bodies of which all traces utterly disappear return to join their souls?
A. However complete the disappearance of bodies, whether in the earth, fire, water, or air, the matter does not altogether disappear from the universe, as it is only dissolved to its original elements. The Almighty Creator, Who knows all the atoms of the universe, and holds them under His sway, does not lose sight through His vast-extending knowledge of the matter of every body, and there is no difficulty with His power to restore every body perfect to join its own soul, not that of another.
Q. What Christian proof is there of the truth of the general Resurrection?
A. Our proof is the revelation made by Christ Himself—may He be glorified—about the Resurrection, especially as He has proved what He revealed by His own Resurrection from the dead in a manner that made His death impossible afterwards, and by the proofs He gave in raising several persons from the dead, even after some of them had decayed in the grave.
Q. Is there anything among us to exemplify the resurrection of our bodies?
A. Suffice it to consider the seed of corn or other grain, which, when put by the husbandman into the earth, dies first and is corrupted, and after this lives again by the blessing of the Creator which He bestows on nature. It then grows, and brings forth flower and fruit. So our bodies, after death and dissolution, rise by the power of God to Eternal Life. The Apostle points to this in (1 Cor. xv. 35-38).
Q. What is to become of the visible universe at the time of the Resurrection?
A. The Holy Scripture has stated that heaven and earth, and all things in them, and all elements will dissolve and melt immediately on the day of the coming of the Lord, and we look for new heavens and a new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness (2 S. Pet. iii. 12 and 13).
Q. What is the Judgment?
A. It is the fact of our standing in the body after our general Resurrection before the tribunal of Christ, to be judged, each of us, according to our deeds, good or evil, for the Divine justice separates the good from the evil, the good believers standing to the right hand of the Lord with confidence and joy, and the evil ones on His left hand in shame and sorrow. He then declares His righteous sentence, free from injustice or partiality, demonstrating the obedience of the good, and commending them upon the happy recompense they deserve, and pointing out the misery of the evildoers, and causing them to tremble at the penalty they have incurred (S. Matt. xxv.; Rom. xiv. 18 and 2 Cor. v. 10).
Q. What will be the everlasting recompense?
A. The Saviour—the Judge of the World, on making generally known on the Day of Resurrection the goodness of the righteous and the wickedness of the evildoers—commands those on the right hand to enter into Eternal Life in the everlasting kingdom of happiness, the glory of which men cannot describe, and to those on the left hand into Eternal pain in the everlasting fire with Satan and his hosts. These wretched ones go into perpetual pain, and the righteous to Everlasting Life (S. Matt. xxv. 31).
Q. Is the recompense then interminable?
A. Yes; it is interminable and without end, for the pain of the wicked and the happiness of the righteous last for ever and ever.