Universal resurrection or general resurrection is a doctrine held by some Christian denominations which posits that all of the dead who have ever lived will be resurrected from the dead, generally to stand for a Last Judgment.
Contents
Judaism
Orthodox Judaism holds belief in the resurrection of the dead to be one of the cardinal principles of Rabbinic Judaism. Jewish halakhic authority Maimonides set down thirteen main principles of the Jewish faith which have ever since been printed in all Rabbinic Siddur (prayer books). Resurrection is the thirteenth principle:
"I believe with complete (perfect) faith, that there will be techiat hameitim - revival of the dead, whenever it will be God's, blessed be He, will (desire) to arise and do so. May (God's) Name be blessed, and may His remembrance arise, forever and ever."Judaism, at least in the Second Temple Period at Qumran, traditionally held that there would be a resurrection of just and unjust, but of the very good and very bad, and of Jews only. The extent of the resurrection in 2 Baruch and 4 Ezra is debated by scholars.
Christianity
Acts 24:15 in the KJV states: "...there shall be a resurrection of the dead, both of the just and unjust."
Augustine believed in a universal resurrection of bodies for all immortal souls.
The Didache comments 'Not the resurrection of everyone, but, as it says, "The Lord will come and all his holy ones with him" ' (16.7) Many Evangelicals believe in a universal resurrection, but divided into two separate resurrections; at the Second Coming and then again at the Great White Throne.
According to the Catholic Encyclopedia (1911) article on "General resurrection" "The Fourth Lateran Council (1215) teaches that all men, whether elect or reprobate, "will rise again with their own bodies which they now bear about with them" (chapter "Firmiter"). In the language of the creeds and professions of faith this return to life is called resurrection of the body (resurrectio carnis, resurrectio mortuorum, anastasis ton nekron) for a double reason: first, since the soul cannot die, it cannot be said to return to life; second the heretical contention of Hymeneus and Philitus that the Scriptures denote by resurrection not the return to life of the body, but the rising of the soul from the death of sin to the life of grace, must be excluded."
Mortalists, those Christians who do not believe that man has an immortal soul, may believe in a universal resurrection, such as Martin Luther, and Thomas Hobbes in Leviathan, Some mortalist denominations may believe in a universal resurrection of all the dead, but in two resurrection events, one at either end of a millennium, such as Seventh-day Adventists. Other mortalist denominations deny a universal resurrection, such as Christadelphians and hold that the dead count three groups; the majority who will never be raised, those raised to condemnation, and a second final destruction in the "Second Death", and those raised to eternal life.