Particular judgment

Many Christians believe the dead are judged immediately after death and await judgment day in peace or torment because of the way they interpret several key New Testament passages.

[3][4] Some Christians believe that death is a period of dormancy, or sleep in the body, or an intermediate state, on Earth, or in the Bosom of Abraham, in which there is no consciousness and no Heavenly activity has yet begun – no judgment, no trip to heaven nor hell – based on their interpretation of the following scriptures: "The dead know not anything ... Their love, their hatred, and their envy is now perished" (Ecclesiastes 9:5); "In death there is no remembrance of thee; in the grave, who shall give thee thanks?"

Some early Church Fathers, apparently including Justin, Irenaeus, and Clement of Alexandria, believed that, in general, the saved did not enter heaven until Judgment Day, and during the interval between death and the resurrection they dwell happily in a delightful abode, awaiting their final glorification.

[3] After this "particular judgment", according to Orthodox dogmatic theology, the soul experiences a foretaste of the blessedness or the eternal torment that awaits it after the resurrection.

[7] Hippolytus of Rome pictured a particular judgment of souls in Hades, by which the righteous are assigned to "a locality full of light" and the unrighteous are "forc(ed) down into the lower parts".

[9] He said that the dead are judged at death and divided into four groups: the place of the truly virtuous, such as saints and martyrs, is Paradise; the unmistakably evil are damned to eternal punishment in hell; the two intermediate groups, the not completely wicked, and the not completely good, could be helped by the prayers of the living, though it seems that for the former repentance and the prayers of the living created a "more tolerable" hell, while the latter would pass through a penitential fire before being admitted to heaven at the time of the Last Judgment.

In contrast to the Hell of the Damned, the Limbo was thought as a place where souls enjoyed natural happiness and suffered no punishments except for the lack of the beatific vision.

[16][17] According to the Catechism of the Catholic Church: 1021 Death puts an end to human life as the time open to either accepting or rejecting the divine grace manifested in Christ.

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.

1022 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.

[22] With the rise of the cult of Osiris during the Middle Kingdom (c. 2040–1640 BC) in Ancient Egypt the "democratization of religion" offered to even his humblest followers the prospect of eternal life, with moral fitness becoming the dominant factor in determining a person's suitability.

In Islam, according to hadith books, the angels Nakir and Munkar interrogate a recently deceased soul, which then remains in its grave in a state of bliss or torment until Judgment Day.