It is because people are dead and not alive in any form that we eagerly await the coming of Jesus, who will raise the dead. Also, it is because people are dead and will be raised at either the first or second resurrection that the Bible speaks of “the Day of Judgment” (cp. Matthew 10:15; 11:22; 12:36; 2 Peter 2:9; 1 John 4:17). God will raise large categories of people all at the same time—first the Christians that are dead and then alive at his coming (1 Thessalonians 4:13-18) and Revelation 20:4-6 in which it is called the first resurrection. Then the unrighteous, along with some righteous people who died during the Millennial Kingdom (Revelation 20:11-15) called the second resurrection. This is called the Geat White Throne judgement. So there will be a literal “Day of Judgement” for each category of people.
When God raises people from the dead they are judged for everlasting life and rewards. The most basic and important thing people are judged for is whether they are saved and get to live forever, or whether they are condemned to the Lake of Fire (cp. Revelation 20:15).
According to Christian tradition, people go immediately to heaven or hell when they die. But that would mean that each person is judged right when they die. The fact that a person would “go to heaven” or “go to hell” when they die means they have already been judged and given the sentence of life or death. But if people are judged right when they die, then there would be thousands of individual judgments occurring each day because across the globe thousands of people die every day. But the Bible never teaches that. The Bible teaches there is a Day of Judgment for the different groups of people: the righteous and the unrighteous.
John 5:28-29 Jesus said “the hour is coming in which all who are in the tombs will hear his voice and will come out; those who have done good, to the resurrection of life, and those who have practiced evil, to the resurrection of condemnation”. Note that Jesus said the dead are in the grave now, and they will all come out and be judged at that time when he calls them to come out. People are not judged when they die; they are judged when they are raised from the dead at the resurrection they are in.
Similarly, when Jesus was speaking about the sign of Jonah to the unbelieving Jews, he taught that there is a day of judgment coming in the future. He said, “The men of Nineveh will stand up at the Judgment with this generation and will condemn it, because they repented at the preaching of Jonah, and behold, someone greater than Jonah is here.
Matthew 12:41-42 The Queen of the South will rise up at the Judgment with this generation and will condemn it, because she came from the ends of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon, and behold, someone greater than Solomon is here”. The people of Nineveh and the Queen of the South (the Queen of Sheba) had been dead for many hundreds of years but they had not yet been judged—that will happen at the resurrection.
Furthermore, the generation Jesus was speaking to, “this generation,” would soon die, but they too will not be judged until their resurrection and Judgment Day. At that time they will all be resurrected and judged.
The Book of Revelation says Judgment Day is in the future. It says when this present evil age comes to an end, it will be “the time for the dead to be judged, and the time to give the rewards to your servants the prophets and to the holy ones” (Revelation 11:18).
Right now people who have died are in the ground and awaiting resurrection, but at some point in the future will come “Judgment Day,” and it will be “the time for the dead to be judged.” Some people laugh at the idea of a judgment day, but Judgment Day is coming, the Bible guarantees it.
Living as a Christian in this World 