!!! X LOG-IN to a browser REQUIRED with browser's
Cross Site Tracking Prevention turned OFF to view
X.com timelines on Cardinal News. MORE INFO

The Sheep and the Goats or “the Judgment of the Nations” quotation from Jesus passage in the New Testament is a pronouncement of Jesus recorded in Chapter 25:31-46 of the Gospel of Matthew.

“But when the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the holy angels with him, then he will sit on the throne of his glory. Before him all the nations will be gathered, and he will separate them one from another, as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. He will set the sheep on his right hand, but the goats on the left. Then the King will tell those on his right hand, ‘Come, blessed of my Father, inherit the Kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world; for I was hungry, and you gave me food to eat. I was thirsty, and you gave me drink. I was a stranger, and you took me in. I was naked, and you clothed me. I was sick, and you visited me. I was in prison, and you came to me.’

“Then the righteous will answer him, saying, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry, and feed you; or thirsty, and give you a drink? When did we see you as a stranger, and take you in; or naked, and clothe you? When did we see you sick, or in prison, and come to you?’

“The King will answer them, ‘Most certainly I tell you, because you did it to one of the least of these my brothers, you did it to me.’ Then he will say also to those on the left hand, ‘Depart from me, you cursed, into the eternal fire which is prepared for the devil and his angels; for I was hungry, and you didn’t give me food to eat; I was thirsty, and you gave me no drink; I was a stranger, and you didn’t take me in; naked, and you didn’t clothe me; sick, and in prison, and you didn’t visit me.’

“Then they will also answer, saying, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry, or thirsty, or a stranger, or naked, or sick, or in prison, and didn’t help you?’

“Then he will answer them, saying, ‘Most certainly I tell you, because you didn’t do it to one of the least of these, you didn’t do it to me.’ These will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life.”

The common futurist explanation of the discourse is that it tells of the Last Judgment, and the division of all the world’s people into the blessed, on the right hand of God, who are welcomed by the Father to inherit the Kingdom and eternal life, and the cursed, who are cast into the eternal fire along with the devil and his angels.

The division seems to be based on the acts of kindness and mercy done by people to their disadvantaged fellow people; Jesus identifies such kindness with kindness towards himself.

Futurism is a Christian eschatological view (end times view) that interprets portions of the Book of Revelation and the Book of Daniel as future events in a literal, physical, apocalyptic, and global context.

— Dictionary of Biblical Prophecy and End Times, by J. Daniel Hays, J. Scott Duvall, C. Marvin Pate

The Sheep and the Goats passage directly addresses, in Jesus’s own words, one of the most debated questions in Christian theology – who goes to Heaven, and why. A related question is whether only orthodox Christians may be saved, or whether ‘virtuous pagans’ may also go to Heaven. The three main theological positions in this regard are:

Justification by Works (Pelagianism): The doctrine that one can be saved simply by doing good works.

Justification by Faith: The doctrine that one is saved by, and only by, faith. This doctrine is primarily associated with Martin Luther and his successors.

Predestination: The doctrine that God has pre-decided (or, decided out of the flow of time as we know it) who will be saved and who will be damned, using criteria in principle unknowable to human beings. This doctrine is associated with Calvinism, Jansenism, and arguably St. Augustine.

Search Amazon …

Search for products sold on Amazon:

Arlingtoncardinal.com is an Amazon Associate website, which means that a small percentage of your purchases gets paid to Arlingtoncardinal.com at no extra cost to you. When you use the search boxes above, any Amazon banner ad, or any product associated with an Amazon banner on this website, you help pay expenses related to maintaining Arlingtoncardinal.com and creating new services and ideas for a resourceful website. See more info at Arlingtoncardinal.com/AdDisclosure