In Matthew 25:31-46, the Lord Jesus Christ prophesied of a future judgment of the nations (Cp., Joel 3:2). In the King James Bible, the “nations” or the “heathen” are references to the Gentile nations, in contradistinction to the nation of Israel. Furthermore, the Greek word translated “nations” is ethnoi, which is also the word translated throughout the N.T. as Gentiles. In this passage, it is evident that at the Second Advent of Christ, Gentiles alive on earth are to be judged as individuals rather than nations, and the purpose of this judgment is to determine whether or not an individual Gentile will be granted entrance into Christ’s Millennial Kingdom. For comparison with the other coming judgments, see the CHART: THE FOUR JUDGMENTS IN SCRIPTURE.
The Gentiles will be separated into two groups: those set on the Lord’s right hand are categorized as “sheep”, whereas those set on His left hand are categorized as “goats” (v. 33). The destiny of the sheep is to “inherit the kingdom prepared for [them] from the foundation of the world” (v. 34). Note from this is evident that it was always part of the plan of God that Gentiles would have an inheritance in the kingdom. Although it is Israel’s destiny to be “high above all nations of the earth” (Deuteronomy 26:19; 28:1) in that kingdom, that promise to Israel necessitates that there be Gentile nations as well.
The standard of this judgment of the Gentiles (in summary) will be whether they provided food, water, lodging, clothing, medical care, and fellowship (vv. 35-36) to a group of people the Lord calls “my brethren” (v. 40). The “brethren” of the Lord Jesus Christ are the Jews (cf. Romans 9:3-5). Thus, the standard of this judgment is derived directly from the Abrahamic covenant; namely, whether these Gentiles have “blessed” or “cursed” the descendants of Abraham (Genesis 12:3). As Christ performs this judgment on Gentiles alive on earth at the time of the Second Advent, the immediate context of this judgment is the 70th Week of Daniel (Daniel 9:27), or the 7-year tribulation period that immediately precedes the Second Advent. During this period of time, Satan and his Antichrist will attempt to exterminate the Jewish people worldwide (Revelation 12:13,17), and the Gentiles will be held accountable for whether they aided or forsook the Jews during their greatest time of existential peril.
Those Gentiles found to have aided the Jews will be granted entrance into the Millennial Kingdom. Those found to have forsaken the Jews will be immediately cast “into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels” (v. 41). From this we infer that the Lake of Fire, the final destination of the wicked of all ages, was not a part of the original creation, but “prepared” after the angelic rebellion. However, although God prepared the Lake of Fire as a place of punishment for the rebellious angels, He will also use it to punish rebellious men (Revelation 20:11-15), and that punishment will be “everlasting”. In contrast, those “righteous” Gentiles enter into “life eternal” (v. 46).
Since the Church is complete at the rapture, and the rapture of the Church (to heaven) occurs before the 7-year tribulation period (1 Thessalonians 1:10; Revelation 3:10), no member of the Body of Christ will be subject to this judgment. Indeed, all attempts to view the Church as subject to this judgment have introduced irreconcilable theological contradictions. Namely, whereas salvation for individuals in the Body of Christ is “by grace, through faith … not of works” (Ephesians 2:8-9; Cp., Titus 3:5), the determination of whether these Gentiles who have survived the Tribulation receive “life eternal” (v. 46) clearly involves their works1 (vv. 35-39; 42-44).
This Judgment of the Nations has been misunderstood by those on both sides of the theological spectrum, including the left (liberal) and the right (conservative), because they fail to interpret it literally. Theological liberals see a final judgment of all men based on compassion shown to others; from this error emerges a social gospel (of works) applied to all men, which is heresy. But theological conservatives have also struggled to interpret this passage properly, since they presuppose that salvation “by grace, through faith … not of works” applies to all men in every dispensation, which on its face is clearly contradicted in the Judgment of the Nations.
The resolution of this apparent contradiction is the recognition of dispensational distinctions between salvation for the Church during the Dispensation of Grace and that of Gentiles during the Tribulation. Whereas believers during the Church Age as saved by faith alone, believers during the Tribulation must also bless the descendants of Abraham according to the promises made to him by God (Genesis 12:3), which introduces an element of works in addition to faith (which is required in every dispensation; cf. Hebrews 11:6). Is salvation by faith alone, or by faith and works? It depends on which dispensation is in view.
A final observation of the distinctions between the “righteous” (v. 37) and the unrighteous in this passage is that the “righteous” quote the words of the Lord verbatim (Cp., vv. 35-39), whereas the unrighteous merely summarize the words of the Lord (Cp., vv. 42-44) and in effect “diminish” (Deuteronomy 4:2) or “take away” (Revelation 22:19) from them. Might this typologically point to the omission of many of the words of God in modern Bible versions based on the so-called Critical Text? Such a grievous sin, at least during the Tribulation period, will be judged by having one’s name blotted out of the Book of Life (Revelation 22:19).
ENDNOTES:
- Note also that during the Tribulation all must refrain from worshipping the Beast, and taking his mark, else they cannot be saved (Revelation 14:9-11). ↩︎
Leave a Reply