Sheep & Goats

Matthew 25:31-46

“The Sheep and Goats” Proclamation

or 

“The Son of Man will Judge the Nations”

(NB the word "judge" is in the title given by translators, but the word is not found in the verses).

Introduction:

·  This passage is monumental in its’ theological and God-relationship impact.

·      It’s the only place in the Bible that eternal damnation is mentioned in a way that it’s possibly humans as the target, barring Rev 20.15 which is linked and so covered below.

·      It would be a rather obscure way to proclaim that, if humans aren’t caring, they face eternal damnation. The bible always has precepts such as this spread through different books and this one is not.

·      How we understand this passage therefore changes how we read the whole bible.

Conclusion:

·      This essay provides evidence to support the premise that the sheep & goats referred to, are demons not humans.

First the passage in full:

31 When the Son of Man comes in His glory, and all the angels with Him, then He will sit on the throne of His glory.

32 All the nations will be gathered before Him, and He will separate them one from another, as a shepherd divides his sheep from the goats.

33 And He will set the sheep on His right hand, but the goats on the left.

34 Then the King will say to those on His right hand, ‘Come, you blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world:

35 for I was hungry and you gave Me food; I was thirsty and you gave Me drink; I was a stranger and you took Me in;

36 I was naked and you clothed Me; I was sick and you visited Me; I was in prison and you came to Me.’

37 “Then the righteous will answer Him, saying, ‘Lord, when did we see You hungry and feed You, or thirsty and give You drink?

38 When did we see You a stranger and take You in, or naked and clothe You?

39 Or when did we see You sick, or in prison, and come to You?’

40 And the King will answer and say to them, ‘Assuredly, I say to you, inasmuch as you did it to one of the least of these My brethren, you did it to Me.’

41 “Then He will also say to those on the left hand, ‘Depart from Me, you cursed, into the everlasting fire prepared for the devil and his angels:

42 for I was hungry and you gave Me no food; I was thirsty and you gave Me no drink;

43 I was a stranger and you did not take Me in, naked and you did not clothe Me, sick and in prison and you did not visit Me.’

44 “Then they also will answer Him,[fn] saying, ‘Lord, when did we see You hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or sick or in prison, and did not minister to You?’

45 Then He will answer them, saying, ‘Assuredly, I say to you, inasmuch as you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to Me.’

46 And these will go away into everlasting punishment, but the righteous into eternal life.”

Summary of Main Points of Evidence:

More detail with verse citations follows this section.

1.            The passage never calls those separated, “humans” or “people”; “Nations” is as naming as it gets.

2.            The event happens in Heaven, a spiritual place, not on earth, for it to be humans would require a large-scale rapture of all humans, from all time. Such a rapture of any, and all humans, isn’t depicted in the bible.

3.            The title given to Jesus is the one He’s to use to judge Angels, not the title He has for when he presides over Satan putting humans on trial.

4.            “Nations” are separated, one from another. The nations are the units being separated. Each nation is not split into constituent (people) parts.

5.            The term “nations” is used alone, when elsewhere, when we get references to “nations”, we get a fuller rendition “nations, tribes and peoples”; suggesting that “nations” stand as a separate entity in God’s counting, than to “people”.

6.            Nations in Greek, can mean a multitude of anything, including beasts, that live together.

7.            Demons are elsewhere in the bible associated with, or said to be behind, or denoted as “nations”.

8.            Demons know such an event is coming for them. The demons, being taken out of two men by Jesus, said to Jesus their judgement by Him wasn’t yet due.

9.        It clearly says the everlasting fire was prepared for the devil and his angels, not humans.

10.        Those thrown in are named “you cursed”, but humans aren’t cursed by God anywhere in the Bible, unless you count this verse.

11.        God’s anger is always bent on those who corrupt, not the corrupted.

12.        Revelation doesn’t list people going into the eternal fire (just the Devil etc). Only things (at a stretch “anyone”) not in the Book of Life, go in the eternal fire, and there’s no positive affirmation this happens to people.

13.        All humans have been in the book of life since before the foundation of the world. We can’t get out of it. (see Book of life essay). Those whose names are not in the BoL are a type of being (demons) and not a subset of humans.

14.        No where else in the bible does it say that humans need to do works to avoid eternal punishment.

15.        No where else in the bible does it say that humans need to do works to earn an inheritance.

 16.        Unlike these protagonists (demons), the only other two humans depicted in the bible as being in a hellish place, the Rich Man and Lazarus in Hades, knew why they were there. The “Nations” seem to not know why they failed or succeeded. Any human reading this passage, has made themselves aware, should they think themselves the subject of the passage.

17.        The actions measured were tending/caring ones. Angels are commissioned to tend to humans.

18.        Enoch, though not canonical, says that Angels receive kingdoms as rewards for fulfilling this commission.

19.        It’s a very low bar. Help one person, if but only once, and the subjects are spared. Do one good thing, don’t be 100% bad and you are spared. Such a principal is certainly not presented as God’s intention for Humans. He would have us be perfect, but not as prerequisite for anything.

Details:

●  Mat 25.31 This event is happening in Heaven, not on Earth. We know this because the Son of Man is said to be sitting on His thrown of Glory, which is in Heaven. Rev 7.11. For humans to be on trial here, would mean a large-scale rapture, of all humans still alive, an event not reported in Daniel or Revelation.

o   Mat 25.31 "He" is sitting on His Thrown of Glory, not the Great White Thrown (of Judgement). This is not a judgement of people, the one done with books with our works in them (that the Devil uses) or the 'Other" book, the BoL, that God uses.

o   Mat 25.31 Jesus is referred to as the Son of Man, not Son of God. It is in His capacity as Son of Man that He judges the angels/demons. Only as the Son of God will He preside over the Devil accusing humans. As the Son of Man, like as humans, He/we judge Angels 1 Cor 6.3

●  Mat 25.31 This event is happening when He comes in His Glory, not when He returns. It is happening in Heaven so “when” = “any-and-all-when”.

●  Mat 25.31 Present with Him there are all the angels, not just “Holy” angels (that’s a translator addition, that isn’t in the textus receptus), so good angels and bad angels (demons).

●  Mat 25.32 On trial are the “Nations”, only then subsequently referred to as:

o   Separated: “one from another”

o   The good: “those on the right hand”, “them”, “sheep”, “you”, “the righteous”, and of themselves as “we”

o   The bad: “those on the left hand”, “goats”, “you cursed”, “you”, and by themselves as “we”

o   Never are those on trial referred to as “people” (except in the NIV, in Mat 24.32 which has the Greek word “them” translated as “people”!)

●   Mat 25.32 Nations Greek “ethnos”, means a multitude whether men or beasts, associated by living together.

 ●   A human can be in a traditional secular “nation” but is not as a person a nation. Here “Nations” are separated, one from another.

 ●   The nations are the units being separated. Each nation is not split into many parts.

 ●   In the Bible, spirits are denoted as nations, kings of the earth (Rev 19), or mighty men.

o   Daniel 10: This passage describes a struggle between a messenger angel (Gabriel) and a "Prince of the kingdom of Persia," which is interpreted as a spiritual principality over the nation.

o   Dan 10.13, Rev 1.20-2.1 There are evidently angels and demons assigned to nations, and angels to towns/churches.

o   Ephesians 6:12: This verse talks about spiritual forces of evil in "high places," which is seen as supporting the idea of demonic hierarchies and ruling spirits.

o   Mark 5:9: Jesus' encounter with a man possessed by a spirit called "Legion" is another example, where the spirit asks not to be sent out of the country, implying it held authority in that geographical area.

●  When it says all the “nations” are gathered before Him (to be separated, left and right) it doesn’t say “nations, tribes and peoples” as it does in Rev 7.9. So, we can’t assume nations refers to people, as when nations is used elsewhere, it emphasises people to confirm the intent that it means people.

●   Rev 19.15-21. Has Christ on a white horse, Himself covered in blood, using truth (a sword from His mouth) to strike the nations. This was seen happening in an opened heaven. Issues with “nations” are dealt with in Heaven.

●   Psalm 9:17. David, a man after God's own heart (single minded with God) suggesting "The wicked (rasa - hostile toward God) shall be turned into hell (sheol/hades), And all the nations that forget God." Still not. saying humans. 

●  Mat 8.29. The demons in the two possessed men met by Jesus, knew Jesus was due to torment them (like this) later, not at that time.

●  Mat 25.41. It references “everlasting fire prepared for the devil and his angels”. It doesn’t say it is prepared for humans. It is an assumption to think its use is to be extended to humans it wasn’t prepared for.

●  Mat 25.41. Those thrown in the lake are called “you cursed”. Who’s cursed in the bible and by who?

o   Gen 3.14. The serpent was cursed, because of his action, it doesn’t say “by God”

o   Gen 3.17. The ground was cursed, because of our actions, it doesn’t say “by God”.

o   Genesis. Humans, Adam and Eve weren’t cursed.

o   Gen 4.11. Cain was cursed “from the earth”, which had received the blood of his brother whom he’d killed. Cain proclaims this a punishment (not God), then God marks him as not be killed by others to protect him.

o   Gen 5.29, Lamech, Noah’s dad, proclaims that God had cursed the ground, but he could have been wrong saying this, God didn’t say he had.

o   Deut 27. Moses adds that people who broke the laws would be cursed, but the law written on the stones only said what people, should and should not do. Moses embellished the law by adding curses.

o   Luk 13.1 a crowd asks if some people had been worse sinners and Jesus said “no”.

o   Mar 11.14 Jesus pronounces to a fig tree, “let no one eat from you again”, and it withered, then in Mar 11.21, Peter later suggests that Jesus had cursed it, but note Jesus didn’t say this is what he had done, even if “only” to a tree.

o   Gal 3.10 and 3.13, Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law, having become a curse for us (for it is written, “Cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree”) a reference to Deut 27.

o   Heb 6.1-8, the peril of not progressing, apparently leads to being near to being cursed, but stops short of pronouncing a curse.

●  So, no human is cursed, and only “you cursed” are put in the lake of fire.

●  Heb 13.2. How might angels not know when they were helping God in humans? Perhaps, in the same way we don’t know when we help angels, or perhaps it's rhetorical device for the listner.

●  1 Pet 3.19 Jesus on His death, before resurrection went to preach to spirits in prison. Part of His supernatural tour de force, before being resurrected involved a prison visit to preach/explain.

●  Deut 32. God’s vengeance is to be on the powers behind people that corrupt them, not the people themselves.

●  Mat 3.7  “But when he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees coming to his baptism, he (Jesus) said to them, “Brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come?” Jesus is addressing the serpent, the demons working behind/through the pharisees. As in Ezekial 28, where the king of tyre is being spoken to, but Satan, “the bright morning star” is addressed through him by God.

●  Rev 19.20, has the devil and the false prophet, only, thrown in the lake of fire and still there in Rev 20.10.

●  Rev 20.14 has death and hades added to the lake of fire.

●  Rev 20.15 has “anyone/whosever/any object (tis - G5100)” not found in the book of life added to the lake of fire. Could “whosever” include humans (“tis” - an enclitic indefinite pronoun; some or any person or object, so reads more “anything”)? It’s a stretch to suggest so. The only way, despite all the above points, is to consider; can humans be blotted out of the book of life, or not be in it in the first place? Here’s all the bible verses about that… spoiler alert - it is not expressly noted in the bible that humans can, are, or are to be, blotted from the book of life:

o   Psalms 69:27-28, has a psalmist ask God to blot people out of the book of life, but it doesn’t confirm if this is a practice God partakes in. But the seed is sown by this, and so humans fear it, so Jesus assures us through John in Rev 3…

o   Rev 3.5, has Jesus saying He will not blot out the names of “those who overcome” from the book of life, but He will confess their name before His Father and before His angels. This is an assurance in case overcomers fear losing out. He doesn’t in fact say He will blot out anyone else’s name. This is not a warning to those who don’t overcome, but an assurance none the less to those who do.

o   Phil 4.3, has Paul saying his co-workers and some women’s names are written in the book of life, having helped him and the gospel. It doesn’t say they wouldn’t be in the book of life, had they not.

o   Luk 10.20, Jesus said to the 70 returning having commanded demons out in Jesus’ name, “Nevertheless do not rejoice in this, that the spirits are subject to you, but rather rejoice because your names are written in heaven.” It doesn’t say “book of life”, but other scholars have also assumed it to be referring to that. It does not say that only these 70 (and Christian humans like them), unlike other humans, had their names in the book of life. It says your names are written in Heaven and demons names aren’t. All humans should therefore rejoice!!

o   Dan 12.1, Here we have the word “nation” (as in the sheep and goats’ proclamation), and trouble measured against times when there were and were not “nations”.  And “your people shall be delivered, everyone who is found written in the book”. People are written in the book. You have to want some people excluded from the book, to read it that is only those written in the book who are delivered.

o   Rev 17.8 “those who dwell on the earth will marvel, whose names are not written in the Book of Life from the foundation of the world” Demons, dwell on the earth and won’t be in the book of life. This doesn’t necessarily imply some humans aren’t in the book.

●   Mat 25.35. Says this is due to works or lack thereof (of mercy). No where else does the bible say, or a parable imply, that human’s supportive works, keep them from the lake of fire or gain them eternal life.

●  Mat 22.39 Humans are commanded to help (love) all humans, brothers and enemies, not just the brethren.

●  Mat 25.40. Those supported/protected are called brethren. Brethren, Adelphos. Fellow believers. The term suggests that not all humans in distress are to have been the objects of the helpers. It doesn’t explicitly exclude non-believing humans but does highlight help given to ones that do believe. Which is pertinent, because

●  Heb 1.14. Angels are specifically commanded to help (have mercy) on “believers”

●  Mat 25. 40 and 45. It's an oddly low bar. Do it but once to one of the Brethren = reward, Don't do it, not even once = punishment. It doesn't call for the kind of life long consistency one would attribute to a believing human, and the perfection Christ desires of us.

●  Mat 25. 40 and 45. Can the recipients in whom Jesus dwelt or associated with (the brethren or "least of these") also be the one's being separated? If it's simply human's helping humans, a helped beggar might herself never help one person their whole life and be a goat. Doesn't seem feasible.

●  Mat 25.46. The punishment fits only demons as stated in other bible verses – lake of fire, eternal/everlasting (aionios) punishment.

●  The reward – Mat 25.34. “you blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world: for you gave (did) XYZ”. This is the only time this phrase is used in the bible, but Enoch noted Angels rewarded with forest kingdoms and also further corroborates this thinking, but due to its tenuous position outside of the cannon, I won't lean too heavily on this.

●  No where else in the bible does it suggest humans are given a “kingdom reward” for protecting other humans. Only these verses in Matthew are (wrongly) considered as doing this.

●  The reward – and Mat 25.46. “…but the righteous into eternal life.” Again, this reward (like the punishment) is only found in this verse of the bible. John 3.16 says for humans whoever, believes will have everlasting/eternal life. For humans, belief is enough – else these verses are a contradiction, unless for angels, belief is not enough and fulfilling their command to protect the brethren, is also required.

●  Mat 25 vs Luk 16.19-31 (The Rich man and Lazarus on opposite sides of hades), the Rich man, a human is tormented in fire in hades (soon to be eradicated by Jesus and the place itself, and/or its same named owner, put in the lake of fire Rev 20.14) The rich man does not protest his being there or the reasons why. Those being judged in the Sheep and Goats are different. They are unaware of the impact of their actions, or lack of actions. They are unlike the rich man who is a human.

Sheep and the Goats continued….

What is it

It’s seemingly a proclamation of an event to come.

It’s not a parable, though it does use Sheep and Goat as a metaphor.

Metaphor similarity

Goats isn’t a metaphor used elsewhere in the bible. Goats are associated with the satanic or occult.

Sheep is a metaphor previously used for Israelites and latterly gentiles (non-Jews).

Jesus used characters as metaphors differently in different parables.

Where

Heaven, where the Thrown of His Glory is, so it is a spiritual event.

When

When the Son of Man comes in His glory, technically “outside of time” due to the location (Heaven a spiritual place).

Such events are commonly linked through other scripture to the end times, “end-of-days”, or when time has ended and is no more.

But it is fairer to describe it as an “any-and-all-when” event. Before, during and after all time.

Who’s there and implicated

·      Jesus – Jesus with His Son of Man “hat” on, not Son of God “hat”

·      All the angels – Not just holy angels

·      The “nations” - Angels (fallen and not) and Demons (disembodied spirits of Nephilim). The word “people” is never used.

·      “The least of these / My brethren” – Humans (assumed, it doesn’t say people)

What Happens

·      Jesus comes

·      And all the angels with Him.

·      “Nations” (plural) are gathered.

·      “Nations” are separated, one from another. The nations are the units being separated. Each nation is not split into many parts.

·      Separation is done “as a shepherd divides (his) sheep from the goats”

·      “Nations” considered, or who are, sheep will be set on His right hand.

·      “Nations” considered, or who are, goats will be set on His left hand.

·      “Nations” on His right hand are invited to inherit the kingdom prepared for them.

·      “Nations” on His right hand are told this (reward/inheritance) is due to merciful acts they had performed toward Jesus Himself (giving drink, food, shelter, clothing)

·      “Nations” on His right hand say “Lord, when did we see you in need and do those things?” (either because they actually don’t know, or as rhetorical device for the listner)

·      Jesus then says “inasmuch as you did it for the least of these My brethren, you did it for me”

·      “Nations” on His left hand are told “Depart from Me, you cursed, into the everlasting fire prepared for the devil and his angels:”

·      “Nations” on His left hand are told this (punishment) is because they had failed to perform merciful acts towards Jesus

·      “Nations” on His left hand say “Lord, when did we see you in need and not minister to You?”

·      Jesus then says, “inasmuch as you did not do it to one of the least of these (it doesn’t explicitly say “My brethren” this time), you did not do it to Me” (so not to even one!)

·      Nations on the left will go away to everlasting punishment (all other places or states, considered as Hell, are not everlasting).

·      …but the righteous (presumably the Nations on His Right), into eternal life

The nations / sheep and the goats depicted are not humans.

The nations / sheep and the goats depicted are God’s angels and the devil’s angels (demons), working behind the scenes in influencing how people treat themselves and each other.

As such, any and all humans are not destined to the lake of fire, irrespective of their beliefs.