| About this site |
| About us |
| Our beliefs |
| Your first visit? |
| Contact us |
| External links |
| Good books |
| Visitor essays |
| Our forum |
| New essays |
| Other site features |
| Buy a CD |
| Vital notes |
| Spiritual/ethics |
| Spirituality |
| Morality/ethics |
| Absolute truth |
| Peace/conflict |
| Attaining peace |
| Religious tolerance |
| Religious hatred |
| Religious conflict |
| Religious violence |
| Laws and news |
| Religious laws |
| Religious news |
|
|
 | Salvation is by faith only. |
| Salvation is by works and faith. |
| Salvation is by works only. |
| Salvation is by faith motivated by love. |
| Salvation is obtained through baptism. |
Fundamentalist and other Evangelical Christians generally teach that one is "born-again" and saved:
| By first repenting of one's sins, and then trust Jesus as Lord and Savior, OR, |
| By only trusting in Jesus as Lord and Savior. Repentance is not needed. Their rationale is that repenting of one's sins is an action -- a good work -- and salvation is dependent only upon faith, not on good works. |
Either way, they believe that salvation is determined by faith, not works. This belief is supported by many of the writings of Paul and other authors of the Christian Scriptures. But many passages in the synoptic gospels (Mark, Matthew and Luke) seem to teach that the reverse is true. Harmonizing these passages to teach a consistent message is difficult. Matthew 25:34-45 is one of the most difficult to harmonize with a "faith not works" belief system because it is so clear and explicit.
Considering Matthew 25:34-45:
Many interpret Matthew 25:31-45 as a description of the Last Judgment (sometimes called the "Day of the Lord"). It involves Jesus judging every human who has ever lived in order to decide their eternal destiny. Christianity seems to have adopted this concept from earlier Jewish belief. The Jews, in turn, appear to have obtained it from Zoroastrians at the time of their Babylonian captivity during the 6th century BCE.
A casual reading of this passage seems to suggest that:
Everyone, the population of "all nations," will be gathered before Jesus. He will separate out those who are saved (the sheep). They are destined to live for eternity in Heaven. The sheep are people who had been compassionate towards others: feeding the hungry and thirsty; supporting strangers; giving needy people clothing; nursing them to health; and visiting inmates in prison. The rest -- the goats -- are not saved. They were not compassionate towards the needy while they lived on earth. They will spend eternity in the torture pit of Hell.
Alternate interpretations of Matthew 25:34-45:
The obvious interpretation of this passage is that Jesus will gather everyone who has ever lived and judge each person individually on the basis of their good works while they were on earth. That analysis is unacceptable to all or essentially all Fundamentalist and other Evangelical Christians. Based on other passages in the Bible, they believe that only those who are "born-again" while alive on Earth have been saved. Only they will attain Heaven. A person's salvation is totally dependent on one's faith, not works. Trusting Jesus as Lord and Savior does lead naturally to good works, but that happens after the individual is saved, Works have impact on Jesus' decision whether to send the person to Heaven or Hell.
In order to harmonize Matthew 25:34-45 with their beliefs, some Evangelicals interpret the phrase "all nations" as not including the entire human race; rather, it represents a much smaller group. Others deny that the selection is really based on good works, as a casual reading would indicate. Still others interpret the poor and needy as initially referring to the twelve disciples, and now to Christian evangelists.
Some alternative interpretations from text books:
We scanned many Evangelical Christian dictionaries of theology, Bible handbooks, Bible commentaries, etc. and found that many did not refer to this passage in Matthew. Those that did mention this passage came up with various alternate interpretations that allow them to retain their belief in salvation by faith, not works:
| The "New Commentary on the Whole Bible" suggested that the gathering of "all nations" before
Jesus actually refers only to the world's non-Christians who survived the
catastrophic events of the battle of Armageddon and the end of the
world as we know it. Also, the "least of these my brethren" consist
only of the Jewish population. Thus, this final judgment involves only non-Christians,
and is made on the basis of their previous treatment of Jews. These commentators note that Heaven is restricted to only those persons who were saved while on earth -- i.e. born-again Christians. Thus, "the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world" in which these non-Christians will spend eternity cannot be the regular Heaven. It must be some sort of inferior version. 1 Or perhaps Heaven has a two tier citizenry something like the American South during the days of segregation. Those who were saved will receive full benefits; those who were not saved but who did a sufficient number of good works while on earth will receive an inferior set of benefits. | ||||
| Harold Willmington's "Bible Handbook" disagrees. It
states that this passage describes the Last Judgment when all humans will be
evaluated. However, "...good works are not the basis but the proof of salvation."
2
That is, the separation of all humans into sheep and goats is not directly related to their works, as the text seems to say. Rather
it is fundamentally based on whether the individual was saved or not. The implication appears to be that:
That is, only born-again Christians follow the Golden Rule by being considerate of others -- a somewhat chauvinistic belief. |
Separating the sheep from the goats on the basis of good works would then produce the same results as separating them on the basis their salvation status status. This interpretation takes a very dim view of the behavior of hundreds of millions of unsaved Christians, the millions of members of non-Christian religions, and the many tens of millions of persons unaffiliated with any religion in North America.
This interpretation does not appear to correspond with public opinion polls. All of the major religions teach a version of the Golden Rule. Our experience as a multi-faith group is that those who do not identify themselves as members of an organized religion or who are non-Christians or are non-saved Christians are as caring as born-again Christians. Thus, separating humans according to their behavior towards others would result in many born-again Christians going to Hell and many of the others going to Heaven.
| The New Jerome Biblical Commentary agrees that the crowd gathered before Jesus "refers to all nations, Israel included, not just the Gentiles." They further state that this passage has been: |
"...overinterpreted to say that neither faith in Christ nor membership in the church is necessary for salvation, but in fact, it is addressed to Christian disciples and discipleship is understood in a very bold way as identical with care of the needy. This is not a denial of faith; it is the essence of faith." 3
| A mainline Christian resource, Harper's Bible Commentary, states that "all nations" actually refers only to the Christian church i.e. "...those who have been made his disciples as a result of the church's mission." Although the writers do not say so, this implies that some who have become disciples of Christ and are in the Church will actually be sent to Hell for eternal torture because of their lack of good works. 4 |
Some alternative interpretations from the Internet:
The Internet is a rich source of interpretations of this passage. We studied five Evangelical and one Roman Catholic web site.
| Some hold the rather chauvinistic belief that all born-again Christians follow the
Golden Rule and are compassionate towards the needy,
while all who are not born-again Christians take a calloused attitude towards the disadvantaged and ignore
their suffering.
| ||||||
| Other web sites
suggest a different interpretation. They assert that the phrase "these my brethren"
does not refer to all of the disenfranchised, hungry, naked, sick, and/or
imprisoned people of the world. Rather, they initially consisted of only the
twelve disciples that Jesus selected in the first century CE
to assist him in his ministry. In the 21st century, Jesus' "brethren"
would be all those who evangelize; the sheep are those
who accept the Gospel, accept Jesus into their hearts, and are saved.
|
Reference used:
The following information sources were used to prepare and update the above essay. The hyperlinks are not necessarily still active today.
-
Philip Comfort, Ed., "New Commentary on the Whole Bible," Tyndale House, (1990), Page 89-90.
-
Harold Willmington, "Bible Handbook," Tyndale House, (1997), Page 544.
-
Raymond Brown, et al., "The New Jerome Biblical Commentary," Geoffrey Chapman, (1990), Page 669.
-
"Harper's Bible Commentary," Harper and Row, (1988), Page 977.
-
Charles Laymon, Ed., "The Interpreter's One-Volume Commentary on the Bible," Abingdon Press, (1971), Page 639 - 640.
-
Boston Christian Bible Study Resources, "Matthew 25's Sheep/Goat Judgment," at: http://www.bcbsr.com/
-
Gary DeLashmutt, "Jesus' Parable of the The Sheep & Goats: Matthew 25: 31-46," Xenos Christian Fellowship, (2001), at: http://www.xenos.org/
-
Hampton Keathley IV , Th.M., "The Parables in the Olivet Discourse (Matthew 25)," Bible.org, at: http://www.bible.org/
-
"Commentaries: The division of the sheep and the goats," Bible Gateway, at: http://www.biblegateway.com/
-
"Commentaries: Matthew 25:31-46," Bible Tools, at: http://bibletools.org/
-
"New American Bible: Matthew Chapter 25," United States Conference of Catholic Bishops," at: http://www.nccbuscc.org/
|
or Home > Christianity > Christian themes > Beliefs > Salvation > here |
|
Home > Christianity > History, Beliefs, etc, > Beliefs > Cardinal beliefs > Salvation > here |
Copyright © 2006 by Ontario Consultants on Religious
Tolerance
Originally written: 2006-AUG-26
Latest update: 2006-AUG-26
Author: B.A. Robinson
|
|
