Friday 22 April 2016

Sheep and Goats in the Nations

Someone named a certain nation and said it isn't a sheep nation but a goat nation - because as an American Christian visiting that country, he felt under surveillance there.

Jesus did say anyone who did the will of God was his brother - and Gentiles were grafted into the same family. But while it's true that some nations treat Christians worse than others, I don't think God necessarily has sheep and goat nations - from a prophetic, soteriological and eschatological viewpoint.

I know the nations shall stand before the Lord at the Judgment and the sheep and goats shall be separated. But what shall divide people in that Day will not be their nationality - but their individual behaviour. From among all nations there shall come sheep and goats: the good and bad. God will judge individuals not nations eternally.

Someone else said the nations will be judged and afforded a status in a proposed future Millennium based on how they treated Israel. But Judgment will be based on how the individual not his nation treats any individual not just the nation of Israel - and the judgement will be eternal not merely for a thousand years.

God's Judgment and Kingdom are eternal, and only those individuals who believe in Messiah-Jesus and who treat all other individuals well shall see it - irrespective of their nationality. That was the point. 

It was a warning to Jews; it embraced the Gentiles; and it showed the only way to eternal life - believe in Jesus and love every individual.

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