Page 120 - Eschatology - Student Ebook
P. 120
The Sheep and Goat judgment is all about judging the living, mortal unsaved people who are still alive at
the conclusion of the tribulation period to determine who will suffer immediate damnation and who will
receive eternal life and be allowed to enter into the Millennium as mortals, yet born-again spiritually,
just like genuine believers in our era have eternal life while still physically mortal (John 3:36 & 1 John
5:11-12) and are promised a future resurrection with immortal, glorified bodies (1 Corinthians 15:42-
44).
Those judged at the Sheep and Goat Judgment are believers and non-Christians who survived the
tribulation. It will be certain to them at this juncture that Jesus is Lord because he has literally returned
to the Earth, taken authority of the situation, and is now standing before them. Thus, the criteria Christ
will use at this judgment is belief in Christ, that is, the gospel (which will be preached during the
Tribulation via the 144,000 Hebrew evangelists and their converts, not to mention an angel, as
Revelation 14:6 shows).
How does the Lord judge them? Those designated “sheep” will have received eternal life via spiritual
rebirth (just like us today) and will be allowed to enter the Millennium — as mortals — because they
became believers during the Tribulation, which will include the 144,000 and their millions of converts.
Not being part of the one-world Babylonian system, such believers during the Tribulation will naturally
face hunger, thirst, outcast status, unjust imprisonment and need for clothes/shelter. Christ will judge
the living nations as to how they treated him — his body, the Body of Christ — during the Tribulation.
Matthew 25:31-32 specifically says: “When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with
him, he will sit on his glorious throne. All the nations will be gathered before him.” Those who rejected
Christ and the message of the Gospel will be immediately judged as “Goats” and will not be allowed to
enter the Kingdom of Christ. They will be judged just as the Antichrist and false prophet were.
119