Les Feldick Bible Study

When and where will Christ separate believers from unbelievers in the sheep-and-goats judgment?

At the end of the tribulation, Christ will bring the surviving people before Him in Jerusalem, where He will immediately separate the believers from the unbelievers—sheep and goats. The sheep enter the kingdom; the goats, having rejected the message, are told to depart.

Les teaches that this separation occurs at the end of the tribulation, when Christ brings the survivors—not many of them—before Him in Jerusalem. Immediately He separates the believers from the unbelievers, the sheep from the goats. To the sheep He says that because they met the needs of His brethren, they should enter the kingdom; their good works did not save them, but their salvation produced the works. To the goats, the unbelievers, He says to depart into their place of doom, because they did not do these things to the least of His brethren—they had not believed or received the message and had no concern for the physical needs of His servants. Their problem was unbelief, while the sheep responded because they were believers, and their good works followed. Les also applies this to today, saying that if the Christian community had done its good works from day one, society's welfare system would not be the mismanaged mess it is, since such care should have been carried on by the believing element.

More Questions

Who are the sheep in the sheep-and-goats judgment in Matthew 25?

In the Matthew 25 judgment of the sheep and goats, the sheep are the believers among the small group of Tribulation survivors.

Why were the goats condemned in the Matthew 25 sheep-and-goats judgment?

The goats' real problem in Matthew 25 was that they did not believe the message; because they rejected it, they had no concern for the messengers' physical needs.