From Matthew 24; Jesus starts a discourse on signs of the end of the age. The end of the age would be the end of Satan's being the prince of this world and the time of God's rule and ultimate judgement. The following verses in Matthew 25 conclude Jesus's discussion of the end of the age.
31 "When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, he will sit on his throne in heavenly glory. 32 All the nations will be gathered before him, and he will separate the people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. 33 He will put the sheep on his right and the goats on his left.
34 "Then the King will say to those on his right, 'Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world. 35 For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, 36 I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.'
37 "Then the righteous will answer him, 'Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink? 38 When did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or needing clothes and clothe you? 39 When did we see you sick or in prison and go to visit you?'
40 "The King will reply, 'I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me.'
41 "Then he will say to those on his left, 'Depart from me, you who are cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels. 42 For I was hungry and you gave me nothing to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me nothing to drink, 43 I was a stranger and you did not invite me in, I needed clothes and you did not clothe me, I was sick and in prison and you did not look after me.'
44 "They also will answer, 'Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or needing clothes or sick or in prison, and did not help you?'
45 "He will reply, 'I tell you the truth, whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for me.'
46 "Then they will go away to eternal punishment, but the righteous to eternal life."
I could probably pick a lot of other places throughout Chapters 24 and 25 to ask the question of why I hope Jesus is wrong; but will look at verses 31-46 and particulary focus on verses 46.
All of these passages about the end of the ages compel the listeners to be ready for that day. This concluding passage discusses the separation of those that were ready and prepared to meet their maker and those that were not ready.
And the concluding verse tells what will become of those that were prepared and those that were not prepared. Eternal punishment for those goats that were not prepared to meet their maker. It would be so much better if he said degrees of punishment based on where you missed the mark. The worse you were or worse you missed the mark the longer you were punished. Or annihilation would be better than eternal punishment. But eternal punishment seems so drastic.
I wish Jesus did not say eternal punishment, but he did. This is how serious God is about our need to accept the reconcilement He provided through his son and the need to practice his teachings and adopt his lifestyle of loving our brother as we love ourself.
We all miss the mark and deserve to be considered with the goats. None of us ever always feed the hungry, quench the thirst of the thirsty, take in the homeless, help the widows and orphans, visit the prisoners, cloth the naked or any other good work we can think of. We all fall short of God's glory. But by God's grace, he has adopted any of us that will believe in his son Jesus. Any that choose Jesus will be the sheep of his fold. We all have the free will to choose to be his sheep or the goats that reject him and will unfortunately face God's judgement.
I wish it were not for eternity, for those that did not choose wisely.
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This is one of the clearest discourses on the ethical implications of righteousness, and one of the passages that would support a role of "good works" in right standing before God.
Excellent writing. As you well noted, we are all sinners & fall short of the glory of God. (Rom 3:23). As well-noted by another poster, the difference is trusting in Jesus. Not just knowing or believing "in" Jesus. It has been amply pointed out that even Satan knows of and believes in Jesus. This in itself is reason enough to see where belief is not enough - it is trusting that Jesus is who He said He was and placing our lives in His holy hands. This is also the root of modern Christianity's pick-and-choose spirituality where some choose to believe part of Jesus' message and add in other versions of their own spirituality, in essence creating a quasi-Christianity filled with traditions & superstitions of the wold's other religions.
As far as the differences in the books that are & aren't included n the Bible are concerned, a study of Biblical history will show both the reasoning that some books (specifically the Gnostic gospels) were inconsistent with the Biblical message and therefore suspect - suspect writers, theological conflict, etc. The gospel of Phillip, for example, has be largely credited to Coptic Gnostics and is thought to have been written circa 200 - long after the Apostle Phillip was dead. And we have a great tool - the Dead Sea Scrolls. These scrolls are thought to have survived since the 1st Century & early 2nd Century and show that the translations used to date are basically intact - even the King James Version, which is actually an interpretation of a translation rather than a direct translation. Besides - as our language evolves more translations are produced - each using the oldest original documents available - the Dead Sea Scrolls. This not only legitimizes their content but ensures that incorrect understanding of the meaning is held to a minimum