The sheep and the goats

The Sheep and the Goats or "The Judgment of the Nations" is a discourse of Jesus recorded in the New Testament. It is sometimes characterized as a parable, although unlike most parables it does not purport to relate a story of events happening to other characters.

The common futurist explanation of the discourse is that it tells of the Last Judgment, and the division of all the world's people into the blessed, on the Right Hand of God, who are welcomed by the Father to inherit the Kingdom and eternal life, and the cursed, who are cast into the eternal fire along with the devil and his angels. The division seems to be based on the acts of kindness and mercy done by people to their disadvantaged fellow people; Jesus identifies such kindness with kindness towards himself.

An alternative interpretation, put forward by Calvinist theologian John Gill, is that the disadvantaged spoken of are actually fellow Christians. Instead of the division between blessed and cursed being based on good works, it is based on one's response to the people and message of Christ's Church. Associate professor of Biblical Languages at Union Presbyterian Seminary, E. Carson Brisson, says, "Let it be noted that this list of afflicted and needy individuals is, at first glance, a list of the very ones who appear to be bereft of God's favor. These are ‘the least.’ These are truly ‘other.’"

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