After the seventh vial the Lord comes down to the Mount of Olives, and the mountain splits in two (Zechariah 14:4). This message asks what follows: who stands with him, and how he judges those still alive.
This is the judgement of the living, at the end of the forty-five days, not the final judgement of the dead.
The 144,000 with the Lamb
Revelation 14:1–5 shows the Lamb with 144,000 who have his Father's name on their foreheads. They were sealed from the twelve tribes, 12,000 from each. They are called men, not spirits, so they are alive on the earth when the Lord stands on the Mount of Olives.
These are they which follow the Lamb whithersoever he goeth… being the firstfruits unto God and to the Lamb.
— Revelation 14:4
- A song only they can learn. A song comes out of a life with God. We sing of Christ's sacrifice because we live in the age of grace; Abraham would have sung of how God blessed him, Noah of how God helped him. The 144,000 sing of what God did in their own lives, and no one else can sing it.
- Not defiled with women. Taken literally, this means they are unmarried. Taken spiritually, the woman stands for the church. The church of the age of grace grew into the Roman Catholic Church, then the Protestant churches, then united bodies such as the World Council of Churches. The 144,000 never became one with these or with their unscriptural traditions, and so they are pure.
- Firstfruits. The Holy Spirit came on the fiftieth day, the day for offering firstfruits, and those who received him were God's firstfruits in spirit. Among the few survivors, the 144,000 are the firstfruits because they are led by the Spirit, while the rest survived somehow, doing what seemed right to them. As Jews who kept the law as strictly as they could, they speak no lie.
Scripture does not say outright that they stay alive, but putting the verses together it appears that they do, and enter the Millennium, the thousand-year kingdom, with the other survivors.
The Sheep and the Goats
Matthew 25:31–46 describes the same hour. The Son of man sits on his throne, all the nations are gathered before him, and he divides them as a shepherd divides sheep from goats. To the sheep he says that they fed him, gave him drink, took him in, clothed him and visited him sick and in prison.
Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me.
— Matthew 25:40
The goats are sent away into the everlasting fire prepared for Satan and his angels, because they did none of these things.
Who Are the Least of These?
The groups seen in this series answer the question. Among the Jews are the 144,000; the woman, Israel, guided by the two witnesses to safety for 1,260 days and brought through to the end; and the rest of her children, pursued by the Antichrist, some of whom die as martyrs while others survive. Among the Gentiles are the bride of Christ, caught up in the rapture (roopantar, "transformation"); the foolish virgins, left behind; and those who live on until the Lord comes.
The foolish virgins are not bad people. They are God's people, saved, and they reign with him; they are foolish only in not preparing to go with him as he wished. They are then forced to die as martyrs, but they do not leave God.
These martyrs, with the Israelites who die beside them, are the least of these. Refusing the mark of 666, they could not buy or sell, and so went hungry, thirsty, naked, sick and imprisoned.
The sheep are the survivors who helped them. They too refused 666 but had no need of it: perhaps they grew their own food, or lived in a joint family where one member handles the money. The goats are the survivors who did nothing for them. A father and son who escape together may be one sheep and one goat.
Not the Final Judgement
Many take Matthew 25 for the final judgement and conclude that kindness replaces salvation. It does not. This judgement is only for those still alive at the end of the forty-five days. For the church of the age of grace, repentance, faith and baptism are still needed for salvation.
The survivors may never have heard the message, or their time may not have come; they are good people whose conscience told them to help. Their charity belongs to the Day of the Lord and the great tribulation, and does not bear on going to heaven for people before then.
After this judgement the Lord's kingdom begins on the earth. The wicked who died lie as ashes under the feet of the survivors (Malachi 4:3).
The Marriage of the Lamb and the New Jerusalem
Revelation 19:6–10 announces that the marriage of the Lamb has come. The church, caught up in the rapture, comes down with Christ. Church and Lord become of one spirit, so that his mind is known to her at once, where now we learn his plans slowly, through prayer, dreams and visions.
In Marathi a woman is a bride-to-be (vadhu) before the wedding, a bride (navri) on the wedding day, and a wife (bayko) afterwards. Revelation 21:9 speaks of the Lamb's wife, and as his wife the church rules with him, he being her head.
…Come hither, I will shew thee the bride, the Lamb's wife.
— Revelation 21:9
John is shown the New Jerusalem, the holy city coming down from God. Its length, breadth and height are equal, 600 kos or about 1,200 miles, higher than any building could be. So the picture is spiritual, not physical: perfectly regular on every side. The angel did not deceive John. The city is the wife, the church, the capital from which the King reigns, and not a place in the sky.
Takeaway
Matthew 25 does not promise that kind deeds can replace salvation. For us in the age of grace, repentance, faith and baptism remain necessary. We are to learn from these things, wait for the Lord's coming, and grow in the Spirit so that we are ready to meet him.