““When the Son of man shall come in his glory.”…

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““When the Son of man shall come in his glory.” The coming of the Son of Man refers always to our Lord’s second advent, when He will come back to the earth, in manifested glory, to set up the kingdom which the prophets foretold. This expression is never used in connection with His coming to the air for His church-a mystery still unrevealed when this discourse was given (1 Corinthians 15:51).

“Before him shall be gathered all nations.” This sessional judgment is to be distinguished from the judgment of the Great White Throne of Revelation 20, which will not take place on the earth at all, but will be the judgment of the wicked dead. This which is before us here is a judgment of living nations prior to the Millennium. The other-that of the Great White Throne-is after it ends and the heavens and earth of the present order have vanished away. But this judgment, like the other, is according to works. The sheep are those in whom divine life is manifested by their loving care for those who belong to Christ. The goats are bereft of this and speak of the unrepentant, who did not respond to Christ’s messengers. The “right hand” is the place of acceptance; “the left” hand, of rejection.

“Inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world.” The kingdom mentioned here is that spoken of in Daniel and other prophetic books (Daniel 7:13-14). It is not to be confounded with the heavenly inheritance but will be set up on this earth at our Lord’s second advent, when He shall be revealed as King of kings and Lord of lords (1 Timothy 6:15) and His world kingdom will supersede all human dominions (Daniel 2:44).

“I was an hungred, and ye gave me meat.” We are not to suppose that the salvation of these Gentiles will be on the ground of works, but their works will prove the reality of their faith. The same principle comes out in John 5:28-29, where our Lord speaks of the two resurrections-the first, for those who have done good, and the second, for those who have done evil. In each case, their works demonstrate the state of the heart.

“Then shall the righteous answer him, saying, Lord, when saw we thee an hungred…?” Notice these “sheep” are designated “the righteous.” This in itself speaks of new birth, for apart from that there are none righteous (Romans 3:10). These disavow any recognition of merit in themselves. They will not even be conscious of having ministered to Christ in any worthy manner. Hence their question as to when such services had been rendered.

“Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me.” The Lord Jesus ever recognizes anything done for one of His own as done unto Himself (Matt. 10; 42; Mark 9:41), and He also considers any harm done to His own as though it were done against Him (Acts 9:4). In its strictest sense, the “brethren” here will be part of a Jewish remnant in the last days, who will be witnesses for God in the dark days of the Time of Jacob’s Trouble, the Great Tribulation (Daniel 12:1-3; Jeremiah 30:7). This will be after the Rapture of the church and prior to the establishment of the kingdom, for that time of trouble ends with the coming of the Son of Man, as we have seen in 24:21, 23, 29-30. As the King’s messengers go through the world, there will be some who receive them and believe their message: These are the sheep. Others will refuse them and spurn their testimony: these are the goats.

Christ’s brethren. While there is a sense in which all believers are brethren of Christ, it is evident that here the term is used in a special sense, for there are three classes of people in view: the sheep, the goats, and those called by the Son of Man “My brethren.” These are those of Israel who are related to Christ, both according to the flesh and the Spirit, and will be His authoritative witnesses in the coming time of tribulation, when the present church age is ended.

“Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels.” This sentence of eternal doom will be pronounced on those of the nations who have shown by their cold, indifferent behavior to His servants that they did not believe the message they carried through the world. It would seem that this is their final judgment, as the sentence coincides with that of the unrighteous dead, who stand before the Great White Throne after the thousand years are finished (Revelation 20:7-15).

“I was an hungred, and ye gave me no meat.” The charge against these lost ones is not concerning any flagrant violation of the moral code, but it is their indifferent attitude toward Christ that seals their doom. They showed they had no faith in Him or His message by their unconcern about the sufferings of His representatives. This principle is as true now as it will be in the coming tribulation era.

“Lord, when saw we thee an hungred … and did not minister unto thee?” They speak as men utterly unconscious of having given any offense, but they failed to recognize and honor the Son of Man in the person of His brethren, sent to call them to repentance, in view of His coming kingdom.
“Inasmuch as ye did it not to one of the least of these, ye did it not to me.” Failure to have compassion on the poorest and weakest suffering one is failure to minister to Christ Himself, for He makes their cause His own. While in strictest interpretation this has to do with the Jewish remnant before mentioned, it may be applied to all who belong to Him.

“These shall go away into everlasting punishment: but the righteous into life eternal.” The issues of this judgment are for eternity-either endless punishment or endless life, which is far more than mere prolonged existence. The wicked will be destroyed and go into their awful destiny at once. The righteous will enter into eternal life in the millennial kingdom and then have their portion with Christ through the unending ages that follow the destruction of the present creation. These are the saints of Daniel 7:18, who will enjoy the blessings of Messiah’s glorious reign on the earth.

Two elections. It will help to get the dispensational setting of this parable clear if we notice that there are two different elections in the New Testament. In Ephesians 1:4 we see the church of this age, which consists of those chosen in Christ before the foundation of the world. In this present passage the saved are given a place in the kingdom “prepared… from the foundation of the world” (v. 34). This agrees with Revelation 13:8, where we have the same people in view. One is a heavenly election; the other is an earthly election. To confuse these in our thinking is to fail to “rightly divid[e] the word of truth” (2 Timothy 2:15).”

The Midnight Cry
Loizeaux Brothers, Bible Truth Depot, New York
Ironside’s Notes on Selected Books
Matthew 25

https://www.studylight.org/commentaries/isn/matthew-25.html
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“Posttribulationism and the Sheep/Goat-Judgment of Matthew 25 — A Summary-Critique of Robert Gundry’s View”
Dr. Ron Rhodes

“Robert Gundry places the judgment of the nations at the end of the millennium, and concludes it is the “last judgment” that deals with the “separation of the righteous from the wicked in the whole human race.”1 In what follows, I will briefly summarize and critique his view on the judgment of the nations, using as my primary source his book, “The Church and the Tribulation.”

“…A study of the kingdom concept in Matthew, however, would seem to dictate against Gundry’s view. Charles C. Ryrie points out that “Matthew uses ‘kingdom’ primarily in relation to the Messianic, Davidic, millennial kingdom.”29
He further observes: “In Matthew the eternal kingdom is referred to infrequently (cf. 6:33; 12:28;13:38, 43; 19:24; 20; 21:31).”30 Chafer likewise writes, “There is no reason why the word kingdom should be given any other meaning in this passage than has been assigned to it throughout the Gospel by Matthew. The kingdom is Israel’s earthly, Messianic,
millennial kingdom.”31

The Jews to whom the book of Matthew was addressed were anticipating and looking for the Messianic kingdom, not anything else. They were eagerly awaiting the long-prophesied King who would appear and reign from the Davidic throne.32 The ancient Jewish mind would not have understood the reference to the kingdom in Matthew 25:34 in any other way. Ironside thus concludes, “It is not to be confounded with the heavenly inheritance.”33

At the risk of redundancy, I must repeat that Matthew’s Gospel is intimately related to the Abrahamic and Davidic covenants. As noted previously, these covenants come into view in Matthew’s genealogy. Matthew’s Gospel begins with the words, “The record of the genealogy of Jesus the Messiah, the son of David, the son of Abraham.” The Abrahamic and Davidic covenants were the two unconditional covenants pertaining to the Messiah. Matthew, in beginning his Gospel this way, was calling attention to the fact that Jesus came to fulfill the covenants made with Israel’s forefathers.34 It is thus concluded that Christ came to institute the covenanted Messianic kingdom.35”

READ MORE:

“Posttribulationism and the Sheep/Goat-Judgment of Matthew 25 —A Summary-Critique of Robert Gundry’s View”
Dr. Ron Rhodes

http://www.pre-trib.org/data/pdf/Rhodes-Posttribulationismand.pdf
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“The best answer to the problem of who will populate the millennial earth is an obvious one. If the church is translated before the tribulation period, there is ample time for a new generation of believers to come into being from Jew and Gentile background to qualify for entrance into the millennial kingdom at the second coming of Christ. The problem of populating the millennium is thereby quickly solved and many relating Scriptures are given a natural and literal interpretation. It is significant that Alexander Reese in his closely reasoned attack upon the pretribulation position4 finds it convenient to ignore this major objection to posttribulationism entirely. What is true of Reese is true also of other posttribulationists.5 The posttribulational position leads logically to an abandonment of premillennialism altogether, or requires such spiritualization of the millennium until it becomes indistinguishable from an amillennial interpretation. Premillennialism demands an interval between the translation and the second coming to make possible a generation of believers who will enter the millennium.

This conclusion is confirmed by a study of the two major judgments which take place in connection with the establishment of the kingdom, which are related to the entire human race: (1) the judgment of Israel (Ezek 20:34-38), and (2) the judgment of the Gentiles (Matt 25:31-46). These judgments deal with the living Gentiles and Israelites who are on the earth at the time of the second advent.

According to Ezekiel 20:34-38, at the time of the second advent a regathering of Israel is brought about. It obviously takes considerable time—many weeks, if not months—to effect, but it is carried out precisely as the prophets indicate. Isaiah states that every means of transportation is pressed into use: “They shall bring all your brethren out of all the nations for an oblation unto Jehovah, upon horses, and in chariots, and in litters and upon mules, and upon dromedaries, to my holy mountain Jerusalem, saith Jehovah…” (Isa 66:20). That the regathering is to be complete to the last man—obviously not fulfilled by previous regathering—is declared in Ezekiel 39:25-29. It is explicitly stated, “I have gathered them unto their own land, and have left none of them any more there,” i.e., among the nations (Ezek 39:28).

The regathering process completed, a judgment of Israel is described in Ezekiel 20:34-38. God declares: “I will cause you to pass under the rod, and I will bring you into the bond of the covenant; and I will purge out from among you the rebels, and them that transgress against me…they shall not enter into the land of Israel…” (Ezek 20:37-38).

In the light of the details of this judgment, it should be clear to any impartial observer that the judgment deals with Israelites still in the flesh, not translated or resurrected. Further, the process takes time because of the geographic regathering that is involved. It is an event related to the establishment of the millennial kingdom but is subsequent by some weeks or months to the actual second advent. It relates to Israel racially alone and includes both believers and unbelievers. The judgment consists in putting to death all the rebels or unbelievers, leaving only the believers to enter the promised land.

This multitude of details sets this judgment apart from the translation of the church as much as any two events could be distinguished. The translation takes place in a moment. The translation relates only to believers, and it leaves unbelievers exactly as they were before. The translation of the church has no relation to promises of the land of Israel. The Ezekiel judgment has the promises of possession of the promised land as a primary objective—determining those qualified for entrance. The translation of the church is followed by arrival in heaven. The believers of Ezekiel 20 enter the land, not heaven, in bodies of flesh, not immortal bodies. The translation concerns Jewish and Gentile believers alike. This judgment has to do only with Israel.

It should be further evident that, if the translation of the church took place simultaneously with, the second advent to establish the kingdom, the Ezekiel judgment would be both impossible and unnecessary as the separation of believers from unbelievers would have already taken place. It may therefore be concluded from the nature of the judgment of Israel that an interval is required between the translation of the church and the judgment of Israel during which a new generation of Israelites who believe in Christ as Savior and Messiah comes into being and who are waiting for His second advent to the earth to establish the millennial kingdom.

A similar conclusion is reached by the study of the judgment of the Gentiles described in Matthew 25:31-46. Taking the Ezekiel passage and the Matthew passage together, the whole population of the earth at the second coming of Christ is in view. If all Israelites are dealt with in Ezekiel, all the others described as the “nations” or the Gentiles are in the Matthew judgment. In the Matthew passage, like that of Ezekiel 20, no mention is made of either resurrection or translation, though both are often read into the passage by posttribulationists somewhat desperate to combine all the passages.

The separation of Matthew 25 is similar to that of Ezekiel 20. The unbelievers, described as the “goats,” are cast into everlasting fire by means of physical death, whereas the “sheep” enter the kingdom prepared for them—the millennial kingdom. While the judgment in Matthew 25, as in Ezekiel 20, is based on outward works, it is true here as elsewhere in Scripture that works are taken as evidence of salvation. The good works of the “sheep” in befriending the “brethren” (the Jewish people) is an act of kindness which no one but a believer in Christ would perform during the tribulation when Christian as well as Jew is hated by all the world. Ironside interprets the passage: “But this judgment, like the other, is according to works. The sheep are those in whom divine life is manifested by their loving care for those who belong to Christ. The goats are bereft of this, and speak of the unrepentant, who did not respond to Christ’s messengers.”6 The result of the judgment of the Gentiles is the purging of all unbelievers, with the believers, who are thereby left, granted the privilege of entrance into the kingdom.

The judgment of the Gentiles is an individual judgment, though some premillenarians have seen in it a description of national judgment. This misconception has arisen from the English translation where the Greek word ethne is rendered “nation.” It is, of course, the same word precisely as would be used for Gentiles individually. Inasmuch as the nature of the judgment is individual, however, the use of “nation” in a political sense is misleading. No national group can qualify as a group as either a “sheep” or a “goat” nation, and no nation inherits either the kingdom or everlasting fire for its works. Eternal judgment must of necessity apply to the individual.

A comparison of this judgment of Gentiles again confirms the fact that this is an entirely different event than the translation of the church. This is, first of all, demonstrated by the time of the judgment. It occurs after the second advent and after a throne is set up in the earth. The translation of the church, according to all viewpoints, takes place before Christ actually arrives on earth. The judgment of the Gentiles results in the purging of unbelievers out from among believers. The translation of the church takes believers out from among unbelievers, and leaves unbelievers untouched. This judgment also distinguishes the individuals involved on a racial basis. coming designated as (b).

(a) At the time of the translation, the saints will meet the Lord in the air.
(b) At the time of the second coming, Christ will return to the Mount of Olives which on that occasion will undergo a great transformation, a valley being formed to the east of Jerusalem where the Mount of Olives was formerly located (Zech 14:4-5).

(a) At the coming of Christ for the church, the living saints are translated.
(b) At the coming of Christ to establish His kingdom, there is no translation whatever.

(a) At the translation of the church, Christ returns with the saints to heaven.
(b) At the second coming, Christ remains on the earth and reigns as King.

(a) At the time of the translation, the earth is not judged and sin continues.
(b) At the time of the second coming, sin is judged and righteousness fills the earth.

(a) The translation is before the day of wrath from which the church is promised deliverance.
(b) The second coming follows the great tribulation and outpoured judgment and brings them to climax and culmination in the establishment of the millennial kingdom.

(a) The translation is described as an imminent event.
(b) The second coming will follow definite prophesied signs.

(a) The translation of the church is revealed only in the New Testament.
(b) The second coming of Christ is the subject of prophecy in both Testaments.

(a) The translation concerns only the saved of this age.
(b) The second coming deals with saved and unsaved.

(a) At the translation, only those in Christ are affected.
(b) At the second coming, not only men are affected but Satan and his hosts are defeated and Satan is bound.

While it is evident that there are some similarities in the two events, these do not prove that they are the same. There are similarities also between the first and the second coming of Christ, but these have been separated by almost two thousand years. These similarities confused the Old Testament prophets but are easily deciphered by us today. Undoubtedly after the church is translated, tribulation saints will be able to see the distinction of the coming for translation and the coming to establish the kingdom in a similar clarity.”

READ MORE:
“Premillennialism and the Tribulation — Part IV: Pretribulationalism (continued)”
John F. Walvoord

https://bible.org/seriespage/premillennialism-and-tribulation-%E2%80%94-part-iv-pretribulationalism-continued
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“As in previous declarations concerning God’s work of restoring Israel at the beginning of the millennial kingdom, the judgment of Israel is preceded by their regathering from all the peoples of the earth. They are assembled in the place described as “the wilderness of the peoples” and there God declares that He will enter into judgment upon them. It will be like the judgment of their forefathers at the time of the Exodus when the adult population perished in the forty years of wandering, but the younger generation was permitted to enter into the land. In this judgment of living Israel at the beginning of the millennial kingdom, God says that He will have them pass under the rod and that He will purge out the unrighteous described as “the rebels” and as “them that transgress against me.” Though included in the work of regathering, they will not enter into the Promised Land and apparently perish like their gainsaying forefathers in the wilderness.

The clearcut division in Israel of those who are righteous and those who are unrighteous arises from the fact that some are saved by faith in Christ, but others rejected Him and were worshipers of the beast, the world ruler of the great tribulation. According to Revelation 13:8 all those on earth during the great tribulation will worship the world ruler except for those whose names are written in the book of life. It is stated in Revelation 14:9 that those who are worshipers of the beast come under the fearful wrath of God and are cast into everlasting torment forever and ever. A similar conclusion is derived from the parable of the wheat and the tares in Matthew 13 where all the tares are burned up and the wheat is gathered into the barn. Israel’s purging judgment at the end of the age will therefore not only include the trials of the great tribulation in which two thirds of the nation will perish, but will culminate in the judgment of God following their regathering in which all unbelievers who remain will be purged out. The millennial kingdom, therefore, will begin with the godly remnant of Israel who have put their trust in the Lord and who will desire to follow the leadership of their Messiah and King.”

READ MORE:
“Chapter VII The Glorious Restoration Of Israel”
John F. Walvoord
http://walvoord.com/article/288
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“God will use the Tribulation to judge the Gentile nations for their anti-Semitism, but He will also use it to judge Israel in general and Jerusalem in particular (3:1-7).”

“Exploring Bible Prophecy from Genesis to Revelation”
edited by Tim F. LaHaye, Ed Hindson

(Page 297)

https://books.google.com/books?id=Nt5RCxQOb24C&pg=PA297&lpg=PA297&dq=%22God+will+use+the+Tribulation+to+judge+the+Gentile+nations+for+their+anti-Semitism,+but+He+will+also+use+it+to+judge+Israel+in+general+and+Jerusalem+in+particular+(3:1-7).%22&source=bl&ots=WFp_elIl0v&sig=VDtC2vI7pNkP9mrvh24lzsba5wE&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjuxcf229fWAhUJ6YMKHYUkAzoQ6AEIKDAA#v=onepage&q=%22God%20will%20use%20the%20Tribulation%20to%20judge%20the%20Gentile%20nations%20for%20their%20anti-Semitism%2C%20but%20He%20will%20also%20use%20it%20to%20judge%20Israel%20in%20general%20and%20Jerusalem%20in%20particular%20(3%3A1-7).%22&f=false
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“The Rapture Question”
By John F. Walvoord
(See Pages 89-90)

https://books.google.com/books?id=UdVrrr1T6-MC&pg=PT72&lpg=PT72&dq=%22while+the+judgment+in+matthew+25%22+walvoord&source=bl&ots=uiUMZ71iNx&sig=2Dy3wPQfUO8LaKnGrhUbkVR9YS8&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwiDnsiF2dfWAhXj8YMKHZDfBTUQ6AEIKDAA#v=onepage&q=%22while%20the%20judgment%20in%20matthew%2025%22%20walvoord&f=false