Matthew 25:34 - Contradictions
First Q: In Matthew 25:34, in a parable, the King tells the sheep to come and inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. The individuals represented by the sheep proceed to go to heaven, of course. But in John 14:2, Jesus tells the disciples that He goes to prepare a place for you. So when was heaven prepared?
A: The term prepare (and the underlying Greek word) is capable of varying meaning, depending on the context. Heaven is reserved for the faithful apostles from before the foundation of the world, in the sense that their names have ever been written in the Book of Life. But the arrangement of things in the afterlife before Jesus arose from the dead, and before He arose from the dead, were not the same. Theres a difference between having a house big enough for all of ones extended family-members, and having a house which is ready to house them all -- though in both cases the house could be said to be prepared for the family-members, particularly if it was built exclusively for the purpose of housing them. Thats analogous to the scenario here.
Second Q: In Matthew 25:34-40, Jesus invites the sheep to enter into eternal life because they did good works to the needy. But elsewhere in the New Testament -- Ephesians 2:8-10, for example -- salvation is declared to be a matter of grace, not works. Isnt this a contradiction?
A: No; the works are the expression/authentication of the individuals faith (faith which is placed in God with a reliance on His grace). The works are not meritorious but they are the inevitable effects of genuine faith in Christ as ones Savior and Lord. Slothfulness is one of the sins from which Christ saves; if a person remains slothful and fruitless, he is not saved -- not because he is not bearing the fruit of good works, but because of the lack of root which the lack of fruit expresses and exposes.
Note: an alternative explanation is offered by some Pre-Millennialists. They propose that the scene in this parable -- the Judgment of the Sheep and the Goats -- is not representative of the Final Judgment, but is instead a judgment which takes place after Christs Second Coming at the beginning of his earthly reign (i.e., at the start of the Millennium), and the sheep and the goats represent the citizens of the nations which will be in existence during the Great Tribulation. The idea is that, since these people will live in a period which (from these Pre-Millennialists perspective) will amount to a different covenant than the current covenant of grace, Christ will judge them according to how they treated the Christians who were the targets of persecution during the reign of the Antichrist, rather than according to the standards of the covenant of grace. This neatly resolves the works-or-grace difficulty. (This is not my interpretation, but I think its worth mentioning.)
Yours in Christ,
Waterrock
First Q: In Matthew 25:34, in a parable, the King tells the sheep to come and inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. The individuals represented by the sheep proceed to go to heaven, of course. But in John 14:2, Jesus tells the disciples that He goes to prepare a place for you. So when was heaven prepared?
A: The term prepare (and the underlying Greek word) is capable of varying meaning, depending on the context. Heaven is reserved for the faithful apostles from before the foundation of the world, in the sense that their names have ever been written in the Book of Life. But the arrangement of things in the afterlife before Jesus arose from the dead, and before He arose from the dead, were not the same. Theres a difference between having a house big enough for all of ones extended family-members, and having a house which is ready to house them all -- though in both cases the house could be said to be prepared for the family-members, particularly if it was built exclusively for the purpose of housing them. Thats analogous to the scenario here.
Second Q: In Matthew 25:34-40, Jesus invites the sheep to enter into eternal life because they did good works to the needy. But elsewhere in the New Testament -- Ephesians 2:8-10, for example -- salvation is declared to be a matter of grace, not works. Isnt this a contradiction?
A: No; the works are the expression/authentication of the individuals faith (faith which is placed in God with a reliance on His grace). The works are not meritorious but they are the inevitable effects of genuine faith in Christ as ones Savior and Lord. Slothfulness is one of the sins from which Christ saves; if a person remains slothful and fruitless, he is not saved -- not because he is not bearing the fruit of good works, but because of the lack of root which the lack of fruit expresses and exposes.
Note: an alternative explanation is offered by some Pre-Millennialists. They propose that the scene in this parable -- the Judgment of the Sheep and the Goats -- is not representative of the Final Judgment, but is instead a judgment which takes place after Christs Second Coming at the beginning of his earthly reign (i.e., at the start of the Millennium), and the sheep and the goats represent the citizens of the nations which will be in existence during the Great Tribulation. The idea is that, since these people will live in a period which (from these Pre-Millennialists perspective) will amount to a different covenant than the current covenant of grace, Christ will judge them according to how they treated the Christians who were the targets of persecution during the reign of the Antichrist, rather than according to the standards of the covenant of grace. This neatly resolves the works-or-grace difficulty. (This is not my interpretation, but I think its worth mentioning.)
Yours in Christ,
Waterrock
