How to interpret Matthew chapter 25?

Question

Many places in the New Testament we are told that the only requirement for salvation is to believe in Jesus. Works alone are not sufficient because no person can be perfect enough.

But in Matthew 25 Jesus tells a story of judgement day where some people who clearly believe in him and want to be saved are rejected from heaven and condemned to hell.

So which part of the bible is true?

Answer 1

do what you're told and stop asking questions of your religion. Follow, my son, follow!

Answer 2

in accordance to Watchtower interpretation there are also 133,000+ or - 11,000 or so, of a complete one hundred forty four,000 that became new effective spirit creatures, by using being resurrected to heaven at their deaths, maximum folk of them between 1879 and 1935. of route no you possibly can vouch for any of this, they offer no sturdy information from the bible, only conjecture and surmise. it truly is humorous that they now take an organization stand antagonistic to waiting for, predicting, prophesying, about even as the end is coming, even utilising scripture that announces 'no man or woman knows the day or the hour', yet they stake their entire non secular dogma on hypothesis first derived from the spiritualist prepare of measuring the pyramids of Egypt, to come back up with 'the day' of Christ's kingdom known. only how can they reconcile Jesus own caution about doing only what they have performed. the reason they could no longer abandon that twelve months 1914 is they'd positioned all their eggs in that one basket, it changed into to overdue to some distance lengthy gone to decrease backtrack and admit, that like numerous different date they have set, they were incorrect. This date will spell the end of their corporation interior of a few short years. they already have rid of all assurances that the technology the bible mentions isn't what they theory it changed into.

Answer 3

All of the bible is true, it is just a little deeper than it seems. We are saved through faith alone. In Matthew 25 (assuming your question is about the sheep and the goats), Jesus is referring to those who's lips confess Jesus as Savior but who's hearts do not believe in him. We go by a persons outward confession, but only God can read the heart.

True faith is what you believe in your heart, it is more than lip service. The good deeds we do are only evidence of the faith in our hearts.

James 2:26As the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without deeds is dead.

Make sure you understand though, you are saved by faith alone, not by your works!

Lord's blessings on your study.

Answer 4

There are several requirements
"Believe ye on the Lord Jesus Christ.........."
" He that believeth and be baptised........"
etc, ect.

These requirement are not listed in order beside one another in any chapter...

For those who want to pick and choose the "easy" requirment, think of it this way......
If you are baking a cake, you can't leave out the messy parts of the recipe. You wouldn't have a cake. So you have to do all the steps.
If you want to be a Christian, you have to do all the steps as they are pointed out in the various chapters.
You ask, "why aren't they listed together?"
This is one reason we must study God's Word and study ALL of it.
The requirements are:
Hear the Word
Believe the Word
Repent of your sins
Confess that you are a sinner
Be Baptised
Live a Faithful life

And if you do all that, I'll be looking forward to meeting you someday.....:-)

Answer 5

This is of the last days, the 10 virgins are the people of the church. 5 have kept the faith, faith is the oil of the lamps. Now all (10) are waiting for the bridegroom (Christ) and if he came when expected everything would be fine but he didn't show up on (their) time. So the lamps burned low (time of the anti-Christ).
So when in the night Christ comes, oil is in short supply, (now go and buy faith). Those that ran out of oil came and said But I know you Christ
Math :25
12 But he answered and said, Verily I say unto you, I know you not.

To say I know Pres. Bush is one thing, For Bush to say I Know Grandreal is a far better thing

Or to say once saved always saved is a tradition of man. Most traditions of man will take you to hell.

Answer 6

When the Bible talks about believing in Jesus, it is not talking about mental agreement that He is who He says He is, alone. Also included in the term believe, is trust (and obey). Many people say that they believe in Jesus and in fact do works in His name, but they are in reality not interested in God's will at all, but in their own. That is where the problem lies. I may mentally believe (so does the devil) and may even want to be saved, but if I go about it according to my standards and my will and not Gods then the effort is futile.
So it is in Mathew 25 the people may have said with their mouth that they believed but there actions showed the true state of their heart

Answer 7

Jesus also said in John chapter 14 that if you loved him, you would obey his commands.

Jesus also makes the point in the Gospel of John that someone who continues to sin hasn't really repented of anything.

And James makes the point that faith in God should naturally produce good works. After all, if you trust God, and you believe that he is smarter than you, it would be illogical NOT to obey God (how we live shows what we really believe).

Obviously God knows that we are not perfect, that is why we need to be forgiven, but God seems to judge our sincereity based on whether we put forth any effort or not.

Answer 8

If you are doing things that aer not in alignment with Gods word then he is saying "Jesus" that I never knew you.

These people like Falwell, Hinn, etc are definately in this category.

How many times did Jesus look for glory as recorded in the bible?

Zero -

How about the boys on TV?

Answer 9

Faith without works is dead... they go hand in hand... just cause one part of the bible talks more about one than the other doesnt mean its contradicting itself.... you have to take in all the scripture and tie it all together... its like dinner... i can serve you a dinner based on a balanced diet... but if you only eat the meat or veggies then your not getting the full effect now are you?

Answer 10

on the illustration that Jesus was stating is about integrity from his followers and to be alert always for his return....and that's what happened in 1914...when Jesus came as he promised that he would return....but only the ones who kept integrity and were alert knew about his return in 1914....the only group of people that knew about his return were the Jehovah's Witness because they have been publishing this information about his return in the early 1800's .....and the rest of the churches have no idea that Jesus return in 1914 and was made king of the kingdom of God in heavens....so the bible is not wrong....the thing is that many people don't pay attention to its message....so are you paying attention to it?....get more information from Jehovah's witness.

Answer 11

I'm not quite sure which part of the chapter you are referring to, but I think it's the account of the separation of the sheep and the goats. Jesus puts the sheep on his right for everlasting life, but the goats on his left for everlasting destruction. The sheep were the ones that treated his brothers well and followed them and helped them, whereas the goats persecuted his brothers and gave them nothing. The goats were not rejected because they "believed in him," they were rejected because they did not recognize Christ's brothers and treat them well and follow them. Verse 45 says, "Truly I say to you, to the extent that you did not do it to one of these least ones, YOU did not do it to me." So he's saying that since they didn't clothe, feed, help, etc. his brothers, they didn't help him.