Originally posted by @rajk999
First of all, it is only Christians who I hear proclaiming that they are saved eternally. The people in Matt 25 had no clue that they were being observed by Christ. They were simply good people going about their daily lives and when they come across someone in need they were compassionate and kindhearted enough [like the Good Samaritan] to help and to give ...[text shortened]... ough to decide what good works please him.
One thing is for sure - Faith alone is not enough.
The people in
Matthew 25:31-46 are living through a particular transition time between two epochs - the church age and the age of the millennial kingdom. They are those who come through the last three and one half years of the great tribulation.
They are not evaluated according to the gospel of grace preached by the church age evangelists. They are evaluated according to
'the eternal gospel" preached supernaturally by an angel in the air. And the message is about God the Creator who made heaven and earth who is about to judge the whole world.
Revelation 14:6-7 gives us the backround of this particular transition time just before Christ descends as the Son of Man in the Holy Land.
"And I saw another angel flying in mid-heaven, having an eternal gospel to announce to those dwelling on the earth, even to eery nation and tribe and tonguee and people,
Saying with a loud voice, Fear God and give Him glory because the hour of is judgment has come, and worship Him who has made leaven and earth and the sea and the springs of water." (Rev. 14:6,7)
This will not be a gospel announced by human beings as saints in the New Testament church. This
"eternal gospel" of God the Creator of the universe will be announced supernaturally from the air during the darkest epoch on earth, the time of the three and one half year great tribulation.
The ones not responding to this
"eternal gospel" will be the followers of Antichrist who worship HIM as God being deceived.
The ones who respond to conscience and to the
eternal gospel, not realizing they are assisting Christ Himself the God-man, will be sympathetic to the terribly persecuted Christians and elect Jews who are being worn out oppression and severe in refugee status by the widespread government of the Antichrist.