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  • Dividing of People Over the Kingdom Issue
    Survival Into a New Earth
    • Would love for God and Christ cause them to come to the aid of these ambassadors of the heavenly Kingdom? (Matthew 25:35-40; compare 2 Corinthians 5:20.) Not primarily humanitarian kindness but help rendered because they belong to Christ is counted by the King as done to himself personally.​—Mark 9:41; Matthew 10:42.

      10. (a) Why is the protest raised by the “goats” not valid? (b) By contrast, what position have the “sheep” taken?

      10 Those who render such aid are likened by Jesus to sheep. People who fail to give help to his “brothers” are referred to in Jesus’ parable as goats. The “goats” may protest that they did not see Jesus Christ. But he has sent his servants to them, and these have clearly identified themselves. All the “goats” may not persecute Christ’s “brothers,” but neither are they moved by love for the heavenly King to come to the aid of his representatives. (Matthew 25:41-45) They cling to the world of which Satan the Devil is the invisible ruler. The “sheep” cannot literally see Christ either. But, in contrast to the “goats,” these prove that they are not afraid to identify themselves with Christ’s “brothers,” supporting these proclaimers of God’s Kingdom. The “sheep” know what they are doing, and they make a positive choice in favor of the Kingdom of God by means of Jesus Christ. That is why their action has merit in the eyes of the King.

  • Dividing of People Over the Kingdom Issue
    Survival Into a New Earth
    • The “sheep” cannot literally see Christ either. But, in contrast to the “goats,” these prove that they are not afraid to identify themselves with Christ’s “brothers,” supporting these proclaimers of God’s Kingdom. The “sheep” know what they are doing, and they make a positive choice in favor of the Kingdom of God by means of Jesus Christ. That is why their action has merit in the eyes of the King.

  • Dividing of People Over the Kingdom Issue
    Survival Into a New Earth
    • In some 200 lands and island groups around the globe​—even where the preaching of God’s Kingdom is under government ban—​the dividing work moves irresistibly forward, and a great crowd of persons are taking their stand on the side of God’s Kingdom.

      12. (a) How do the “sheep” make clear the stand they have taken? (b) Why do they do it?

      12 How do they show this? By working right along with the anointed ones, zealously proclaiming that the Kingdom rules and that it will soon bring the worldly system to its end. Thus they openly identify themselves as having taken their stand for Jehovah’s Messianic Kingdom and they lovingly urge others to do the same. Far more than a desire for survival motivates these right-hearted persons. They truly love Jehovah and his ways. The provision of his Kingdom with Christ as King fills their hearts with gratitude, and they want others to benefit from it. So they share to the fullest extent that they are able in giving the Kingdom witness. As Jesus instructed his disciples, they ‘seek first the kingdom,’ not allowing anxiety over material needs to push it into second place. In this way they come in line for a grand blessing.​—Matthew 6:31-33.

      WILL YOU “INHERIT THE KINGDOM”?

      13. (a) Since when has Jehovah had in mind a reward for these sheeplike ones? (b) What does it mean for them to “inherit the kingdom”?

      13 What is in store for those who prove to be the “sheep” of Jesus’ parable is marvelous indeed. From his heavenly throne, he says to them: “Come, you who have been blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the founding of the world.” (Matthew 25:34) Ever since “the founding of the world,” at the time when Adam and Eve first produced children who could benefit from God’s provision to redeem mankind, according to Genesis 3:15, 16, Jehovah had in mind a reward for these “sheep.” (Compare Luke 11:50, 51.) Theirs is the opportunity to enjoy in the restored Paradise the perfection of human life that Adam lost. Their ‘inheriting the kingdom’ does not mean that they will go to heaven, because the parable shows that the “sheep” are not the same as the King’s “brothers,” who are heirs of the heavenly Kingdom. So the “sheep” must be earthly subjects of that heavenly government. Liddell and Scott’s Greek-English Lexicon states that the Greek term basileiʹa, which is here translated “kingdom,” can be understood in a passive sense, meaning one’s “being ruled by a king.” It is this sense that obviously applies here.

      14. How will the judgment passed on the “goats” contrast with the inheritance of the “sheep”?

      14 When the “goats” depart into “everlasting cutting-off,” into a destruction as complete as if by fire, the “sheep” will be safeguarded by the Messianic King. (Matthew 25:41, 46; compare Revelation 21:8.) Without any need to die, they will be preserved through the great tribulation into the glorious “new earth” that will be free from the vile influence of Satan and his wicked system of things. That blessing will be theirs because they are making the right decision on the Kingdom issue now.

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