We are aware of the scriptures which speak of the King gathering all nations before Him at His return and separating the sheep from the goats. So, then let us consider this question. Are the members of God’s true Church, sheep or goats? Actually, they may be neither!
At the first resurrection, the trumpet shall sound and true Christians will instantly become immortal, spirit-composed, God Beings … they would have at that instant, made it into the Glorious Kingdom of God.
Let us now examine Matthew 25:31-46: "When the Son of Man shall come and all His Holy angels with Him, then shall He sit upon the throne of His glory, (remember, at that stage, true Christians will already be with Him as God Beings), and before Him shall be gathered all nations (physical people who survived the tribulation, Isaiah 2:3), and He shall separate them one from another as a shepherd divides his sheep from the goats."
Christ will then say to those people who survived the tribulation: "Even as you did it to one of the least of these my brethren, (gesturing with His thumb over His shoulder to the saints standing behind Him) you did it to me." This is not, as previously thought, an on-going separation that happens throughout the millennium, for there will be no hungry, thirsty, sick or poorly clothed people then, neither will there be any prisons in the millennium. One of the reasons we should all know that there will be no prisons in the millennium is because people will not be allowed to do wrong then, for as Isaiah the prophet foretold: "And your ears shall hear a word behind you, saying, this is the way, walk you in it, when you turn to the right hand, and when you turn to the left." (Isaiah 30:31). All criminal attempts will be immediately nipped in the bud throughout the millennium. No, these "sheep" are people who are not even aware of these scriptures. They ask, "When did we do this to you, Lord?" These are people who either did kindness or unkindness to God’s people during their physical lives on earth and will be given their appropriate reward. Members of God’s true Church therefore, are neither the sheep nor the goats referred to in this parable.
Now, a Kingdom consists of: (1) Rulers. (2) Territory, and (3) Citizens.
The "goats" will not be allowed to live on into the millennium, they will be swiftly destroyed. Christ himself, who knows the hearts of all men, has identified them and classified them as being "goats," unsuitable for eternal life in the Kingdom of God. Some might think that would usurp the 2nd and 3rd resurrections of Rev. 20, however, the reason it does not do so, is because the individuals being judged by Christ after the millennium, would have been resurrected then in order to be judged, whereas the ones (the goats) mentioned previously as being cast into the lake of fire at the return of Christ, were still alive when he came, so did not require being resurrected in order to be judged, but were immediately judged by Christ as being "goats" and destroyed, just as the beast and the false prophet will be at the return of Christ. (Rev. 19:20).
To say that is usurping the 2nd & 3rd resurrections is to say that the destruction of the beast and the false prophet in the lake of fire at the beginning of the millennium is also usurping the 2nd & 3rd resurrections. However, the fact of the matter is that goats are goats and sheep are sheep, goats cannot ever repent and become sheep, so it would be pointless for Christ to kill them at His return, only to raise and kill them again after a thousand years, when he already knows they are incorrigible goats.
However, those other people who helped God’s people during their lives on earth, are the "sheep" to whom Christ referred. Those are the individuals who will become the physical citizens of the Wonderful World Tomorrow, who will learn of God’s ways and who will also, ultimately be born into the Divine Family of God!
Finally, this thought: What did Christ do shortly after being resurrected? Well, He went to see and to be greeted by the Father! Don’t you think that true Christians will too? It is quite likely that after all true Christians are given their new Spirit-composed, glorified bodies, no longer men, but God Beings, they will go and meet and be greeted by the Father in Heaven (the Heavens) (Rev. 15:2), before returning to assist Christ in the establishment of the Glorious Kingdom of God on earth! (Rev. 5:10).
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