Quote Originally Posted by Anbesol
And how about Matthew 25:31-46 - 'inasmuch as you have done it to the least of them, you have done it to me', the illustration is qutie a far cry from 'because you professed faith in me'. Can a Hindu not be kind to the least of them? Can an atheist not be good to the least of them? Proclaimed faith played no part in this rather vivid illustration. But you would have us believe that its simply professing faith that grants us eternal life. This is something you may be able to twist out of the words of Paul, but you couldn't in a thousand years read such from the words of Christ.
I find it interesting that many folks who are liberals or liberal in theology always want to quote Jesus and not paul...I find it ironic that people always throw out the love the neighbor as your self verse, but forget the love your God part...It is also interesting to me that Jesus spoke more of HELL than heaven and Paul spoke more of Heaven than hell...

OK, Lets take a look at what Jesus said here....I am so glad you brought this up as it will serve to kill two birds with one stone....This passage also prove annihilation to be false teaching...
Mt 25:31-46
31 “When the Son of Man comes in His glory, and all the holy angels with Him, then He will sit on the throne of His glory. 32 All the nations will be gathered before Him, and He will separate them one from another, as a shepherd divides his sheep from the goats. 33 And He will set the sheep on His right hand, but the goats on the left. 34 Then the King will say to those on His right hand, ‘Come, you blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world: 35 for I was hungry and you gave Me food; I was thirsty and you gave Me drink; I was a stranger and you took Me in; 36 I was naked and you clothed Me; I was sick and you visited Me; I was in prison and you came to Me.’
37 “Then the righteous will answer Him, saying, ‘Lord, when did we see You hungry and feed You, or thirsty and give You drink? 38 When did we see You a stranger and take You in, or naked and clothe You? 39 Or when did we see You sick, or in prison, and come to You?’ 40 And the King will answer and say to them, ‘Assuredly, I say to you, inasmuch as you did it to one of the least of these My brethren, you did it to Me.’
41 “Then He will also say to those on the left hand, ‘Depart from Me, you cursed, into the everlasting fire prepared for the devil and his angels: 42 for I was hungry and you gave Me no food; I was thirsty and you gave Me no drink; 43 I was a stranger and you did not take Me in, naked and you did not clothe Me, sick and in prison and you did not visit Me.’
44 “Then they also will answer Him, saying, ‘Lord, when did we see You hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or sick or in prison, and did not minister to You?’ 45 Then He will answer them, saying, ‘Assuredly, I say to you, inasmuch as you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to Me.’ 46 And these will go away into everlasting punishment, but the righteous into eternal life.”
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Verses 31 -33 is speaking of Gentiles when it says nations.....Here the Lord Jesus Christ makes it clear that there are sheep (Chrstians, those who are his) and Goats, (those who are children of the devil) Notice there is NONE in the middle..We are all either sheep or goats...
Verses 34-40 Jesus has been described as Son of Man and his judgment of the nations / gentiles and has been described like a Shepard. But here he speaks as the king who determines who will enter his Kingdom... He speaks first to the sheep on his right hand (Christians) and announces that they, whom the Father has blessed through him, will inherit the Kingdom of God due to their merciful ministry to him when he was hungry, thirsty, homeless, naked, and imprisoned...
Lord, when did we ever see you hungry? When the righteous folks professed surprise and ignorance, Jesus announced that it was done for him when it was done for one of his little brothers.
The bible also says Mt 7:21-23 “Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father in heaven. 22 Many will say to Me in that day, ‘Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Your name, cast out demons in Your name, and done many wonders in Your name?’ 23 And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness!’ These would be the goats....The preparation of the Kingdom for the blessed ones in 25:34 should be contrasted with the preparation of eternal fire for the devil, his demons and the goats...
Verses 41-45 ..Away with you, you cursed ones, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his demons. These verses are exactly symmetrical with 25:34–40, but those on the King’s left are told to depart into eternal fire to burn in hell in torment for all eternity... Notice that eternal fire is not prepared for those on the king’s left (the sheep) but for the devil, his demons and his goats.
Verse 46 This is straight forward... the goats will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous sheep will go into eternal life. Notice that The gravity of this judgment is stressed by the repetition of the word “eternal.” ....

I will be addressing your and Mikes other posts tomorrow. But I do want to leave you ''FOLKS'' with a nugget and something to Ponder...

When you read the bible from the beginning starting in Genesis, Notice that the first ? mark you come across is Gen 3...Now the serpent was more cunning than any beast of the field which the Lord God had made. And he said to the woman, “Has God indeed said, ‘You shall not eat of every tree of the garden’?”
Notice that it is the devil himself who first questions the word of God...He has been doing it from the beginning and continues to do it this very day....