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Matt. 25:31-46 records the judgment of nations at the second coming of Christ. Some will "inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world" (Matt. 25:34). It is about these that Christ said that the righteous shall enter into eternal life (verse 46).

But some will "go away into everlasting punishment" (Matt. 25:46). Of these Christ said, "Depart from Me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels" (verse 41). In verse 46 we read that they "shall go away into everlasting punishment".

This paper is about those who will enter into "everlasting punishment". We will discuss the following subjects in our search for the Scriptural truth as to who these people will be.

As we seek an answer to our question as to who will be punished with an "everlasting fire" it is important to determine when this judgment will take place. We read in Matt. 25:31, When the Son of man shall come in His glory, and all the holy angels with Him, then shall He sit upon the throne of His glory: And before Him shall be gathered all the nations....". This tells us that the judgment of Matt. 25 will be at the second coming of Christ.

It is also important to bear in mind that there is no resurrection mentioned in this passage. That is to say that those to be judged will be those who will be alive at the time of the second coming of Christ, they are not the dead who are resurrected for judgment. This fact tells us that those who will be judged had lived through the end times which include the three and one-half years of the tribulation.

Now let us consider the criteria upon which the judgments are made. We read in verses 42-43, "I was a hungered, and ye gave Me no meat: I was thirsty and ye gave Me no drink: I was a stranger, and ye took Me not in: naked, and ye clothed Me not,:sick and in prison, and ye visited Me not". To whom did those judged not afford these kindnesses? That question is answered in verse 40, "Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these My brethren, ye did it unto Me". That brings up the question: who are the Lord's brethren?

There are two possible answers to the question of who are the Lord's brethren. One is that Christ's brethren are Israelites, His brethren after the flesh. Another answer is found in Mark 3:35, "...whosoever shall do the will of God, the same is My brother, and My sister, and mother". Which did Christ mean in Matt. 25? Was He referring to His natural brethren, i.e. Israelites or was He referring to all believers? As we consider the timing of this judgment, I believe it will be clear that Christ was referring to His natural brethren, i.e. Israelites.

As mentioned above, those who will be judged as recorded in Matt. 25 are those who will live through the tribulation. The paper on this web-site The Tribulation Is Not World wide prove that statement from Scripture, and will also show the reason for the tribulation. The reason for the tribulation is given quite specifically in Rev. 3:10, "Because thou hast kept the word of My patience, I also will keep thee from the hour of trial, which shall come upon the inhabited world to test them that dwell in the Land". (For the correctness of that translation please see the above mentioned paper.) In other words, the tribulation will be a time when God allows Satan to test Israel to see who will remain true to Him.

My point is that the tribulation is Israel centered. It is not centered on the entire world and those outside the inhabited world (the area of the old Roman empire) will not be tested. In other words, most of the Lord's brethren in the sense of Mark 3, i.e. believers, will not be tested and will not be in need of food or drink and will not be imprisoned during the tribulation. Therefore, the context points to the conclusion that Christ was referring to His brethren after the flesh, i.e. Israelites. It was the Israelites in the tribulation who were in need of all these things, and those gathered for the judgment of Matt. 25 were judged on how they treated Israelites during the tribulation.

The Greek word translated "everlasting" in the phrase "everlasting punishment" is "aonian". The Companion Bible defines "aonian" as, "belonging to an age". Implied in the word "age" is a certain period of time. That period of time is not given exactly, but the context always provides us with an idea of the length of time implied. With that in mind, let us consider verse 46. That verse reads, "and these shall go away into everlasting punishment: but the righteous into life eternal". It is the same Greek word that is used of those who will be punished with an "everlasting punishment" and those who will enter into "life eternal". When the righteous will go into "life eternal" they will "put on immortality" and will therefore, never die. They are contrasted with the others who will "go away into everlasting punishment". Because the contrast is between "age long life" which will never end, and age long punishment, I believe that the "age" of punishment will also never end.

Let us also note that this everlasting fire was "prepared for the devil and his angels". That takes us to Rev. 19:10 which reads, "And the beast was taken and with him the false prophet that wrought miracles before him with which he deceived them that had received the mark of the beast and them that worshipped his image. These both were cast alive into a lake of fire burning with brimstone. And in Rev. 20:10 we read, "And the devil that deceived them was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone, where the beast and the false prophet are, and shall be tormented day and night for ever and ever".

My point is that those of Matthew 25 who will suffer this everlasting punishment will suffer it for ever along with Satan, the antichrist and the false prophet.

We have read in Matt. 25 of those who will be cast into a lake of fire and suffer punishment forever. But the unsaved man is not immortal. That is to say, how can the unsaved man suffer eternally unless he lived for eternity? One must be alive in order to suffer. If one suffers eternally, he must be alive eternally. But the unsaved man is not immortal and therefore, does not live eternally.

Let us also consider Is. 66:24: which speaks of the lake of fire. "And they shall go forth and look upon the carcasses of the men that have transgressed against Me: for their worm shall not die, neither shall their fire be quenched: they shall be an abhorring unto all flesh".

Please note that Isaiah tells us that they shall " look upon the carcasses". Carcasses are not bodies of those who are alive, they are bodies of those who are dead. Note also the phrase, "their worm shall not die". It is not the men who will not die, it is the worm that feeds on the dead. The note in the Companion Bible on the word "worm" reads, in part, "Heb. tola, the maggot bred from putrid substances".

And yet those who are judged unworthy of eternal life in Matt. 25 will suffer eternally. How are we to solve this seeming contradiction? We will leave this question for now, but it will be answered as we continue in our study.

We have learned above that the false prophet, the beast, the devil and those of Matt. 25 will be cast into the lake of fire and be tormented for ever. But we know from Rev. 20: 4 that those who worshipped the beast will also be cast into the lake of fire. But they will suffer the second death. Obviously, if they will suffer the second death, they will not be alive in the lake of fire, they will be dead. In other words, their punishment will not be eternal. Let us consider their crime and their punishment.

We read in Rev. 20:4, ".....I saw the souls of them that were beheaded for the witness of Jesus, and for the word of God, and which had not worshipped the beast, neither his image, neither had received his mark upon their foreheads, or in their hands; and they lived and reigned with Christ a thousand years. But the rest of the dead live not again until the thousand years were finished".

If we are to take the phrase "rest of the dead" in context, it refers to those who did worship the beast and received his mark on their foreheads or in their hands. Note that those who had worshipped the beast lived again after the end of the millennium. That puts them at the great white throne judgment. And we read in verse 15 in regard to those who were judged at the great white throne, "And whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire".

In verse 14 we read, "and death and hell were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death". The note in the Companion Bible tells us that the texts add, "the lake of fire". So this verse should read as the NASB has translated it, ""and death and hell were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death, the lake of fire". In other words, those who worshipped the antichrist would not suffer everlasting punishment, they would suffer death as they were cast into the lake of fire.

We have learned that those who worshipped Satan and his antichrist would be cast into the lake of fire. But they would not suffer eternally, they would suffer the second death. Death is not life.

So those who lived through the tribulation and who worshipped Satan, who was God's enemy through the ages, will suffer a second death. But those who did not care for Israelites during the tribulation will suffer eternally. I hope the reader will agree that this sounds a bit off. That is to say, does it seem that not caring for Israelites is a far worse sin than worshipping Satan? I do not for a moment mean to imply that God's judgment is not just. What I am suggesting is only that this should give us pause, it should give us reason to look a bit further into the judgment of Matt. 25.

We have determined above that the judgment of Mat. 25 will be a judgment of those who had lived during the end times. Let us consider other passages from the Gospels about the end times.

We read in Matt. 24:36-39, "But of that day and hour knoweth no man, no, not the angels of heaven, but My Father only. But as the days of Noe were, so shall also the coming of the Son of man be. For as in the days that were before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, unto the day that Noe entered into the ark. And knew not until the flood came and took them all away; so shall also the coming of the Son of man be".

I believe that the primary message of this passage is that just as the flood caught its victims by surprise, so too shall the coming of the Son of man be a surprise. But I believe I Peter 3:18-20, which also speaks of the days of Noe tells us a bit more of those days as it relates to our study. That passage reads, "For Christ......being put to death in the flesh, but quickened by the Spirit by which also He went and preached unto the spirits in prison, which sometime were disobedient, when once the longsuffering of God waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was a preparing.....".

Who are those spirits in prison to whom Christ preached? II Peter 2:4-5 is another passage that connects spirits in prison with the days of Noah. "For if God spared not the angels that sinned, but cast them down to hell, and delivered them into chains of darkness, to be reserved unto judgment; and spared not the old world, but saved Noah the eighth person, a preacher of righteousness, bringing in the flood upon the world of the ungodly".

There are several interesting things to note about this passage. For example, the word translated "hell" in the phrase "cast them down to hell" is not the usual word "hades" or even "Gehenna", translated "hell". The Greek word used in II Peter is "Tartarus" and is used just this one time. Who were these "angels that sinned"? For the answer to that question we will look at Jude 6.

Jude 6 reads, "and the angels which kept not their first estate, but left their own habitation He hath reserved in everlasting chains under darkness unto the judgment of the great day". Note that like the angels of II Peter these are "reserved unto judgment". Note also the Greek word translated "habitation" in the phrase, "left their own habitation" is "oiketerion", it is used only here and II Cor. 5:2 where it is translated "house", "For in this we groan, earnestly desiring to be clothed upon with our house which is from heaven". Just as in II Cor. 5:2 the Greek word is used of a certain kind of a body, so too in Jude 6 it is used of a certain kind of a body. So Jude tells us that these angels who are being reserved unto judgment had left "their own" bodies. I believe that it is significant that the Greek word "soma" (which means "body") is not used for "body" in Jude 6, as angels did not really have a body. Because these angels are being reserved for judgment we may conclude that they acted against the will of God. We may refer to them therefore, as "fallen or rebellious angels".

We have learned that in the days of Noah were angels who had sinned and were consequently cast into Tartarus and reserved unto judgment. We must ask in what way did these angels sin in the days of Noah? For the answer to that question we must turn to Gen. 6.

We read in Gen. 6:4, "There were giants in the earth in those days; and also after that, when the sons of God came in unto the daughters of men, and they bare children to them, the same became mighty men which were of old, men of renown". Let us determine from Scripture who were the "sons of God" who "came in unto the daughters of men".

To begin with, let us note the rather strange wording in this verse, "the sons of God came in unto the daughters of men". Let us not draw any conclusions from the wording alone, but the phrase should peak one's interest in who these sons of God might be.

The exact phrase in the Hebrew translated "sons of God" occurs also in Job 1:6 and 2:1.

Job 1:6, "Now there was a day when the sons of God came to present themselves before the Lord, and Satan came also among them".

Job 2:1, "Again there was a day when the sons of God came to present themselves before the Lord, and Satan came also among them to present himself before the Lord".

Were these "sons of God" men? For them to be men they would have to be sons of Adam, and Adam then must have been created as a son of God. I suggest that Adam was not created as a son of God. Let us search the Scriptures for the answer to the question, was Adam created as a son of God?

The KJV of Luke 3:28 reads, ".....which was the son of Adam, which was the son of God". Please note that the phrase "the son" is in italics, indicating, of course, that the words are not in the original Greek texts. So this phrase should read, "Adam which was of God".

Was Adam a son of God by virtue of the fact that he was created by God? If he was, then we would have to conclude that everything that was created was a son of God. I do not believe that there is any scriptural evidence to conclude that animals, for example are sons of God. Nor are the creatures of the sea sons of God. That being the case, we may not conclude that Adam was a son of God because he was created by God.

Some men are sons of God, but not by virtue of creation. We read in John 1:12, But as many as received Him, to them gave He power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on His name". It is clear that believers are the sons of God. If all men were sons of God, then believing in Christ would not give believers "power to become the sons of God".

As we consider a few scriptures, I believe it will become more clear just how the believer becomes a son of God. We read in John 3:6, "That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit". The contrast is made here between flesh and spirit. Man is born of the flesh, but he becomes the son of God through the spirit. In my opinion, this fits perfectly with the fact that, as we read in Jn. 4:24, "God is spirit" (not "a spirit"). I suggest that just as God is spirit, one is or becomes a son of God through the spirit. or, in the case of angels, because they were created as spirit.

One more note on Luke 3:38 is called for. I am told that the Greek does not allow for the words "the son" to be repeated. But the near context makes it clear that in the verses through verse 37 they are to be understood. But they cannot be understood in verse 38 because that contradicts the fact that not all men are children of God. In other words, the Greek may not allow for the repetition, but neither does it demand that it be included, especially when it contradict other scriptures.

We learn in Ps. 104:4 ("Who maketh His angels spirits") that angels were created as spirit beings. That is to say, they have no physical form of themselves unless they take on a physical form. I believe that the sons of God who came unto the daughters of men were angels, i.e. spirit beings who took on the physical form of man in order to come unto the daughters of man.

Let me try to pull this section together. We have learned that in the days of Noah fallen angels had married the "daughters of men", and that these angels, i.e. spirits, are being held in chains until they are judged. Is there is a connection between the days of Noah and the days of the second coming of our Lord? I believe there is. I believe that Daniel two also implies fallen angels who mix with the seed of man. Let us consider that passage.

We have established the fact that the judgment of Matt. 25 concerns the judgment of those who will live in the end times. As we look at Nebuchadnezzar's dream and its interpretation in Dan. 2, we will see that part of that dream is also about the end times.

The interpretation of Nebuchadnezzar's dream is recorded in Dan. 2:36-45. Nebuchadnezzar dreamed of an image with a head of gold, a breast and arms of silver, a belly and thighs of brass, and legs of iron, and feet "part of iron and part of clay". Nebuchadnezzar, as king of Babylon, was represented by the head of gold (vs. 37). The breast and arms of silver represented the kingdom that was to follow after Nebuchadnezzar. The belly and thighs of brass represented the kingdom after that. And the legs of iron and feet of iron and clay represent the kingdom after that. We read in verses 34-35, "Thou sawest till that a stone was cut out without hands, which smote the image upon his feet that were of iron and clay, and brake them to pieces. The iron, the clay, the brass, the silver, and the gold, were broken to pieces together and became like the chaff of the summer threshingfloors; and the wind carried them away, that no place was found for them: and the stone that smote the image became a great mountain, and filled the whole earth".

We will now concentrate on the part of this dream that centers on the end times. We read in verse 44 that part of the interpretation that explains the kingdom that "filled the whole earth", "And in the days of these kings shall the God of heaven set up a kingdom, which shall never be destroyed, and the kingdom shall not be left to other people, but it shall break in pieces and consume all these kingdom and it shall stand for ever".

It is clear that this is the kingdom of God that will be set up at the second coming of Jesus Christ when He reigns over the earth for a thousand years. So the kingdom represented by the iron and clay will be the kingdom that immediately precedes the millennial reign of Christ. It is what we learn of that kingdom that will tell us a great deal about who it is that will suffer everlasting punishment.

Let us consider for example Dan. 2:43 which tells us of the feet and toes of the image, "And whereas thou sawest iron mixed with miry clay, they shall mingle themselves with the seed of men: but they shall not cleave one to another, even as iron is not mixed with clay". The phrase, "they shall mingle themselves with the seed of men" is, in my opinion, reminiscent of the phrase we read in Gen. 6:2, "...the sons of God saw the daughters of men that they were fair and they took them wives of all which they chose". Let us consider this verse in Dan. 2 more carefully.

This verse also tells us that even though those represented by the iron and clay mingled "with the seed of men", they did not "cleave one to another". That together with the fact that we read that "they shall "mingle themselves with the seed of men" in my opinion, implies that like the days of Noah, the fallen angels of Satan will occupy the kingdom of Satan and his antichrist before it is destroyed by the coming of Jesus Christ.

Therefore, I believe that the ones judged in Matt. 25 who will suffer everlasting punishment are not men, in the truest sense of the word, but progeny of fallen angels. It cannot be men who suffer everlasting punishment, because the unsaved man does not live eternally. Note also that the fire into which those judged to merit everlasting punishment will be cast into the fire "prepared for devil and his angels" (Matt. 25:41). But we never read of Satan's angels being cast into that fire. If however, we accept the implication of Dan. 2 that some in the end times will not be men in the truest sense, but progeny of Satan's angels, then that prophecy will be fulfilled.

This paper was written by Joyce Pollard. If you would like to respond, please e-mail me at: janjoyce@aol.com