Who Gets Which Judgment When and Where in Matthew 24 & 25

Now those foolish virgins make sense!

I was explaining Matthew 25 to someone in a chat channel today, and then I thought: that chapter would make a good Substack post. It only came clear to me a couple of months ago, so I hope you find this as illuminating as I did. Praise to the Holy Spirit for giving us understanding (especially when we ask, but also when we’re just being obtuse and He has to give us a needed push!).

But first, in Matthew 24, Jesus has just answered the disciples’ questions about the end of the age. That phrase itself is interesting, because the disciples knew that they were beginning a new age, the Age of Grace. They were probably hoping for the Princess Bride version of the events but instead they got an entire explication of who gets saved when and where.

Matt. 24:4-8 is an “everyone” experience. These are like the days of Noah and Lot, with most people unaware that history’s greatest disaster is about to fall on earth.

Then there’s a paragraph marker between verses 8 and 9, which in the Bible’s prophetic literature indicates a new scene in the vision of the future. So verses 9-14 are aimed at those Christians who come to faith too late for the Rapture and must endure the Tribulation.

The next paragraph, verses 15-22 describes the Great Tribulation, but specifically for the Jews in Judea.

Verses 23-25 are directed at Tribulation saints, warning them that Jesus will not be on earth during the seven year Tribulation, so they should not allow themselves to be deceived by false christs.

And verses 26-28 continues the thought, adding that Jesus (and His bride and the angel armies) will be spotted in the eastern sky (like a sunrise, the Sun of Righteousness) flying in a westerly direction, and He shares a macabre folk proverb that when you see eagles (actually, the Greek word more likely means vultures) gathering, they are expecting a great slaughter (Rev. 19:17-19). Jesus can’t be in an inner room if He’s about to destroy the armies of the nations from the sky.

Then the end of chapter 24 is directed to three different groups of people:

Verse 29-31: Tribulation survivors on the earth, with a side note that Jesus also sends His angels to pick up the Diaspora of all twelve tribes of Jacob, and bring them to Zion.

Verses 32-35: The last generation of the age; specifically, those students of prophecy who have witnessed Israel restored to the land and are watching for the other signs that the Rapture is near.

Verses 36-44: The bride of Christ, warned to be ready (surrendered to Jesus and well-versed in prophecy, so they know the signs to watch for).

Verses 45-51: A warning to the shepherds of Israel, many of whom will turn out to be bad; so bad that they earn their own “bad shepherd” chapter in Ezekiel (chapter 34)!

After all these warnings, Jesus goes on to describe how each of four distinct groups will be judged.

Matt 25:1-13
Wise virgins = those who have the Holy Spirit and are ready for Jesus to come in the clouds, resurrect the dead in Christ and catch up the living believers, and take them to His Father’s house. The only judgment is the Bema seat judgment of rewards and crowns (or not, as the case may be).

(Note: not "with" the clouds, that's the Second Coming. In the Rapture, Jesus meets us in the air and doesn't set foot on the earth; in fact, He's a thief, stealing His bride from Satan, who is the prince of the air, which is why no one knows the day or the hour except the Father, so Satan doesn't know when the Rapture is, though we ourselves can guess at the season and year from prophetic clues)

Foolish virgins = Tribulation saints, those who knew about Jesus but aren't born again until after the Rapture. Lacking oil for light to read the Scriptures means they didn’t spend much time studying and weren’t expecting His return to come when it did.

These late believers die during the Tribulation, but are resurrected at the Second Coming, and join the bride to rule and reign with King Jesus (be His government and priests—not Levitical priests at the Temple, because the mortal Levites will still do that on earth, but priests in the Heavenly Temple). They don’t receive crowns, but they do receive white martyrs’ robes and the palm branch of victory for enduring unto death.

Matt. 25:14-30
Talents = All Israel, both living and resurrected, is judged on whether they were profitable servants for the Lord (did they do His will or serve themselves?). If they served themselves, what they gathered will be taken from them and they will be cast into outer darkness, and their possessions given to their God-serving brethren, who receive a double portion as the eldest son.

(Note: reread the Prodigal Son parable, Luke 15:11-32—Jews are the eldest son, who always receives a double portion of the inheritance, and the Gentile church is the younger son, who spent all he had and repented and came back to the Father, and inherits no land. To switch metaphors, as the bride of Christ, we don't get any lands either; instead, we are always with Jesus wherever He is, which would be my first choice anyway!).

Matt 25:31-46
Sheep & Goats = The mortal Gentiles (a.k.a. the nations) that survive the Tribulation. Those who blessed the Jews, the brethren of Jesus, are treated as if they blessed Jesus, and these nations receive their kingdom (their lands planned for them from Creation). Those who cursed the Jews are condemned to the lake of fire and everlasting torment.

The dead who did not survive the Tribulation and did not put their faith in Christ will go to Hades to await judgment with all the rest of the Gentile dead of prior generations, going back to Adam.

There's one more group that is dealt with at the Second Coming, but they don't get resurrected or judged. Those who take the Mark surrender their humanity when they consent to worship the Antichrist (possibly taking the Mark alters human DNA with corrupted fallen angel DNA, like the Nephilim?), so their "code" is broken and they too are thrown into the lake of fire with the Antichrist and the false prophet, to burn forever.

After a thousand years pass, Satan is released to deceive those who have never been a victim of his deceptions (everyone gets a chance to choose God over Satan), and that little mess is summarily dealt with. Then there is the Great White Throne judgment (Rev. 20:11) of all the recently dead as well as the dead of thousands of years ago, who never put their faith in Jesus and weren’t Israelites. They will be judged on their deeds, as far as we know. The Bible doesn’t say much about this judgment, except that it is preceded abruptly by the ending of this heaven and this earth, which are then replaced by new ones. But I think we can expect Jesus to judge the unreached righteously and mercifully.

And that was my recent discovery about Matthew chapter 25. I hope it made sense!

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