Nothing's black and white, we are told, yet it seems like today's Gospel of the Last Judgment truly is black and white: when Christ returns at the end of time to judge the nations, it would appear that there will be but two categories...the sheep and the goats. Each and every one of us, my friends, shall be judged accordingly: either we shall be a sheep or a goat, and there seems to be no middle ground. There are, indeed, no geeks and no shoaps.
Either we have ministered to the least of Christ's brethren during the course of this earthly life, or we have not. Either we shall "inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world," or you shall "depart into the everlasting fire prepared for the Devil and his angels." It will be impossible, at that point, to straddle the proverbial fence. Indeed, our salvation is not a game...or if it is, we are playing for keeps.
That situation at the Final Judgment could hardly be more starkly black and white, and surely there are no "fifty shades of grey." So where in all of this is there any wiggle room at all? There are but two possible outcomes: either we shall be welcomed as faithful sheep into Christ's pasture, or we shall be consigned to the outer darkness, where "there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth."
Of course, this is not the "Jesus meek and mild" I learned about in Protestant Sunday school. Until the Final Judgment strikes us like a ton of bricks, we can waffle all we want, but then--WHAM! Either we are with Him or we are against Him, and there can be no middle course. The bottom line is simple--we must put to death our self-centered egos for the sake of the least of Christ's brethren, or else we shall willfully isolate ourselves for all eternity in a hell of our own making.
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