Gino (12 July 2012)
"RE: Robin B: FiveDoves: 07.11.12: I, Goat"


 
Robin,
I searched, using the dogpile.com search engine, which is a composite of other search engines, and couldn't find the mentioned video, even when I also searched YouTube - all I found was something about a sculpture of a goat in the UK - perhaps I could have done a better job searching, though.
That said, and since I know not about the video, I will use this opportunity to go off on a different path about being a goat. I have noticed that many Catholics, as well as others who have a strong works salvation doctrine, like to use Matthew 25 (& the Sermon on the Mount) as the way of salvation. Therefore, when they mention the following:

Matthew 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:
 32 And before him shall be gathered all nations: and he shall separate them one from another, as a shepherd divideth his sheep from the goats:
 33 And he shall set the sheep on his right hand, but the goats on the left.
 34 Then shall the King say unto them on his right hand, Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world:

They apply it to an individual judgment of all peoples at the end, so that they teach that a "sheep" is the person who has done sufficient works to have "merited" eternal life, and conversely they teach that the "goat" is the person whose works have not "merited" eternal life. Therefore the objective would be, in their system, to do your best to be a sheep, and to not be a goat. In a similar fashion, I have had a number of people rebuke me for using the words "kid", or "kids", when speaking about children, saying that by calling them kids, that I was bringing upon them the curse of being a goat.

I would like to point out that the word sheep is not a code word for a righteous person, with the word goat being a code word for an unrighteous person.
Here are some examples where the word is used, even in the opposite sense:

Isaiah 53:6 All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the LORD hath laid on him the iniquity of us all.

There the word sheep is used, rather, for those who went astray in iniquity.

Psalm 44:11 Thou hast given us like sheep appointed for meat; and hast scattered us among the heathen.
 22 Yea, for thy sake are we killed all the day long; we are counted as sheep for the slaughter.

There, similarly, the word is used a bad context.

Psalm 119:176 I have gone astray like a lost sheep; seek thy servant; for I do not forget thy commandments.

There it did not say like a lost goat, which would have been according to the two false teachings that I have mentioned above.

Matthew 10:6 But go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.

Again, it did not say the lost goats.

Exodus 26:7 And thou shalt make curtains of goats’ hair to be a covering upon the tabernacle: eleven curtains shalt thou make.

There, the word goats is used in a good sense, for a covering of the tabernacle.

Song of Solomon 4:1 Behold, thou art fair, my love; behold, thou art fair; thou hast doves’ eyes within thy locks: thy hair is as a flock of goats, that appear from mount Gilead.

There, the word goats is used in a good sense, and again, since the Song of Solomon may be seen as prophetic typology of the relationship between the Lord Jesus and his bride the church.

Jeremiah 50:8 Remove out of the midst of Babylon, and go forth out of the land of the Chaldeans, and be as the he goats before the flocks.

There, the word goats is used for those who follow the word of the LORD, flee out of Babylon, and leading others out of harm's way.

I Kings 20:27 And the children of Israel were numbered, and were all present, and went against them: and the children of Israel pitched before them like two little flocks of kids; but the Syrians filled the country.

There, the word kids is used in a very tender and good sense.

Song of Solomon 1:8 If thou know not, O thou fairest among women, go thy way forth by the footsteps of the flock, and feed thy kids beside the shepherds’ tents.

There, too, the word kids is used in a very tender and good sense - also again, especially in light of the prophetic typology of the Song of Solomon.

So, no, we do not curse our children by calling them kids. Also, the judgment of the sheep and goats, cannot be a judgment between saved and lost individuals:
One, because the Judgment seat of Christ is a different, unique judgment, which occurs earlier, where only saved people are there, and no one loses their salvation, only rewards
Two, because the great white throne judgment, which occurs, "after" the thousand year kingdom, "is" a judgment of individuals, but does not include the body of Christ.
Three, because the context of Matthew 25:31-34 is not individuals, but rather nations are the gathered in that case (line 32) - and those nations are judged as nations, based on how they treated the brethren of Jesus - and since this is at the very outset of the thousand year kingdom, with Jesus upon the throne of David, the context then of his brethren is the children of Israel. Right after the end of the battle of Armageddon, and at the very outset of the thousand year kingdom, the nations of the world will be judged based on how they treated the children of Israel during the Tribulation. In a sense, the Nuremberg trials were sort of a prefigure of this, but on a much smaller, and more importantly, Nuremberg was on an individual basis, rather than on an entire nation basis.

Gino