Last year, during COVID isolation, I connected with a Zoom group of Christians that believe in Universal Reconciliation. They have a variety of differing beliefs with in that belief. For the most part, they don’t believe in an eternal hell. Rather, they believe in a temporary fire to reconcile us back to God. In other words, everyone at some point is going to be reconciled back to God. There are layers of beliefs and nuances in this. It can become complicated and is not the the purpose of this writing.
From being involved in this group, it caused me to dig into these words of Jesus in the Bible:
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. And He will set the sheep on His right hand, but the goats on the left. Matthew 25:32-33
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.’ And these will go away into everlasting punishment, but the righteous into eternal life. Matthew 25:45-46
From being involved in this group, it challenged me to dive in for more understanding. The question “Who are the goats?” lingered. As I pursued the answer to this question, I did not seem to get a clear answer from the theologians in the group. One of the points in their theology is the Greek word “ainonos” means everlasting instead of eternal. One of the pivot points they have is that “ainonos” in the form of everlasting can mean for a “period of time” instead of “forever or eternal.” Either way, I’m not excited about any time or anyone being under the fire of God, whether eternal or everlasting, so I’ll stick to suggesting Romans 10:9-10.
Investigating mystery can turn into excitement when the Lord begins to reveal it to us. I believe it creates joy in the Lord’s heart when we search out a matter. This is how we get to know Him. Proverbs 25:2.
Back to “Who are the goats?” I did a word search in the Bible for goats. A general principle of translating the New Testament terminology is to search out the Old Testament for an established meaning. I discovered that Jacob used goat skin on the back of his hands and neck to deceive Isaac into giving him Esau’s blessing. The second appearance was when Jacob’s sons used goat blood to deceive Jacob into believing Joseph had been attacked by a lion rather than sold off. This paints a picture of deception associated with goats.
Several times I had felt God’s presence and sensed His voice through the radio. Sermons and other “coincidences” made me think of Bumblebee in the Transformers movies. He spoke to the young man Sam in the movie through the radio. I buckled down one weekend and watched all 5 of them. I realized that the Autobots represent the angels of the Lord, sent to guide, influence and protect. The Decepticons were deceiving and abusing the humans on earth. They were the fallen angels sent to destroy. In “Transformers: Dark of the Moon,” there are strategically staged crucifixes and tons of symbolism through out the movie. There is also a demon robot who is prying information out of an engineer at a big firm. The engineer betrays the demon robot and dies from suicide. The demon pushed him into it.
One day in the same time period on Facebook, I came across a post explaining who the goats and sheep were. While I didn’t agree with that authors interpretation, he brought up a good clue to follow up on. The reference was to the following:
My anger is kindled against the shepherds [who are not true shepherds] and I will punish the goat leaders, for the Lord of hosts has visited His flock, the house of Judah, and will make them as His beautiful and majestic horse in the battle. Zechariah 10:3 AMPC
This verse emulates the one in Nahum 3:18 I wrote about in my previous blog post “Nahum.” Judgment comes to the disobedient goats who lead the sheep to slaughter in the world. The spiritual battle on Earth is real. The angels, demons, principalities, and fallen angels influence humans on earth. We are protected, influenced, and surrounded by angels with different functions. The angel’s name can often indicate it’s function or service to their assignments. The Transformers are all named according to their role or various functions.
To sum it up, the goats are the supposed shepherds (religious and political leaders) who are not really taking care of the people. They are the ones Jesus describes in Matthew 25:31-46. They have been given a leadership role in their nation and refuse to serve anyone but themselves. The goat leaders have come under the influence of fallen angels, demons, and false gods.
Certain leaders in our country have invited foreign gods into our nations temple where the modern “priests” of our temple (the lawmakers) meet. The priests in the temple in Israel interpreted the Biblical law to judge others. The capitol building certainly emulates what a temple looks like. The laws made by our lawmakers are what guide our society in our freedoms and choices.
One example of this guidance include the prayer by Emmanuel Cleaver. He is a Methodist minister and prayed the invocation for the 1st meeting of the 117th Congress on 1/3/21. He included a prayer to the Brahma god. The Bible documents the Lord judging Israel based on the worship of other gods. Here is a link to his prayer: https://youtu.be/qgI8HL7J4Ns.
The prayer to Brahma is not the reason for judgment coming to the United State’s leadership. It is simply further evidence of our country’s shepherds leading the sheep away from Yahweh. Our God is a generous, merciful, and loving entity. The influence of foreign gods is something Yahweh will be patient with for a time. However, upon evidence of no repentance and indications of further destruction of His sheep (see Matthew 25:31-46), the Lord will begin to melt mountains. They will have their shepherd rods removed.
GLORY 209 MINISTRIES 