{"id":3030,"date":"2017-02-20T16:30:12","date_gmt":"2017-02-20T21:30:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/orthodoxinsight.com\/?p=3030"},"modified":"2017-02-20T08:59:58","modified_gmt":"2017-02-20T13:59:58","slug":"thoughts-sunday-of-the-last-judgement","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/orthodoxinsight.com\/?p=3030","title":{"rendered":"Thoughts: Sunday of the Last Judgement"},"content":{"rendered":"

There is an immediate wrong conclusion that can be drawn from the parable: \u00a0that we are judged solely by what we do for others. \u00a0 This would be a salvation of works and the Gospel and Church condemn that error repeatedly. \u00a0Another error among Protestant ‘Calvinists’ is that we are born and sheep or a goat and can’t do anything about it.<\/p>\n

\"sheepgoat\"<\/p>\n

Whether we become a sheep or a goat depends on how we seek or ignore God. \u00a0If man could have received salvation through his own efforts then Christ would not have had to come and suffer and die. \u00a0All we have to do to be a goat is to ignore God.<\/p>\n

The truth is that we ‘become’ a sheep or a goat through our spiritual journey. \u00a0 Helping others \u00a0(the corporal works of mercy) can only result if we seek and receive God’s grace and do it the right way. \u00a0 Elder St. Paisios points out that good works done for the sake of personal praise are not really good works at all but self-serving efforts. \u00a0These are goats in sheep’s clothing mimicking the outward ‘good works’ of sheep.<\/p>\n

To become a sheep we have to seek the truth, and the revealed Truth is found in the Orthodox Church and its teachings. \u00a0To the degree that we ‘work on ourselves’ through prayer, repentance, spiritual reading (especially the Bible), attentively attending services and putting what we learn into practice, we become a sheep. \u00a0The ‘good works’ referenced in this parable are only the visible tip of a spiritual iceberg. \u00a0They are the result of a life dedicated to seeking and loving God. \u00a0It is on this that true judgement is made.<\/p>\n

-An Infant in Christ<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

There is an immediate wrong conclusion that can be drawn from the parable: \u00a0that we are judged solely by what we do for others. \u00a0 This would be a salvation […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3030","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","has_thumb"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/orthodoxinsight.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3030","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/orthodoxinsight.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/orthodoxinsight.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/orthodoxinsight.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/orthodoxinsight.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3030"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/orthodoxinsight.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3030\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3032,"href":"https:\/\/orthodoxinsight.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3030\/revisions\/3032"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/orthodoxinsight.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3030"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/orthodoxinsight.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3030"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/orthodoxinsight.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3030"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}