The Sheep and the Goats

Have you ever felt a deep tension between the God of love you read about and the terrifying wrathful God you were taught to fear? For many of us, the idea of an ​“eternal conscious torment” has been a foundational, yet deeply troubling, part of our Christian upbringing. It creates a picture of God that seems impossible to reconcile with the one who calls us to love our enemies. What if the primary reason Jesus spoke in parables wasn’t to give us black-and-white answers, but to provoke more questions and call us to wrestle with the truth in community?

In this conversation, we’re diving into the challenging parable of the Sheep and the Goats in Matthew 25 to question our assumptions about afterlife judgment. We’ll look at the historical context of the word Jesus used—Gehenna—which was a literal, infamous place, not just a metaphor for an eternal fire. More importantly, we’ll ask: what was the core message of the early church? When the apostles preached the gospel, they weren’t leading with a threat of hell. They were declaring a new King and a new Kingdom established here and now. Join the discussion as we suggest that the path to life isn’t found in a ​‘sinner’s prayer,’ but in a committed life of co-suffering love and mercy for ​“the least of these.”