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In light of that belief, please explain Jesus' parable of the sheep and the goats in Matthew 25: 31-46 ...

“When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, he will sit on his glorious throne. All the nations will be gathered before him, and he will separate the people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. He will put the sheep on his right and the goats on his left.

“Then the King will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world. For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.’

“Then the righteous will answer him, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink? When did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or needing clothes and clothe you? When did we see you sick or in prison and go to visit you?’

“The King will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.’

“Then he will say to those on his left, ‘Depart from me, you who are cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels. For I was hungry and you gave me nothing to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me nothing to drink, I was a stranger and you did not invite me in, I needed clothes and you did not clothe me, I was sick and in prison and you did not look after me.’

“They also will answer, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or needing clothes or sick or in prison, and did not help you?’

“He will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for me.’

“Then they will go away to eternal punishment, but the righteous to eternal life.”

If you have no saving faith, you have no salvation. You can do all the works you want to do -- works do not equal faith! But, if you have saving faith -- saved by grace through faith -- then the works you do are a RESULT of that faith, not IN ADDITION to it.

See? Simple. Just as it's written in scripture. As taught by Christ himself. Not the butchery that the Catholic Church has committed to the scripture.

Hoss

>>In light of that belief, please explain Jesus' parable of the sheep and the goats in Matthew 25: 31-46.<<

What's to explain? Jesus is separating the righteous from the unrighteous. He's putting the sheep on His right and that goats on His left. We can find what determines who is righteous in Romans 4:5.

Romans 4:5 But to him that worketh not, but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness.

It's faith in Christ that obtains our righteousness. It's the faith in Christ with the resulting indwelling of the Holy Spirit that caused those who were righteous to do those deeds. Trying to inject righteousness because of works into your Matthew passage conflicts with other scripture.

God will not be gamed. Mt 25:31-46

He knows we WILL be motivated to good works out of gratitude and a desire to please Him. He knows the heart of the false Christian that thinks he has a free ride to Heaven because he “accepted Jesus as his Lord and Savior” and then set his cruise control for the clouds. He also knows when our motivation to “good works” is self serving.

Yesterday, on a Catholic Caucus thread, my wording in a response drew immediate fire, until I explained myself. I think that a great deal of the Catholic Catechism in the same way needs ironed out to clarify the very point that is being criticized and defended here. I believe in my heart that the quotes of CC used here are quite the conviction against Catholic teaching when read at face value.

When I answer the questions of new believers, non-believers, and confused believers, it requires a great deal of explaining background and context to give a concise answer and display the utter consistency of God. Your use of Mt 25:31-46 is a good piece of background and a terrific foundation for an answer to this question of Catholic heresy. Please expand and explain where some of us read “merit” wrongly.

I keep reading Catholic Caucus and other threads that support or criticize Catholic teaching, commenting occasionally, and never see explanations that clarify what I see as stretches and inconsistencies if not complete contortions of Scripture. I would love to believe so many people aren’t embracing heretic teaching.