When the Lord Jesus comes back, He will fully clear up the situation with the Christians. First, the false ones will be bound and thrown into the fire. These are the tares. Then the matured ones will be caught up into the air, along with the resurrected believers, where the Lord will exercise His judgment over them. At that time some of them will be chosen to be the overcoming ones who will be the Lord's army to fight against the Antichrist. They will also feast with the Lord at the marriage feast of the Lamb. Some of the Christians will be the defeated ones and, because they are defeated, they will suffer some punishment. They will miss the marriage feast, the manifestation of the kingdom. They will lose their reward, and they will also suffer some kind of dealing. Thus, by the rapture the Lord Jesus will clear up the whole situation among the Christians.
As we mentioned previously, when the Lord Jesus returns there will be basically three kinds of people upon the earth: the Christians, the Jews, and the Gentiles (1 Cor. 10:32). At His coming back He will defeat and destroy the Gentile army and rescue the Jewish people. They will become priests to God during the millennium. Some Gentiles, however, will still be left on the earth, not having been destroyed with the armies. Although so many horsemen and soldiers will have been destroyed by the Lord, some people of the nations will be left alive. It is not logical to assume that all of the people will be soldiers and that all will be destroyed. Rather, all the armies will be destroyed, but some of the people will be left. What will happen to those who are left from the nations? The Lord must clear up the situation with them. To do this He will send His angels to collect all of the people of the nations who remain at that time so that He can exercise His judgment on them.
What will be the Lord's basis for judging them? It is difficult for us to say. Surely it is not a judgment according to the law or to the gospel. If it is a judgment according to the gospel, it will be because they did not repent and believe in the Lord Jesus. Or if it is a judgment according to the law, it will be because they did not keep the law. But the judgment of the remaining nations will not be based upon these two items. The judgment of the nations at that time will be based upon how they treated the Lord's little brothers during the time of the tribulation (Matt. 25:31-46). By this we can see that the Lord has His dispensation, His way of dealing with people. In the dispensation of the law, the Lord dealt with people according to the law. In the dispensation of grace, the Lord deals with people according to grace. But during the time of the tribulation the Lord will not deal with the nations according to law or grace. Rather, He will deal with them according to how they treated His little brothers, the Jews and remaining Christians, during the time of the tribulation. If the nations treated the least of His brethren well, they will be considered as sheep; but if they treated the little ones poorly, they will be considered as goats and will be destroyed.
Matthew 25:31-46 covers the parable of the sheep and the goats. Many Christian teachers have made a wrong application of this parable, saying that it refers to Christians. They think that the Lord Jesus will exercise His judgment over the believers, dividing them into two groups. One group will be the real Christians, represented by the sheep; the other group will be the false Christians, represented by the goats. According to their concept, the good ones will be saved to enter into the kingdom, and the bad ones will be cast into the lake of fire. However, this interpretation is not accurate. Verse 32 says all the nations shall be gathered before Him. The Greek word here for "nations" is the same word used for "Gentiles." It will not be the believers who are gathered before Him, but the unbelievers, the Gentiles. With the Gentiles gathered before Him, the Lord will separate them one from the other as the shepherd divides the sheep from the goats.