Featured Matthew 7:21-23?

I think the problem is we have a different perspective on the timing of the final judgment. I believe that as soon as we die we are immediately standing before Christ to be judged along with everyone who has ever lived. We are at that moment outside time in a timeless realm. Some will be surprised by their eternal destination for the reasons you gave.

 

Having read through this thread and having seen some very good answers I can only try to add yet one more voice.

Try to put yourselves it the place of the petitioners. If you were standing there and heard those words what would you say? BUT but but I went to church, I studied my bible, I gave to charities. That is what we see form the those in Mat 7:21-23. It was all about what "I" have done nothing about what Christ Jesus had done for them.

Many "Christians" will be shocked when they realize that the foundation they build on was only sand and not the solid rock form God.

A minister I had many years ago used to say "When you shoot at a target it does not matter if you miss by an inch or a mile, you still missed". Those that trust in themselves have missed the target.

 

Just want to share some further on this.

could the "DAY", (On that day many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord...), that Jesus is here speaking of, is the Day when He shall return, at the Beginning of His Millennium Reign?

"For this is a manifest token of the righteous judgment of God, that you may be counted worthy of the kingdom of God for which you also suffer, since it is a righteous thing with God to repay tribulation to those who trouble you, and to give rest with us to you who are troubled, at the revealing of the Lord Jesus from Heaven with the angels of His power, in flaming fire taking vengeance on those who do not know God and who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ, who shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of His power, when He shall come to be glorified in His saints and to be admired in all those who believe (because our testimony among you was believed) in that Day." (2 Thessalonians 1:5-10)

Those in Matthew 7, had not died as yet, and are before the Lord in Judgement for the things that they had done in their lifetime.

"According to the grace of God which is given to me, as a wise master builder, I have laid the foundation, and another builds on it. But let every man be careful how he builds on it. For any other foundation can no one lay than the one being laid, who is Jesus Christ. And if anyone builds on this foundation gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, stubble, each one's work shall be revealed. For the Day shall declare it, because it shall be revealed by fire; and the fire shall try each one's work as to what kind it is. If anyone's work which he built remains, he shall receive a reward. If anyone's work shall be burned up, he shall suffer loss. But he shall be saved, yet so as by fire" (1 Corinthians 3:10-15)

Which is probably when Jesus shall separate the Sheep from the Goats?

"But when the Son of Man comes in His glory, and all the holy angels with Him, then He shall sit on the throne of His glory. And all nations shall be gathered before Him. And He shall separate them from one another, as a shepherd divides the sheep from the goats" (Matthew 25:31-32)

 

1 Peter 3:19 ...wonder what this was about...

 

the Greek verb κηρύσσω, does not only have the meaning "preach". In fact its base meaning is "proclaim, announce, herald".

Jesus ANNOUNCED to these spirits something that we are not told anything further about. Hebrews 9:27 is quite clear that there is no slavation possible after death. As does the Account of the Rich Man and Lazarus, in Luke 16.

 

Well, they weren't just any ol' spirits that He preached to:

Now this, He ascended, what is it but that he also descended into the lower parts of the earth? Eph 4:9

18 Because Christ also suffered for sins once, the righteous for the unrighteous, that he might bring us to God; being put to death in the flesh, but made alive in the spirit;
19 in which also he went and preached unto the spirits in prison,
20 that aforetime were disobedient, when the longsuffering of God waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was a preparing, wherein few, that is, eight souls, were saved through water: 1 Pet 3

6 And angels that kept not their own principality, but left their proper habitation, he hath kept in everlasting bonds under darkness unto the judgment of the great day. Jude

The type, Joseph, interpreted dreams in prison. The antitype, Christ, preached to the spirits in prison. In the type of Joseph the butler got set free and the baker got his head chopped off. 'When we all get to heaven' I won't be surprised to find out that some of those angels were accepted back into the fold.

 

Do you believe that a person can be born again after their physical death

 

...lol, let me guess, this is one of those trick questions where you hope to snare me and prove I'm a covert RCC operative, or something like that...

 

Just responding to your own comment especially about the fallen angels who you think might be reconciled

 

Nah, I said "I won't be surprised to find out that some of those angels were accepted back into the fold".

 

Biblically, I cannot see who a person who is lost (unsaved), and has died, and then in Hades, where they would already be suffering, can then "plead" with the Lord about not being in heaven.

As the Bible is contradiction free, though there are many paradoxes, we cannot believe that Matthew 7:21-23, refers to after death. The passage in Luke has very similar language, and is clear that they were outside the Kingdom of God, seeking to get in. This passage in Luke, explains what Jesus says in Matthew.

 

Jesus is very clear in Luke chapter 16 where He goes into much detail about the afterlife of both the righteous and unrighteous. The Rich Man is said to be in torments and suffering in fire. Hades is not just a waiting room for the Lake of Fire which is the Second Death

 

The casting of Hades into the Lake of Fire has not taken place as yet.

Those in Hades like the Rich Man are still there

 

So as the lost go to Hades at death, they will be already suffering and aware of this. It is also clear from the Account in Luke 16, that once you are in Hades you cannot leave. In which case those in Matthew 7 cannot refer to after death