#12600 Who Are the Sheep and the Goats? Bible Questions - Jimmy Akin

Catholic Answers Live

Catholic Answers

Christianity, Religion & Spirituality

4.8 • 2.2K Ratings

🗓️ 21 February 2026

⏱️ 55 minutes

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Summary

Who are the “sheep and the goats” in Matthew 25, and are we judged by works or saved by grace? In this episode of Catholic Answers Live, Catholic Answers apologists unpack this key passage before addressing other challenging questions from Scripture. They explain what Revelation means about reigning with Christ, how Jesus could offer Himself at the Last Supper before the crucifixion, and what the Church teaches about the mysterious Nephilim in Genesis 6. Additional topics include why Jesus allowed Himself to be tempted, what happened to the cross after the crucifixion, and why Catholics are cautious about numerology in biblical interpretation. A thoughtful discussion on salvation, Scripture, and Catholic theology.

Questions Covered:

04:00 – What does Revelation mean when it says that those who overcome will be the ones to rule in the new heaven and earth with Christ?
10:06 – How is it possible for Jesus to offer himself up if he offered himself up first at the last supper but did not die till the next day?
16:30 – Mat. 25 talking about the sheep and the goats. How are they saved by grace if it feels like they were separated and judged based on works?
23:40 – Gen.6:1-2 What are the nephilim? What interpretation does the Catholic Church take?
33:38 – Why would Jesus so pure be tempted by the devil?
37:42 – Who are the sheep and the goats?
43:00 – Do we know what happened to the cross immediately after the crucifixion and where it is today?
46:59 – It feels like the Church has moved away from numerology in the bible? Why should Catholics avoid it?

Transcript

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0:00.0	Buying or selling your home, real estate for life can connect you with a pro-life real estate agent.
0:05.2	When Real Estate for Life receives a referral fee, they donate 65% to Catholic Answers.
0:11.5	Learn more at realestateforlife.org. Welcome back to Kat the Ganswers live, having some fun with Jimmy Aiken here on a Friday.
0:35.6	Your Bible questions for Jimmy Aiken this hour.
0:38.2	8883187-884, 3187-884.
0:41.8	We already mentioned what's dropping on Jimmy Aiken's mysterious world these days.
0:48.7	But what about the Jimmy Aiken podcast?
0:51.1	I have got to say I have really enjoyed a lot.
0:53.5	As a matter of fact, when that guy called earlier with the question about the dating of Mark, I wanted to go, watch the Jamaican podcast. You can find out about the dating of all these New Testament books. It's fun. At least in brief, I've done a lot more work, a lot of which has not yet made it into video format or even been published yet.
1:14.4	But it's one of the things I'm very interested in, continue to be interested in, and continue to work on.
1:21.0	In terms of the Jimmy Aiken podcast, so it comes out every Monday.
1:24.5	This last Monday, we started talking about Jesus' family secrets.
1:30.3	Specifically, we started talking about who was Jesus' grandfather? Because Matthew gives us one name, and Luke gives us another.
1:40.4	Oh, yeah.
1:41.1	And there are several possibilities.
1:44.6	I go through like five of them about ways that this does not involve a contradiction, and it could be resolved in any one of these five ways.
1:56.0	And then I say, wouldn't it be nice if we could just ask Jesus' family, which is the right solution?
2:04.1	Well, someone did, and we've got a record of it. We have a record from about 80, 200 of what Jesus'
2:12.6	family was saying about Matthew's genealogy and Luke's genealogy and the way they mesh. And the
2:21.2	explanation that comes from his family has additional data that is not mentioned in the New Testament.
2:27.7	So it's not just a reconstructive speculation. It goes beyond the data that we have in the New Testament. And if you want to know what
2:37.5	they said the solution was, check out the current episode of the Jimmy Aiken podcast. Coming up this
	...

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