MY SHEEP - THOSE WHO BELIEVE

Christ referred to His true followers as My sheep and true believers; and He referred to the rest as unbelievers or NOT His sheep. 

Then He advanced the reason why unbelievers are such. . ."because they are not My sheep." Ordinarily, man would judge others as unbelievers and, therefore, unworthy to be called sheep. But from God's viewpoint, because He can see the future, one is not a sheep that is why he does not believe. 

God sees the future; He sees that a soul will never obey His commands and so He declares him a goat. And, true enough, when that soul is born in time, he, in fact, does not and never obeys the commands of Christ. . .because from the very foundation of the world he was declared as not being a sheep of Christ. 

On the other hand, God, seeing the future, sees that a soul will obey the commands of Christ. And so, even before that soul is born, he is declared a sheep. Thus, when he is born, he indeed obeys the commands of Christ and becomes a believer. 

Referring to believers, Christ said: "I will give them eternal life and no one can steal them away from Me." So, those whom God sees will obey Christ's commands in the future, have already been given eternal life and no devil or heretic can steal them away from Christ. 

Though God can see the future and declare a soul a sheep or not a sheep, it is each Christian soul who decides whether he will obey the commands of Christ or not. So, God's decision depends on each soul's decision. 

The fault of Judas was that he obeyed the commands of Christ at the beginning but did not finish "the course" as St. Paul would put it. Judas did not persevere in his obedience to Christ's commands. He obeyed some but not the others. And all because of his greed. Vices, our passion and emotions, our fallen human nature, our love for the world and the things in it, these are what stall us on our way to God and turn us to goats. 

(11-06-02)