---
title: Matthew 25:34
url: https://jw-apologetics.app/verses/matthew-25-34/
markdown: https://jw-apologetics.app/verses/matthew-25-34.md
type: verse
perspective: Protestant (historic Nicene) response to Jehovah's Witness teaching
reference: Matthew 25:34
testament: NT
section: Gospels
index: https://jw-apologetics.app/llms.txt
---

# Matthew 25:34

## Text (Berean Standard Bible)

> Then the King will say to those on His right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world.

## NWT Wording of the Key Phrase

- NWT (2013 revision): "Then the King will say to those on his right: 'Come, you who have been blessed by my Father, inherit the Kingdom prepared for you from the founding of the world.'"

## JW Usage

The Watchtower reads Matthew 25:34 as confirming that the "righteous" earthly class — the "great crowd" of "other sheep" — inherit the Kingdom in the form of the paradise earth prepared for them since the founding of the world. The 144,000 anointed are read into a separate heavenly category. The verse is one of the load-bearing texts for the JW two-class soteriology: the sheep inherit earthly paradise, the goats are annihilated.

## Protestant Usage

The verse is the strongest evidence in Matthew 25 against a works-righteousness reading of the sheep-and-goats judgement. The sheep are "blessed by my Father" before any works are recited. The Kingdom they inherit was "prepared for you from the founding of the world" — pre-creation election, not earned merit. The works that follow in vv. 35-40 are evidence of identity, not the basis of standing. Pair Matthew 25:34 with Ephesians 1:4 ("he chose us in him before the founding of the world") and Romans 8:33-34 ("Who shall bring any charge against God's elect? It is God who justifies"). The sheep are declared blessed and given the Kingdom because they are God's people; their works display, but do not establish, that identity. The two-class earthly/heavenly distinction the Watchtower reads in is imposed on the text — Jesus speaks of one Kingdom inherited by one righteous group.

## Arguments Using This Verse

- [Judgment According to Works](https://jw-apologetics.app/arguments/judgment-according-to-works.md) — Matthew 25, 2 Corinthians 5:10, Revelation 20 — evidence or basis? [Salvation]