I crested the hill and for as far as I could see there were millions and millions of people standing, shifting, but eerily silent. Their faces reflected a host of emotions, everything from awe to guilt to stern confidence. The sky was a stale blue and the ground, what I could see of it between the feet of the people, was a dusty pale green. It was an eerie daylight caught somewhere between dusk and dawn. Everyone was facing one direction. I followed their gaze to a hilltop perch where He was standing. He was silent and still. His hair was long and tangled with His brown beard. He stared out at the multitude of onlookers and, portraying a sense of formidable reckoning, began to speak:

But when the Son of Man comes in His glory, and all the angels with Him, then He will sit on His glorious throne. All the nations will be gathered before Him; and He will separate them from one another, as the shepherd separates the sheep from the goats; and He will put the sheep on His right, and the goats on the left.

Then the King will say to those on His right, “Come, you who are blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. For I was hungry, and you gave Me something to eat; I was thirsty, and you gave Me something to drink; I was a stranger, and you invited Me in; naked, and you clothed Me; I was sick, and you visited Me; I was in prison, and you came to Me.” Then the righteous will answer Him, “Lord, when did we see You hungry, and feed You, or thirsty, and give You something to drink? And when did we see You a stranger, and invite You in, or naked, and clothe You? When did we see You sick, or in prison, and come to You?” The King will answer and say to them, “Truly I say to you, to the extent that you did it to one of these brothers of Mine, even the least of them, you did it to Me.”

Then He will also say to those on His left, “Depart from Me, accursed ones, into the eternal fire which has been prepared for the devil and his angels; for I was hungry, and you gave Me nothing to eat; I was thirsty, and you gave Me nothing to drink; I was a stranger, and you did not invite Me in; naked, and you did not clothe Me; sick, and in prison, and you did not visit Me.” Then they themselves also will answer, “Lord, when did we see You hungry, or thirsty, or a stranger, or naked, or sick, or in prison, and did not take care of You?” Then He will answer them, “Truly I say to you, to the extent that you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to Me.” These will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life.

He then simply turned away and vanished. The crowd stirred, looking at one another in dismay, some in confusion and others in angst, and still others taking defensive postures. Many were reaching toward the now vacant perch and mumbling things I could not hear. Then suddenly the ground began to shift, and a wall appeared in the middle of the multitude. It grew skyward, higher and higher until it was unscalable. I began to hear murmuring and anxious talk blurred into a thousand voices. A strange sight caught my attention when I noticed the opposing sides of the crowd divided by the high wall. Facing the people from the same vantage point as He had when He spoke, I saw a huge number segregated to the left side of the wall and a much smaller multitude gathered on the right. These verses came to mind: “Many are called but few are chosen”3 and “Enter through the narrow gate; for the gate is wide and the way is broad that leads to destruction, and there are many who enter through it. For the gate is small and the way is narrow that leads to life, and there are few who find it.”

Then the crowds simply vanished, followed by a sudden and deafening silence. Time and opportunity gone forever—in a millisecond.