No matter how great and how effective a revival and reformation even God Himself may launch in His church, the Scriptures make it plain that both the sinners and the saints will be in the church until the harvest.
No one need brag that the members of his church are all saints, that they are all of one accord. If they really are of one accord, then it must be that they are all tares, that there is no saint among them; that church for a certainty is not the church of which Christ speaks in His Word. If anything is plain in the Bible this one thing is.
Now let us turn to the thirteenth chapter of Matthew:
Matt. 13:24–26 — “Another parable put He forth unto them, saying, The kingdom of heaven is likened unto a man which sowed good seed in his field: but while men slept, his enemy came and sowed tares among the wheat, and went his way. But when the blade was sprung up, and brought forth fruit, then appeared the tares also.”
The pestering tares, which grow higher and sturdier than the wheat, Satan inspires and by them fabricates erroneous theories concerning God’s plan. The tares, according to the parable, so closely resemble the wheat that they cannot be discovered except after they bear fruit; that is, they can be discerned only by the final results brought forth by their works.
Some people seem to think that upon entering the church they will have their expectations fulfilled, and meet only with those who are pure and perfect. They are zealous in their faith, and when they see faults in church members, they say, “We left the world in order to have no association with evil characters, but the evil is here also;” and they ask, as did the servants in the parable, “From whence then hath it tares?” But we need not be thus disappointed, for the Lord has not warranted us in coming to the conclusion that the church is perfect; and all our zeal will not be successful in making the church militant as pure as the church triumphant. The Lord forbids us to proceed in any violent way against those whom we think erring, and we are not to deal out excommunications and denunciations to those who are faulty. — Testimonies to Ministers, p. 47
The Seed-Sowing Time
“He that soweth the good seed,” says Christ, “is the Son of man,” and the enemy that sowed the tares “is the devil.” Matt. 13:37, 39.
“The Son of man,” He who “soweth the good seed,” is of course none other than Christ.
But as He could not be called the “Son of man” before being born of a woman, He accordingly could not have sowed “the good seed” of the spiritual harvest until after His birth in Bethlehem, Judea.
His ministry — His sowing of “the good seed,” the truth — began right after His baptism (Matt. 4:17).
Wheat-Growing Time.
The three and one half years from the beginning of Christ’s ministry to His crucifixion being the sowing time, and the harvest time being the end of the world (Matt. 13:39), then the intervening period is the time for the growing and ripening of the grain, also the —
Tare-Sowing Time.
Upon finishing His sowing of the good seed, “the Son of man… left His house, and gave authority to His servants, and to every man his work, and commanded the porter to watch.” Mark 13:34.
But with Him gone, “men slept,” (Mark 13:25) as men are given to do when their employer is away. Thus, sometime after Christ ascended on high, “His enemy came and sowed tares among the wheat, and went his way.” Matt. 13:25.
But His servants, sleeping, knew it not! What a tragically ironic picture! Zion’s watchmen fallen asleep on her very walls, while the enemy slips over unseen and unopposed! O what a fearful guilt of gross dereliction of duty lies upon the watchmen since apostolic days!
Denouncing those today responsible for this failure to protect the church from fellowshipping virtually anyone who professes an interest and shows a desire to be fellowshipped, though such a one neither be grounded in the truth nor bringing forth “fruits meet for repentance,” the Spirit of Prophecy declares:
“Too much hasty work is done in adding names to the church roll. Serious defects are seen in the characters of some who join the church. Those who admit them say, We will first get them into the church, and then reform them. But this is a mistake. The very first work to be done is the work of reform… Do not allow them to unite with God’s people in church relationship until they have decided evidences that the Spirit of God is working upon their hearts. Many whose names are registered on the church books are not Christians.” — The Review and Herald, May 21, 1901.
What stronger evidence is needed to convince oneself that the watchmen have lost the spiritual eyesight which John the Baptist and the apostles had?
Tragically true indeed the sharp indictment:
“Sleeping preachers preaching to a sleeping people.” — Testimonies, Vol. 2, p. 337.
Separation Of The Tares From Among The Wheat.
The end of the period in which the wheat and the tares are commingled is identified by the church’s founder as the marking in Ezekiel 9, the sealing of spiritual Israel, the 144,000. (See Testimonies to Ministers, p. 445 and Testimonies, Vol. 3, p. 266; Vol. 5, p. 211.)
This identification is conclusively substantiated by the fact, as therein seen, Ezekiel’s prophecy is a separation of two classes —
- Those who “sigh and cry for all the abominations that be done in the midst thereof” (the church) and
- Those who do not.
And as the former are delivered while the latter fall under the slaughter weapons of the angels, there is clearly seen a complete separation of the tares from among the wheat in the —
Time of Harvest.
With His eye piercing the mists of the ages, Christ foresaw the negligence of His watchmen and the evil which was to spring up in His church. Nevertheless, after being asked by His servants:
Matt. 13:27–30 — “So the servants of the Householder came and said unto Him, Sir, didst not Thou sow good seed in Thy field? from whence then hath it tares? He said unto them, An enemy hath done this. The servants said unto Him, Wilt Thou then that we go and gather them up?”
He said:
“Nay; lest while ye gather up the tares, ye root up also the wheat with them. Let both grow together until the harvest: and in the time of harvest I will say to the reapers, Gather ye together first the tares, and bind them in bundles to burn them: but gather the wheat into My barn.”
We are here told that
- The spiritual harvest is a “time,” not a momentary work, and that
- It brings the end of the world just as naturally as the year’s harvest brings the end of the summer.
As the word “until” means “up to,” the tares are therefore to be gathered out, not before, or after the harvest, but at the beginning of it.
And “the time of harvest” being “the end of probationary time” (Christ’s Object Lessons, p. 72), then the harvesting itself necessarily precedes the close of probation — the fruitless winter season.
Consequently, the tares are separated from among the wheat before, not after, the end of probationary time.
Who Are The Reapers?
Matt. 13:39, 49 — “The reapers are the angels” who “shall come forth, and sever the wicked from among the just.”
These angels are not those who shall “come” with Christ at His second coming, but rather those whom He “shall send forth.’’ They are like the three angels of Revelation 14:6–11.
Indeed —
“I then saw the third angel. Said my accompanying angel, ‘Fearful is his work. Awful is his mission. He is the angel that is to select the wheat from the tares, and seal, or bind the wheat for the heavenly garner. These things should engross the whole mind, the whole attention.” — Early Writings, p. 118.
Therefore the angels, the reapers, whom Christ sends forth, include both him who does the sealing, or binding, and those who follow on to do the destroying (Ezek. 9:2, 5, 6),
- First in the church,
- Then in the world.
Thus is the—
Separation In Two Sections.
The wheat is to be gathered, not directly to heaven, but first into “the barn,” the kingdom on earth;
9. The Premillennial Kingdom - The Jews had built up an erroneous conception of what the Kingdom was to be, and how and when it was to come, and so when the Lord exposed their misconceptions, they became indignant. They were very angry, not because the Kingdom which the Saviour disclosed was not much more… And the tares are not to be destroyed immediately “in the time of harvest,” but first are to be gathered into bundles, and then destroyed, as is further illustrated in the parable of the net:
Matt. 13:47, 48 — “Again, the kingdom of heaven is like unto a net, that was cast into the sea, and gathered of every kind: which, when it was full, they drew to shore, and sat down, and gathered the good into vessels, but cast the bad away.”
This shows the separation of the wicked from among God’s people in the church (“the net”), this being the first section of the work of separation (1 Peter 4:17), the beginning of the harvest.
The subsequent section follows in the world, as the earth is lightened with the glory of the “Loud Cry” angel:
Rev. 18:1–2 — “And after these things I saw another angel come down from heaven, having great power; and the earth was lightened with his glory. And he cried mightily with a strong voice, saying, Babylon the great is fallen, is fallen …”
And as “another voice from heaven,” says:
Rev. 18:4 — “Come out of her, My people, that ye be not partakers of her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues.”
Note that:
- In the first section of the separation the one in the church, the wicked are taken away from among the just, whereas
- In the second, the one in Babylon, the just are called from among the wicked.
Moreover, for God to call His people out of Babylon on account of her sins, means that He must bring them into a place where there are no sins, — into His purified Church, His Kingdom, the place that is free from sin, and that is not in danger of the plagues.
Plainly, then, the purification of the Church first takes place, and then are the rest of His people called out of Babylon.
5. The Purification Of The Church - But the days of purification of the church are hastening on apace. God will have a people pure and true. In the mighty sifting soon to take place, we shall be better able to measure the strength of Israel. The signs reveal that the time is near when the Lord… As the field is “the world” (Matt. 13:38), the parable of the wheat and the tares necessarily comprehends both sections of the harvest.
As, by contrast, the “net” hauls in the “fish,” the converts made by the gospel church, the parable of the net therefore is limited to the separation in the church.
Together they distinguish the—
Relation Of First Fruits To Second.
Isaiah also was given a view of this two-fold harvest.
Isa. 66:16, 17 — “For by fire and by His sword will the Lord plead with all flesh: and the slain of the Lord shall be many. They that sanctify themselves, and purify themselves in the gardens behind one tree in the midst, eating swine’s flesh, and the abomination, and the mouse, shall be consumed together, saith the Lord.”
The slain of the Lord, in this scripture are those who profess to be in the faith, who claim sanctification and purification, but who do so on the merits of their own righteousness, — of “themselves,” — not on the merits of Christ’s righteousness. They walk, that is, in their own ways, not in obedience to the truth. Wrapped about with these spurious habiliments of sanctification and purification, they pose as reformers, yet all the while indulging in the abominations of the heathen; doing so in secret — “behind one tree,” or, as the margin says, following in the lead “one after another.”
And the food (swine’s flesh, the mouse, and the abomination, — whatever that may be wherever these paganistic Christians may be, — foods used respectively only in certain parts of the world, among different classes and races) with which they are gratifying their appetites, shows that the consequent destruction among these self-sanctified and self-purified ones is in the church world-wide.
That it was not among the Gentiles, who knew not of the truth of God and of His great power is clearly shown by the Lord’s words:
Isa. 66:19 — “I will send those that escape of them unto the nations, to Tarshish, Pul, and Lud, that draw the bow, to Tubal, and Javan [the Gentile nations today as called by their ancient names], to the isles afar off, that have not heard My fame, neither have seen My glory; and they shall declare My glory among the Gentiles.”
Since these escaped ones (the first fruits, the 144,000 servants of God — Rev. 7:3) “shall bring all your brethren” (the second fruits, the great multitude — Rev. 7:9) “for an offering…out of all nations” (Isa. 66:20, first part), this great ingathering necessarily therefore, is the closing work of the gospel — the second section of the harvest.
And since, furthermore, these escaped ones are to bring all their brethren “to My holy mountain, Jerusalem, saith the Lord,” “in a clean vessel into the house of the Lord” (Isa. 66:20, last part), the fact is fully evident that the destruction of the wicked results in the purification of the church.
The “clean vessel” is therefore the purified church, composed of the escaped ones, the first fruits, the 144,000 — who, free from the wicked (the tares) shall then, as “the servants of our God,” bring in the second fruits, the great multitude which no man can number, out of all nations. Every member of the Lord’s house, therefore, is to be a missionary in one capacity or in another.
This indeed is the layman’s movement that shall finish the gospel work.
6. The Layman’s Movement - We have through the years seen numerous persons and groups of persons in different parts of the Adventist world who at one time or another did stage what they termed a "revival and reformation," but not one of them have ever been able to accomplish much, if anything. One by… The second section of the separation thus being completed, probationary time is closed. Whereupon from the wicked will be heard the horrible wail of doom:
Jer. 8:20 — “The harvest is past, the summer is ended, and we are not saved.”
