What if?
Jesus had just given the disciples a parable. The wheat and tares, or wheat and weeds. Now they had asked for the explanation. Let’s look:
Then he left the crowd and went into the house. His disciples came to him and said, “Explain to us the parable of the weeds in the field.”
He answered, “The one who sowed the good seed is the Son of Man. The field is the world, and the good seed stands for the people of the kingdom. The weeds are the people of the evil one, and the enemy who sows them is the devil. The harvest is the end of the age, and the harvesters are angels.
“As the weeds are pulled up and burned in the fire, so it will be at the end of the age. The Son of Man will send out his angels, and they will weed out of his kingdom everything that causes sin and all who do evil. They will throw them into the blazing furnace, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. Then the righteous will shine like the sun in the kingdom of their Father. Whoever has ears, let them hear.
Jesus takes the time to break this down. The Wheat are people of the kingdom of God, (which we call Christians) and the weeds are the people of the evil one (which we call sinners.) The devil sows the sinners, and Jesus himself has sown the Christians in the world. The parable, Jesus explains, is the end of the age. The Christians come to fullness, and so do the sinners. We can see this happening today. Good and evil are separating right before our eyes. As evil grows darker, those who choose to walk upright are beginning to stand in opposition to that darkness.
So far, everything seems good. We can all ride with that. We have all been taught that this parable is about the rapture. The rapture is when Jesus comes and sends his angels out to get us out of this world, yes? What if we’ve got it wrong?
By wrong, I mean REALLY wrong. Let me show you. Look again: “As the weeds are pulled up and burned in the fire, so it will be at the end of the age. The Son of Man will send out his angels, and they will weed out of his kingdom everything that causes sin and all who do evil. They will throw them into the blazing furnace, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. Then the righteous will shine like the sun in the kingdom of their Father. Whoever has ears, let them hear.
My question is this: Who gets taken out first, the Christians or the sinners? It is the sinners who get taken out of the earth, not the Christians. See it? Jesus even clarifies, “Then the righteous will shine like the sun in the kingdom of their Father.
Could it be we have the whole ‘end of the church age wrong?’
More to come
