In a previous article, I showed that the wicked are taken out of the picture before the gathering of the Church. In this article, I will show that this teaching is also found in the parables of Jesus, particularly in the Parable of the Tares.
Matthew chapter 13 first records the Parable of the Tares (13:25-30) and then its interpretation by Jesus (13:36-43). The parable is about a farmer who had an enemy. When the farmer sowed his wheat, the enemy came during the night and sowed “tares” amongst the wheat. Tares are a kind weed commonly found in Palestine, also referred to as “cheat” or “bearded darnel.”
The servants of the farmer wanted to go through the fields and rip out all the tares, but the farmer stopped them saying that the process of tearing out the tares would only make things worse because the wheat would also be torn. They were to be allowed to grow together until harvest time and then the tares would be gathered first and thrown into the fire. This would be followed by the harvest of the wheat.
You’ve probably already guessed the meaning of this parable, but in case you haven’t, Jesus interprets it for us. So, we have here one of the few occasions when Jesus interprets his own parable for his disciples.
Jesus says that the sower is “the Son of Man” (v. 37), a title that He frequently used to refer to himself. The field “is the world” (v. 38). This parable is not talking about wheat and tares growing up together in the church, but in the world. The good seed represents the “sons of the kingdom” (v. 38). These are the redeemed, that is, the Church of God.
The tares represent the “sons of the evil one” (v. 38). These are the wicked, those who refuse to follow the Christ of God. The enemy is the devil (v. 39). The harvesters are the angels of God who will participate in the judgment of the world (v. 41). The harvest is the Day of Judgment when the tares are gathered up and “thrown into the furnace of fire” where there will be “weeping and gnashing of teeth” (v. 42).
The world is God’s field, but the devil will continue to sow wicked men and women in that field until the end of time. Christians are prohibited here from attempting to eliminate the wicked by force. Instead, the wicked and the redeemed are to grow up together until the day of harvest.
Now, in relation to the topic of this post, I come to the important question: WHO IS GATHERED UP FIRST, the Church or the wicked? Stop a moment before you answer that question. Go back to the text and read it. I’ll wait . . .
In the parable itself, the sower says to his servants: “First, gather up the tares and bind them in bundles to burn them up” (v. 30). In Jesus’ interpretation he says:
“The Son of Man will send forth his angels, and they will gather out of His kingdom all stumbling blocks, and those who commit lawlessness, and will throw them into the furnace of fire; in that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. Then the righteous will shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of their Father (vv. 41-43).”
Did you notice the words that indicate sequencing? FIRST, the wicked are gather up and thrown into the furnace of fire. THEN the wheat (i.e., the children of the kingdom) are gathered into the barn.
Remember that the word “rapture” means “to be gathered up.” The only ones “gathered up” in the Parable of the Tares are the wicked. More importantly, they are gathered up BEFORE the believers are gathered into the Lord’s barn (v. 30).
Dr. Greg Waddell
Director of Institutional Improvement
Mid-South Christian College
DrGregWaddell (at) gmail.com
See his Blog: www.SpiritOfOrganization.com
13 reasons that expose the pretrib view as a doctrine of devils…
1. When the 5 unwise virgins were told “I never knew you”, they were also told to go to Hell. They were not told that they would be given a second chance as tribulation saints. See Matt. 25
2. The Scriptures that tells us that “no one knows the day or the hour” ALWAYS reference the SECOND COMING… ex. Matt. 24:36…”of that day, no one know the day or the hour…” Which day? They one just described in vs. 29-35… “immediately after the tribulation…”
3. Jesus tells us that He will return “Like a thief” Rev. 16:15, 2 Peter 3:10. This references the SECOND COMING. If He were to come 7 years prior in a Pre-tribulation rapture fashion He would have made Himself into a liar on the nature of HOW He declared He would come, “Like a thief…”
4. Jesus return is NOT imminent. Paul tells us two things that must happen first before we can be gathered together with Him… 1) A great apostasy must take place and 2) the anti-christ must be revealed… 2 Thess. 2:1-3. CAN YOU NAME or POINT OUT who the anti-christ is? NO, because he hasn’t been revealed yet. At this point you can only speculate.
5. The wrath of God is not temporal… it is eternal. We are not appointed to wrath…. BUT to SALVATION and forever living with Him. 2 Thess 5:9 AND 10. This same Greek word is used in the book of Rev. 3 times… Rev. 6:16,17 where MAN declares it, and Rev. 11 where GOD declares His wrath by judging the dead with eternal hell.
6. Jesus declares that He is STILL coming “Like a thief…” for those who are watching after the tribulation… Rev. 16:15.
7. The tribulation saints… this is a very interesting doctrine. Tribulation saints cannot be the bride because the bride is supposed to already be raptured. Therefore, a NEW body of saints must be created to accommodate this doctrine making us no longer one body in Christ Jesus, but multiple.
8. Luke 21:36 Here the view ASSUMES that the word “escape” means rapture. For the Pretrib view to work, it must change the Word of God concerning salvation. We are saved by grace and not of works, yet we can only be raptured by praying always and our worthiness. The pretrib view must state (in light of Luke 21:36) that only the worthy saints are raptured and not everyone who is saved. Thus putting the unworthy into a tribulation saint category. Thus removing their “bride” status because they can no longer be the bride. The view tells us that the tribulation saints become eternal servants of the bride… thus elevating them greater than the bride, because he who is greatest in the kingdom is a servant of all…
9. Jesus didn’t blow off the disciples question in Matt. 24:3, and Mark 13. The disciples asked, “When will these things be…” What things? The destruction of the temple where not one stone is left upon another… 70 AD. The pretrib view sees ALL of what Jesus answers as futuristic suggesting that Jesus blew off the disciples question, and presents their accordingly.
10. The view must make light of the only places the New Testament Scripture refers to the MYSTERY surrounding the last trumpet… 1 Cor. 15:51,52 and Rev. 10:7
11. The view tells us that the bride is in heaven for the tribulation, however the Word tells us that she is making herself ready on Earth. Paul tells her how to make herself ready for when Jesus comes with all of His saints (who have died and risen first) to present her to the Father… 1 Thess. 3:12:13 She makes herself ready by her righteous acts… these acts must be preformed on Earth, therefore she cannot be making herself ready in Heaven, but on Earth.
12. To separate the Rapture event from the Second Coming event the pre-trib view has no alternative except to just flat out lie about it. It’s one thing to use opinion, assumptions and conjecture, but to present their lists of differences attempting to make the events two, it’s just one lie after another, making up their own scripture where it doesn’t exist.
13. The church of Philadelphia FULFILLED a contingency causing them to be worthy to escape the “hour of temptation”. The pretrib view tells us there is no contingency. The church just escapes it all through rapture… Rev. 3:10
I am truly glad to read this website posts which includes tons
of useful facts, thanks for providing these kinds of data.
You also might find these seldom spoke of end-time prophecies interesting.
Why are people so set on going through the tribulation? Seems you’ll search the scriptures trying to dispute a church rapture before the tribulation, taking a little of this a little of that out of context misusing the terms and apply your pre conceived notion to what ever fits then calling the doctrine of demons. All I can say is wow, if Christians spent as much time searching for this nor that to win an argument with a fellow Christian over what happens with the church and end times with the message of the Bible repent and turn from your sins something Jesus said also we would be in a lot better state. It’s interesting how people take this parable from a Jewish writer to a Jewish crowd about the Jewsish Messiah speaking of the Jewish kingdom before the age of church and say apply wheat and tares to the church and unbelievers and proof text that nope your wrong the judgement of the evil happens first. If you use that logic for this passage bet you have lots of issues rightfully dividing the book of Revelation. Spend more time reading more time studying more time asking and less time trying to prove a theological non essential point of a preconceived statement. Not saying you have to believe in a pre rapture but we need to quit dividing ourselves over trivial differences. If Paul rebuked it when the people argued over their favorite bible teacher surely the same insignificance would apply here. Be careful in playing heretic hunter they already tried that didn’t go so well for them.
I don’t think it is case of searching for evidence that the Church is going to go through the tribulation, the issue at hand is that the Pretrib position is only 180 years old and has no legitimate historical records to show that it was ever taught in the Early years of the Church.
If you were to search the first 300 years of the Ante-Nicene Fathers writings you will find that they are Premillennial and Post-tribulation. Historical records show that the Pretrib and Dispansationalist views was introduced by Edward Irving in 1827 and expanded on by John Darby in 1834. Interesting to note that all modern eschatological views are derived from Augustinian and Calvinism. These eschatological views tend to use conjecture and historical revisionism, evading the plain reading of Scripture and discrediting the very words of Christ’s narrative of his own second coming.
Amen! There are two ages, not three. I always tell my pre-trib brethren, “Show me the gap between this age and the age to come.”
I think that the part of this message that is missing, is that the Tares are not gathered up and burned… they are gathered up… AND SET ASIDE! THEN, God gathers up the wheat, places it in the storage barn.
Jesus, as well as God in the OT, bring up the harvesting processes MANY times. I think if we look at the Harvesting process, we will see that once the wheat is stored, the farmer will then place the gathered tares BACK IN THE FIELD and burn the field. Not to mention that MULTITUDE of verses that point to the fact that His people will be spared from wrath. NOW, all that to be said, are Wrath and Tribulation different? is the rapture different than the second coming?
We know that, once that harvest occurs, it will be the end of the age/days… but could that mean that we are still spared from the final tribulation?! I dont think we will know until we go through it.