Believers, saints, the redeemed… there are quite a number of biblical terms.

The church is a specific subset of these people.

Maranatha!
Don Johnson
Jer 33.3

The church is something Jesus Christ built. It does not include all believers from all periods of time. Read Mt 16. What tense does Jesus use?

The harvest at the end of the age is all believers from all time.

Maranatha!
Don Johnson
Jer 33.3

Huh? Any sense? You must not be aware of all the senses.

“It doesn’t matter that the true wheat undoubtedly includes people in the church (but likely not exclusively – OT saints, Tribulation saints [sorry Keith], millennial saints).”

Huh again? You complain that people make parables mean too much but you want to reduce the use of the word church to the faithful from only one portion of history — that’s the pot calling the kettle black. Who gets harvested? Well, it’s not just believers from some made up church “age”, but all the good seed.

“The field is the world.”

Yes it is. What is the harvest?

I believe it teaches us some principles eschatologically and is in line with Jesus’ teaching that if his kingdom were of this world, then would his servants fight. Remember, in the parable, the servants ask the Lord if they should remove the tares. It is quite plain that the tares are obvious before the harvest. But the Lord says no, they will be removed in the harvest by the Lord and his angels. We are not given a sword in this dispensation, other than the sword of the Word.

So… Zwingli was dead wrong, for one thing. (And literally dead as a result.)

We are to wait for the Lord to remove the tares in his time, not ours.

Maranatha!
Don Johnson
Jer 33.3

The authoritative statement with respect to this parable is Jesus: The field is the world. Everything in interpreting this parable depends on accepting this statement and Jesus’ authority in making the statement.

The field is the world, the parable is a parable of the kingdom. Therefore, the kingdom encompasses all that the word ‘world’ means. It cannot mean church in any sense here. It doesn’t matter that the true wheat undoubtedly includes people in the church (but likely not exclusively – OT saints, Tribulation saints [sorry Keith], millennial saints). The field is the world. That statement determines all the meaning in the parable.

One of the problems people have with parables is trying to prove too much by them. They are usually meant to prove one point and some of the details in the story are not necessarily intended to prove any point.

In this case, we are given the authoritative interpretation and I would say, let’s stick with that.

Maranatha!
Don Johnson
Jer 33.3

So, if these tares were not even a part of the visible church, in what way were they in the kingdom?

I think that most folks understand Jesus interpretation to mean that early in the growing season all of the crop appears to be genuine (wheat), but at the time of the harvest, it will be clear that some is false (tares).

Furthermore, even if this parable doesn’t teach that there will be unregenerate folks in the church alongside the regenerate, other portions of Scripture and simple observation do.

I believe that the kingdom parables are intended for the work of the kingdom in the age in which we live. Jesus wants us to know that there are tares among the wheat. Who are the wheat?

Isn’t the point too that the tares look like wheat? So during the day in which we live, outward appearance is not all that comes into play?

So does this apply to the church? Yes, as we do the work of the church, we need to be sure to understand that there is some impostor wheat, or even that you need to examine yourself to see if you are in the faith, since God is going to judge in the end.

Hi Aaron,

Thanks for the comment. This parable is one of my pet peeves I would say. I recognize there are issues in understanding what ‘the kingdom’ means, etc, but the salient points that Jesus intended to make clear were these:

1. The field is the world. No way that can be the church.
2. The harvest is the end of the age. Has nothing to do with church discipline or membership.

It really bugs me when Jesus made the sphere of the parable crystal clear. He was talking about the world, not the church.

I will grant he was also talking about the kingdom, but that is a much bigger topic than just the church. I think we can safely say that without defining one way or another exactly what the kingdom is.

It also bothered me to see fellows who should know better just give the comment a pass.

But then, it is one of my hermeneutical pet peeves.

It almost tempted me to sign up for SI again.

Maranatha!
Don Johnson
Jer 33.3