Christian
Action Project (CAP) – Study 2 – Kingdom of God – The Parables
As I stated in the Announcement of
the CAP, this will be an ongoing ‘work in progress’, continually asking for
feedback of any kind. Also, if I feel that something should be added or
amended, we will do so as necessary. Since there is already a wealth of Godly
wisdom written over the centuries, I will draw mostly upon what has already
been written by both historic and/or current writers.
One of my favorite resources is a
DVD set by Dr. Marshall Foster entitled “From Terror to Triumph”, which traces
the history of Christian action to advance the Kingdom of God in the world for
the last 2000 years.
His entire presentation is based on 3 premises:
1-God is reconciling the world to Himself.
2-God has clearly revealed His strategy in the Bible – from Genesis to
Revelation, by the commission given to Adam, Noah, Abraham, etc., culminating
in Jesus Christ and the Kingdom of God.
3-All ‘terrors’ of history, whether perpetrated by ancient tyrants or
various current ‘isms, are simply the result of various forms of paganism.
God’s
Strategy: Bottom Up – Generational – Exponential -
Internal to External - Family Plan; Manifestation of Kingdom of God on earth through
Civilization
5 Principles of God’s Strategy for Victory
1. Redeeming
Individuals
2. Family Dynasty
- Deut. 7:9, Deut. 6:4-9 – Discipling
3. The Church
Commission as the keeper of the Sacraments - “The Gates of Hell shall not
prevail against the church”
4. Limited Civil
Government – as a sphere of God’s authority
5. Common Grace-
the blessing for the whole of society due to Christianity
For purposes of overview, this
gives us a pre-suppositional basis, as we work through Gary North’s
“Unconditional Surrender” book.
This Study 2 – Kingdom of God –
The Parables will cover:
·
Why begin at the
parables?
·
Why did the parables
confuse both the masses and the disciples?
·
What is the overriding
lesson of the ‘wheat and the tares’ parable?
Additional comments: If you word search the term ‘Kingdom of God’ (or Kingdom of
Heaven), you will have a multitude of hits. If you have a biblical concordance,
you’ll see similar listings. Matthew alone has over 50 references. The Kingdom
of God was prophesized by OT prophets, announced by John the Baptist, preached
by Jesus constantly and taught by His apostles.
How often have you heard it
preached lately?
Please read and check your own
Bible for any listed references or those your own questions might raise.
We’ve only just begun!
(The following is from Gary North’s book - “Unconditional
Surrender”.)
The
best place to begin a study of the kingdom of God is to go to the parables and
analogies regarding the kingdom which Jesus gave to His disciples. Some of them
are what we might call "pocketbook parables," dealing with economic
analogies. The parable of
the talents is an example (Matthew 25:14-30), or the parable of the clever
steward (Luke 16:1-11), or the parable of the unjust servant (Matthew
18:23-35), or of the field in which a treasure is buried (Matthew13:44), or of
the analogy of the pearl of great price (Matthew 13:45-46). Others are
"agricultural parables," such as the parable of the four soils (Matthew13:3-23), or the parable
of the mustard seed (Matthew 13:31-32). But one of the most illuminating
is the parable of the wheat and
tares. "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. 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? But 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" (Matthew
13:24-30).
This parable confused His
disciples. It was deliberately intended to confuse the masses who came to listen to
Him, as He explained: "All
these things spake Jesus unto the multitude in parables; and without a parable
spake he not unto them: that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the
prophet, saying, I will open my mouth in parables; I will utter things which
have been kept secret from the foundation of the world" (Matthew
13:34-35). When the disciples asked Him why He spoke always in parables, He
told them: "Because it
is given unto you to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, but to them
it is not given" (Matthew 13:11). He spoke in parables, citing Isaiah 6:9-10, in order to keep the
listeners in darkness: "For this people's heart is
waxed gross, and their ears are dull of hearing, and their eyes have
closed; lest at any time they should see with their eyes, and hear with their
ears, and should understand with their heart, and should be converted, and I
should heal them" (Matthew 13:15).
There
have always been people who haven't liked the idea that God deliberately hides the
saving grace of the gospel from some rebellious men, but He does. Isaiah said so, Christ said so, and Paul
said so (Acts 28:27).
So the disciples were confused by the parable of the
wheat and tares. Christ explained it to them. “He
answered
and said unto them, He that soweth the
good seed is the Son of man. The field is the world;
the
good seed are the children of the kingdom; but the tares are the children of
the wicked one. The enemy that sowed them is the devil; the harvest is the end
of the world; and the reapers are the angels.
As
therefore the tares are gathered and burned in the fire, so shall it be in the
end of this world. The Son of man shall send forth his angels, and they shall
gather out of his kingdom all things that offend, and them which do iniquity;
and shall cast them into a furnace of fire: there shall be wailing and gnashing
of teeth" (Matthew 13:37-42). And the crowning triumph: "Then shall the righteous
shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of their Father. Who hath ears to hear,
let him hear" (Matthew 13:43).
The tares and the wheat continue
to grow together in the field.
There is no rooting up
of either tares
or wheat until the final day of judgment. This is extremely significant as an insight
into God's plan for history. History unfolds as a field planted with two
kinds of seed. One seed grows unto righteousness, and the other seed grows unto
perdition. But the two grow side by side
in the world. Neither is rooted up before its time, and both are rooted up
on that final day. Each seed works out its particular destiny, and each type of
seed develops according to its inherent characteristics. This is a parable describing the
continuity of history, on earth. There is no discontinuity in the development of the two kinds of seeds.
There is no premature rooting up of the wheat. From seeds to full-grown
plants, there is no break in the process. Then comes the day of harvest, which is the day of
burning for the tares.
If anyone looks at the parables
of the kingdom, he finds this concept of historical continuity repeated. The parable of the talents
teaches that each man develops his capital, working out the implications of his
faith, in responsible or irresponsible stewardship. Then comes the day when the
Master returns. Again and again, the
parables point to the continuity of history, with good men and bad men working
side by side in the same world, until the return of God in final judgment.
There is only one return. There is only one judgment. There is only one period
of rewards and punishments. There is no great intermediate discontinuous break in the development of the two
principles, good and evil. The evil seeds have no warning of
the impending judgment. They witness no period in which the wheat is pulled up,
and then is replanted after a period of time, which would testify to the tares
of what is coming at the end of the age……
This is what the Bible teaches
about the kingdom of God.
For many of you, it will seem very peculiar. Perhaps the idea of the day of judgment
sounds too impossible to believe, and you will point to the continuity of
history to make your point. I can well understand this approach to such a
message of the coming perdition. It's the same response the people of Noah's
day made to Noah. But what astounds me
is that there are literally millions of Christians who don't believe what these
parables teach about the development of good and evil. They believe that
there will be a massive discontinuous event, possibly more than one, in which
Christ will come first for His people (the wheat), gather them up into the sky,
and keep them suspended there for up to seven years. Then He will replant them,
except that they will be fully grown and already harvested, right next to the
tares, and to make things even more complicated, He will sow the field again
with another batch of wheat seeds. How in the world could the tares miss the
significance of events like these? What a warning of the radically
discontinuous event to come, namely, the last day! Yet Christ pointed out that
at that final day, people will go about their business as they did before the
Flood in Noah's day not after the Flood, not after a great warning had been
sounded, but before.
If a great historical discontinuity in between the planting of Christ's
kingdom and the final harvest is actually coming, why didn't any of our Lord's
parables or analogies so much as mention such an event or events to come? If we are to take the parables seriously, then we have to
begin to think about the continuity of history in between Pentecost
and the final judgment. If
there is no great break coming which will divide this period into two or more
segments, then whatever happens to the world, the flesh, the devil, and the
church (institutional) must happen without direct, cataclysmic intervention,
either from God or Satan. The process will be one of growth or decay. The
process may be an ebb and flow, heading for victory for the church or defeat
for the church, in time and on earth. But what cannot possibly be true
is that the church's victory process or defeat process will be interrupted and
reversed by the direct, visible physical intervention of Jesus Christ and His
angels. No discontinuity of history which overcomes the very
processes of history in one cataclysmic break will take place.
Christians must not base their hopes for collective or
personal victory on a historically unprecedented event in history which is in
fact the destruction of history. They will sink or swim, win or lose, in time
and on earth, by means of the same sorts of processes as we see today,
although the speed will increase or decrease in response to man's
ethical conformity to God's law, or his rebellion against that law.
(Next we will study the Growth of the Kingdom of God.)
