What Separates the Wheat from the Tares?
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." {EW 118.1}
The angel that is to seal, the one that says to the four angels, hold the winds of strife until we have sealed the servants of God is the angel that binds for the heavenly garner. The sealing is equated with the harvesting. Here are the messages of the three angels. There is the time of the end from 1844 onwards, the angels are the reapers and the wheat and the tares need to be differentiated.
Both the wheat and tares grow together until the harvest. They are so close together that if you pull one up you pull the other up with it. Don’t separate. Let them grow together. The harvest is since 1844, since the angels started their work. Both grow together. What does it mean for the children of the wicked one and the children of the kingdom to grow together so they both come to the harvest time and reveal fruits so separation can take place? Sr White could hardly sleep when she wrote this to elder Haskell. She was praying earnestly and said;
During the night season I devoted some time to prayer for it seemed to me that if there was ever a time when we needed to watch and pray continually, it is now. The Lord is soon to come, and the end of all things is at hand. The watchmen should be wide awake now and see eye to eye. Solemnity should be upon us all. There are to be but two classes in our world, the obedient and the disobedient. Our only hope is God. He loves us, and we must continue in the words spoken by Jesus. What pleases God? It is the loving obedience of every individual soul. The obedience of heavenly beings pleases God, and the sinner who unreservedly surrenders himself to do God’s way pleases God. We must listen as God says of Jesus, “This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased: hear ye Him.” {1888 994.4}
The messages Revelation 14:6-13 and Revelation 18:1-4 are the third and fourth angels messages. Who is going to do the separating? The angels. These messages of Revelation 14 and 18 are testing messages that come from Jesus and whether people will listen that is the issue. He identifies the beast, his image and he identifies those that keep the commandments of God and have the faith of Jesus. That is the testing message that is bundling the wheat and the tares.
Since 1844 the third angel has come to do his work. Awful is his mission. He is selecting the wheat from the tares and he is binding the bundles. The harvest commenced in 1844. The stooks are being erected to dry right out so they can be taken to the garner. This is the time we are living in. Because we see these seasons in those days it took a whole season because they were working by hand, this is a symbolic picture we see it takes a period of time which is why we have read some die in the message;
Revelation 14:13 And I heard a voice from heaven saying unto me, Write, Blessed [are] the dead which die in the Lord from henceforth: Yea, saith the Spirit, that they may rest from their labours; and their works do follow them.
Because the work is prolonged and goes on for more than a century, an envoy of reinforcement is needed like in the days of the harvest when it took a bit longer and they needed more help so gleaners would come up. We read in Amos that not a single grain will fall on the ground. Is there scriptural evidence that the third angel will receive help?
In the harvest time gathering together the wheat. What is the hour in which we live right now? When did this angel begin his work? The first angel was being proclaimed from 1831 onwards. The second angel came in 1844 and the third angel came in 1848. In 1848 a world war was brooding and then suddenly it stopped. Ever since that time the world has been under war threats. The first and second world war were prevented by the angel from doing its final destruction. Why? The work of the angels was not completed. Identify the intense work that heaven is involved in from the time of 1848 onwards.
We are living in the last moments of this work of the third angel and even more should it engross us now. His mission is so awful, his mission is a work that separates human beings. Unless people want to occupy their mind with this they will not appreciate this is what is happening. As they don’t appreciate it they attack the people who are themselves embracing this message and being separated and shaken as a consequence of that. We have noticed the experience of God’s people in this period of time of the third angel of the harvest in which there are laws that will ultimately bring a final separation as the Sunday Laws gather impact. Society is being prepared to receive the mark of the beast. The causative activity of the beast and his image is such that society is already gearing up to receive it. The little time of trouble produces the remnant church or church triumphant before the time of Jacob’s trouble.
Those who come up to every point, and stand every test, and overcome, be the price what it may, have heeded the counsel of the True Witness, and they will receive the latter rain, and thus be fitted for translation. 1T 187
The latter rain is a completion in every person’s individual life in which he has overcome every test, every difficulty be the price what it may and are then fitted to receive the latter rain which then gives them the power to proclaim the loud cry of that third angel. Jesus cannot come to take His people home until such time as he has a church triumphant. It directly relates to the harvest period.
The Unfaithful Servant
During the lives of the apostles the church remained comparatively pure. “But toward the latter end of the second century most of the churches assumed a new form, the first simplicity disappeared; and insensibly, as the old disciples retired to their graves, their children, along with new converts . . . came forward and new-modeled the cause.” [ROBINSON, IN HISTORY OF BAPTISM.] To secure converts, the exalted standard of the Christian faith was lowered, and as the result “a pagan flood, flowing into the church, carried with it its customs, practices, and idols.” {GC88 384.5}
Think not to say within yourselves, We have Abraham to our father: for I say unto you, that God is able of these stones to raise up children unto Abraham." {DA 105.3}
The Jews had misinterpreted God's promise of eternal favor to Israel. The Jews regarded their natural descent from Abraham as giving them a claim to this promise. But they overlooked the conditions which God had specified. {DA 106.1}
This principle bears with equal weight upon a question that has long agitated the Christian world,--the question of apostolic succession. Descent from Abraham was proved, not by name and lineage, but by likeness of character. So the apostolic succession rests not upon the transmission of ecclesiastical authority, but upon spiritual relationship. A life actuated by the apostles' spirit, the belief and teaching of the truth they taught, this is the true evidence of apostolic succession. This is what constitutes men the successors of the first teachers of the gospel. {DA 467.1}
It is by likeness of character can a church only claim to have apostolic succession. Sitting in Moses seat doesn't make one Moses. What is said to those who sit in Moses seat? Often when we talk about the topic of Korah, Dathan and Abiram it’s often used by leaders who say if you don’t listen to me I am Moses and you are Korah therefore if you don’t obey me, the bible says you should be destroyed as I am the leader Moses. You are under me therefore you must be Korah. This is very easily drawn.
Acts 7:51 Ye stiffnecked and uncircumcised in heart and ears, ye do always resist the Holy Ghost: as your fathers did, so do ye.
Who was speaking and who was Stephen speaking to? The Pharisees. What did Jesus say to the Pharisees? You sit in Moses seat. They sit in a position of leadership but there is a resistance from them. There is a clear distinction between Moses himself and the office of Moses. Did the Pharisees resist Jesus Christ? They did. We want to understand exactly what rebellion is so when we look at the story of Korah, Dathan and Abiram it becomes very easily understood. There was a resistance to the Holy Ghost.
The names of the seven churches are symbolic of the church in different periods of the Christian era. The number seven indicates completeness, and is symbolic of the fact that the messages extend to the end of time, while the symbols used reveal the condition of the church at different periods in the history of the world. {AA 585.3}
Faithful Souls Constitute the Church
From the beginning, faithful souls have constituted the church on earth. In every age the Lord has had His watchmen, who have borne a faithful testimony to the generation in which they lived. These sentinels gave the message of warning; and when they were called to lay off their armor, others took up the work. God brought these witnesses into covenant relation with Himself, uniting the church on earth with the church in heaven. He has sent forth His angels to minister to His church, and the gates of hell have not been able to prevail against His people. {AA 11.2}
No comments:
Post a Comment