Dispensational Distortions - The Wheat and the Tares

The final of the Kingdom Prophecies we will take the time to discuss is possibly the most famous of them all. It is the story of the “end of the age” and the separating the wheat from the weeds.

Matthew 13:24 He put another parable before them, saying, “The kingdom of heaven may be compared to a man who sowed good seed in his field, [25] but while his men were sleeping, his enemy came and sowed weeds among the wheat and went away. [26] So when the plants came up and bore grain, then the weeds appeared also. [27] And the servants of the master of the house came and said to him, ‘Master, did you not sow good seed in your field? How then does it have weeds?’ [28] He said to them, ‘An enemy has done this.’ So the servants said to him, ‘Then do you want us to go and gather them?’ [29] But he said, ‘No, lest in gathering the weeds you root up the wheat along with them. [30] Let both grow together until the harvest, and at harvest time I will tell the reapers, Gather the weeds first and bind them in bundles to be burned, but gather the wheat into my barn.’ “

There are three basic questions that must be asked in regards to this parable/prophesy.

1. What kind of field is it?

2. What is eliminated FIRST?

3. What does this field look like at the end of the harvest/age?

The answer to the first question is quite revealing. This is a wheat field. This is not a wild weed field where the enemy (weeds) grow and over power the poor weakling stalks of wheat in which they hope to be rescued by disappearing. Rather that are admittingly infiltrated by weeds, but never overcome. The field is never left to it’s own devices to become wild, uncultivated and abandoned. There are workers constantly looking out for it and doing the masters bidding. It also NEVER becomes a weed field!

The answer to the second flies right in the face of popular Left Behind theology. Note it is the WEEDS that are bundled up FIRST and then thrown into the fire. The wheat does not simply “disappear” as is popularly taught. Sometime before the end of the age the weeds will be “weeded out!”

At the end of the age His wheat field will be just that…a wheat field. This is done through the work of His harvesters…His people. He sends them out and they do the work. No where do you see the Master showing up with a blow torch and just flattening the field and starting over.

This is a beautiful picture of His Kingdom and how it will operate in time and near the end of time. The wheat field is His and He will not let it come to ruin at the hands of the enemy despite the hand wringing of the prophetic prognosticators.