| Christian Life and Doctrine | November 1955 |
A People Set Apart
THE faithful people of God, those called to be footstep followers of Jesus, are admonished in the Word to maintain a separateness from the world and its spirit. “I have chosen you out of the world,” said Jesus to his disciples. (John 15:19) “If ye were of the world, the world would love his own,” Jesus explained. It is because we are not of the world, although living in the world, that as Christians, we find ourselves in unfriendly surroundings.
It is through the influence of the truth of God’s Word, and our humble and devoted obedience thereto, that this separateness from the world and its spirit is attained and maintained. It was for this that Jesus prayed on our behalf in the “upper room” the night before he was crucified, saying, “Sanctify them through thy truth: thy Word is truth.” (John 17:17) Being set apart from the world is only one part of Christian sanctification. A fully sanctified life includes faithful devotion to the Lord as co-laborers with him in the outworking of his great plan of salvation.—I Cor. 3:9; II Cor. 6:1
As co-workers with the Lord, Paul speaks of our being given the “ministry of reconciliation,” and then admonishes us to maintain faithful control over our lives, “that the ministry be not blamed.” (II Cor. 5:18; 6:3) In this aspect of sanctification Paul speaks of faithfulness in persecutions, and “in labors, in watchings, in fastings; by pureness, by knowledge, by longsuffering, by kindness, by the Holy Spirit, by love unfeigned. By the Word of truth, by the power of God, by the armor of righteousness on the right hand and on the left, by honor and dishonor, by evil report and good report: as deceivers, and yet true; as unknown, and yet well known; as dying, and behold we live; as chastened, and not killed; as sorrowful, yet always rejoicing; as poor, yet making many rich; as having nothing, and yet possessing all things.”—II Cor. 6:4-10
Beginning with the 14th verse of this chapter, Paul emphasizes the importance of the sanctified life from the standpoint of separateness from the world and its institutions, admonishing, to begin with, that we should not be unequally yoked together with unbelievers. “What fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness? and what communion hath light with darkness?” he asks.
Continuing, he raises other questions, the answers to which are so obvious that he leaves it to the reader to supply them—“What concord hath Christ with Belial? or what part hath he that believeth with an infidel? And what agreement hath the temple of God with idols?” By way of clarification of his last question, he explains, “Ye are the temple of the living God.”—vss. 15,16
After thus setting forth the importance of a believer keeping entirely separate from every aspect of both the unbelieving and religious worlds of that day, Paul sets forth the proper course of action, saying, “Wherefore come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing; and I will receive you, and will be a Father unto you, and ye shall be my sons and daughters, saith the Lord Almighty.”—vss. 17,18
The Jewish and Gentile Worlds
In most of the ecclesias of the Early Church there was an ad-mixture of Jewish and Gentile believers. This was true in Corinth, although in his admonition to separateness he speaks particularly of the religious background of those who had come into the congregation from among the Gentiles—“What concord hath Christ with Belial?” and “what agreement hath the temple of God with idols?” He includes the nonreligious world in the question, “What part hath he that believeth with an infidel?”
But Jewish believers were expected also to separate themselves from their former religious associations. Colossians 2:20-22 reads: “Wherefore if ye be dead with Christ from the rudiments of the world, why, as though living in the world, are ye subject to ordinances [of the Law,] (Touch not; taste not; handle not; which all are to perish with the using;) after the commandments and doctrines of men?”
God dealt much the same way with the typical house of Israel, in that he commanded his people to keep themselves separate from the people of the land and their worshiping of idols. When, however, the Israelites themselves adopted the worship of heathen gods, as they so frequently did, the remedy enjoined upon them was to destroy the altars and “groves” of the false gods, and to return to Jehovah. Thus were they kept, to a degree at least, a separated people until their Messiah came.
But, as we have seen, the arrangement for this age has always been for the believer, not to destroy, or even to attempt to destroy, the former altars at which he may have worshiped, but to leave them behind, while he entered the narrow way to follow the Master. This issue was clear-cut in the days of the Early Church. Jewish believers were to leave their synagogues and their former methods of worship, and Gentile believers were expected to forsake their temples, their idols, and their immoral forms of worship.
The nonreligious who accepted Christ were expected to “come out” from or leave their former infidel associations. All these believers called by God, were “chosen out” of the world, and they were to overcome the world by remaining separate from it and walking in the way of righteousness and love instead of selfishness and sin.
In Paul’s admonition concerning separateness from the world and worldly institutions of all kinds—religious and nonreligious—he quotes Isaiah 52:11—“Depart ye, depart ye, go ye out from thence, touch no unclean thing; go ye out of the midst of her; be ye clean, that bear the vessels of the Lord.” This admonition seems originally to have been addressed prophetically to the typical people of God at the time they were held captive in Babylon. It was an admonition encouraging them to remain separate from Babylonish worship and customs, that when the time came for their deliverance they would be “clean.” As for this deliverance, they were not to take matters into their own hands. They were not to “go out with haste, nor go by flight: for the Lord will go before you; and the God of Israel will be your rear guard.”—vs. 12, RSV
In principle, this admonition to separateness from the associations which surround the Lord’s people has been applicable throughout the entire Gospel age. At no time has it been the Lord’s will for his people to succumb to the sinful influences with which they were surrounded. It is only the unfaithful who have permitted themselves to be “assimilated” by the world and thus become a part of it.
Like God’s typical people held captive in Babylon, while in Babylon the faithful among them were not a part of it, even as we are in the world, but are not a part of the world. We recall the instance of Daniel and his three young friends —they faithfully performed the duties imposed upon them by their captors, but refused in any way to compromise their worship and service of their God, the God of Israel.
A Changed Situation
As we have seen, Paul quotes Isaiah’s admonition to typical Israel, and uses it to encourage Jewish and Gentile believers of his day to disassociate themselves from their former religious affiliations, and from the world in general. In this particular lesson, however, Paul does not discuss a development within the midst of the church which he foretold in some of his other writings and sermons. In II Thessalonians, chapter 2, for example, he forecasts a great falling away from the faith, and the development of the “man of sin,” the great Antichrist system of false Christianity. What was to be the attitude of the Lord’s people toward this cancerous growth in their own midst?
From a different standpoint, Jesus also forecast this counterfeit development within the church. This was in his Parable of the Wheat and the Tares. (Matt. 13:24-30,36-43) In this parable, the establishment of the true church by Jesus himself, in the hands of the apostles and other faithful disciples, is likened to the sowing of “good seed” by the “Son of man.” This “good seed,” Jesus explained, are “the children of the kingdom.”
In the parable there is another sowing, not by the Son of man, but by the “wicked one.” This is a sowing of tares in the wheat field, and these tares, Jesus explained, are “the children of the wicked one,” not because they are vile or vicious people, but because they have the viewpoint of the great deceiver, Satan, and because their outlook and course in life is in keeping with his false doctrines.
Jesus’ identification of the “wheat” is very significant—the “children of the kingdom.” For thousands of years God had been promising the messianic kingdom. Jesus, the great King in that kingdom, had come. He had offered his followers the opportunity of being joint-heirs with him in the rulership of that kingdom, and they were inspired with this glorious hope. Even before they understood the full implications of his promises, the kingdom hope became the inspiration of their lives. Two of them went to him and asked to sit, one on his right hand and the other on his left hand, in the kingdom.
Later Peter wrote, setting forth the conditions upon which one might have an “abundant entrance” into the kingdom. (II Peter 1:4-11) With the coming of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost the disciples learned that the establishment of the kingdom must wait until Christ’s return at the end of the age, that only then would the kingdoms of this world become the kingdom of God and of his Christ. —Rev. 11:15
So this kingdom hope, begotten in the hearts of the true believers, became their inspiration. They were indeed the “children of the kingdom.” But Satan began his sowing of “tares,” which were a counterfeit of the wheat. In plain language, Satan began the development of a counterfeit kingdom class, a class which did not wait for the return of Christ to set up his kingdom, but set up a kingdom of their own. So successful was Satan, the sower of tares, that the entire non-heathen world became known as “Christendom,” that is, Christ’s kingdom.
Jesus explained in his parable that this sowing of tares would take place “while men slept.” This would seem to refer to the apostles’ falling asleep in death. In their faithfulness they stood up against Satan’s efforts to establish a counterfeit kingdom class; but when they passed from the scene, he quickly began to do his work, and as the years went by the “field” became almost completely overrun by “tares.”
This, then, was a new situation, one not in existence at the time of Paul’s admonition to the Corinthian brethren to leave behind their heathen idols, and all their associations with an unbelieving world. Granting that the Early Church followed this and similar admonitions by Jesus and the apostles, here was a sinful growth raising its ugly head right in the midst of the “wheat,” a sowing and growth of “tares” in the “field” where the “wheat” was expected to grow. What was to be done about this?
Jesus supplies the answer to the question. In the parable the “servants,” when discovering that “tares” had been sown in the field, asked, “Wilt thou then that we go and gather them up?” His reply was, “Nay; lest while ye gather up the tares, ye root up also the wheat with them. Let both grow together until the harvest.” This was a change from the Lord’s procedure with typical Israel. When Satan introduced heathen worshipers among them, they were expected, as we have seen, to destroy the idols and “groves.” But in the case of the “tares” they were not to be uprooted, but allowed to “grow together” with the “wheat” until the “harvest,” and, as Jesus explained, “The harvest is the end of the age.”
The Lesson of History
The Parable of the Wheat and the Tares is an accurate prophecy of actual occurrences throughout the Gospel age. The “wheat” and the “tares” did grow “together.” History reveals the sowing of the “tares,” and the spread of their influence, until the wheat field became virtually a field of tares. The hope of Christ’s return and the establishment of the true kingdom was not in the hearts of the “tares.” They set up their own kingdom, and in all their doctrines there was scarcely a semblance of the true doctrines of Christ.
But some “wheat” continued to grow, although unnoticed and unknown by the worldly, counterfeit tares. “The world knoweth us not,” wrote John, even as it knew not Jesus. (I John 3:1) Just as historians almost wholly ignore Jesus, so they do the true followers of the Master. Thus in the various ecclesiastical histories of the Gospel age practically all that is recorded pertains to the “tares.”
However, there is evidence that there were some “children of the kingdom” all down through the age. The religious writings of Sir Isaac Newton, for example, reveal that he had a fairly clear vision of the kingdom and of the work of restitution which it would accomplish. His prominence in history, aside from his religious views, and his ability as a writer, have caused his understanding of the Bible to reach down to our day. But we may assume that there were others, in every part of the age, who, though surrounded with untold difficulties, rejoiced in the great kingdom hope, knowing that the papal dominion was not the kingdom of Christ.
Church historian Mosheim, writing concerning controversies in the churches during the 18th century, said, “Many other points that had been more or less debated in the last century [the 17th], occasioned keen interest in this, such as the eternity of hell torments; the reign of Christ upon earth during a thousand years; and the final restoration of all intelligent beings to order, perfection, and happiness.”
This exceedingly brief statement by the historian reveals that during the 17th and 18th centuries there were “children of the kingdom” growing together with the tares, and that they were letting their light shine. Mosheim also speaks briefly of a controversy over the Millennium which raged in the third century.
Although the “tares” were not to be removed from the “field” until the end of the age, and, according to the parable, the “wheat” and the “tares” were to grow together, we are not to conclude that the “wheat” were to co-operate with the “tares,” or to be closely affiliated with them in their corrupt practices and in promoting their God-dishonoring teachings. Throughout the age, they have been among the “tares,” but not of them. All the admonitions of the Scriptures to be separate from the world have applied to these, and to the best of their ability they have maintained their separate spiritual lives, as they have fed upon whatever knowledge of the truth the Lord has permitted them to enjoy. They maintained their standing as “wheat,” not because of their surroundings, but in spite of them.
A “Little Flock”
The entire church of Christ to whom it is the Father’s good pleasure to give the kingdom, is in all but a “little flock.” It is reasonable to suppose that the larger percentage of these are called and developed at the beginning and at the end of the age. This would leave but few of the “children of the kingdom” to grow “together” with the “tares” throughout the age. There is also, of course, the “great multitude” who come up through “great tribulation” and become servants in the kingdom; but it would be impossible for us to identify these or members of the “little flock” accurately during the time when all were growing “together.”
The fact that many throughout the age—millions in reality— were persecuted by the “tare” system would not in itself indicate that the persecuted ones were always the “children of the kingdom.” The persecutions in many instances were not for Christian reasons. It is not essential for us to determine just who, throughout the age, were the Lord’s true people. The proper position for us to take in this respect is the one set forth by Paul, who, concerning some who, in his day, had erred from the truth, said, “The Lord knoweth them that are his.”—II Tim. 2:18,19
Of this we are certain, that according to the Parable of the Wheat and the Tares, a “wheat” class continued to exist, even though well nigh choked out by the tares. And we may be sure also that God nourished them with sufficient truth to keep them spiritually alive, and to prepare them for their place in the future kingdom. It was a trying time for them, nevertheless, for throughout the Dark Ages the Bible was almost unavailable. But evidently one here and there either possessed a copy or were in contact with someone who did, so they were spiritually fed.
Enlightenment Comes
The reign of the great counterfeit system. the “man of sin,” was limited in time to 1,260 years, which ended in 1799 A.D. About this time, or soon thereafter, a number of Bible Societies came into existence, and the Word of God, no longer “chained,” began to have free circulation among the professed people of God, and in various languages. Even before this, and in connection with the Reformation, many translations of the Bible were brought forth, and it had begun to have a much wider circulation and use.
Various steps of clearer understanding were attained by different reformers and groups, leading up to the Second Advent movement led by William Miller. In this movement the hope of the second advent of Christ was revived, although the students of that time came far short of understanding the real purpose of their Master’s return. Nevertheless, they did come to understand that what was claimed to be Christ’s kingdom was not really so, and that as Christians they were to look for the King’s return.
It was the Miller movement which helped to prepare the way for the “children of the kingdom,” when the “harvest” began, to have a separate identity from the “tares.” It was the hope of Christ’s return, so widely publicized by Mr. Miller, which led to an understanding of the nature of man—that he is not inherently immortal. This in turn logically led to the discarding of the many false theories based upon Satan’s lie, “Ye shall not surely die.”
Mr. Miller himself, however, as pointed out on pages 115, 116 of “Thy Kingdom Come,” continued to believe that man has an “immortal soul.” Much progress was made through those years, which later led to a brilliant illumination of the glorious truths of the divine plan. We have an interesting observation on this in the Reprints, page 5565, column 2, which reads:
“This work of cleansing the true church, the sanctuary class, from the defilements of the Dark Ages, culminated, we believe, in 1846, the time of the fulfillment of the 2,300 days. But the work of cleansing was not accomplished in a moment, or a day, or even a year; and the cleansing was but limited.”
It was not until 1874, when it was due time for the harvest to begin, that a few of the Lord’s people were privileged to see the doctrines of the divine plan clearly, and apart from all the defiling errors of the Dark Ages. This resulted in an understanding of the true purpose of Christ’s return, the kingdom purpose of restoring mankind to life on the earth. Thus, beginning with the “harvest,” the “children of the kingdom” became a people, although small in number, who stood apart from the “tares” and began to publicize the fact that the King had returned, and that the kingdom was near.
“Come Out of Her”
The Parable of the Wheat and the Tares reveals that at the end of the age there would be a “harvest” work in which the “wheat” would be separated from the “tares.” This work of separation is brought to our attention under a different symbolism in the Book of Revelation. Here the “children of the kingdom,” when finally united with their King, are represented as a “holy city.” The counterfeit of this is shown as an unholy city, called “Babylon, the great, the mother of harlots.”—Rev. 17:5
In chapter 18, verse 1, the return of Christ is depicted. He is shown as an “angel” who comes “down from heaven, having great power; and the earth was lightened with his glory.” Then the Lord declares that “Babylon is fallen,” and there follows the invitation, “Come out of her, my people, that ye be not partakers of her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues.”—vs. 4
This is not the call issued by Paul and others in the beginning of the age for the Lord’s people then to leave behind their idols and their various defiling religious beliefs and practices. “Babylon,” the counterfeit kingdom, did not then exist. The “tares” had not then overrun the wheat field. This “harvest” invitation to separateness is the Lord’s indication that no longer were the “wheat” and the “tares” to grow together; that the time had come for the burning of the “tares,” hence that the safety of the “wheat” was in standing apart from the “tares,” becoming thus a separate people.
And this “harvest” work has gone grandly on. Beginning with the return of our Lord, and continuing even until now, there has been a group, varying in size, who not only themselves have been rejoicing in the glorious hope of the kingdom, but have been actively and co-operatively engaged in proclaiming the Gospel of the kingdom far and near as the Lord gave them opportunity.
Thus for the first time since soon after the beginning of the age, when the “tares” began to overshadow the “wheat,” have the “children of the kingdom” been organically a separate people from the “tares.” However, as the parable indicates, although the “wheat” was to grow together with the “tares,” the wheat was not to become “tares.” We are confident, therefore, that at heart the “children of the kingdom” have maintained a separateness from the spirit of their surroundings, even as the Lord’s people in every part of the age have been in the world but not of the world.
It is especially important today for the Lord’s people to stand free from all Babylonish associations. The word “Babylon” means confusion, having derived this meaning from the confusion of tongues which occurred at the building of the Tower of Babel. The teachings and practices of symbolic Babylon as a whole result in confusion, and one of the worst of her confusing doctrines is the claim of being Christ’s kingdom.
Any system or group which takes this position is, by the Word of God, stamped as a part of Babylon from which the Lord’s people are called to “come out.” One aspect of purity in the Christian’s life and hope is steadfastness in following in the sacrificial footsteps of the Master. This is still the time to suffer and die with him; and if we are faithful in this we will, in the Lord’s due time, live and reign with him, or as the parable explains, “shine forth as the sun” in the kingdom of the Father.
May the truth, the glorious kingdom truth by which we are begotten to be “children of the kingdom,” continue to purify and keep us separate from the world and all its institutions which are out of harmony with the Lord’s great kingdom plan! While it is historically interesting to note, as clearly as we can, the outworking of the divine plan throughout the age, our chief concern is our own standing before the Lord today. Are we allowing the truth to sanctify us wholly that we may be effective and acceptable ministers of reconciliation? Is our hope of the kingdom such a reality in our hearts that we are gladly sacrificing all that we have and are in telling the whole world “these blessed tidings”?
Throughout the age there was no special message of divine truth to be proclaimed to the world, so during that time the Lord permitted his people to be largely in a “wilderness.” And it is undoubtedly in the divine economy that a large number of the “little flock,” the “children of the kingdom” are developed at the end of the age so that they may be used by the Lord to announce the incoming age of restitution.
The Lord’s plan necessitates this proclamation of the truth in the end of the age, and those “children of the kingdom” who are faithful in telling it out among the nations thereby prove their worthiness of living and reigning with the New King. These are the ones who follow the “Lamb,” and are therefore with the “Lamb,” and the Revelator sees them as those who are “called, and chosen, and faithful.” Even now we rejoice in our calling, and are happy in the realization that we have been chosen to run for the “prize.” Will we also prove faithful and be with the Lamb in the kingdom?—Rev. 17:14