Seeing the Church and the World in Plain View
Reklamation Ministries
“The field,” CHRIST said, “is the world.” But we must understand this as signifying the church of CHRIST in the world.
The parable is a description of that which pertains to the kingdom of God, His work of SALVATION of men; and this
work is accomplished through the church. True, the HOLY SPIRIT has gone out into all the world; everywhere it is
moving upon the hearts of men; but it is in the church that we are to grow and ripen for the garner of GOD"
(Christ Object Lesson p. 70 par. 2)
Anyone can see that this "flood" can represent only the church's suddenly becoming infiltrated with unconverted pagans who, as in Constantine's time and for years thereafter, were even taken en masse and forced into baptism. In the parables of Christ this same "flood is described, but under the different term, "tares", and the evident fact that they are still very much in the church, forces the painful realization that the earth has not as yet swallowed up the flood... The swallowing of the flood, therefore, is the same as
the burning of the tares as comprehended in the parable of the harvest. (Matthew 13:30).
Besides, the Revelator points out that not until after the flood is swallowed by the earth, after the church is thereby purified (by God), will the dragon wage his fiercest warfare against the remnant of the woman's seed. Hence, the harvest time in the church, the time the earth swallows the flood, is before the dragon wars against the remnant. Let it be
remembered that it is after the earth swallows the flood that the dragon is to be wroth with the woman, and "to make war with the remnant of her seed (not with her personally), which keep the commandments of God, and have the testimony of Jesus Christ." (Revelation 12:16-17). The Dragon cannot war with the woman because those who remain (faithful) after the earth swallowed the flood have been sealed-out of the dragon's reach. Thus he is only "wroth" with her, but he makes war with the "remnant of her seed". The "remnant", those who are left behind, who are still in Babylon, but who are finally called out of her (Revelation 18:4), the dragon's warring against them is occasioned by their having the Testimony of Jesus, the spirit of Prophecy (Revelation 19:10), by becoming commandment-keepers instead of worshipers of the beast and his image. The dragon's aim is to keep them from coming out of Babylon. (Revelation 18:1-4)
Since it is after the earth swallows the flood, that the dragon is to be wroth with the woman and to go "to make war with the remnant of her seed, which keep the commandments of God, and have the testimony of Jesus Christ"
(Revelation 12:16-17), there is no
escaping the conclusion that the harvest, in taking away from the church Satan's flood, his multiplied tares, does not bring the millennium of peace. Indeed not, but rather it brings God's wrath—the time of trouble such as never was: the time in which His people in Babylon are called to "come out of her" and into His purified church.
Clearly, then, there is no escaping the conclusion that the doing away with Satan's flood is doubtless (God's ) purifying the church, the destroying of those who have joined the church through the aid of the serpent. This is her only hope, her only strength, her only deliverance. In this light, Inspiration now puts new life into the words -"Awake, awake; put on thy strength, O Zion; put on thy beautiful garments, O Jerusalem, the holy city, for henceforth there shall NO MORE COME INTO THEE THE UNCIRCUMCISED AND THE UNCLEAN." (Isaiah 52:10)
By Anti-typical Elijah
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Sources taken from: Timely
Greetings, Vol. 2, No. 16, To the Seven Churches, & others.
* Insertions by the Editors