June 10, 2011

“The Kingdom of Heaven is like a man who sowed Good Seed in his field; but while men SLEPT, his enemy came and sowed TARES among the Wheat (Matthew 13:24-25).

“The Tares”

Continued from April 29, 2011; May 6, 2011; May 13, 2011; May 20, 2011; May 20, 2011; May 27, 2011; June 3, 2011

Dear Brethren,

This is part two in this series of writings regarding Satan’s sowing of the Tares among the Wheat sown in God’s true Church.

The False Ministers in the End-Time

The Worldwide Church of God:

Satan’s began using his false prophets (ministers, the apostate pastor general and his staff) to begin the leavening process right after the death of Mr. Armstrong, January 16, 1986, by subtly beginning the rejection of the office of Mr. Armstrong by pointing out supposed mistakes.

The apostate pastor general with his administration (from the Internet :) developed a five-year plan strategy initiated by a well-known evangelist. And it worked for them.

They were taught well and fulfilled their objective over an eight-year period of time by subtly and cunningly using deceptive words to mislead: double talk – a matter of semantics—etc., to confuse the members.

Past history makes known they were successful in changing the true doctrinal teachings over that period of time to the teachings of the Catholic and Protestants Churches until the leavening process had permeated the whole Church in December 1994!

The Corporate Churches of God:

Even worse for the Elect members of God’s one and only true Church, Satan began the leavening process again with both the large and the smaller breakaways from the Worldwide Church of God in 1995 with well-known evangelists, pastors, elders, who had accepted some of Satan’s leavening of false doctrine and had begun their own individual Corporate Churches.

The leavening of Satan has continued to spread with thousands of members following and believing their off-track teachings and rejection of the teacher God had sent to His Church (II Corinthians 11:3-4; 13-15).

When put to the test it comes to be known that the TRUTH of God is NOT that important to these ministers and members who followed them! It was a superficial academic belief that did not enter into their hearts (II Thessalonians 2:10-12).

Those of us who went with one or the other of those corporate churches left after seeing they were making no effort to get back on track in belief and doctrine.

Without realizing it these ministers (Tares) had been planted by Satan to destroy the membership (wheat)! Over time they have revealed themselves for what they really are by what they have come to believe or what they had believed all along and just covered it up until the appropriate time to reveal it.

Present Day Examples

After the apostate general accepted the teaching of the Catholic and Protestant Churches that the Christian has been born again at baptism, one evangelist who had been in charge of the Letter Answering Department said in a sermon, “I have believed this all along; I guess I was just ahead of my time.” I personally heard him say that in his sermon.

Another, as a minister and faculty member of A/C in Pasadena, who had taught the trinity to the ministry and the Worldwide Church of God, has been reported as saying that he had believed this all along. He was asked: “Why did you not teach it while Mr. Armstrong was alive?’ He replied, “He would not let me, but now I can.”

It has been said to me that Mr. Armstrong was going to put him out of the Church a couple of times, but an evangelist intervened for him; so he didn’t.

Scripture Reveals our Time

To the wheat (the Elect people of God) sown by the Sower (Jesus Christ), Jude wrote:

Jude 3 “. . . I found it necessary to write to you EXHORTING you to CONTEND earnestly for the FAITH which was once for all revealed to the saints.

Jude 4 “For certain men have CREPT IN UNNOTICED (Tares-Synagogue of Satan) . . . UNGODLY men who TURN the Grace of God into licentiousness (license to do evil) and DENY the only Lord God (our Father) and our Lord Jesus Christ.

Jude 8 “Likewise also these dreamers defile the flesh, REJECT AUTHORITY and speak EVIL of dignitaries

Evil was subtly spoken in sermons about Mr. Armstrong many times during the first few years of the nine-year tenure of the apostate pastor general. During the last couple of years, or so, while seeing most of the teachings had been accepted by the ministers and members, he and others then boldly rejected the authority and office of God’s apostle.

Jude 10 But these speak EVIL of whatever they do NOT know (blinded)

In their favor: Most of these men are unconverted, spiritually blinded, and do not grasp what they say and do; if they did they would not be doing it any more than did the Jews who had the Romans to beat and crucify Jesus Christ (Acts 2:17; I Corinthians 2:8).

This is why we are to love and pray for our enemies, not condoning what they do, but thinking of their blindness and their potential.

Think of it in this manner: It could have been you or me.

Jude 11-12 “Woe to them! For they have gone in the way of Cain, have run greedily in the error of Balaam for profit (receiving salaries) . . . These are spots in your LOVE FEASTS (God’s Festivals), while they FEAST with you without fear serving only themselves. They are clouds without rain (substance) carried about with the winds (of false teachings), late autumn trees without fruit, twice dead (some few converted and rejected the truth), pulled up by the roots.

Jude 16-19 “. . . mouth great swelling words – flattering people to gain advantage – who cause divisions – not having the Spirit . . .”

Tares and Synagogue of Satan

Jesus Christ led the Apostle Peter to also write of our time:

II Peter 2:1- “. . . There will be FALSE teachers among you (Tares promoted into high offices within the Church of God) who SECRETLY (the apostate pastor-general and his administration) bring in DESTRUCTIVE HERESIES (they did- and over time split the church wide open), even denying the Lord who bought them (it would appear some of them may have been either sown on the rocky places or the thorny ground, meaning conversion) . . . Many will FOLLOW their destructive ways (approximately 100,000 – though half of that number went elsewhere), BECAUSE of whom THE WAYOF TRUTH will be blasphemed, by COVETEOUSNESS they will exploit you with DECEPTON.

II Peter 2:10, 12-15 “despise authority – presumptuous – self-willed – not afraid to speak evil of dignitaries – speak evil of the things they do not understand – spots and blemishes – revel in their own deceptions (hypocrites) – while they FEAST with you – beguiling unstable souls – they have FORSAKEN the right way and gone astray (off-track) – following the way of Balaam . . . who loved the wages (salaries) of unrighteousness.”

II Peter 2:17-21 “For when they speak great swelling words of emptiness, they allure though the lusts of the flesh, through lewdness, the ONES who have actually escaped from those who live in error (members who continued to cling to the truth), while they PROMISE them LIBERTY, they themselves are slaves of depravity; for by whom a person is overcome, by him also he is brought into slavery (to sin). For IF after they have escaped the pollutions of the world through the KNOWLEDGE of the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, they are AGAIN ‘ENTANGLED’ in them, and OVERCOME, the latter end is worse for them than the beginning. For it would have been better for them NOT to have KNOWN the way of righteousness, than having known it, to TURN from the holy commandment delivered to them.”

The Evil Jezebel

For our understanding and safety, it must be emphasized that amidst the present-day Wheat are the Tares. They are the representatives of Satan the devil, the Catholic and Protestant Churches; and they are continuing their efforts to destroy God’s true people either before or during the Great Tribulation which will occur in the near future! Sadly, many will perish in it:

Revelation 17:1-2, 4-6 “. . . I saw the woman DRUNK with the Blood of the saints and with the Blood of the martyrs of Jesus (Revelation 6:11-12).

Presently, the spiritual death of God’s Elect is primarily being sought through the deceptive leaven of Satan’s pagan doctrinal teachings; soon it will be through outright persecution (Revelation 12:13-17).

Learning from Past History

In each of the Seven Church Eras, Jesus said we are to learn from each one and apply what we learn from them to our time (Revelation 3:13).

A vital lesson from Jezebel (false teachers of the Catholic and Protestant Churches) is essential that we learn from what is written about her in the letter to the Church of God in Thyatira:

Revelation 2:20-23 “Nevertheless I have a few things against you, BECAUSE you ALLOW (tolerate) that woman Jezebel, who calls herself a prophetess (as did Ellen G. White in the Seventh Day Adventist Church of God), to TEACH and SEDUCE My servants to commit sexual immorality (lose their virginity) and eat things sacrificed to idols (pictures and statues of the one they falsely claim to be Christ). And I gave her TIME to repent of her sexual immorality, and she did not repent. . . .”

Due to the pagan teachings that can be witnessed in the churches it can readily be seen that Jezebel as embodied by those teachings is alive and present within the Church of God.

In the Letter to the Church of Philadelphia, Jesus Christ led the Apostle John to write of her ever-present seductive danger in the Church of God:

Revelation 3:9 “Indeed will make those of the Synagogue of Satan, who SAY they are Jews (true Christians, Romans 2:28-29) and are not, but lie . . .”

How Satan’s Deception Worked in our Time

In addition to the Headquarters Worldwide Church of God, there were members of the faculty in both Ambassador Colleges in Pasadena, California and Big Sandy, Texas who while yet teaching classes or holding important offices, attended outside colleges and a few obtained their degrees from the theological classes taught by faculty members who were of the Protestant churches.

After having fully accepted what they had been taught, they were used by the headquarters Worldwide Church of God to begin implementing these heresies within the college classes.

With top ministers and faculty members firmly in control of the Worldwide Church of God and both the colleges in Pasadena, California and Big Sandy, Texas, Satan was able to overthrow all of the doctrinal teachings and replaced them with Protestant teachings.

Prophecy and the Parables

After speaking this parable of the Tares to the people, Jesus Christ then spoke of the mystery of the parables and their purpose for them:

All these things Jesus spoke to the multitude in parables; and without a parable He did not speak to them, that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the prophet Isaiah, saying:

“I will open My mouth in parables; I will utter things KEPT SECRET from the foundation of the world.”

In this end age Jesus Christ opened up these secrets through the writing of the last Book written by Mr. Herbert W. Armstrong: The Mystery of the Ages. However due to the other writings of Isaiah, as quoted by Jesus Christ, their eyes still do not see with understanding nor do they hear with true understanding (Matthew 13:14-15; Romans 11:

The Parable of the Tares Explained

Mathew 13:36-37 Then Jesus sent the multitude away and went into the house (of Peter in Capernaum). And the disciples came to him (inside the house), saying, “Explain to us the parable of the TARES of the field.” He answered and said to them:

“He who sows the GOOD SEED is the Son of Man

Matthew 13:38 “The field is the world, the Good Seeds are the [begotten in embryo] sons of the Kingdom, but the TARES are the sons of the Wicked One

Matthew 13:39 “The enemy who sowed them is the devil, the HARVEST is the end of the age, and the reapers are the angels.

Matthew 13:40 “Therefore as the TARES are gathered and BURNED in the Fire, so it will be AT the end of this age

Matthew 13:41 “The Son of Man will send out His angels, and they will GATHER out of His Kingdom (God’s true Church) all things that offend and those who PRACTICE lawlessness,

(Inset – Matthew 13:30 “. . . First gather together the TARES and bind them in bundles [the collective corporate churches of God who are off track and refuse to repent . . . will not to change – Revelation 2:21]to BURN them [in the Great Tribulation], but gather the WHEAT into My barn [Place of Safety])

Matthew 13:42 “And will CAST THEM into the FURNACE OF FIRE [as did Nebuchadnezzar Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, Daniel 2:8-25]. There will be wailing and gnashing of teeth.

Matthew 13:43 “THEN the RIGHTEOUS [Good Seed sown deeply into the Earth - hearts] will SHINE FORTH as the SUN in the Kingdom of their Father. He who has ears to hear, let him hear” (Matthew 24:30-31).

To be continued.

In my next writing in this series I will be focusing on the final three parables.

Your servant and friend,

Don Billingsley

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