AM I RIPE FOR
REAPING?
A QUESTION
EVERY REGENERATE BELIEVER SHOULD ASK OF
HIM/HERSELF.*
[*Note.
This tract is based on the
writings of D. M. Panton.
All scripture
quotations are from the Revised Version.]
In
dealing with the harvest ingatherings
of souls unto
God’s holy presence, before, after,
and at
the end of the great tribulation, we do well to
keep before us the
typical parallel of the natural harvests in
[* The
difficulties which caused "questioning"
amongst
Peter, James and John, after seeing the "vision"
(Matt. 17: 9)
on top of the Mount, are the
same difficulties which confront and cause questioning amongst
disciples of
Christ today: they have never heard any teaching of a select resurrection: "Out from the dead."]
At
the end of the great tribulation, when Christ descends from heaven to
establish
His millennial kingdom, He will also raise up the other loaf from
amongst the
dead in Hades who will have been judged by Him [before death] to "attain" - that
is, as defined: "to gain by effort" - "unto the
resurrection [out] from
the dead" (Phil.
3: 11 cf. Heb. 11: 35), and who
have "fallen asleep in Jesus,"
together with those
"who are left
unto the coming of the
Lord," (1Thess.
4: 15).
Both
loaves will be mixed and international in make up. There will be leaven
in them
on the presentation day,
and yet acceptable to our
Lord as "worthy"
for reigning with Him
in "the kingdom of Christ and of
God,"
(Eph. 5: 5).
Finally,
there was a typical harvest in
[* Note. The feast of
tabernacles is also
typical of the thousand year reign of Christ with His saints, (Rev. 20: 4-6).]
Owing
to the absence of knowledge concerning the time period of tribulation
prophecy,
the disbelief today amongst Christians concerning the millennium, a
lack of
teaching about the intermediate state and place of the dead, and false
teaching
concerning the time of the "first resurrection;" Christians
today cannot see or
comprehend many of the conditional
promises of God which are addressed
to His redeemed people; and the severe warnings of future punishment
and loss
for disobedient and "wicked"
servants
are conveniently and mistakenly passed on to the unregenerate, false
professors, or Israel. For
instance, before
the tribulation there are saints, enraptured into the
presence of Christ, (Rev. 3:
10). Then, at the end of
the
tribulation, there are a multitude of blood-washed souls and martyrs
caught up
to stand before the throne of God, (Rev.
6: 11; 20:
4). There is also a more limited company of redeemed ones
named in Rev. 14: 1-5.
This is followed by "the harvest of the
earth", which
The Son of Man reaps in chapter
14: 14. And
yet, again, in Rev.
15: 2 there is a special martyr group, "that came victorious from the beast, and
from his image, and
from the number of his name."
Finally,
- [a thousand years beyond all these separate groups of glorified
saints, there
is yet another great ingathering of un-named
saints, * who lost "the
prize"
(Phil. 3:14)
but received by faith "the free
gift of God" (Rom. 6: 23), and who
enter "a new
heaven and a new earth,"
(Rev. 21: 1).]
- there are the unripe ones;
those sad redeemed souls who have disobeyed the
precepts of
Christ, resisted the urge of the
Holy Spirit; whose will has not
bent before Him. To
such we
would lovingly recall the words of our dear Redeemer in Rev. 3: 18, 19: "I counsel thee
to buy of me gold refined by fire, that thou
mayest
become rich; and white garments, that thou
mayest
clothe thyself, and that the
shame of thy nakedness be not made
manifest; and eye salve to anoint thine
eyes, that
thou mayest see.
As many as I love, I
reprove and chasen: be
zealous therefore and repent."
And again: "Watch ye
at every
season, making supplication, that ye may prevail to
escape all these
things that shall come to pass, and to stand before
the Son of
man," (Luke 21:
36). Open the
door of your heart widely to Him as He knocks once again, and asks to
be
admitted to the throne of your being, (Rev.
3: 3,
20). Only
as He is sovereign Lord
can we find grace to "prevail to
escape".
The
darkness thickens, the fire increases, the wickedness grows, the tares
mature;
BUT THE GRAIN MUST RIPEN ALSO: through rain and sun, storm and heat,
to
glorious harvest, increase and fullness on every hand, to His glory at
His appearing
and also before the "great white
throne",
(Rev. 20: 11).
[*"Saints"
(1 Cor.
1: 2) are sinners
saved by grace of God through faith in our Lord Jesus Christ.
Therefore all works
after regeneration,
whether good or evil, have no bearing on what all
the regenerate
will receive as a "free gift" (Rom. 6: 23).
Reformed theology would teach the contrary - that good
works must
always accompany regeneration, in order to show genuine discipleship!
Such was not
the case at Corinth where "saints"
came behind in no spiritual gift, and were described by Paul as "carnal" and "babes
in Christ" and fit for feeding only "with
milk, not with meat," (1
Cor. 3: 1, 2).
These "saints"
were living an immoral lifestyle:
"It
is actually reported that there is fornication among YOU
..."
(1 Cor.
5: 1).
"Dare any of
YOU ..."
(6: 1).
"Or know YE
not that the unrighteous [saints]
shall not
inherit the
"When the fruit is ripe,
STRAIGHTWAY he putteth
forth the sickle ..." (Mark
4: 29).
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