Doctrinal Kernels

"The harvest is the end of the world."  (Matthew 13:39) Unfortunately that is a faulty translation.  What Jesus actually said in this parable is, "The harvest is the end of the age."  His point, and ours also, is that we are to look for an age to end, not the end of life on earth!

 

When we study "end-time" prophecy in the Bible, we quickly learn that it has no resemblance to the sensational fantasies that have come out of dark-ages theology.  Unfortunately, those concepts are tenacious enough to retain adherents in our day.  Modern series of books and movies implant fears of being lost, left behind, etc. — all fairy-tales (or demon-tales!) which play on superstitions and residual fears of this poor tormented world in which we live.  Pompous apostate Christianity loves to gloat as to how it is favored, will be saved, and will somehow be satisfied as the rest of unbelieving mankind is lost.  Blasphemy!

 

Contrary to these lies about the end of time, the destruction of the earth, etc., are the reassuring words of prophecy:  "The earth abideth forever;"  "The meek shall inherit the earth;"  "The earth shall yield her increase;"  "The whole earth is at rest, and is quiet; they break forth into singing;"  "The government shall be upon his shoulder; ...of the increase of his government and peace there shall be no end;"  "The earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the sea;"  "The earth is my footstool...and I will make the place of my feet glorious;"  "God himself...formed the earth and made it; he hath established it; he created it not in vain; he formed it to be inhabited;"  "Thy will be done in earth."  This list only samples the hundreds which make the point:  the earth will be a glorious place forever!  (Ecclesiastes 1:4; Matthew 5:5; Psalm 67:6; Isaiah 14:7; Isaiah 9:6, 7; Isaiah 11:9; Isaiah 66:1 and 60:13; Isaiah 45:18; Matthew 6:10)

 

So, what is meant by "the end of the world"?  There is no denying that prophecy makes many references to such things as "the time of the end," "He that shall endure unto the end," "The day of the Lord...in which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat; the earth also and the works that are therein shall be burned up," "The first heaven and the first earth were passed away."  (Daniel 11:40; Matthew 24:13; II Peter 3:10; Revelation 21:1)

 

The fact is that the Bible is full of symbolisms.  Learning to distinguish between plain, literal statements and highly figurative language is a time-consuming and prayerful endeavor.  But it can be done successfully with satisfying, reasonable results.  (We recommend "How To Study the Bible and Have It Make Sense"—available through this website.)  Anyone with impartial reasoning capabilities can see that the Bible would be a self-contradictory book of confusions if we took it all as literal statement.  Once we discern its symbolism secrets, however, it becomes a very reasonable teacher of what is to come.  

 

When the First World War broke out, President Woodrow Wilson exclaimed that "The World is on fire!"  Everyone knew what he meant.  When the Apostle Peter prophesied the same events with the same words, somehow no one seems to know what he means!  The Lord has blinded the eyes of mankind so that they cannot see until it is His time for them to see.  (John 12:37-40)

 

 A SUMMARY

 

To shorten and simplify the Biblical testimony about "end-times," it is important to realize a few basic concepts:

 

1.  End-time prophecy is not about the end of the physical earth or the end of time.

 

2.  End-time prophecy deals with the TRANSITION PERIOD between the previous 6000 years of suffering, sin, and death and the incoming age of righteousness, life, and happiness.

 

3.  What WILL END is the dying process in mankind as well as the old, selfish, corrupt social-political-ecclesiastical systems of doing things.

 

4.  What WILL BEGIN is Christ’s Kingdom of righteousness which will allow the earth to supply all of man’s needs, desires, and comforts for life everlasting.

 

5.  This transition also will mark the end of the development of Jesus’ church who will all be raised as spirit beings to be with him as the new heavenly government for earth.  It also will mark the beginning of the raising from the dead of all of the rest of humanity to enjoy the earth for which they were created.

 

 

CATEGORIES OF PROPHECY

 

End-time prophecies deal primarily with four groups:

 

1.  The nation of Israel  (symbolized as a fig tree or as Jacob). See Doctrinal Kernel on ISRAEL. 

 

2.  The Apostate Christian Church  (symbolized as Babylon, a harlot, a false prophet, tares, the vine of the earth, the heavens, etc.) See Doctrinal Kernel on MAN OF SIN and May 2008 Article of the Month on WHEAT AND TARES.

 

3.  The True Christian Church (symbolized as the first-born, wise and foolish virgins, a bride, the New Jerusalem, wheat, etc.) See May 2008 Article of the Month on WHEAT AND TARES.

 

4.  The Social and Political Systems — particularly of the Western World (symbolized as the dragon, the earth, the devil, etc.) See October 2008 Article of the Month on FINANCIAL CRISIS.

 

TIME

 

It also is helpful to realize that Biblical prophecies of end-times span a large amount of time.  The period which Daniel 11 calls "The Time of the End" began, according to Daniel’s prophetic chronology, in 1799.  Since then, a number of significant Biblical dates have come, each marking the beginning of a new phase of end-time events.  The "harvest" (of which Jesus spoke in the text at the head of this article) began in 1874.  The beginning of Christ’s thief-like parousia also begins at this date. (See article on LORD'S RETURN.) Prophecies concerning the restoration of Israel to its homeland date from 1878. (See article on ISRAEL.) What Jesus calls the end of "The Times of the Gentiles" (Luke 21:24) came in 1914.  History since that point has been heavy with fulfillments of various prophecies.  

 

It probably also is important here to note that we do not subscribe to the end-time theories of the seven years of tribulation involving the "rapture" and man-of-sin prophecies.  To our understanding, those presentations are spectacular corruptions of prophecies of Daniel, Thessalonians, and Revelation.

 

God’s concept for the organization of His people was different; and throughout the history of the church there have been notable examples of sincere Christians attempting to maintain the simple organizational standards of the early disciples.

 

The congregations of early disciples were called churches.  The word in the Greek original is EKKLESIA which means AN OUT-CALLING.  It is a very appropriate term for the disciples because they were called out of the world and its ways in order to be servants and disciples of Jesus.  (John 17:6-21) This ecclesia (the term is used for each congregation as well as for the world-wide individuals who constitute his church) has Jesus and the twelve Apostles as its foundation and lawgivers.  (Ephesians 2:19, 20; Revelation 2   1:14; II Peter 3:2; Jude 17) There have been other imposters who have tried to usurp the office of an apostle, but they all are apostates and liars.  (II Corinthians 11:13; Revelation 2:2; 21:14) God Himself "gave" these Apostles to Jesus in answer to prayer.  (John 17:12; Luke 6:12-16) They were imbued with the Holy Spirit in a special way so that their “official" pronouncements were inspired and quite set apart from their personal judgments.  (See I Corinthians 7:25 as an example.)  In their special office, these twelve could have been burdensome to the church, rightly expecting support and allegiance; but they were not of such a mind.  (II Thessalonians 2:6, 7)

 

The Apostles were granted extraordinary authority to establish doctrine and practice in the church.  (II Corinthians 2:10; I Corinthians 5:3-5; Matthew 16:19; Acts 2:42, etc.)  It is their writings which constitute the doctrinal and prophetic books of the New Testament as well as two of the four Gospels.  The standard, then, for any congregation of saints should be the inspired words of Jesus, his Apostles, and the prophets.  Any other writings or teachers, which maybe helpful, are not in the same category and have no authority save what is in harmony with those inspired sources.  While to the church itself is given authority in some matters, its authority never supersedes or contradicts the Biblical standards given to it. (I Corinthians 6:1-3)

 

The Scriptures do not ever suggest that the church on earth should have any earthly head or central governing authority.  To the contrary, every indication is that each and every ecclesia or congregation was totally autonomous.  Each congregation was a representation in itself of the whole church.  And while ecclesias shared communication and good-works opportunities, they never delegated authority over themselves to any outside source.  (Colossians 4:16; II Corinthians 8:1-15)

 

The concept of denominationalism or sectarianism, unfortunately, arose early in the church but was quickly condemned.  (I Corinthians 1:10-13; 3:1-9) Nevertheless it has persisted unto our day.  It promotes narrow-thinking and closed-mindedness.  While it is true that any one congregation (because of careful study and agreement on the Scriptures) may be of the same mind as is another congregation, there is no Scriptural authority for them to form an exclusive alliance with a fixed creed which binds the Christians within those congregations.  Instead, we all are to be as those noble Bereans who "searched the Scriptures daily, whether those things were so."  (Acts 17:10-12)

 

As history progressed, the Lord found it expedient to supply timely messages through selected men who faithfully pointed the churches to truths needed in their particular periods of history.  (Revelation 2 and 3) These messengers ("angels") were men whose commissions were not through "inspiration" as were the words of the Apostles, but through enlightenment and understanding.  Their services to the church in their days are legendary.  They include men such as Peter Waldo, John Wycliffe, Martin Luther, and Charles Russell.  To have ignored their ministries in their days was to separate one’s self from whatever "meat in due season" the Lord had to provide.  (Matthew 24:45) Nevertheless, to establish denominations based on these men or their teachings Scripturally is unacceptable.

 

The organization of the individual congregation was simple and efficient.  It was designed to take advantage of the benefits available through the more spiritually mature as well as the temporal talents of the brethren possessing various abilities to accomplish the daily functions of the church.  It placed AUTHORITY in the hands of the congregants.  Thus, all members of the congregation who were fully dedicated to Jesus’ service and who were, therefore, begotten of the Holy Spirit, CHOSE THOSE who would serve the church as its ministers in spiritual and temporal matters.  There was no clergy and laity.  There was the church and its chosen servants.

 

The servants or ministers of the church were divided into two categories:  (1) Those who would guide the congregation in spiritual learning and personal growth, and (2) those who would care for the non-spiritual needs of the congregation so that it could operate quietly and efficiently.

 

The spiritual servants are called ELDERS or bishops.  The terms seem to be interchangeable, one referring to the person’s spiritual maturity, the other being a description of his service responsibilities.  "Bishop" comes from the Greek word EPISCOPOS which means OVERSEER—one who watches over something for its good.

 

The temporal servants were called DEACONS—a word which simply means servants.  While all elders or bishops were deacons (servants), all deacons were not bishops.

 

Deacons were first instituted during the period when early Christians thought it advantageous to live in a large community.  The first deacons were selected in order to relieve the Apostles of temporal duties so that they could dedicate their energies to spiritual matters.  (Acts 6:1-6) Note that the Apostles did not select these deacons.  The congregation selected them.

 

Paul instructs us (I Timothy 3:1-13) to do the same in our local ecclesias.  But he not only expects the congregation to choose its deacons (as they did in Acts 6), but also its bishops.  He shows in his letter to Timothy what the congregations should use as qualifications in their choices for bishops and deacons.

 

In his letter to Titus (Titus 1:5-9) Paul again shows how to "ordain" elders.  The word "ordain" comes from the Greek word meaning "to stretch forth the hand."  This was showing that the church should select its servants by a hand vote, not a secret ballot.  Among other things, this helps the character-building of each in the congregation.  It places ALL RESPONSIBILITY squarely in the voting hand of each Christian.  This passage conceivably could be mis-read to suggest that Titus chose the elders.  But Titus was not an Apostle and had no such authority; and even the Apostles who did have superior authority had the congregation choose its servants in Acts 6.  Instead, Titus was sent as a messenger from the Apostle Paul to instruct the churches how to organize themselves.  It also should be noted that by a comparison of Titus 1:5 and 1:7, it is possible to see the interchangeable nature of the terms bishop and elder.

 

This was the simple, efficient, congregation-empowered, organization of the early church.  There is no reason why it should be any different today.  It supplies all that is needed while it protects the ecclesia from domineering leaders, false teachers, and any who might wish to use the church for his own personal, selfish ends.