Reasoning The Scriptures

The Gospel Age Harvest

The Harvest is the End of the World –Mat 13:39

A s a Common Bible Student being a strict adherent of Br. Russell I used to

believe that the Harvest began through his ministry and we were the angles
harvesting the wheat out the tares with the sickle of truth in the hand. I was
convinced of this interpretation because in my personal experience I have seen
indeed, hundreds of brothers and sisters separated themselves from their long
attended denominations after hearing the so called “Harvest Truth” from us and rest
of the people rejected the clear truth. I almost thought and believed that this was the
Harvest mentioned in Mat 13 and 24. In this regard Br Russell himself campaigned
through his writings that his ministry was the harvest which separated the wheat from
the tares. We quote some passages from his writings

"HARVEST" is a term which gives a general idea as to what work should be

expected to transpire between the dates 1874 and 1914. It is a time of
reaping rather than of sowing, a time of testing, of reckoning, of settlement
and of rewarding1.

THE careful student will have observed that the period designated "The Time
of the End" is very appropriately named, since not only does the Gospel age
close in it, but in it, also, all prophecies relating to the close of this age
terminate, reaching their fulfilments. The same class of readers will have
noticed, too, the special importance of the last 40 (1874-1914), of those 115
years (1799-1914) called "The End" or "Harvest."2

Our studies together have led the majority of us to conclude that we are now
living in the Harvest time-- in the end of this Age. Oh, how glad we shall be
if this is true! How glad we are to believe it true! And, we think, on good
evidence. If it is true, as we believe, that the forty years "harvest" of this Age
began in 1874, the implication is that the trials of the Church are nearly at an end;
that the faithful will soon be gathered to the heavenly garner.3

But we will here confine ourselves to the consideration of the Harvest truths
set forth in the publications of THE WATCH TOWER BIBLE AND
TRACT SOCIETY formerly called MILLENNIAL DAWN and ZION'S

1 Studies in the Scriptures Vol 3- chapter 6,page 135

2 Studies in the Scriptures Vol 3- chapter 5,page 121
3
Zion’s Watch Tower –Reprints # 5018 : page 145

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Reasoning The Scriptures

WATCH TOWER, now called STUDIES IN THE SCRIPTURES and THE

WATCH TOWER4

Because of my predetermined perception regarding the doctrine of the harvest, I

found it very difficult to understand properly, comparing with the scriptural account
(Mat 13) my notion was very narrow. I believed that wheat was to be gathered by
preaching the harvest truth. If we think that it is only by knowing the so called
“harvest truth” that one can be harvested, then what about the hundreds of thousands
of faithful Christians who have died after 1874 but never had the opportunity to
know it? And what about those faithful martyrs who were crushed to death and died
before 1874, who also never had the opportunity to know the “harvest truth” which
eventually began from 1874? Turning away from these kinds of cunning
interpretations I started to read only the Bible and examine the truths critically. Alas!
I realised my folly that I was indeed blind leading the blind who all heeded me. But
now I thank and sing praises to God for he has opened mine eyes and made me to
see the wondrous truth hidden in his Plan.

The Harvest defined – Mat 13:39

In the parable of the wheat and tares (Matt. 13) the phrase "the harvest is the end of
the age" has been interpreted to apply to a period of 40 years at the -end of this age,
corresponding to the invisible presence of the Lord. The harvest work has been
defined as the gathering of the true wheat from out of the nominal systems of
Christianity, by means of the sickle of truth.

But it might be asked: Why is a special harvest of 40 years necessary now? If a

generation be taken as 40 years, there have been nearly 50 generations of Christians
since 2000 years. Why are 40 years needed to harvest this last generation in particular?
If the tares and wheat of all previous generations have been, allowed to grow together
and pass away in death without being separated, why is it necessary to separate them
in these latter days? The proportion of Christians involved represents only a small
fraction of the great field of the Gospel Age, and therefore a very incomplete harvest.
To attempt to include the dead in this harvest, necessitates using the thought of
reaping in an entirely different sense and is quite inconsistent with the separation
work of the sickle of truth. Neither is it true to say of any particular period in these
latter days that the true wheat has been gathered from tares as never before.

Some of the Misconceptions of the Parable of Wheat and Tares

It is asserted that the wheat is the truth i.e. the true doctrines and the tares are the
false doctrines sowed by the enemy. Russellites generally agree in this regard, One
should not forget that our Lord himself has interpreted the meaning of the wheat i.e.
4
Zion’s Watch Tower –Reprints #5909 : page 170

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Reasoning The Scriptures

the good seed – the children of the kingdom (Mat 13:38) and the tares – the children of
the wicked, so wheat and tares are not doctrines and beliefs rather the children of the
kingdom and the wicked. If the wheat and tares interpreted only as doctrines then we
should also acknowledge that at the end there will be a separation of true doctrines
out the false and not the persons! This cannot be true because this interpretation
takes us out of the context from our Lord’s parable clearly interpreted.

Now the Reapers i.e. the Angels are said to be the preachers, evangelists and the
human messengers who are now separating the wheat class out of the tares with the
help of the sickle of Truth, some interpret the angles are animate and inanimate
agencies of God which does the harvest work. They further go on and explain that by
preaching the harvest message we all associate with our Lord to separate the wheat
out of the tares! Thus we are the reaping angles and in this way the harvest is going
on since 1874! My Logical question is if the angels are the preachers, evangelists and
the human messengers then who are the wheat? Are they (preachers and evangelists)
not part of the wheat? When read in between the lines of our Master’s parable it is
stated that the Angles will harvest the tares first – “I will say to the reapers, Gather
ye together first the tares, and bind them in bundles to burn them: but gather the
wheat into my barn.” (Mat 13:30,40).It is clearly interpreted by our Lord that the
Angles will first gather the children of iniquity – “The Son of man shall send forth his
angels, and they shall gather out of his kingdom all things that offend, and them
which do iniquity;”(Mat 13:41).We do not see human messengers harvesting the
offenders which do iniquity out the children of the kingdom, Human Angles cannot
harvest and gather the tares by preaching the word of God and so called the “Harvest
Truth”, certainly human messengers are not meant here because we don’t have the
right yet to gather the tares and cast them in to the furnace of fire (Mat 13:42) the angels
who are spoken about are the literal angles who will carry out this task when
intimated by our Lord in due time. One can clearly see from the servant’s honest
enquiry (“Wilt thou then that we go and gather them (tares) up? - Mat 13:28) that the
necessity of the Harvest is to take the tares out of the wheat, if the enemy wouldn’t
have sown the tares among the wheat the necessity of a harvest would not at all
required, Russelites often ignore to see the very motive of the Harvest is to take the
tares out of the wheat instead the wheat out of the tares – Mat 13:25- 30.

It is true that Jesus and the Apostles refer to our work as reaping, and to Christians as
labourers in the harvest, but this has applied to every generation and covers the
whole Gospel Age. In the sense in which it is used in this parable, however, it refers
to the final consummation and the reapers are the literal angels. Whether this
gathering extends over the last day of the age, or the last year, or the last 40 years, can
only be decided by plain Scriptural statements. The Word is not silent on the point,
however, but tells us in very clear language exactly how long this gathering of the
saints will take.

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Reasoning The Scriptures

In Matt. 24, verse 31 which speaks of this gathering, definitely does not precede verse
30 which refers to the coming of Jesus, although the two verses may be concurrent. If
we bear in mind the connection of verse 30 with Zech. 12: 12 and Rev. 1: 7, it is very
obvious that the gathering of verse 31 does not cover 40 years. A comparison with
Mark 13 and Luke 21 will confirm the fact. But we have still more exact information
in 1Thes. 4:16, about this gathering. The Lord shall descend, the dead in Christ shall
rise (surely, instantaneously) and the living shall be caught up at the same time with them.
This is the harvest, the gathering into the barn, the only consistent interpretation of
reaping that includes both dead and living-all in Christ. The exact time that this takes
place is given us in 1 Cor. 15:51, 52: "in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye." We
shall not all fall asleep (die) but we shall all be changed; the dead shall be raised
incorruptible and we shall be changed. Then shall the righteous shine forth as the sun
in the Kingdom of their Father. Who hath ears to hear, let him hear?”

To revert to the actual parable of the wheat and tares, Jesus did not teach that the
harvest was a period-end of the age. He said, as the Greek has it, that it was the full
end or consummation i.e. the climax of the age. There could not be a time in the
experience of the Lord's people in the flesh when they would be an all-wheat
community. When all things that offend and those that do iniquity are taken out, then
and only then shall the words already quoted be true: "Then shall the righteous shine
forth as the sun …" At that time the Lord shall have gathered His people to Himself.

The view of the harvest being a period found support by virtue of the fact that it was
claimed that our Lord, having returned invisibly, was doing a progressive work
among His people as of drawing out wheat from tares, although the parable's
statement that tares were taken from wheat was neither considered nor interpreted.

The real spiritual value of the parable has not always been seen. Its chief aim was to
show that until the final consummation, wheat and tares (true and counterfeit) would
co-exist and that His people were to learn the lesson of patient endurance in the
words "Let both grow together until…." Then said Jesus, I will attend to the sepa-
ration. That separation, as we have seen, will only truly be accomplished when all the
saints are with Him in glory.

The Harvest of the Saints

If we consider carefully Paul's words in 1 Thes. 4:13-17 we shall see that it cannot be
held as scriptural that after the Lord has returned any of His faithful people will
continue to remain in the flesh. Their hope and immediate "change" are linked with
His return. "Our citizenship is in heaven from whence also we look for a Savior, the
Lord Jesus Christ, who shall transform the body of our humiliation that it may be
fashioned like unto His glorious body."

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Reasoning The Scriptures

The Thessalonian brethren were concerned about some of their number who had
already died, asking When the Lord comes, what will be their position? 'Paul explains
that the "alive and remaining" ones at the Lord's return will not take precedence over
those who have died. The dead will rise (rise, not ascend, be it noted) first. Then the
living shall be "caught up" together with those who were dead. Thus neither living
nor dead take precedence but are caught away together; this is the actual separation
and the Harvest.

The Greek word rendered "caught up" means to snatch or take away by force. Christ
uses it in John 10:28, 29. "None is able to pluck them out of my hand" and it is
translated "take by force" in John 6- 15 and Acts 23: 10; "caught up" in 2 Cor. 12:2, 4
and "caught away" in Acts 8:39. But before this snatching away occurs, the dead in
Christ are to rise first.

This passage does not read that the dead in Christ "ascend first." The word "ascend",
carries an entirely different meaning in the Greek from the one used for "rise". Jesus
rose from the dead, but did not ascend until forty days after. The dead in Christ rise,
in the sense of being awakened first. They are then, at the same time, together with
the living, snatched away in the clouds, attracted by the magnetic power of the Spirit
to their Lord and Head, gathered together unto Him.

Some may object that God does not work in this way and that it is too sensational.
But faith will accept what is so plainly stated in the Word. If Enoch was translated
that he should not see death; if the Spirit of God caught away Philip from one place
and conveyed him miles away; the same power can and will work this mighty miracle
at the arrival of the Son of man. "One shall be taken and the other left." The word
"taken" here means "to take alongside" or "to receive". It is translated "receive" in the
words, "I will come again and receive you unto myself." Jesus will take or receive to
Himself, one; the other will be left. At the same moment of time in different parts of
the earth; from every kindred and tongue and people and nation, one shall be taken
and the other left. For the ones taken it will be a change from mortality to
immortality, these bodies of our humiliation changed and made like unto His glorious
body, to be forever with the Lord in an eternity of life, joy an blessing.

In the phrase "caught up together with them," the words "together with" mean
"simultaneously" or "at the same time with" - See Marshall's Greek Interlinear New
Testament, the "Amplified Version" and the older "Emphatic Diaglott" by Benjamin
Wilson. Much has been written contrary to this plain teaching of Paul, but the fact
remains that the two classes -"dead" and "alive and remaining" -- go together. Jesus
uses the same expression in Matt. 13:29 translated "with." "Lest while you gather up
the tares you root up also the wheat with ("together with") them. Here it means "at
the same time with" as in 1 Thes. 4:17.

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Reasoning The Scriptures

The teaching that our Lord has already come explains that the dead in Christ were
raised when He came and entered immediately into the presence of the Lord, the
living ones who remain being changed one by one as they die, this process covering a
period of many years. This interpretation of "caught up together with" is said to be
illustrated 1) the use of the expression in the parable where the wheat and tares would
be (in certain circumstances) gathered up together but not all it the same moment of
time. This fails to illustrate the point, however, as the simultaneous gathering of a
handful of wheat and tares sufficiently demonstrates the parallel catching away of
living and dead at one and the same moment, a fact which is plainly denied in the
foregoing teaching that the dead alone are raised at the arrival of Jesus.

Our Lord's words: "There shall be two in one bed; two shall be grinding together;
two shall be in the field; the one shall be taken, and the other left" (Luke 17:34-36),
are bereft of point or meaning if those who "remain to His coming" just die
individually and separately in the usual manner, and are not taken together.

In this connection, Paul's words in 1 Cor. 15:51, 52 - a matured and further

explanation of what he had written in the Thessalonians - must be given due weight:
"Behold I show you a mystery (secret). We shall not all sleep but we shall all be
changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump." Paul's "together
with" (at the same time with) in 1 Thes. 4 must be understood in harmony with his
"in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye" in 1 Cor. 15.

That this expression: "in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye," has a collective and
not merely an individual application is shown by the concluding statement "the dead
(collective) shall be raised incorruptible and we (the living-collective) shall be
changed."

This passage teaches that there will be a class - those remaining alive unto the Lord's
coming - who will not die but will be changed out seeing death. "We shall not all
sleep", says the Apostle. Though “sleep" is used so frequently as a simile of death, it
is urged that here it particularly means "remain in sleep" and does not imply that we
shall not fail asleep. However, the same Greek word "koimao", though in a different
tense, is used in Acts 13:36 of David falling asleep and being laid with his fathers,
where it obviously means in plane language that he died and was buried.

In the same way in 1 Cor. 15:51, 52, Paul is plainly saying, "We not all die." He refers
to two classes "the dead shall be raised incorruptible" and "we (not dead) shall be
changed" and is speaking, in harmony with his remarks in 1 Thes. 4, of those who are
alive and remain. They are to be caught away with the resurrected dead in Christ.

We are aware that much stress has been laid on the words in Rev. 14:13 "Blessed are
the dead which die in the Lord from henceforth: Yea, saith the Spirit, that they may

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rest from their labors; and their works do follow them." Some understand from this
Scripture that when the Lord came the dead saints were glorified and that since then
(the "henceforth" of this text) each saint as he has died has been immediately
changed without remaining in death as did those who died before the Lord came.
This is, -as we have seen, at variance with Paul's teaching in 1 Thes. 4 that the dead
and living saints; are "caught up together." Verse 12 in Rev. 14 is surely a reference to
the general experience of the saints during the Gospel Age when their patient
endurance was tried to the utmost and particularly in the days of Papal persecution.
In this context, verse 13 is to them beatitude and an added word of comfort that their
death under persecution would be blessed, be a rest from toil and certainly not for
them the end of all.

So, according to the scriptural reasoning that the Gospel Age Harvest referred to
the resurrection of the saints in future, when the Lord comes on the white cloud.
The gathering of the elect is something that the Lord and his holy angels would do.
The separation of the wheat from the tares is just the separation of good from the
wicked. I think the Lord pretty well knows those that are his and those who are of
the devil. This is what is referred to in 1The 4: 17 and Mat 13

Your Brother and Servant in His vineyard

Y.R.Dinakaran

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