AGES OF THE KINGDOM OF GOD

The first thing that must be apprehended may seem entirely too obvious, but it must be seen that these are parables of the Kingdom. As has already been discussed, this Kingdom is not manifested on earth, literally, in the present age. Therefore, it follows that these parables speak of a time yet in our future today. On this point, our construct would agree with many in the premillennial camp, but lest our postmillennial friends suppose too much from that statement, let us examine these parables in more detail.

Notice the picture of the Kingdom portrayed here. It is as a man who sows seed and then waits patiently for the seed to grow. This takes time; the seed matures into neither wheat nor tares immediately. Soon, however, the servants notice that there are tares among the wheat, and they wish to root them up from among the wheat. The Master will not allow it, but stays the hands of the servants until such time as it is obvious which plants are tares and which are wheat. Then, notice in verse 30, that it is the tares which are first gathered (not the wheat). This idea is reinforced by the language of our Lord in verse 49, as He details the parable of the casting of the nets into the sea. Here it is clearly the wicked who are severed out from among the just in the Kingdom.

Of course, this picture does not coincide with the present "church age" at all. At the end of the present age, (at the last trumpeti) the wheat will be raptured or resurrected out from among the tares, so to speak.

Notice also that the tares are not necessarily burned immediately. The Master commands His servants, the holy angels, to gather the tares and bind them in bundles for the purpose of burning them. From this parable, the time of their burning could either be immediate or eventual relative to the time of their gathering.

Jesus explains the parable to His disciples in verse 37. He explains that the good seed, the seed which produces the true wheat, are the children of the Kingdom. The tares are to be burned at the completion of the age; not the present age but the age of the Kingdom to which Jesus has referred all along. See that the tares may be gathered throughout this time as they mature with the wheat, but they are to be burned at the completion of the age. In fact, it must here be suggested strongly that the burning of the tares (along with the gathering of the wheat into the barn) marks the conclusion of the Kingdom age to which Jesus here refers.ii

Now verse 43 is interesting. After the tares are gathered out and burned, Jesus says that the righteous (i.e., the wheat) shall shine forth as the sun in the Kingdom of their Father. Is there another phase to the Kingdom? Could there be one phase wherein the tares and wheat grow together, when a rod of iron is necessary, and then a second phase wherein there is complete peace and righteousness, wherein the righteous shine as the sun in the Kingdom of the Father?

The parable of the wheat and the tares certainly indicates that the Kingdom of God upon the earth will not encompass every individual on the earth immediately, but rather, a time will come at the end of this coming age when the tares must be pruned and cast out, leaving only wheat to be gathered into the barn of the Master.

The parables of the mustard seed and the leaven reinforce this idea. Postmillennialists have commonly and rightly asserted that the premillennial eschatological construct must be flawed in its apprehension of the instantaneous appearance of the Kingdom of God upon the earth in its fullest maturity at the return of Christ Jesus. These theologians would assert that the Scripture teaches a slower growth of the Kingdom of God upon the earth; that it matures as seed which becomes wheat, or leaven which leavens a goodly quantity of meal, or even as a tiny mustard seed which grows into a tree wherein the birds may lodge themselves in its cover.

Not one of these parables pictures an immediate appearance of a fully manifested Kingdom upon the earth. Further, this age of the growth of the Kingdom must refer to the age to come and not to the present age, and in this, it would seem that there is a flaw in the postmillennial construct, too. Postmillennialists have apprehended the right process, but have applied it to the wrong age of history. Premillennialists have apprehended the right epoch for the manifestation of the Kingdom, but they have missed the process of time over which it must grow to maturity in that coming age.

Let us readily admit these teachings from the parables which are elsewhere reinforced in Scripture, reconciling these two very serious, committed, and Bible-believing eschatological schools; each of which may lay claim to many of the greatest theological minds over the centuries. We can surely appreciate all of their contributions to this important subject, without which this work could not have been constructed.

There are other parables of the Kingdom which could be considered, and it is the hope of this writer that detailed study of many others will be undertaken, using these interpretive methods, and respecting the necessary consistency which must exist among all the teachings of Scripture, for all of Scripture is true, and each part of it must be interpreted in such a way as to avoid the violation of the truth of any other part.


i The Apostle Paul tells us that the rapture of the church will occur at the last trumpet in 1.Corinthians 15:52. The last trumpet revealed in the Holy Writ is sounded in Revelation 11. This is at the end of the time of great tribulation just preceding the return of Christ Jesus to establish His earthly Kingdom.

ii Do not be confused by the dual use of the English word "world." In verse 38, "world" is translated from the Greek "kosmos" which here refers to the physical world as we today think of it. However, in verse 39-40, "world" is translated from the Greek "aeon" which refers to a period of time, an epoch, or an age.