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The Spirit of Prophecy Volume 2
cast them into a furnace of fire; there shall be wailing and gnashing of
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teeth. Then shall the righteous shine forth as the sun in the kingdom
of their Father. Who hath ears to hear, let him hear.”
These words of Christ are meaningless to those who are looking
for a temporal millennium, when all the world will be converted. He
expressly states that the wheat and tares shall grow together till the
harvest, which is the end of the world. Then the tares are to be gathered
out of the field; but they are not to be transformed by a mighty miracle
into wheat. They are to remain tares, and are to be cast into the fire
and utterly destroyed.
Jesus, in his explanation of the parable, brings distinctly before his
disciples the great difference between the treatment of the wicked and
the righteous in that time when men shall be judged for their deeds.
Reaching down to the end of time, he corrects the false doctrines of
those who rise up to deceive the people. He would teach men that God,
who rained a fiery tempest upon the cities of the plains and destroyed
them because of the iniquity in their midst, will surely punish the
sinner. He holds the destiny of men and nations in his hands, and
he will not always be mocked. Jesus himself declares that there is
a greater sin than that which brought destruction upon Sodom and
Gomorrah; it is the sin of those who see the Son of God and listen to
his teachings, yet turn from his salvation, and reject his offered mercy.
But the righteous shall be rewarded with the eternal life.
Jesus, in his teachings on this occasion, spoke many parables
to the people, that he might forcibly impress his truths upon their
minds. Our Saviour’s mission to the world was to bring to light hidden
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mysteries which finite man could never fathom, divine problems which
the human mind is unable to solve. “Of which salvation the prophets
have inquired and searched diligently, who prophesied of the grace
that should come unto you.” “Which things the angels desire to look
into.” The Son of God came to be a light to the world, to reveal
wonders to the children of men that even the angels had vainly longed
to understand. He patiently explains the marvelous transformation
of sinful mortals into children of God and heirs with himself in the
kingdom of Heaven. The introduction of sin had opened the door
to every species of suffering and wretchedness, till moral darkness
shrouded the earth like a funeral pall; but Jesus, the Restorer, brings