Who are the Weeds and who are the Wheat? Experience: Letter From a Catholic Here is a field service experience, that contrasts what is true and what is not true i.e do Trinitarians, who number the vast majority, have the truth? Often, letting God’s word work its power to overturn even the deepest of entrenched teachings significantly increases the likelihood of reaching a persons heart—even when his or her beliefs seem to be impervious to the best of human reasoning and logic. No guarantees, of course, but when all else fails, the power of the Bible itself may circumvent the most unreasonable of arguments and pierce right to the heart of the matter. I had a measure of success using the approach Paul suggested regarding “the wheat and the weeds” illustration, as shown in the following experience: Field Service Experience: As a group of us witnesses were making our way back to our cars after working one street, a lady came out of her house and stopped each of us as we walked by in an attempt to “reach” us to acknowledge that the Catholic Church is the original true church, and so we were wasting our time going house to house. Before long, there was a small circle of the friends having an intense, but very friendly, discussion with this lady using various lines of reasoning to try to reach her. After nothing seemed to work, I reluctantly tried the “wheat and the weeds” scripture, but all the while telling myself that this illustration is too involved and too difficult for her to understand. I read the entire illustration to her right from the Bible. She agreed with the basic premise of the illustration; that Jesus planted true Christians starting in his day, but after the apostles “slept” in death Satan planted imitation, weed-like “Christians” that overwhelmed the field and would remain in that condition until the harvest. I then asked her a series of questions based on our agreed upon common understanding of the account, as follows: Since the field is the world and is over sown with weeds, who would be in the majority, the wheat or the weeds? Her Answer: “the weeds” Doesn’t this also mean that the weeds would be in the dominant, controlling role at this time? After all, if the wheat were in control, wouldn’t they put a stop to, or at least hamper, the weeds spreading? Her Answer: “Yes, there would be more weeds than wheat” That being the case, wouldnt the weeds have to be all dominant, organized religions that developed after the apostle died? Her Answer: “I see what you’re getting at; I don’t have an answer for that, I’ll have do more research on that illustration” I reminded her that she herself said earlier that she regretted all the bad stuff the Catholic Church had done in the past. Doesnt their actions match what Jesus foretold in the “wheat and weeds” account? Her Answer: “I uh, uh, uh will have to think more on that” I then offered to explain how the illustration was fulfilled in history. She, for the first time, stopped talking and agreed to listen to a possible explanation of the illustration. I explained that the illustration rules out as wheat ANY religious organizations that rose up over the centuries—they would, by virtue of the timing of their appearance, have to be the weeds Jesus foretold. This understanding is confirmed by the religious atrocities of history. On the other hand, the wheat-like true Christians would have to appear during the “harvest” season—just before the end comes. They would also have to be the ones preaching the “good news of the Kingdom” as foretold to occur during the ‘harvest’ “conclusion of the system of things” (I read her Mt 24:14). We are convinced that Jehovah’s Witnesses are these ones! We certainly qualify as very likely candidates in view of the foregoing, would we not? Her Answer: “hmm, well, uh. . .” Finally, I pointed out that while all long standing organized religions were eliminated as wheat candidates, SHE, herself, could be one of the wheat-like ones (not anointed of course). I reminded her that her acknowledging the atrocities of the Catholic Church shows she is not sympathetic to these and that she was, in spite of this, a Catholic only because she thought she had no other place to go. This casting her in a good light helped her not get offended at out view of the Catholic Church itself (in fact, she seemed almost flattered). We ended the conversation with her having a much less dogmatic, holier-than-thou viewpoint about the witnesses. I was amazed that the Bible account of the “wheat and the weeds” cut through such a strongly entrenched bias as the temporal, universal superiority of the Catholic Churches. Perhaps in your case, Nick, not engaging your householder’s arguments and biases and just showing him what the Bible says may reach him as well. At least he will have had the opportunity for Jehovah himself to draw him with His own powerful words.
Posted on: Wed, 17 Dec 2014 06:57:59 +0000
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