R. F. COTTRELL by R. F. Cottrell

The Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Jul 18, 1865

R. F. COTTRELL

By R. F. Cottrell

The World's Conversion a Fable. No. 3.

THE parable of the tares of the field, Matt. xiii, 24-30, admits of no possibility of the conversion of the world before the harvest, or end of the world or age, at the second personal coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. The wheat and the tares both grow together until the harvest. In explaining this parable, our Saviour said, "The field is the world; the good seed are the children of the kingdom; but the tares are the children of the wicked one; the enemy that sowed them is the Devil; the harvest is the end of the world, and the reapers are the angels. As therefore the tares are gathered and burned in the fire, so shall it be in the end of this world. 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; and shall cast them into a furnace of fire; there shall be wailing and gnashing of teeth. Then shall the righteous shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of their Father." Verses 38-43.

The righteous and the wicked, according to this testimony, are to exist together in the world until the end, when the Son of man will send forth his angels, gather out the wicked, and cause the righteous to shine forth in the kingdom of their Father. There is no possible place here to get in the conversion of the world and an age of millennial glory. The field is to be occupied by both classes to the consummation.

With testimonies so clear and explicit in our hands, how can any be deluded by a theory so baseless as that of the conversion of the world? How careless readers of the Bible must be, to accept of such interpretations without inquiry! If inquiry is made, it must surely result in exploding the whole scheme.

The coming of the great and terrible day of the Lord is thus postponed to a far distant day, when, in fact, it is about ready to burst upon a world almost universally unprepared. It is because of such deceptions as this, that that day will come as a thief upon the world and the professed church. They will be crying, "Peace and safety, when sudden destruction shall come upon them as a snare.

The Scriptures tell of no time of glory to the saints, till they shine as the stars in the kingdom of their Father; and of no age of glory to the earth, till it is renovated from the curse by that burning day to which it is reserved against the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men. Then there will be eternal glory on earth. There will be no sin nor sinners there; but all in Heaven and on earth will join in ascriptions of praise to God. Rev. v, 13.

Dear reader, cast off the snare of popular fables, and strive for a share in the glory soon to be realized by the people of God, in their Father's house which has many mansions.