The parables of the sower and the tares drive home an important truth relative to our work in going about to restore the church described in the New Testament. Since time beginning the divine law of sowing and reaping has proven 100% true. That divine law is stated in the simplest of words, and recorded by inspiration for our learning: “And the earth brought forth grass, and herb yielding seed after his kind, and the tree yielding fruit, whose seed was in itself, after his kind: and God saw that it was good” (Gen. 1:12). Medical science has never uncovered any evidence whatsoever to the contrary. On the other hand, evidence has been unearthed that proves the validity of that divine law, even from ancient times. It has been more than 25 years since I came across this beautiful illustration of that truth:
The principle of the seed’s reproducing after its kind is beautifully illustrated in an article from Life magazine printed a number of years ago. Under the heading “Nature,” there was a full page picture of a beautiful pink lotus flower in full bloom. Beneath the picture was a caption, “The Oldest Flower.” A brief explanation disclosed how some Japanese workmen unearthed a Neolithic canoe not far from Tokyo and had turned it over to some archaeologists. The archaeologists discovered a 2,000-year-old lotus seed and turned it over to Dr. Ichiro Ohga, a lotus expert. Ohga placed the 2,000-year-old seed in a tank of water to see if it would sprout. After a year of germination and growth, the seed developed into a beautiful pink lotus. Ohga’s evaluation of the success was, “It’s quite a flower,” he said, “but not different from lotuses today.”
The same law of “kind reproducing after its kind” applies to the spiritual realm as well. In Luke’s account of the parable of the sower, the sacred record provides us with the Lord’s interpretation of that parable for our benefit. One significant statement was the Lord’s affirmation that “the seed is the word of God” (Luke 8:11). It is the same “seed” that was planted in the hearts of those men and women on the Day of Pentecost as recorded in Acts chapter 2. That seed was received into the good soil (i.e. good and honest hearts), germinated, and blossomed forth. The result was the establishment of the Lord’s church. It would not be long before that same “seed” would be planted into the hearts of the Samaritans, the Ethiopian eunuch, Lydia, the household of Cornelius, and other case studies recorded in the New Testament. In each and every case, that “seed” produced a child of God.
Fast forward 100 years. That same “seed,” when planted into the good and honest heart, would produce after its kind, and those being saved would be added to the church (Acts 2:47). Applying the law of “kind producing after its own kind,” if that same “seed” were planted into the good and honest heart 200 years later, 300 years later, or even 2,000 years later, it would produce exactly the same thing – a “Christian” (Acts 11:26); nothing more, nothing less.
Now let us ask this question: “Where did the multitude of religious denominations come from, if not from the ‘seed’ of that particular denomination?” To put it another way, no man or woman could become a Baptist separate and apart from the “seed” of Baptist doctrine being implanted in their mind. No man or woman could become a Methodist, Calvinist, premillennialist, Presbyterian, Pentecostal, or Seventh Day Adventist without his/her having received into their mind and heart the “seed” of one of those denominations. It is evident, then, that since the church began in 33 A.D. that someone has been busy planting tares among the pure “seed” of the word of God.
The spiritual law set forth by the Lord in the parable of the sower is no less dependable than the physical law of “kind reproduces after its kind” set in motion from the very beginning. If an archaeologist could take a lotus seed that is more than 2,000 years old, plant it in the soil and nurture it to full blossom to a beautiful lotus flower, then you and I can take the “seed” of the gospel that is 2,000 years old, plant it in the good and honest heart, and produce the same thing that it produced more than two millennium ago.
Take a second look at the multitude of divided, deceived, and deluded souls who are following a multitude to do evil, and ask again, “Who sowed the seed?”
By Tom Wacaster