Since the Lord stunned me by dropping “This is ALL about to be fulfilled!” into my mind and spirit sixteen years ago upon opening my Bible to check what Jesus said about the parable of wheat and tares in Matthew 13 – as recounted in my first email on eschatology The Endgame is Now in Play – it’s been rare to read or hear anyone who  plugs that parable into End-times teaching, unless maybe within group discussion.  

Could that be because it may contradict claims about the ‘Rapture’ or ‘snatching up’ of believers upon Jesus’ Second Advent, as outlined in Paul’s first letter to the early church in Thessalonica? (1Thess 4 13-18)

However, Rick Joyner, founder/director of Morning Star Ministries, refers to it specifically in his latest message on his examining the Book of Revelation.

First, a reminder of Jesus’ explanation to His disciples about the purpose of parables after they’d asked, “Why do You speak to them in parables?” (Matthew 13 NKJV) He answered and said to them, “Because it has been given to you to know the ^[a]mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it has not been given. ¹² For whoever has, to him more will be given, and he will have abundance; but whoever does not have, even what he has will be taken away from him. ¹³ Therefore I speak to them in parables, because seeing they do not see, and hearing they do not hear, nor do they understand.”

Then, when the gathered multitudes had left, His disciples needed to know what the parable of wheat and tares means and Jesus specifically relates it to the far distant future, the end of the Age (emphases mine):

“He who sows the good seed is the Son of Man.³⁸ The field is the world, the good seeds are the sons of the kingdom, but the tares are the sons of the wicked one.³⁹ The enemy who sowed them is the devil, the harvest is the end of the Age, and the reapers are the angels.⁴⁰ Therefore as the tares are gathered and burned in the fire, so it will be at the end of this Age.⁴¹ The Son of Man will send out His angels, and they will gather out of His kingdom all things that offend, and those who practice lawlessness,⁴² and will cast them into the furnace of fire. There will be wailing and gnashing of teeth.⁴³ Then the righteous will shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of their Father. He who has ears to hear, let him hear!”

Rick Joyner in his Word for the Week: The Book of Revelation, Part 9 not only refers to that parable but also likening it to today’s returning to the depraved Days of Noah, The Tower of Babel and ‘Mystery Babylon’. His brief study begins:

‘We have been talking about the Lord restoring mankind and the earth. In Revelation, mankind falls to its deepest depravity before the Lord comes to rule and restore. He said it would be like “the days of Noah,” which saw the worst corruption and evil the world would experience until the end of this age. In His parable about the wheat and the tares, Jesus said, “the end of the age is the harvest” (see Matthew 13:39).

In this parable, Jesus was speaking of how the wheat and tares would grow up together. The harvest is when all the seeds that have been sown will come to full maturity, so both the good and evil sown into man will come to full maturity at the end of this age. Then, we will experience evil in its fullness—the full maturity of the sin of man personified in “the man of sin”—and the full maturity of the nature of Christ will be manifested in His people. This is predicted in Isaiah 60:1-3: “Arise, shine; for your light has come, and the glory of the Lord has risen upon you. For behold, darkness will cover the earth and deep darkness the peoples; but the Lord will rise upon you and His glory will appear upon you. And nations will come to your light, and kings to the brightness of your rising.” …’  (continue reading here)

As with Johnny Enlow’s Embracing the Golden Age, It is most encouraging to read a learned leader’s analysis that’s independent of overarching doctrinal direction.