It was necessary to ferret out Achan. Jesus was unable to bless Israel until Achan's sin was dealt with. No doubt the same thing holds true today. The SDA Church (the Remnant Church of prophecy) is, no doubt, chock full of Achan's. People love their pet sins. It is pandemic. Can Jesus bless His Church while so many members are in rebellion? Consider the following insight:


"The Lord does not now work to bring many souls into the truth . . ." Why?

The wheat and tares

Notice wheat and tares are hard to tell apart --
We can't read the heart and pulling tares may result in pull out the wheat. So don't pull the tares.

BUT

1 Cor. 5

This presents a totally opposite picture.
There is no question that the person is out of step and walking in rebellion against God's truth. Yet the church members are "proud" of their tolerance. Paul is pretty forceful that disciplinary action be taken and the person be dismissed from church fellowship.



So scripture gives us both approaches -- and the conditions under which each approach is to be used.

Amen!

I've tried to find, but could not locate, a comic with cookie crumbs on the table, and cookie crumbs on a little boy's face with the caption saying, "What cookies?".

Why do you say amen? Both are not referring to the same signs.

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I have never said I would like to separate the wheat and tares myself. That responsibility rests with Jesus.

Signs? What do you mean?

Signs for judgment.

In the parable of the wheat and tares, the sower sows GOOD SEED IN HIS FIELD. First, it is HIS field and secondly, he sows only GOOD seed: i.e. fruitful seed. Tares do not bear any fruit. What Jesus told his servants in effect was this, "Don't throw anyone out merely because they are pew-warmers, reluctant to speak, is not active among the members, has a low profile ...." The sign of a tare is one who is not actively engaged in multiplying while others are.

You can think of a tare as, for example, an SDA who has lost faith in EGW or the direction of the denomination. He does not actively support the evangelistic ministry of his congregation. From a denominational perspective, he is obviously a fruitless tare distinct from the fruitful wheat. Jesus says not to dis-fellowship such a one, lest others become discouraged by your actions and leave as well. A good example of this is Desmond Ford. They uprooted him and he took with him a "thousand" others, and the denomination fell into the trap of creating a creed for themselves, walling themselves into an ivory tower.

THIS IS TOTALLY DIFFERENT FROM 1 CORINTHIANS 5.

There Paul is advising the congregation rightly to dis-fellowship the immoral, when the signs of abominable behaviour are blatantly obvious. For example, the Vatican was in order in their judgment against their own priests convicted of pedophilia.

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Okay. Good point. I believe time-serving members and leaders who are "unprofitable servants" should not be disfellowshipped for being merely "cumberers" of the ground. However, members and leaders who reject fundamental SDA beliefs and actively work to persuade other SDA to join them should be disciplined subject to disfellowshipment.

What cookies.