Going to Hell By The Way of The Church

 In 1970, Rev. Daniel Stafford wrote a small book entitled Going to Hell By the Way of the Church. The text was Matt. 13:36,42. That was fifty-one years ago. Today, there are still thousands going to hell by way of the Church. Just because you attend church does not make you a Christian anymore than standing in a garage makes you a car.

Please turn with me to Matt. 13

Then Jesus sent the multitude away, and went into the house: and his disciples came unto him, saying, Declare unto us the parable of the tares of the field. 37 He answered and said unto them, He that soweth the good seed is the Son of man; 38 The field is the world; the good seed are the children of the kingdom, but the tares are the children of the wicked one; 39 The enemy that sowed them is the devil; the harvest is the end of the world; and the reapers are the angels. 40 As therefore the tares are gathered and burned in the fire; so shall it be in the end of this world. 41 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; 42 And shall cast them into a furnace of fire: there shall be wailing and gnashing of teeth. 43 Then shall the righteous shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of their Father. Who hath ears to hear, let him hear.

This may make some people uncomfortable talking about eternal punishment or going to hell. This is not to make you comfortable but to challenge you to live right and avoid eternal punishment.

The road of open depravity is the way that most people will face eternal punishment. However, the devil is wise enough to know that not everyone will travel that road. Knowing this, he is happy to take them to hell by way of a good moral life while being part of a church. He may succeed in bringing many more from churches that have closed their doors to the Holy Spirit, but he knows that people can go to hell from any church. The devil does not care that you are a faithful church-goer. He only cares that you do not have a personal relationship with Jesus Christ and have surrendered your life to the will of the LORD. Satan is happy for you to be religious.

The ground for the growth of the wheat and tares to grow in is the world, but today I want to look at that ground as the Church. Every Church comprises different people, different jobs, different values, and other social classes. No church can survive or function without a unifying system of belief and doctrine. The unifying belief acts as a glue to make the various part of the church function as a part of the Body of Christ. In every Church, there is a competition between the spiritual and secular for dominance. One of these will eventually emerge as the principal view of Christianity for the Church.

Historically, the Church has struggled with these two opposing views. Paul was dealing with this same problem in the Church at Corinth, and Jesus addressed this problem in the Parable of the Wheat and Tares. Today, the struggle continues in every Church. The wheat and tares grow together, but only the wheat will escape the fires of judgment.

The True Church, those that make up the Body of Christ (not a denomination), is the institution that can bring about a transformation in the world. It is the Body of Christ that the True Church ordains. It contains only "wheat" and will have the ultimate victory over the "tares" sin. Only a right relationship with the LORD will give us this victory.

Understanding the Tares

One of the amazing acts of God's creation is the DNA of all life forms. "DNA is an amazing substance. It makes us who we are. But how does it work? It's a LONG molecule made up of 4 bases: A, T, C, and G. These are packed in various ways into chromosomes. DNA can be exchanged, reshuffled, and duplicated.

So, what does DNA do? It is essentially a recipe book. Copies can be made of the primary DNA strand to make a "working recipe." Every three base pairs together codes for an amino acid, and strings of amino acids make proteins. Proteins and the products of proteins make up our entire body. So, DNA is essential for life it is who we are.

The process is very accurate but not perfect. Sometimes mistakes are made – like a misspelled word. Sometimes parts are duplicated or twisted around. What can happen is it can be: deleted, copied, reversed, or changed. There is also a lot of "junk" in our DNA that gets cut out when it is used. We call these various things mutations. Most of the time, a mutation "ruins" what the DNA needs to do. Sometimes a mutation "makes sense." Other times it is destructive. 

In the parable of the wheat and tares, we have been given a warning about things that look alike but are not. What is on the inside is what will eventually show on the outside. You cannot hide your DNA.

The kingdom of heaven is likened unto a man which sowed good seed in his field: but while men slept, his enemy came and sowed tares among the wheat and went his way. But when the blade was sprung up and brought forth fruit, then appeared the tares also. So the servants of the householder came and said unto him, Sir, didst not thou sow good seed in thy field? from whence then hath it tares? He said unto them, An enemy hath done this. The servants said unto him, Wilt thou then that we go and gather them up? But he said, Nay; lest while ye gather up the tares, ye root up also the wheat with them. Let both grow together until the harvest: and in the time of harvest, I will say to the reapers, Gather ye together first the tares, and bind them in bundles to burn them: but gather the wheat into my barn. Matt. 13:24-30

The more you understand tares and how they differ from wheat, the more you can see the warning in this parable. Since the time of Jesus, modern man has lost the common day recognition of how tares and wheat looked alike and why Roman law was enacted to make it a crime for people to "infect" others' crops with tare seeds.

Both plants look identical in their early growth, so you must wait for them to mature to see their differences and separate the poisonous useless weed seeds from the nutritious fruit-bearing wheat seeds.

The tares also grow faster than wheat and will rob nutrients from the soil and the sun by overshadowing the wheat crop. When secular ideas are brought into the Church, they will quickly overshadow the spiritual. When worship becomes more entertainment than worship, the tares have taken over.

As the two crops compete for their growth and sustenance, the farmer is faced with a dilemma preventing him from the luxury and ease of early removal of the tares without injuring the wheat. This has been the downfall of many good churches. Trying to remove the "tares" is impossible.

Early Quakers used church disciple to remove the "tares" from the Church. A member who had ideas that did not conform to church doctrine was "readout of the meeting." Many good Christian people left the Church because it may have been their mother, father, brother, sister, or a dear friend removed from the Church. The results were devastating to the "wheat."

This is because the tares have a growth habit of wrapping their roots around the wheat roots. To remove the tares means likely to uproot the wheat, which has a shallower root system than the tares.

Again, once the typical and rapid tare growth reveals tares' presence, they are protected due to their entwining roots. And so, once the tares are discovered to be present in a crop field, patience and observance will require waiting till harvest time to separate the weeds from the wheat safely.

The similarities of these two plants make sorting and discerning a problematic task. We are being alerted to subtle forgery dangers and how counterfeit information may not be initially apparent. So, from the beginning of our Christian experience, we need to be paying attention and mindfully discerning all that we see and hear and allow only the Scriptural truth to be the foundation of our beliefs.

This parable warns us to be diligent about what has been sown in our churches. These include the doctrinal teachings, the secular ideals, and the beliefs contrary to scripture because they may mature to become an attachment we will have a fondness for. Later, it may leave us without the presence of the Holy Spirit in our Church.

We have been warned about "tares" taking root. The tares may look like wheat and seem to be spiritually stronger. Remember, all deception is costly to your spiritual health! And, just because someone is often quoted doesn't necessarily make it true wisdom.

Remember, DNA does not lie. The DNA for the tares is the recipe for sin. They are the counterfeit that looks like the real deal but is death. Just because something looks genuine, the visual may mislead you and reveal its true identity when it is too late. Weeding is always a dreary task, and best if we never had to deal with it!

In the parable of the tares, we see Satan's deceiving power, the longsuffering of God, and the final fate of all hypocrites, or tares. The deceiving power of Satan is beyond the full comprehension of the human mind.

The longsuffering of God is a source of amazement to angels and men alike. How He can be so longsuffering with transgressors is beyond the understanding of mortal man, who desires to remove those who oppose and bring punishment for those that have done him wrong. The final fate of hypocrites, or tares, is clearly stated by God Himself, Jesus Christ. Unless one deliberately tries to misunderstand the meaning of the statement of Christ, it would be mighty hard to be confused with it.

To go to hell at all is too horrible to try to conceive. However, to go to hell by way of the Church will be the most terrible thing that can ever happen to anyone. This is what Christ is warning about in this parable and trying to keep this from happening to you.

One "planted" tare, of Satan, on the inside of the Church will do more harm than a thousand, admitted, sinners on the outside because indifferent professors and the laziness of pastors, the righteous and the wicked are often mingled in the visible Church. However pure its principles may be, every Christian society has its false wheat -- those who bear a resemblance to the good but whose hearts are not right with God. He, who sows this false wheat among God's people, is here styled God's enemy; and he may be considered, also, as a sower of them who permits them to be sown and to spring up through his negligence. The multitude of critical, sinner voices, from without will not do near the harm as one deceptive voice of a tare from within. Many today call themselves Christian, but their experience is that of being a tare.

Few will make restitution, repentance, and surrender their all to God and plead the cleansing blood. Even less, the number will continually walk in the light after that grace has come into their hearts.

The question is there hope for the tares? Several years ago, I was in a diabetic research program that would change my DNA. I don't know how much it changed, but DNA can be changed. That is what the transforming power of the plan of salvation does. It changes who we are, making us a new creation in Jesus Christ.

So, yes, there is hope for "tares" in the sacrificial death of Jesus Christ. He has the power to transform who we are. If you have not received that transforming power of Jesus Christ, you too can have the gift of salvation.