The World Is Not A Stage – We Are Growing In A Field

Like so many others coming out of the year 2020, I too, am wondering if the world is going to hell in a hand basket, as the saying goes. I still do not understand the Great Reset as outlined by Klaus Schwab and the World Economic Forum. It seems rather ominous in theory, and impossible or implausible to put into practice.

The gist of it, and the terminology surrounding this borderline conspiracy theory is sticky and viscous. Or rather, what struck me the most, is the references to the key stakeholders of the world. When I listened to some of the beat-around-the bush cooked-up rhetoric, the part I was most appalled by, is the notion that a handful of elites actually think they “own” the world. How preposterous.

As I have described in previous posts, I was targeted and brainwashed by a high school teacher who was also a religious zealot. He became obsessed with me when I was a student in a public school in a small town in Alberta. The villainous teacher has stalked my entire life. It took me many years to unravel the lies he repeated about my own life, but even more significantly, the religious lies he indoctrinated me with. For many years, I had no idea that I had been thought reformed with soul destroying spiritual lies.

Thankfully, the arrogance, deception, and unlawfulness of this man’s conduct became increasingly obvious over the years. But he created a real stronghold of corruption within our family that has gone on for many years. The Exclusive Brethren Mennonites have a long history of destroying families. It angers me, because of the fact he was a teacher, and a complete stranger – yet he infiltrated and destroyed a fractured family for more than a generation.

One of the predominant false doctrines in the world today, stems from the Plymouth Brethren and the John Darby Bible, which is a completely altered version of the Bible. Among the many falsehoods they believe, which has been promoted by hyperbolic movies and books over the years, is that Christians would be taken out of the world, or raptured prior to, or during the great tribulation. As this theory goes, the great tribulation is calculated to span a seven year period.

There is nothing whatsoever in the Bible to indicate there will be a secret rapture. In fact, a careful reading of the parable of the wheat and the tares tells us just the opposite. It is found in Mathew 13: 24-36. There are countless interpretations, therefore it is up to each person to read these verses with a sincere desire to discern truth from fiction.

After mindfully reading the parable, clearly Christ is telling us the whole world is the field. And guess who owns it? It is certainly not the rich people on earth who own the world. In fact, many of the rich people are the most corrupt tares in the whole field. God owns the earth. We can all believe what we want, but to me this one is obvious. And if we don’t choose to believe it – the day will come when we do.

Another doomsday aspect of the religious fundamentalists is the fear surrounding the great tribulation, and how things will get worse and worse. They believe Satan completely takes over the world. Images of blood running in the streets, famine, locusts, massive earthquakes, plagues, hundred and thirty pound hailstones, and unimaginable horrors. This makes the notion of a great escape through a pre-tribulation rapture, so much more preferable than having to go through crowds of gory – as opposed to crowns of glory.

Myths aside, and getting back to tilling the ground – truthfully, this parable tells us the world is a field. It tells us good seeds have been sown in the field. Under the cover of darkness, the enemy (devil) came and sowed the tares. Some of the good seed fell on the rocks and did not take root. Some were planted in shallow soil.

When the wheat and tares in the field grew, the servants noted the bearded darnel, and realized it was a weed. It took careful examination to see the look-alike plant had no grist. The servants wondered how the field had become infested with weeds, and if they should get rid of them.

The parable goes on to describe how the farm workers went to the owner and asked what happened. The Master told them the enemy had surreptitiously sown the weeds. They wanted to know if they should dig them up, or cut them down.

They were told not to cut them down, for in doing so, the wheat might also be cut down. The farm workers were told to let the wheat and the tares grow together until harvest time.

The world is the field, the seeds symbolize the word of God, and the way it takes root in the hearts of the people living in the world. In some cases, it will be shallow, in other cases, it is the imitation beaded darnel that grows and becomes tangled in with the rest.

This metaphorical description is profound to me. Partly because I grew up on a farm on the prairies, and thought the ripening wheat fields in the morning or evening sun, was one of the most beautiful scenes I had ever seen as a child. Mind you, I had not seen much of the world.

Yet there are magnitudes of dimensions and immensity, surrounding this incredible parable. It helps to understand how I became entangled and ensnared with the tares, as an unprotected child. Incredibly, there are so many layers of this parable arising from my own experiences and childhood. This includes the tangible memories, the intangible depths, the deep-rooted conflicts, and the literalistic imagery of the wheat in the fields.

Even now after living all my adult life on the west coast, in looking back, I vividly remember the gilded beauty of the ripening wheat fields, rippling in the sunlit breeze, like an ocean of gold. The harvest was a central fixation each year, with much worrying about things like drought and hail.

So here we are frolicking in the great field of life. Will people get raptured before the great tribulation? Will there be a great tribulation? Are we in the midst of it already?

No doubt there is tribulation. I have experienced a great deal of it myself. But if we refer back to the parable, it does not say the field will be overcome by tares. It says they grow up together until the harvest. Contrary to what the dispensationalists and preterists would have us believe, the truth is embodied in this parable.

Instead of having visions of getting beamed up before the second coming, we would be wiser to read and understand that no matter what – the harvest time is getting closer and closer. No one knows when Christ will return. But he did explain, once the disciples implored him for more clarity. The reapers will be angels, and they will gather up the tares first. Then they are to gather the wheat for the barn. So it sounds like it will actually be the tares, who get bundled together, and leave this world first. The time of reckoning will happen in the twinkling of an eye.

Of course we can only really judge our own hearts and what seeds we have sifted and nurtured. We cannot control what others believe in, or how they act. Nor can we even begin to understand why some of us got planted right beside the tares, with their roots dominating, curling around our spindly stems, and trying to extinguish our own rocky start.

As a kid, we spent many hours picking roots and rocks out of the fields. From the freshly ploughed rows of dirt, to the furrows on the farmer’s worried brow – we are part of the proverbial crop.

The stage is an illusion. Like the Phantom Of The Opera. Those who are in the shadows, behind the scenes, directing the media, planning and scheming as they amass greater fortunes and perceptions of ownership. They are prancing arrogantly on their fanciful world stage. They do not realize how close they are to being cropped. We are just a gust away from the wheat being separated from the chaff.

Like all illusory, false, ill-conceived and wicked plots – they become as chaff in the wind. Our seed is our lifeblood, and no matter how lofty, rich, or elitist one becomes – none of us owns the field.

Copyright Valerie J. Hayes and Quiet West (2020). Unauthorised use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this blog’s author/owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Valerie J. Hayes and Quiet West with appropriate and specific direction to the original content.