The Wheat and Tares
Do Not Look Identical

Dan Corner

The Parable of the Wheat and Tares Explained

Clear proof that multitudes in our day have been religiously brainwashed and deceived is revealed by how people commonly misunderstand the parable of the wheat and tares (KJV) or wheat and weeds in modern translations. Please know the tares or weeds do not look like wheat, according to Jesus' teaching.

Because that Biblical fact severely clashes with the teaching of eternal security, few have been taught such. See the picture of tares and wheat to the left.

Eternal security teachers want us to believe that one's behavior has nothing to do with identifying who is saved and who isn't. Therefore, to them, the wheat and the tares look identical. They are glaringly wrong. Even other scriptures teach the same precious truth as the wheat and tares:

This is how we know who the children of God are and who the children of the devil are: Anyone who does not do what is right is not a child of God; nor is anyone who does not love his brother. (1 John 3:10)
We know that we have come to know him if we obey his commands. The man who says, "I know him," but does not do what he commands is a liar, and the truth is not in him. (1 John 2:3,4)
Those verses reveal the characteristics of wheat and tares or in other words, the difference between wheat and tares is shown there, among other verses. Calvinism teaches that election is secret and some have been given only an evanescent grace (or counterfeit grace) by God! The Southern Baptists, like Charles Stanley, would say the carnal Christian acts just like the lost man (adultery, drunkenness, theft, murder, etc.), but is not lost at all! He is saved, even though one can't distinguish him, behavior-wise, from a lost man because they are acting the same way! Again, they say you can't tell the difference between the wheat and tares. Hence, the parable of the wheat and tares in Mt. 13:24-30 is destructive to both fallacious concepts in eternal security, but has been twisted by unrecognized popular false teachers to mean the very opposite!

Everyone Should Know This About The Wheat and Tares

This is ABSOLUTE Conclusive Evidence of Saving Grace

Bible Wheat and Tares

Jesus told them another parable: The kingdom of heaven is like a man who sowed good seed in his field. But while everyone was sleeping, his enemy came and sowed weeds among the wheat, and went away. When the wheat sprouted and formed heads, then the weeds also appeared. The owner's servants came to him and said, "Sir, didn't you sow good seed in your field? Where then did the weeds come from?" "An enemy did this," he replied. The servants asked him, "Do you want us to go and pull them up?" "No," he answered, "because while you are pulling the weeds, you may root up the wheat with them. Let both grow together until the harvest. At that time I will tell the harvesters: First collect the weeds and tie them in bundles to be burned; then gather the wheat and bring it into my barn" (Matt. 13:24-30).

NOTE: the owner's servants clearly knew weeds (tares) were growing in the wheat field. In other words, they could distinguish the bible wheat and tares from each other (or the children of the devil from the children of God). To argue the wheat and tares could not be distinguished is clearly refuted by verse 27:

"Sir, didn't you sow good seed in your field? Where then did the weeds come from?"

So why did the owner not want his servants pulling up the weeds? His answer was:

because while you are pulling the weeds, you may root up the wheat with them.

They weren't allowed to uproot the weeds or tares, not because they couldn't identify them, but for some other reason. Now that we know what it doesn't mean from verse 27, we can assume another possibility such as the wheat and tares roots might be interwoven and therefore to uproot some weeds (which could be identified) would also uproot some wheat. Hence, the wheat and tare grow together.

Notice also that the owner never told the servants that the wheat and tares couldn't be identified from one another. He merely told them not to pull them up and stated, because while you are pulling the tares, you may root up the wheat with them. All a person has to do is examine the context and compare Scripture to Scripture to learn that this teaching has been grossly misused and multitudes are currently deceived. In the end, only the weeds will be pulled up and thrown into the fire: So, what is a tare? A tare is a lost person.

Differences Between Wheat and Tares

His disciples came to him and said, "Explain to us the parable of the weeds in the field." He answered, "The one who sowed the good seed is the Son of Man. The field is the world, and the good seed stands for the sons of the kingdom. The weeds are the sons of the evil one, and the enemy who sows them is the devil. The harvest is the end of the age, and the harvesters are angels. As the weeds are pulled up and burned in the fire, so it will be at the end of the age. The Son of Man will send out his angels, and they will weed out of his kingdom everything that causes sin and all who do evil. They will throw them into the fiery furnace, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. Then the righteous will shine like the sun in the kingdom of their Father. He who has ears, let him hear" (Matt. 13:36-43).

The truth is: there is conclusive observable evidence of saving grace (Acts 11:23). This is taught all through the Scriptures (1 John 3:10; John 13:35; etc.), yet most are unaware of this basic fact because of the way the wheat and tares teaching has been mishandled. Furthermore, Jesus taught the field is the world (Mt. 13:38)! Calvinism wrongly teaches the field is the church! See The Believer's Conditional Security: Eternal Security Refuted for much more related information and learn how to refute the grace changers, who want us to dangerously think when King David sinned with adultery and murder he remained saved.

The Pharisees Were A Specific Example of Tares

Just two chapters after Jesus gave his wheat and tare teaching, he was opposed by some Pharisees and teachers of the law (Mt. 15:1). His open rebuke to them, and the message to the crowds about them, supplement further the wheat and tares, even specifically identifying those Pharisees and teachers of the law as tares:
Then the disciples came to him and asked, "Do you know that the Pharisees were offended when they heard this?" He [Jesus] replied, "Every plant that my heavenly Father has not planted will be pulled up by the roots. Leave them; they are blind guides. If a blind man leads a blind man, both will fall into a pit." (Mat 15:12-14)
Just as the tares or weeds are pulled up in the teaching of the wheat and tares (Mt. 13:37-42), so will be those Pharisees -- the plants the heavenly Father didn't plant (Mt. 15:13). Clearly the Pharisees were not identical in appearance with the Lord's disciples, being indistinguishable as the wheat and tares parable has been distorted to teach. Again, religious lost people are shown to NOT be like the true followers of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Don't be deceived by the common wheat and tares (or wheat and weeds) misinterpretation from false teachers. The angels are responsible for separating wheat from tares which implies they can distinguish also the tares and wheat plants. The parable of the wheat and tares is very important to properly understand. Without question, one can tell the saved man (wheat) from a lost man (tare)! Finally, the wheat and tares parable isn't justification for declaring there are tares in the church (lost people), which appear identical to the pure in heart (wheat).

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