The Doctrine of Parables
In order to develop a doctrine regarding the parables of Jesus, I led us in a systematic study that included every parable in the order they are recorded in the gospel of Mathew. The goal was to learn their meaning and purpose. The first parable was
The Parable of the Seeds in MT 13:1-23, which set the stage for all of the others, so let us review it.
In this parable a farmer sowed seed on four types of soil: a path, rocky ground, thorny ground, and fertile soil--with appropriate results. Discerning the meaning involved understanding the metaphors that were used, most of which were explained by Jesus in v.18-23: seed = GW re the KOH, understands = believes, healed = saved, ears = normal adult souls, hear = be good seed.
The apparent meaning of the parable per v. 9 is thus, “Let all accountable souls be allowed to hear and be saved.”
However, this meaning is made problematic by what Jesus told his disciples between relating the parable and then explaining its meaning (v.10-11) regarding his purpose of speaking in parables:
“The knowledge of the secrets of the KOH has been given to you (disciples), but not to them (the rest of the people).” Jesus said (in v.14-15) the people fulfilled IS 6:9-10, which says in part, “you will be ever seeing but never perceiving, for this people’s heart has become calloused… Otherwise they might… turn, and I would heal them.” In v.12 Jesus said, “Whoever has will be given more... and whoever does not have, even what they have will be taken from them."
A person might interpret what Jesus said regarding the secrets to mean that he wanted them to remain unknown except by his disciples,
but a few verses later in MT 13:34 it says that Jesus spoke in parables in order to fulfill “what was spoken through the prophet: I will open my mouth
in parables, I will utter things hidden since the creation of the world”, which implies that he wants to share the secrets with the people.
Thus, unless these statements (MT 13:10-17 & 13:34-35) can be harmonized, one must choose between two contradictory interpretations: 1. Jesus purposefully hid knowledge from some while revealing it to others according to His will, or 2. Jesus allowed souls to reject saving knowledge or to accept it and be his disciples.
Deciding which understanding to adopt necessitates considering the second parable of Jesus, The Parable of the Weeds in MT 13:24-30.
In this parable a man sowed wheat seeds in his field, but his enemy came while folks were sleeping and sowed weeds among the wheat. When it became apparent that the field was contaminated, the owner's servants asked whether they should pull up the weeds, and he told them to wait until the harvest, at which time the weeds should be burned and the wheat gathered into his barn.
Later in the privacy of a house
Jesus explained the meaning of this parable, saying that the good seed was sown by the Son of Man, the field is the world, the good seed stands for those who belong to the kingdom, the weeds are those who belong to the evil one, the enemy who sowed the bad seed is the devil, the harvest is the end of the age, and the harvesters are angels. At the end of the age the Son of Man will send angels to weed out of his kingdom everything that causes sin and everyone who does evil and throw them into the blazing furnace where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth, while the righteous will shine in the kingdom of their Father. Jesus concluded by saying, "Whoever has ears to hear, let them hear."
The mention of Judgment and the opposite destinies of happiness or hell indicates that Jesus employed parables as a means of pre-sifting souls by showing who would understand/believe or not. Some people opine that God/Jesus causes people to believe or not, but notice that in MT 13:10-15 Jesus did NOT say that he prevents people from becoming his disciples or that he causes people's hearts to be calloused, so
let us be careful not to pre-sift ourselves by projecting our own hatred onto the all-loving Christ. Understanding God/Christ to be all-loving is gained by searching the Scriptures for insight rather than implicitly accusing Jesus of hating his enemies, which borders on blasphemy against the loving Holy Spirit.
The omnilove of Jesus is indicated by such Scriptures MT 23:37, in which Jesus lamented over Jerusalem’s lack of repentance or rejection of his preaching (cf. MT 22:39, JN 3:16, RM 5:6-8, 1TM 2:3-4).
We can see that
deciding which understanding of the purpose of parables to adopt involves rejecting or accepting Scriptures teaching that God loves everyone, not only the elect or disciples of Jesus. Thus, the doctrine of parables is related to the doctrine of election as a subcategory. I choose to accept the teachings that God is omnilove or loves everyone and wants all to be saved but allows volition and thereby moral accountability to exist, so that souls may reject the Gospel and put faith in I-dolatry. I note that Jesus explained the Parable of the Seeds in plain language, and that the Parable of the Tenants passage indicated his enemies understood he was being critical of them.
Some folks cite EX 10:1 as relevant for understanding the doctrine of parables: "Then the Lord said to Moses, 'Go to Pharaoh, for I have hardened his heart and the heart of his officials so that I may perform these miraculous signs of mine among them... that you may know that I am the Lord.'"
To them I would suggest the following:
1. God's hardening does not abrogate moral free will in a way that prevents anyone from being saved, but rather by this means God tweaks the river of history so that it flows in accordance with His Plan of Salvation, causing someone to be stubborn/obstinate without condemning them to hell for that reason.
2. OT writers did not distinguish between God's intentional and permissive wills very clearly, so that IS 6:10 says, "Make the heart of this people calloused... otherwise they might... understand with their hearts and turn [repent] and be healed", whereas when Jesus cited this passage in MT 13:15 he changed the wording to "For this people's heart has become calloused... otherwise they might... understand with their hearts and turn and I would heal them."
Amen. May all be healed!
