Hi Mike,

I have two questions in mind.

Question One: Joh 16:2  They shall put you out of the synagogues: yea, the time cometh, that whosoever killeth you will think that he doeth God service.

I know that the Apostles were put out by the Synagogue, but were they ‘killed’ by the beast that ascendeth from the bottomless pit, and were they put out by the ‘great big city’ too?

Question Two: About the parable of the wheat and tares, what I was wondering was the fact that it was said:

Mat 13:30 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.

If this is so, until the time of harvest aren’t the ‘called’ and the ‘chosen’ kept together? Then also, what about Eph 4 where we are to make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace [though this does not mean to compromise the TRUTH], there is one Body and one Spirit? It says to be patient bearing with one another, submit to one another out of reverence for Christ, etc. If there is one Body and one Spirit, and if the ‘called’ were not given ‘eyes’ to see, then aren’t we meant to have forbearance and continue to remain with them in love? If the ‘elect’ leave ‘physically’ when they are ‘killed’, then how are they part of the Body? With whom will they fellowship and function as a Body for the edification of one another? Please, please bear with me and explain….

S____

Hi S____,

Thank you for your questions.

Please read the letters entitled Who Are The Parents of The Man Healed of Blindness? and this part of the Revelation study which explains what the word ‘killed’ means in Revelation 11.

If you read those letters, then you will know what is meant by “finished their testimony” and “you shall be cast out of their synagogues.” It’s not one or the other. It is both because being ‘cast out of their synagogues’ is the same as ‘lying dead in the streets of that great city.’

You need to read that letter to understand this subject.

You ask:

Question One: Joh 16:2  They shall put you out of the synagogues: yea, the time cometh, that whosoever killeth you will think that he doeth God service.

I know that the Apostles were put out by the Synagogue but were they ‘killed’ by the beast that ascendeth from the bottomless pit and were they put out by the ‘great big city’

Yes, the apostles too, had to “keep the sayings of the prophecy of this book.” They too, were “overcome by the beast that ascended out of the bottomless pit… their dead bodies [also] laid dead in the streets of that great city where our Lord was crucified.” Here it is straight from the mouth of Christ Himself:

Luk 13:33  Nevertheless I must walk to day, and to morrow, and the day following: for it cannot be that a prophet perish out of Jerusalem .

Christ’s words are spirit. They do not pass away:

Joh 6:63  It is the spirit that quickeneth; the flesh profiteth nothing: the words that I speak unto you, they are spirit , and they are life.

Mat 24:35  Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my words shall not pass away .

If indeed Christ’s words are spirit and have spiritual significance, then the word ‘Jerusalem’ does not mean a physical city in the modern nation of Israel. The spiritual ‘city’ is spiritual Jerusalem. And the spiritual meaning in Revelation 11 is that God’s people are spiritually exactly where Sodom and Egypt are:

Rev 11:8  And their dead bodies [shall lie] in the street of the great city, which spiritually is called Sodom and Egypt, where also our Lord was crucified.

These words are addressed to God’s elect who are called out of God’s “great city which spiritually is called Sodom and Egypt.” John takes these words and this truth from Isaiah 1:

Isa 1:1  The vision of Isaiah the son of Amoz, which he saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem in the days of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, [and] Hezekiah, kings of Judah.

And what does he call Judah and Jerusalem here in Isaiah one?

Isa 1:10  Hear the word of the LORD, ye rulers of Sodom; give ear unto the law of our God, ye people of Gomorrah.

It is God’s own people who are referred to in Scripture as His spiritual Sodom and Egypt.

Just read all of John’s epistles. John was not troubled by heathen Romans any more than Paul was. All of John’s epistles, just like Paul in his epistles, express betrayal by false brothers, his own people:

3Jn 1:9  I wrote unto the church: but Diotrephes, who loveth to have the preeminence among them, receiveth us not.
3Jn 1:10  Wherefore, if I come, I will remember his deeds which he doeth, prating against us with malicious words: and not content therewith, neither doth he himself receive the brethren, and forbiddeth them that would, and casteth them out of the church.

Diotrophes may be a Greek name but for those with eyes to see, it was still “those Jews which believed on Him [Christ]” (Joh 8:31) which “cast them out of the church,” and for those with eyes to see, “Jews which believed on Him” is just as much a spiritual statement as are any others of the words of God. These are not physical Jews who are casting out God’s elect. These are those who say that they are spiritual Jews but are not spiritual Jews:

Rev 2:9  I know thy works, and tribulation, and poverty, (but thou art rich) and [I know] the blasphemy of them which say they are Jews, and are not, but are the synagogue of Satan.
Rev 3:9  Behold, I will make them of the synagogue of Satan, which say they are Jews, and are not , but do lie; behold, I will make them to come and worship before thy feet, and to know that I have loved thee.

Rom 2:28  For he is not a Jew, which is one outwardly; neither [is that] circumcision, which is outward in the flesh:
Rom 2:29  But he is a Jew, which is one inwardly ; and circumcision [is that] of the heart, in the spirit, [and] not in the letter; whose praise [is] not of men, but of God.

John and Paul are both telling us who had John exiled to Patmos “for the Word of God and for the testimony of Jesus Christ:”

Rev 1:9  I John, who also am your brother, and companion in tribulation, and in the kingdom and patience of Jesus Christ, was in the isle that is called Patmos, for the word of God, and for the testimony of Jesus Christ.

was the spirit which was in Diotrophese and friends which had secured John’s exile to Patmos. It was not physical Jews, and neither was it the secular government of Rome. It was “false prophets gone out into the [church] world.”

The two witnesses are said to “kill those who would hurt them.” But how is this “killing” accomplished? Do God’s witnesses physically murder anyone?

Rev 11:5  And if any man will hurt them, fire proceedeth out of their mouth, and devoureth their enemies: and if any man will hurt them, he must in this manner be killed.

Are God’s witnesses physical murderers? It is truly a sad commentary when men who are considered by many millions of Christians to be great men of God, take the signs and symbols of this book and portray them as literal. Beware of those who tell you that any word of the book of Revelation is literal. Such is the case in the ‘Left Behind’ movie. That film portrays the words ‘two witness’ as two literal men spitting literal fire from their literal mouths, literally killing the soldiers who are attacking them. It is a sad testimony on how very carnally minded are the men who made this film as well as the millions who watch it thinking that this film in any way portrays the message of this book. It does no such thing. This film hides the fact that “that great city” is not secular soldiers, but God’s own people:

The scriptures tell us that the fire is God’s Words:

Jer 5:14  Wherefore thus saith the LORD God of hosts, Because ye speak this word, behold, I will make my words in thy mouth fire, and this people wood , and it shall devour them.

It is God’s Word which kills those who have always withstood God’s witnesses. Whenever truth meets error the error is slain on the spot. Lies are dispelled by the Truth. All liars will have their part in the lake of fire…”

Rev 21:8  But the fearful, and unbelieving, and the abominable, and murderers, and whoremongers, and sorcerers, and idolaters, and all liars, shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone: which is the second death.

So God’s witnesses have been slaying ‘those who would hurt them’ with the ‘fire’ of God’s word for the past 2,000 years. And for the past two thousand years “they who dwell on the earth” have been ‘killing’ God’s witnesses and leaving their dead bodies in the streets of that great city wherein our Lord was crucified. Remember “it is not possible that a prophet dies outside Jerusalem… that great city wherein our Lord was crucified.”

Here is the verse about which you are inquiring:

Rev 11:5  And if any man will hurt them [God’s witnesses], fire proceedeth out of their mouth, and devoureth their enemies: and if any man will hurt them, he must in this manner be killed.

God’s witnesses sound invincible, and yet just read on down to verse seven:

Rev 11:6  These [two witnesses] have power to shut heaven, that it rain not in the days of their prophecy: and have power over waters to turn them to blood, and to smite the earth with all plagues, as often as they will.
Rev 11:7  And when they shall have finished their testimony [against all the lies and the liars in that great city], the beast that ascendeth out of the bottomless pit shall make war against them, and shall overcome them, and kill them.

We must never lose sight of the fact that this is a book of symbols. No one is literally killed on either side. But “the beast that ascends out of the bottomless pit” considers God’s elect to be just as dead as God’s elect considers the beast to be:

“And if any man will hurt them, he must in this manner be killed” is a spiritual statement. God’s witnesses are not guilty of murder

But this verse is also true:

“And when they shall have finished their testimony, the beast that ascendeth out of the bottomless pit shall make war against them, and shall overcome them, and kill them.”

The first time I heard of anyone even entertaining the thought of universal salvation, I consigned that man to the same spiritual grave to which I had already consigned all the Jehovah’s Witnesses. They were all “dead in the streets” of my own ‘great city’ wherein I was unknowingly crucifying my Lord. I was even then living out these verses within my ‘heavens.’

Here is your second question:

“Question Two: About the parable of the wheat and tares what I was wondering was the fact that it was said:

Mat 13:30 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.

If this is so, until the time of harvest, aren’t the ‘called’ and the ‘chosen’ kept together?”

You are taking half of this parable and applying it to ‘someone out there somewhere.’ In doing this you are saying ‘half of this parable is not for me. Half of this parable is for the tares, and I am not now nor have I ever been a tare.’

Whenever we do this to God’s Word, we are telling Christ that when He said that we must “live by every word which proceedeth out of the mouth of God,” that He has forgotten that we are His elect and most of His word is not for us.

You see most of God’s Word chronicles the rebellions of God’s creatures and the curses which those rebellions bring. Just look at any of the chapters of the Old Testament where God’s blessings for obedience are enumerated and contrasted with the curses which will befall God’s people if His laws are not followed. Invariably the rebellions and the curses take up much more space than do the blessings. What we fail to see is that before God ever told Adam that he was not to eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, God had already prepared a sacrifice for Adam and Eve’s sin of eating of that very tree. What we fail to see is that the words “in the day that you eat thereof you shall surely die” had already “proceeded out of the mouth of God” and had to be ‘lived by man.’ That is why the sacrifice had already been made. In the book of Revelation, we are actually told that as far as God is concerned, He knew in advance exactly what Adam would do and had already slain the necessary sacrifice.

Rev 13:8  And all that dwell upon the earth shall worship him, whose names are not written in the book of life of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world.

Now does Rev 13:8 say that those whose names are written in the “book of life of the Lamb” would not worship the beast? Is that what we are told? Absolutely not. The verse immediately preceding  tells us that the beast is given power over all men including the saints. We are even told specifically that the beast “overcomes the saints:”

Rev 13:7  And it was given unto him to make war with the saints, and to overcome them: and power was given him over all kindreds, and tongues, and nations.

But at what stage of the saint’s life is he “overcome” by the beast? At what stage of the lives of any of the apostles were they overcome of the beast? They all were overcome of the beast at one time, but when does this happen? You cannot continue to be ‘overcome of the beast’ and be considered an “overcomer” at the same time can you? Well, can you? The natural man will tell you that you believe in contradictions if you say that you can be overcome of the beast and yet be an overcomer at the same time.

But what do the scriptures teach? Can we be dead and at the same time live? Can we be blind and at the same time see? Can we lose our souls and at the same time find them. Can we be poor and at the same time possess all things?

The answer to every one of those questions is yes. Yes, you can, and yes, you must. But this can be true only in the spirit. And it is in the spirit that the symbolic two witnesses kill those that would hurt them while at the same time being overcome and killed by the beast which ascends up out of the bottomless pit. It is in spirit that the bodies of God’s witnesses have been lying in the streets of that great city for the past two thousand years. Who exactly are those on each side of this struggle? Or maybe we should be asking who exactly is it who is on both sides of this struggle? Maybe we should be asking ourselves ‘when have I slain God’s witnesses? When have I not suffered their dead bodies to be put into graves?’ Maybe we should be asking ‘where have I lived these words which have proceeded from the mouth of God?’

Adam didn’t know in advance, any more that you or I can know, exactly what will be our response to any given situation. God does not take us into His confidence to that degree.

Pro 20:24  Man’s goings are of the LORD; how can a man then understand his own way?

But what God does is He lets us know what is His overall plan and purpose for mankind. What God has done is to tell us plainly that he will, in the end, bring all men to Himself:

1Ti 4:10  For therefore we both labour and suffer reproach, because we trust in the living God, who is the Saviour of all men, specially of those that believe.

Christ is not the savior of believers exclusively. He is the savior of “all men.” Again we are told plainly:

1Jn 2:2  And he is the propitiation for our sins: and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world.

He tells us that He is working all things after the counsel of His own will:

Eph 1:10  That in the dispensation of the fulness of times he might gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven, and which are on earth; [even] in him:
Eph 1:11  In whom also we have obtained an inheritance, being predestinated according to the purpose of him who worketh all things after the counsel of his own will:

He tells us we are his sovereign work, and that in the end “whether we wake or sleep, we will live together with Him” (1Th 5:9-10). In the meantime we must “live by every word which proceedeth out of the mouth of God.” As long as we keep putting those words off onto someone else, we will never come to see ourselves as “chief of sinners.”

1Ti 1:15  This is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners; of whom I am chief.

We have no reason to think that the apostle Paul had killed as many Christians as King Herod had the children in and around Bethlehem after the birth of Jesus. Paul even tells us that in the righteousness which was in the law he was blameless:

Phi 3:6  Concerning zeal, persecuting the church; touching the righteousness which is in the law, blameless.

Yet Paul tells us “Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners; of whom I am chief. ” Paul would never have felt this way had he taken all the words he wrote concerning these sinners and done with those words what we do with those words. We read about the Pharisee looking down on the publican, and we identify with the publican. We read about the Pharisees dragging a trembling harlot before Christ to be stoned according to the law, and we identify with that frightened and guilty harlot. We read of the elder son, the brother of the prodigal son and we identify with the undeserving prodigal. We read of the lost sheep, and we identify with that sheep instead of the ninety and nine who never went astray. What we are doing is saying that we do not live by every word of God, when in reality there is not one of us who has not been the proud Pharisee looking down on the publican; the condemning Pharisees wanting to stone the adulterous woman; the jealous older brother despising the prodigal son; and one of the ninety and nine sheep who think they “need no repentance.” That is what we are doing when we read Christ’s parables and separate ourselves from the parts of those parables which receive His judgments. We read of the tares, the seed falling in stony ground or among the briars and thorns, or the goats who are placed on His left hand to be sent off into aionian judgment and we say to ourselves “I thank thee, that I am not as other men are, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even as this publican. “

We think that Christ told us about this Pharisee and publican so we would never make the mistake of doing what that Pharisee did, when in reality the reason Christ told us of this parable is the same reason that He told Adam that if he ate of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, he would die. Christ did not tell Adam of the consequences to keep Adam from suffering those consequences. He told Adam of those consequences so He could judge Adam for his disobedience when it inevitably occurred. And so it is with “every word which proceedeth out of the mouth of God. And that is especially true of Christ’s parables. The tares are not the teachers of Babylon ‘out there somewhere.’ The tares are the doctrines of Babylon within each of us. Those doctrines grow within Mike Vinson right along with the truths I learn. But as I am being crushed to powder in the fiery trials of judgment upon the ungodliness and unrighteousness within me, the tares and the goats and Pharisees and elder son and ninety and nine sheep self-righteous sheep who need no repentance are being burned out of Mike Vinson as he “lives by every word which proceedeth out of the mouth of God:

Mat 13:30  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.

“The time of harvest” is the day of judgment in each of us. And when is that day? When will the tares be gathered first and cast into the fire? When will the goats be separated and sent into eonian fire?  When do we come to see that as we have done it unto the least of these our brothers we have done it unto Christ?

1Pe 4:17  For the time is come that judgment must begin at the house of God: and if it first begin at us, what shall the end be of them that obey not the gospel of God?

And what is our judgment likened to?:

1Pe 4:12  Beloved, think it not strange concerning the fiery trial which is to try you, as though some strange thing happened unto you:

Now I want to demonstrate for you that this inward approach to God’s Word is how you must come to see God’s Word if you ever hope to understand all of the parables of Christ and the symbols in those parables and in the book of Revelation. Let’s look at what Christ tells us of this very parable of the tares about which you ask:

Mat 13:24  Another parable put he forth unto them, saying, The kingdom of heaven is likened unto a man which sowed good seed in his field:

This parable, as do all of Christ’s parables, has to do with “the kingdom of God.” Is this very first verse all that the kingdom of heaven is likened unto?  No, It is not! We are plainly told that in every great house are vessels of honor and vessels of dishonor.

2Ti 2:20  But in a great house there are not only vessels of gold and of silver, but also of wood and of earth; and some to honour, and some to dishonour.

Paul makes this statement in direct reference to us being God’s house.

Eph 2:22  In whom ye also are builded together for an habitation of God through the Spirit.

1Pe 2:5  Ye also, as lively stones, are built up a spiritual house, an holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices, acceptable to God by Jesus Christ.

In God’s spiritual house are vessels of honor and of dishonor. And in God’s field there are both wheat and tares. In God’s kingdom “within you” are all the things mentioned in these parables about “the kingdom of God is likened unto…” So we must read with this understanding:

Mat 13:25  But while men slept, his enemy came and sowed tares among the wheat, and went his way.
Mat 13:26  But when the blade was sprung up, and brought forth fruit, then appeared the tares also.

It is only when we begin to cry out to God for deliverance from our sins, it is only when we begin to form fruit, that we begin to realize that all ten of the virgins slept. And “while men slept” the Adversary came and mixed his lies in with the truth we are at that time beginning to see.

Mat 13:27  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?
Mat 13:28  He said unto them, An enemy hath done this. The servants said unto him, Wilt thou then that we go and gather them up?
Mat 13:29  But he said, Nay; lest while ye gather up the tares, ye root up also the wheat with them.

What is the ‘wheat?’

Mat 13:19  When any one heareth the word of the kingdom [within you], and understandeth it not, then cometh the wicked one, and catcheth away that which was sown in his heart. This is he which received seed by the way side.

The ‘tares’ are the “briers and thorns” of Hebrews six and Ezekiel two:

Heb 6:7  For the earth which drinketh in the rain that cometh oft upon it, and bringeth forth herbs meet for them by whom it is dressed, receiveth blessing from God:
Heb 6:8  But that which beareth thorns and briers is rejected, and is nigh unto cursing; whose end is to be burned.

Eze 2:6  And thou, son of man, be not afraid of them, neither be afraid of their words, though briers and thorns be with thee, and thou dost dwell among scorpions: be not afraid of their words, nor be dismayed at their looks, though they be a rebellious house.

“Their words” are not out there in the churches of the world. Their words are in me until they are gathered together in bundles and burned in the time of harvest in the kingdom of God within Mike Vinson, and so it is with each of us.

Mat 13:30  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.

2Ti 2:19  Nevertheless the foundation of God standeth sure, having this seal, The Lord knoweth them that are his. And, Let every one that nameth the name of Christ depart from iniquity.
2Ti 2:20  But in a great house there are not only vessels of gold and of silver, but also of wood and of earth; and some to honour, and some to dishonour.
2Ti 2:21  If a man therefore purge himself from these, he shall be a vessel unto honour, sanctified, and meet for the master’s use, [and] prepared unto every good work.

1Pe 2:5  Ye also, as lively stones, are built up a spiritual house, an holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices, acceptable to God by Jesus Christ.

Are we, as your question suggests, to allow Babylon into our spiritual house, so we can have fellowship with them and be their friends and hopefully have some kind of influence upon them? Is this what is meant by “keeping the unity of the spirit in the bond of peace?” What say the scriptures?

2Jn 1:10  If there come any unto you, and bring not this doctrine, receive him not into your [spiritual] house, neither bid him God speed:

This is not an admonition to separate yourself from anyone who does not see eye to eye with you on every word in the word of God. But it is an very plain statement that you are not to be spiritually fellowshipping with those you know to be “enemies of the cross of Christ.” Is it not interesting how Paul words that? He does not call them ‘enemies of Christ.’ He calls them “enemies of the cross of Christ.” What that ‘cross’ does is separate us from our former spiritual friends. It does not bring peace; it brings a red horse to whom it is given to take away peace from the earth in us. It is the cross which turns father against son and son against father, etc.

Do you love your friends? Do you want to help them see the truths you see? Then take up your cross and endure the hardships that you are promised will come to separate you from those friends and take away your peace you now enjoy being accepted by Joseph’s brothers. Only if you are willing to do this will you be given the blessing you want so badly to share with your friends:

Gen 49:26  The blessings of thy father have prevailed above the blessings of my progenitors unto the utmost bound of the everlasting hills: they shall be on the head of Joseph, and on the crown of the head of him that was separate from his brethren.

We are told:

Rev 18:4  And I heard another voice from heaven, saying, Come out of her, my people , that ye be not partakers of her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues.
Rev 18:5  For her sins have reached unto heaven, and God hath remembered her iniquities.

Babylon’s sins are in the heavens of our minds and hearts. While we are told to come out of her, we are also shown that the sad truth is that our ‘old man’ still full of Babylon is the first one who is ready to leave Babylon. Even the flesh can see the corruption of Babylon and wants to come out. But our old man is not willing to go all the way to Canaan, to be baptized by crossing the river and going to a land ‘I will show you’. So we all at first follow our flesh when we leave Babylon. In other words we come out of Babylon, but we bring Babylon with us because we believe on Christ, but we “do not the things which He says.” He tells us to go into the land of Canaan, but we stay on the Babylon side of the Euphrates and “dwell in Haran.”

Gen 11:31  And Terah took Abram his son, and Lot the son of Haran his son’s son, and Sarai his daughter in law, his son Abram’s wife; and they went forth with them from Ur of the Chaldees, to go into the land of Canaan; and they came unto Haran, and dwelt there.

We must “live by every word which proceeds from the mouth of God,” so it is our “old man” which first wants to follow God’s instructions. But as we all prove, we want to serve God our way. We go only half way to Canaan, and there we stop and “dwell in Haran.”

But God had not spoken to our old man, so he dies in Haran, and only after his death do we finally cross the river and go straight to Canaan.

And the days of Terah were two hundred and five years: and Terah died in Haran.

It was Abram in us all who was commissioned to “come out of her my people.”

Gen 12:1  Now the LORD had said unto Abram, Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from thy father’s house, unto a land that I will shew thee:
Gen 12:2  And I will make of thee a great nation, and I will bless thee, and make thy name great; and thou shalt be a blessing:
Gen 12:3  And I will bless them that bless thee, and curse him that curseth thee: and in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed.

We are “given great and precious promises” right up front and the hope that through us will be salvation for all of our loved ones. So after the death of “the old man”, we leave Haran and come into Canaan. But we are not yet purged of our own flesh; we still have our old “father’s house” traveling with us, and it will take a dispute over the sheep to get us away from that part of our flesh which would have us to “cast our tent toward Sodom.”

Gen 12:4  So Abram departed, as the LORD had spoken unto him; and Lot went with him: and Abram [was] seventy and five years old when he departed out of Haran.

Lot is still with us for many years after we leave Babylon behind:

Gen 12:5  And Abram took Sarai his wife, and Lot his brother’s son, and all their substance that they had gathered, and the souls that they had gotten in Haran; and they went forth to go into the land of Canaan; and into the land of Canaan they came.

The old man has died and there is nothing now keeping us from going into Canaan.

“And they went forth to go into the land of Canaan; and into the land of Canaan they came.

But Lot is said to be with us all along for many years. Abram walks with God,  but Lot walks with Abram. “Lot went with him:”

Gen 13:1  And Abram went up out of Egypt, he, and his wife, and all that he had, and Lot with him, into the south.

We go into Egypt and deny our wife while Lot is yet with us. And Lot comes with us out of Egypt:

Gen 13:5  And Lot also, which went with Abram, had flocks, and herds, and tents.

It is the arguments of the herdsmen of Lot and Abram over the flocks and the herds which brings about Abram’s final separation from the things of the flesh typified by Lot. Lot is Abram’s last attachment to “his father’s house” which he had been told to leave:

Gen 13:7  And there was a strife between the herdmen of Abram’s cattle and the herdmen of Lot’s cattle: and the Canaanite and the Perizzite dwelled then in the land.

Gen 12:1  Now the LORD had said unto Abram, Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from thy father’s house, unto a land that I will shew thee:

“Abraham’s father’s house” is in Babylon. Even after separating from Lot, Abraham denies his wife again, telling us that the flesh is still there to contend with until the very end. We will be brought out of Babylon. We will come to see that we must not bid Babylon into our spiritual house. But don’t even expect this to happen overnight. Coming out of Babylon is a process that continues for many years. We will be fighting against the doctrines of Babylon until the day we die, and in that sense we Are, Were and Will Be coming out of Babylon for the rest of our lives.

I hope this has answered your questions about what is being said concerning the tares growing with the wheat. It certainly is not a justification for continuing to live with the cancer of tolerance on the body of Christ which has produced the diseased body we call “historical orthodox Christianity.” Here is the answer to your question:

Rev 18:4  And I heard another voice from heaven, saying, Come out of her, my people, that ye be not partakers of her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues.

Gen 12:1  Now the LORD had said unto Abram, Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from thy father’s house, unto a land that I will shew thee:
Gen 12:2  And I will make of thee a great nation, and I will bless thee, and make thy name great; and thou shalt be a blessing:

And finally this:

2Jn 1:10  If there come any unto you, and bring not this doctrine, receive him not into your [spiritual] house, neither bid him God speed:

Read the letter entitled What Is The World? We simply cannot be a friend of the world and the friend of God:

Jas 4:4  Ye adulterers and adulteresses, know ye not that the friendship of the world is enmity with God? whosoever therefore will be a friend of the world is the enemy of God.

Ours is not an easy calling. We are warned to count the cost before we start to build our spiritual house. But we are also given “great and precious promises”. It is all “Christ in you the hope of glory”, nevertheless here is just one of those promises which should encourage you strive to do what is necessary to be in that “blessed and holy first resurrection:”

Rom 11:31  Even so have these also now not believed, that through your mercy they also may obtain mercy.

Your brother in Christ,

Mike