The tares have never been born of God. They have not been born again although they may talk a great deal about being born again. We know they have not been born of God because they do not show the family likeness of God. Rather, they show the likeness of the personality of Satan. They are children of wrath. They are more of Adam than they are of God!

The wheat are the sons of the Kingdom. The tares are the sons of the wicked one. The wheat have been ordained to eternal life. The tares have been ordained to condemnation:

And when the Gentiles heard this, they were glad, and glorified the word of the Lord: and as many as were ordained to eternal life believed. (Acts 13:48)

For there are certain men crept in unawares, who were before of old ordained to this condemnation, . . . . (Jude 1:4)

Being of God's wheat is by election, by the working of God. The Lord adds to the Church daily. When men add to the church it is tares that are brought in. This is what has happened through the centuries of the Christian Era.

It is the author's opinion that many—perhaps most—of the Christians of our day have never been born of God. They are not the Lord's wheat. If they had been born of God they would show the Nature of God in themselves. They soon will be removed from the true Church.

Jesus said unto them, If God were your Father, ye would love me: for I proceeded forth and came from God; neither came I of myself, but he sent me. Why do ye not understand my speech? even because ye cannot hear my word. Ye are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own: for he is a liar, and the father of it. (John 8:42-44)

Here Jesus is informing the Jews who believed in him that Abraham was not their father; rather, Satan was their father.

On what basis? On the basis of the fact they practiced the works of Satan.

The same is true today. The church members claim to be born of God. Yet in many instances they show the works of Satan. They are the planting of Satan, not of God, although they are active members of Christian churches.

It is not what an individual believes or professes that is important. It is what he is as evidenced by what he thinks, says, and does and by the attitude he demonstrates. Religious talk is of little worth. The Kingdom of God is revealed in righteousness and power. Not everyone who calls Jesus, Lord will enter the Kingdom of Heaven.

Judgment is here—now. The removing of the tares from the wheat has begun.

To be continued.