When Jesus established Christianity that went into operation on the day of Pentecost 33 C.E, he knew that it's pure teachings would be corrupted, that it would eventually become apostate.(Note: the word "apostate" comes from the Greek word apostasia meaning literally "to stand away from" or a 'standing away ' from "the truth" [see John 8:37 whereby Jesus told Pilate that he came to "bear witness to the truth"] and has the sense of "desertion, abandonment or rebellion")
At Matthew 13, Jesus gave an illustration that explained what would happen. Starting with verse 24, Jesus said: "The Kingdom of the heavens (upon which true Christianity has its foundation) may be likened to a man who sowed fine seed in his field".
Right after Jesus baptism in 29 C.E., he (as the "man who sowed fine seed") began forming what would later be called the Christian congregation.(John 1:35-51; see also Matt 16:18 in which Jesus said that he would build his "congregation" upon himself as the "rock")
Jesus continues with his illustration, saying: "While men were sleeping, his enemy came and oversowed weeds in among the wheat and left".(Matt 13:25) Who are the "men" that were eventually "sleeping" ? These are the apostles and other faithful men who took the lead in keeping the Christian congregation clean from apostasy.
The apostle Paul pointed to the body of apostles as acting as a "restraint" to the incoming apostasy, saying: "And you know what is acting as a restraint, so that he (the "man of lawlessness") will be revealed in his own due time. True, the mystery of this lawlessness (or eventual clergy class of Christendom) is already at work (trying to gain ground by putting individuals on a religious pedestal that gained a real starting foothold around 110 C.E. through Ignatius, who said that there is a difference of authority between an "overseer" or "bishop" [Greek episkopos] and "elder" [Greek presbyteros meaning "older man"], with the "bishop" having more authority, though both terms are the same position within the Christian congregation) but only until the one who is right now acting as a restraint (the apostles stood firm against the tide apostasy) is out of the way (or has died)".(2 Thess 2:6, 7)
Who first "oversowed weeds (or counterfeit Christians, Matt 13:38b) in among the wheat (or genuine Christians, Matt 13:38a)" ? Jesus said "an enemy", or Satan the Devil.(Matt 13:39) Though apostasy was at work when the apostles were alive, it was restrained by them.
However, "while men were sleeping" or after all the apostles had died (John was the last one in about 100 C.E.), apostasy began to flourish, with such ones as the "Apostolic Fathers" as well as the other "Church Fathers" each adding their own twist to the apostasy.
Jesus now says that "when the stalk (of wheat or genuine Christians) sprouted and produced fruit (or conduct befitting a true Christian such as stripping off the "old personality" and putting on the "new personality" [Col 3:9, 10] that involves witnessing to others about God's Kingdom [Matt 24:14] as well as being "no part of the world" [John 15:19] that is composed of three main elements, the religions of the world called Babylon the Great [Rev 17:5], the political arena [John 6:15] with its military [2 Cor 10:3, 4], and greedy commerce [Rev 18:11]), then the weeds also appeared".(Matt 13:26; see Gal 1:6-9 whereby in about 50 C.E., Paul is deeply concerned that the Galatian Christians were allowing ' certain ones to teach another good news ' beside what they heard from Paul, saying that these ones should be "accursed", showing that apostasy was already working its way into the congregation)
Jesus next describes how the "slaves of the master" (or loyal Christians) felt about such action, that someone wicked would purposely oversow weeds in among genuine wheat, saying: "So the slaves of the master of the house came and said to him, ' Master, did you not sow fine seed in your field ? How, then, does it have weeds ?"(Matt 13:27)
Jesus (as the "man" and "master") now says: "He said to them, ' An enemy, a man, did this'. The slaves said to him, ' Do you want us, then, to go out and collect them ?" He said, ' No, for fear that while collecting the weeds, you uproot the wheat with them. Let both grow until the harvest, and in the harvest season, I will tell the reapers: First collect the weeds (fake Christians) and bind them up; then gather the wheat (genuine Christians) into my storehouse".(Matt 13:28-30)
When the apostasy was in its infancy, it was difficult to distinguish those who were deviating from true Christianity. But over the last 2,000 years whereby we are now in the "harvest season", it has become very evident who are the "genuine article" and who are the "pretenders".
Genuine Christians are busy preaching "the good news of the Kingdom" (Matt 24:14), making disciples (Matt 28:19, 20), while being "no part of the world".(John 17:16) The apostle Paul wrote: "For with the heart one exercises faith for righteousness, but with the mouth one makes public declaration for salvation.....For "everyone who calls on the name of Jehovah will be saved".(Rom 10:10,13)
True Christians exercises faith for righteousness, but this is not enough for salvation. Witnessing to others about God's Kingdom and calling on Jehovah God in unhypocritical faith is absolute necessary.(1 Tim 1:5) The churches of Christendom have failed to do what is required, putting on a front of piousness with their religious titles such as "Father", "Reverend", "Right Reverend", Monsignor (meaning "my lord"), Pope (meaning "papa"), Cardinal, abbott, etc.
Soon, though, in this "conclusion of the system of things", is the approaching destruction of "the weeds", in which the angels will gather them up and be "burned with fire".(Matt 13:40) Only those loyal to Jehovah God will be left standing when "the dust has settled".
