Around 31 or 32 C.E., Jesus gave several illustrations concerning the Kingdom of the heavens, as seen at Matthew 13. One of those illustrations was about Christianity being established by him, but later turning apostate or "fall way".(Greek apostasia, meaning "desertion, abandonment or rebellion") In this illustration, Jesus said that "the Kingdom of the heavens may be likened to a man who sowed fine seed in his field. While men were sleeping, his enemy came and oversowed weeds in among the wheat and left."(Matt 13:24, 25)
Jesus "sowed fine seed" in the "field" of the "world" (Matt 13:38), establishing Christianity and that went into operation on Pentecost 33 C.E. Apostate elements began to form early on, but Jesus apostles restrained them from getting a foothold. But by the end of the 1st century, all the apostles had died.
So Jesus foretold that within the one pure religion of true Christianity "weeds" or counterfeit Christians would crop up and grow among the "wheat" or genuine Christians because after the the death of the apostles (or "while men were sleeping"), "an enemy", Satan the Devil, would increase his planting them.(Matt 13:39)
At Matthew 13:26, it says that "when the stalk sprouted and produced fruit, then the weeds also appeared." Even at the beginning of Christianity, some "weeds" were already appearing. Hence, while the apostles were alive, they acted as a restraint to the coming full-blown apostasy, for the apostle Paul wrote to "let no one lead you astray in any way, because it (the day of Jehovah, 2 Thess 2:2) will not come unless the apostasy comes first and the man of lawlessness gets revealed, the son of destruction."(2 Thess 2:3)
In the illustration, Jesus now says: "So the slaves of the master (Jesus Christ) of the house came and said to him, ' Master, did you not sow fine seed in your field ? How, then, does it have weeds ? He says 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."(Matt 13:27-29)
Thus, following the death of the apostles (the last one, John died about 100 C.E.), with nothing to restrain the apostates from planting more "weeds" or counterfeit Christians, apostasy began to flourish, such as the early "Church Father" Ignatius in about 110 C.E. suggesting a dividing between those considered as "overseers" (Greek episkopos, that became the office of "bishop") as having more authority and different from the "older men" (Greek presbyterous, later known as "priests"). He began the transition towards a hierarchical arrangement, something that Cyprian (200-258 C.E.) developed int0 a monarchical seven-grade hierarchy.
How, though, did this separation come about ? Augustus Neander, in his book The History of the Christian Religion and Church, During the Three First Centuries, explains what happened: “In the second century . . . , the standing office of president of the presbyters must have been formed, to whom, inasmuch as he had especially the oversight of every thing, was the name of [e·pi´sko·pos] given, and he was thereby distinguished from the rest of the presbyters.”
The apostle Paul wrote that "now you know what is acting as a restraint (the apostles), so that he (the man of lawlessness, the clergy of Christendom) will be revealed in his own due time. True, the mystery of this lawlessness is already at work, but only until the one who is right now acting as a restraint is out of the way".(2 Thess 2:6)
Around the beginning of the 4th century C.E., a clergy class had fully arose, and of which the Catholic church developed this from the Pope all the way down to the laity or passive body of believers.(the name "catholic", meaning "universal", should be a clue as to its content, for it is combination of pagan and so-called Christianity, or "one size fits all" or "universal" religion)
McClintock and Strong’s Cyclopedia: “From the time of Cyprian [who died about 258 C.E.], the father of the hierarchical system, the distinction of clergy and laity became prominent, and very soon was universally admitted. Indeed, from the third century onward, the term clerus . . . was almost exclusively applied to the ministry to distinguish it from the laity. As the Roman hierarchy was developed, the clergy came to be not merely a distinct order . . . but also to be recognised as the only priesthood.”(1891, subtitle "Clergy", pg 386)
The apostasy that Jesus said would occur, whereby the "wheat", genuine Christians, and the "weeds" of fake Christians would grow side by side, would reach an end. Jesus said in the illustration: "Let both grow together until the harvest (from 1914 onward), and in the harvest season, I will tell the reapers (angels, Matt 13:39b): First collect the weeds and bind them in bundles to burn them up; then gather the wheat into my storehouse."(Matt 13:30)
In the near future, the "weeds" or counterfeit Christians, will be gathered together along with the rest of false religion in order to be ' bound in bundles to burn them up '. This is seen at Revelation 17, in which the "ten horns" (the political governments) under the direction of the "scarlet-colored wild beast" (the United Nations), will be motivated by Jehovah God to "make her (the "prostitute" called Babylon the Great, Rev 17:1, 5) devastated and naked, and they will eat up her flesh and completely burn her with fire."(Rev 17:16, 17)
