Having grown up in a farming community in Southeast Missouri, I understand the meaning of “white fields.” Relative to spiritual harvesting, God’s saints are Scripturally referred to as wheat. When wheat is ready to be harvested it turns white. In John 4:34,35 Jesus is speaking to His apostles concerning the end-time harvest of the Father’s wheat: “My food (passion) is to do the will of Him who sent Me, and to FINISH HIS WORK”–Jesus came to finish what the Father had commissioned to be done. The question is: What was the Father’s work? I have spent the previous two weeks or so sharing with you God’s ans- wer to that question. The answer is routinely missed. The whole of professing Christendom (myself included in times past) reads John 4:34,35 and quickly moves on, believing that the Lord is referring to biological Gentiles to whom He was sending His apostles. For the Truth-seeker, the “White Fields” postings will once and for all dispel that notion and will prove beyond a doubt that the Bible is God’s message to, for and about Israel and those biological Gentiles who, by believing and obeying His Truth/Bible/Word, become part of the Commonwealth of Israel. True God-seekers will believe His words, will convert to His “pure religion,” will go through His “strait gate” and walk His “narrow way” until the end of life or the end of this age when Christ will return with salvation (Heb. 9:28). Confirmation-seekers will reject God’s Words and return to church where they will have their itching ears scratched by the Serpent of Eden who will tell them once more that they can defy God and “You shall not surely die.”

From Genesis to Revelation, the path that leads to salvation has never varied. The early travelers (Abel, Seth, Noah, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph, David, the prophets, etc.) walked the same strait and narrow path on their way to the Lord as those who have comprised the New Covenant Church since its founding on the Day of Pentecost, 31 A.D. We who look forward to spending eternity in the Kingdom of God are careful to walk in the footprints left by those spiritual giants who have shown us the Way. The Way has not changed, nor has the One Who not only walked that Way as our example, but IS the Way, the Truth and the Life. He is the God who became a man–Jesus of Nazareth. He is the same yesterday, today and forever, in Whom is no shadow of turning. He is the Lord Who changes not. The Way, the Truth and the Life have remained the same from the beginning. The God, the walk, the Way and the destination– all will remain the same until the end of this world (aion-age).

“Not so” says the Counterfeit Church–everything changed when Jesus came to earth as a man. The God, the walk, the Way and the destination changed with the establishment of the New Covenant Church. The Old “Jewish” Testament was abandoned–except for a few choice verses–and an offering of options was presented to a more enlightened church body comprised of Gentiles–God’s new chosen people. Truth? God answers.

At the beginning of His ministry Jesus said to the men He had chosen to carry on the Father’s work after His death, “Follow me and I will make you fishers of men.” They were to search out Truth-hungry men and lead them to the Father. But who were these seekers of Truth and righteousness the apostles were to fish out and lead? Who would make up the crop the apostles were commissioned to harvest as the Lord had told their ancestors they would do? Many years earlier He had said that He would send men to “fish” SCATTERED ISRAELITES (Jer. 16:16). Some 2000 years ago His “fishers of men” began doing exactly that (Mat. 4:19). Their disciples continue to “fish” men today. Those who have been “caught,” as He said in Matthew 7:13,14, are “few” while those who have rejected His “food” in favor of Satan’s offerings, are “many.”

In Matthew 9:36-38 Jesus is telling His disciples that THE HARVEST (singular) IS (present tense) PLENTIFUL, but that the LABORERS ARE (present tense) FEW. He instructed His apostles to pray to the Father to send out more laborers (fishermen). The harvest, He noted, was already AT HAND–ready to be harvested. Note it: The apostles were being sent out to harvest a crop that WAS AT THAT TIME “READY TO (BE) HARVEST(ED).” The apostles were being sent out to reap a harvest that was RIPE AND READY TO BE HARVESTED AT THAT TIME. Having spent many years in such fields, I know that there is much work to do and time to elapse before a crop is ready for harvesting–tilling, planting, etc. But notice in John 4:34-38 where Jesus cautioned His apostles not to think that it would be “four months” (from planting to harvesting) before the fields would be ready for harvesting. “Look up,” He said, for the fields were already white–ready to be harvested by them and those who would carry on their work later. He went on to tell them that one sows and another reaps, that they were about to reap a crop WHICH THEY HAD NOT SOWN. Others, He told them, had tilled the ground and sown the seed. The apostles were to reap the benefits of their labors. Several questions must be answered: Who were those “laborers” who had done the preliminary work? What what was the “seed” that had been sown? And “when” was that seed planted? To be continued. L.J.