The Great Commission -Leavening -Invocation

Most have never given any consideration to how the Lord Himself views the Great Commission, as carried out by the church during this age. Taking their marching orders from a passage in Matthew 28, the church has nearly fulfilled the prophetic revelation of Matthew 13, a very sobering picture.

While I'm a huge fan of reaching out to folks, I'm significantly less appreciative of the typical fruit of those who proudly march under that banner. Here's why. Instead of the fulfilling the Great Commission, what the church is doing with regard to missionary work and evangelism in general would better be called the Great Leavening.

Several of the parables told in the 13th chapters of both Matthew and Luke refer to what most think of as the church age. The labels used are, "kingdom of God" or the "kingdom of heaven." It must be said that there is a level of interpretation that may be identified as extending all the way back to the garden of Eden, but that's not the focus of this post. As I begin to unfold the matter, here's two of the foundational parables from Matthew.

For many years, I was unable to get real clarity about the meaning. Eventually, I was ready to accept the truth of the matter, and when the Lord began to open it to me I was appalled. If you've been unable to perceive what I'm suggesting here, I encourage you to take this before the Lord and seek His favor until the matter is resolved. This is a foundation for insight into the what is labeled the Great Commission.

The parables about the mustard tree and the leavened flour appear in a special literary construction that is useful as an aid to interpretation. A parable is told about the kingdom of heaven as a man who sowed good seed in his field. Following that, the mustard and flour parables appear. Then the Lord gives the interpretation about the field, which sandwiches the others and specially binds them all together. These three are related, offering very similar views of the church age.

Here's the parable that appears as the opening bracket.

And, here's the interpretation.

Into the field where the good seed had been sown, an enemy sows another seed, of tares. From the good seed grows wheat, which sprouts and bears grain. Now, we must observe how this describes when the crop is not far from being ready to harvest, which verse 39 reveals is the end of the age. It's then, when the wheat matures and bears grain, that the tares become evident. This, my friend, is our day, when the harvest is near and the sons of the evil one have become evident. In recent years, many of us have come to accept the reality of the literal physical sowing of the sons of the evil one in the world. In a larger context this began with Cain, the first man born of a woman, but a much more narrow view is being demanded here. The focus is on the church age, and the ekklesia itself, the called out. Are you clear on that point? The tares are in the church!

In these three parables, the kingdom of heaven is likened to activity with good seed, and mustard seed, and flour. The three are bound together structurally so let's compare them. Each is a view of the progression of this age. The church is pictured as first good and pure, then infiltrated and corrupted through the agency of the devil by means of his seed as the leavening agent. They are a corrupting agent and an expansion agent.

Alongside the good seed sown by the man into his field were sown tares. In the next parable, a man also sowed seed into his field, a mustard seed. It's the way of mustard to grow as a low spreading plant. For mustard to mature and then "become a tree" is against the nature of mustard; it's a perversion. The mustard only becomes a tree when it is fully grown, as we are told, which we may compare to when the wheat bears grain when it is mature. It is then that the tares become evident in the first parable, and comparing to that in the second, birds arrive to nest in the mustard tree's branches.

The word for "air" is the same used here for "heaven", ouranos, so we're considering the way of the kingdom of ouranos and the birds of the ouranos. Birds of the air are commonly recognized as a metaphor for demons. What we're being told is that the church that began with the 12 men of Galilea and the assembling together from house to house in Jerusalem has become an overspreading global religious entity identified with the mother of harlots, Mystery Babylon. That's a harsh statement, granted, but valid. There's a definite Babylon connection that should be noted in Daniel 4, and what's revealed about the lofty tree and the lodging birds in Ezekiel 31 should also be noted.

In the parable of the leavened flour, it began in an unleavened state, like the good seed sown in the field. Comparing to how the evil one sowed tares in the field and how the mustard was perverted, a woman took and hid leaven in the flour.

A woman added the leaven, and a woman is often the symbol of a church, of the mother of harlots. She may be identified with names like the Holy Mother Madonna, the Queen of Heaven, Isis and even Jezebel. Over time, a little leaven leavens the whole lump of dough, presenting a view akin to what the other two parables reveal.

All three parables inform us about the corruption of the church, which began in an unleavened state, pure. But, "while his men were sleeping," sons of the evil one were sown in the Lord's harvest field and doctrines of demons were spread. The tares and their doctrines have corrupted and transformed the church. The parables of the mustard tree and leavened flour both inform us about the growth of this entity, within which is the body of Christ. The mustard seed that is the smallest when planted grows, and when mature is larger than the garden plants, and even becames a tree. By nature and intent, leavening swells the dough dramatically. If you've ever made bread, you know by experience how leaven swells the dough. Left on its own, the batch eventually becomes quite a smelly mess (trust me!) that doesn't even remotely resemble the nature or appearance of the unleavened dough of its first state. That end compares to the mustard's perverted end and to the field where the tares were left alone to grow up with the wheat.

There's more to be told about the allegorical elements, but at this point, in light of these parables, let's give attention to how the church has been grown to maturity.

In a word, evangelism describes the process. For another descriptive, the church is grown through proselytizing. The institutions call it mission work or outreach. Programs are instituted like witnessing campaigns, and revivals, etc. This activity takes place under the banner of the Great Commission, does it not? Granted, the Lord ordained a work of discipling, baptizing and a practical kind of teaching in Matthew 28, but here's where we have to do some critical thinking. What we see that identifies herself as the church today is the fruit of that activity.

So, what appears today as the result is just what we've read in Matthew 13, is it not? Marketing budgets are planned to most effectively hook the "Chreasters," and incentives are doled out currying favor like politicians buying votes. Honestly, the vast majority of this activity is nothing more than bribes and vanity. Sexual predation appears to be the standard. Many accuse the Roman Catholics and Jesuits and such of seeking only to aquire wealth and enlarge their domain, exploiting anyone and anything to satisfy their lusts. Well, sure, those are easy targets. Those of the daughters of Babylon dance to the same tunes, worshiping the same gods with high places and idols and altars of more and more subtle forms!

The problem is not what derives from the genuine works of evangelism, discipling, baptizing and teaching and all ministering that is wholly sponsored by the holy spirit. The problem is that tares infiltrated the church and filled it with the doctrines of demons, growing it into a perverted and wholly corrupt entity with a vast domain that is a harlot instead of a pure virgin. This is the fruit of the Great Commission. This is the Great Leavening. So grows the mustard. Such is the Lord's harvest field, into which He sowed the good seed.

The Lord my God has maintained a remnant in the earth, and even today He labors among us to bear witness to His faithfulness in the matter. Yet, there is a tare infestation, and the spread of their doctrines into the world has occured under the banner of the Great Commission.

Let's connect some dots here, linking the leaven with the tares. Clearly identifying the tares sown by the evil one into the Lord's harvest field is necessary to clearly transpose the agency into the kingdom of heaven that is the church age.

In Matthew 13, we read in verse 25 that, "while his men were sleeping, his enemy came and sowed tares among the wheat." The Lord interprets this to us in verses 38 and 39 as, "the tares are the sons of the evil one; and the enemy who sowed them is the devil." I've given attention to teaching about this seed as the seed of the serpent, the nachash. (Who is Cain's father?) Seed is not the figurative or philisophical expression the tares would have you believe. They lie.

Y'shua reveals who some of these tares are during a lengthy engagement recorded in the 8th chapter of John.

It's evident from verses 3 and 13 that the scribes and the Pharisees are being addressed. With that in mind, observe how the same are identified with leaven.

Now, we typically understand hypocrisy to be the saying of one thing while doing another. When you confidently identify the Pharasees as tares, the hypocrisy that is the leaven of the Pharisees may be understood to go more deeply into the very nature of their heritage. Think about that while reading John 8. There is a level on which this leaven is to claim to be wheat when one is a tare. The leavening action is both the proliferation of the tares and the corrupting influence of their doctrine upon the wheat, the unleavened flour.

Transpose this from Israel to the church and you must rightly conclude that the corresponding agents in the church are the oikodespotes, the appointed authorities in the church. I'm about to document that more thoroughly, but give due consideration to just who is it that sponsors and directs this Great Leavening. Certainly, it's the Romish Papal Priesthood of the Vatican, but the collective body is more correctly identified as being no less than the sum total of everyone who loudly leads in singing that tune and marching to that beat.

Here's some more dots to connect.

What is that but the tares passionately carrying out their great commission. (Note here that it's not all about blood lineage, but there is a corruption that transforms.)

A couple verses before that, we read about a key feature that's going to equate the Pharasees to their counterparts in this present edition of the kingdom of heaven.

The tares shut off the kingdom of heaven from people. They do not themselves go in, and they do not allow those who are entering to go in. They cut off those who are entering. Some do enter, of course, but the tares function as a kind of filter, screening out those who might otherwise go in. This is the same function attributed to "the head of the house" in Matthew 24.

The head of the house would not have allowed his house to be broken into. The scribes and Pharasees did not allow those who were entering to go in. If you don't understand about the thief breaking in to His own house to steal His Bride, you won't grasp how the filter is really working.

Here's another view.

Peter the Apostle often represents the church in type. Satan is running the filter on the church. Some will be found as refined flour, well sifted and fit to be offered as a pure and holy sacrifice, who enter in as the unleavened Bride. Most, however, will be filtered out. Hey, tares is as tares does. They claim to be wheat. They claim to be preparing a Bride for the Bridegroom. It's a nice story. It brings spectacular results in the Great Leavening.

I'm not going to go into it here, but some most excellent insight may be gleaned from further study of such as Matthew 16:5-12 and 1 Corinthians 5:7-8 when you understand about this leaven and the feeding of the 5000 and put it together about the Pesah and harvest.

It's important to have a little wider view of the tares and their Great Commission. The Lucis Trust is all about that sodomite brand of evangelism. They label their popular mantrum, The Great Invocation. The following version is still the standard, just as given in 1945.

As I bring this study to conclusion, I want to share something about the biblical account of how things went before the tares hijacked the scheme, when the commands given in Matthew 28 were actually followed.

Many years ago, I was exposed to a consideration of the book of Acts as a historical record of 8 distinct expressions of legitimate growth in the church. The focus is on the increase in number that derived from an genuine work of the Lord among His people. There's a partnership of quality and quantity, of rise and expansion in this growth.

1. Acts 1:1-2:47 -- Acts 2:47: "praising God and having favor with all the people. And the Lord was adding to their number day by day those who were being saved."
2. Acts 3:1-6:7 -- Acts 6:7: "The word of God kept on spreading; and the number of the disciples continued to increase greatly in Jerusalem, and a great many of the priests were becoming obedient to the faith."
3. Acts 6:8-9:31 -- Acts 9:31: "So the church throughout all Judea and Galilee and Samaria enjoyed peace, being built up; and going on in the fear of the Lord and in the comfort of the Holy Spirit, it continued to increase."
4. Acts 9:32-11:21 -- Acts 11:21: "And the hand of the Lord was with them, and a large number who believed turned to the Lord."
5. Acts 11:22-12:24 -- Acts 12:24: "But the word of the Lord continued to grow and to be multiplied."
6. Acts 12:25-16:5 -- Acts 16:5: "So the churches were being strengthened in the faith, and were increasing in number daily."
7. Acts 16:6-19:20 -- Acts 19:20: "So the word of the Lord was growing mightily and prevailing."
8. Acts 19:21-28:31... -- Acts 28-31: "28 Therefore let it be known to you that this salvation of God has been sent to the Gentiles; they will also listen." 29 [When he had spoken these words, the Jews departed, having a great dispute among themselves.] 30 And he stayed two full years in his own rented quarters and was welcoming all who came to him, 31 preaching the kingdom of God and teaching concerning the Lord Jesus Christ with all openness, unhindered."

The end of the book leaves me with the impression that the work is ongoing and the end is yet to be written. I believe much of it is written as cryptically embedded in allegorical fashion, like I've written about the prophetic scenarios in Acts 12 and Genesis 45. The real work of the good seed that brings forth 100 fold is still seen among us today. Tares is as tares does, and good seed is as good seed does.

When Romans 11:15 is witnessed and finally understood, the damage caused by the tare version of the Great Commission will suddenly become painfully evident to those who will have been cast out and assigned a place with the hypocrites. In that day there will be great weeping and gnashing of teeth!

Read the context. Heed the warning. Repent of all complicity. "Come out of her, my people," cries the Bridegroom.