An expression related to the separation of believers from non-believers during the end times, as in Matthew 13;
(30) Let both grow together until the harvest: and in the time of harvest I will say to the reapers, Gather ye together first the tares, and bind them in bundles to burn them: but gather the wheat into my barn.
(38) The field is the world; the good seed are the children of the kingdom; but the tares are the children of the wicked one;
(39)The enemy that sowed them is the devil; the harvest is the end of the world; and the reapers are the angels.
(40)As therefore the tares are gathered and burned in the fire; so shall it be in the end of this world.
For Rapture-deniers, the parable Jesus gave confirms that only after the Great Tribulation will the believers in Christ be raised from the earth.
For believers in the Rapture, the parable is related to events that occur after the rapture; that the Angels unleash God's Wrath upon the world, as described in Revelation 5 through 18, after the opening of the seven-sealed book, by Christ.
In Revelation 19, Christ returns to Earth, to establish his Kingdom for one thousand years;
11 And I saw heaven opened, and behold a white horse; and he that sat upon him was called Faithful and True, and in righteousness he doth judge and make war.
13 And he was clothed with a vesture dipped in blood: and his name is called The Word of God.
14 And the armies which were in heaven followed him upon white horses, clothed in fine linen, white and clean.
15 And out of his mouth goeth a sharp sword, that with it he should smite the nations: and he shall rule them with a rod of iron: and he treadeth the winepress of the fierceness and wrath of Almighty God.
19 And I saw the beast, and the kings of the earth, and their armies, gathered together to make war against him that sat on the horse, and against his army.
20 And the beast was taken, and with him the false prophet that wrought miracles before him, with which he deceived them that had received the mark of the beast, and them that worshipped his image. These both were cast alive into a lake of fire burning with brimstone.
21 And the remnant were slain with the sword of him that sat upon the horse, which sword proceeded out of his mouth: and all the fowls were filled with their flesh.
The fate of believers separated from non-believers is then explained in
And I saw thrones, and they sat upon them, and judgment was given unto them: and I saw the souls of them that were beheaded for the witness of Jesus, and for the word of God, and which had not worshipped the beast, neither his image, neither had received his mark upon their foreheads, or in their hands; and they lived and reigned with Christ a thousand years.
NOTE: The Goats and the Sheep is another reference to the separation of believers from non-believers, taken from Matthew 25:31-33
31 When the Son of man shall come in his glory, and all the holy angels with him, then shall he sit upon the throne of his glory:
32 And before him shall be gathered all nations: and he shall separate them one from another, as a shepherd divideth his sheep from the goats:
33 And he shall set the sheep on his right hand, but the goats on the left.
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