A Parable Of Five Farmers
Five farmers procured a bag of seed together, and began to plant their respective fields with the seed they got from the bag. The bag of seed was represented as pure and good, tested and perfect. Each farmer agreed to plant only the seed he got from that one bag. After the harvest the five farmers came together to report the yield of their crops. One man reported that his seed had produced sixty bushels of oats. Another surprised at such a statement, stated that the seed he planted from the bag had grown corn. The third farmer was even more astounded. He declared that something was wrong with the other men, for he had planted his seed from the same bag as the others, and the result had been a crop of rice. The amazement of the others was equally as great. Wheat and barley had been the result of their planting!
Now what do you think of these farmers? Each one claimed to know what he was doing, to be an expert at planting and reaping. But how could such things be? There are four possible explanations: 1) The seed was not pure. 2) The farmers' lands were already sown to other seed which choked out the seed that came from the bag. 3) The farmers misnamed their products. 4) They got their seed from some other place than out of the bag they all professed to plant from.
That is just the way it is in religion. "The seed is the word of God." (Luke 8:11.) The farmers are the religious teachers. The fields are the places where they preach or teach. The bag of seed which they claimed to have used jointly is the Bible. The harvest represents the results of their teaching. All preachers who accept the Bible as the word of God claim to get seed from that book. But some preachers report that the seed they plant produces Anglicans; others say it makes Methodists; still others Presbyterians, Pentecostals or something else. How can these things be? Well the same four explanations must be considered.
1. Is the seed pure? "Thy word is very pure."(Ps. 119:140.) So that removes the blame from the seed. It is an indisputable fact that the preaching of the simple word always produced the same results in Bible times — Christians, and that they, wherever they were found, believed and practiced the same things. (See Acts 26:28; 11:26; 1 Peter 4:16.)
2. Were the preachers' fields already sown with other seed, which choked out the pure word? If the preachers produced something other than or more than Christians, it is evident that something other than the word of God had been planted. The Bible only makes Christians only. If men are something else than only Christians, they are such, not because of the Bible, but in spite of it. Yes, other doctrines can choke out the good seed.
3. Did the preachers misname their products? Evidently not, for the teaching of a particular denominational doctrine will produce people adhering to that denomination.
4. Did the preachers get their seed from some other source than the word of God? This is another real possibility. The Bible contains many warnings against this very thing. "If any man speak, let him speak as the oracles of God." (1 Peter 4:11.) "Speak thou the things that befit the sound doctrine." (Titus 2:1.) Preachers are not commanded to preach human creeds and opinions, man-made philosophy or any such thing but to "preach the word." (2 Tim. 4:1-2.) How can any one deny that preachers have gone to sources other than the Bible for their seed? They have gone to Martin Luther for their doctrine of "faith only"; to John Calvin for "predestination and foreordination"; and to various other sources for organization, for doctrine and for worship.
The Lord plainly said, "Every plant my heavenly Father hath not planted shall be rooted up." (Matt. 15:13.) The only plants that God has planted in the religious world are Christians. Be very sure that you are the product of God's word and of that only. His word makes nothing else.