Lucas 13

Lucas 13

Boice writes that "of all the parables Christ told, none has produced such diametrically opposed interpretations as these two." (Parables of Jesus) And so not all commentators interpret these parables as portraying "the effective growth of the church and the authentic transforming power of Christ’s Gospel." There are several writers (Wiersbe, W E Vine, J M Boice, et al) who believe "that because wickedness will increase (2 Ti 3:12, 13) and human government will fail, bringing in anarchy and chaos and, in the end time, the universal kingdom of the beast (Rev 13:2-8), that these two parables describe the introduction of evil into the professing kingdom (E.g., see "Gotquestions" answer to What is the meaning of the Parable)." (Crawford) However other writers (these seem to be in the majority, but this is a somewhat subjective assessment) including John MacArthur, Darrell Bock, William Hendriksen, C H Spurgeon, Kent Hughes, et al, favor these two parables as portraying growth of the Kingdom of God in the positive sense. A LARGE MUSTARD PLANT And it grew (auxano) and became a tree - A mustard plant is actually not a tree, but if the conditions are favorable, it grows to the size of a small tree as depicted above. However William