The Dragnet
• 2 min. read • grade level: 10
“The kingdom of heaven is like unto a net, that was cast into the sea, and gathered of every kind: which, when it was full, they drew to shore, and sat down, and gathered the good into vessels, but cast the bad away” (Matt. 13:47-48). Here we have the final results of the operations of God, man and Satan during the period called Christianity. As a net cast into the sea, the gospel has gone forth into all the world, with its touching appeal to men of every nation. It has achieved results which are manifest to the eyes of all. Both good and bad have been gathered in: the good fish representing those who, having humbly acknowledged their guilt and ruin, have been cleansed from their sins by the Savior’s precious blood; the bad being those who profess and call themselves Christians, but with no love for the Savior’s person and no living faith in the gospel. Although mistakes in discernment are only too possible, all those who truly belong to Christ are solemnly responsible to distinguish, in godly fear, between those who are good and those who are bad, companying with the one and avoiding the other.
The End of the Age
When the gospel net is full, it will be drawn to shore. How soon this will take place is known to none but God, though everything around us is suggestive that the end of the age is drawing near. Then will ensue the great separation, which will sever the ungodly from even the outward communion of the godly forever. According to the teaching of the parable, the fishermen’s duty was to care for the good fish. This is the present responsibility of those who in this day serve the absent Christ. The fishermen merely cast the bad fish out of the net; they were not the ones they had been fishing for. The judgment of God upon false professors will be meted out, not by human hands, but by angelic power. “So shall it be at the end of the age [not ‘world’]: the angels shall come forth, and sever the wicked from among the just, and shall cast them into the furnace of fire: there shall be wailing and gnashing of teeth” (Matt. 13:49-50). Such is the end of Christendom, as described by God Himself; not the whole world subdued to Christ by the operation of religious agencies, but eternal ruin for many who have passed among their fellows as Christians. The Savior will undoubtedly have His own, though the final discrimination by His unerring hand will reveal an appalling amount of unreality and hypocrisy in the circle of those who, in one way or another, bear His holy name.
W. W. Fereday (adapted)