The Harvest of the Saints

Introduction

The Harvest of the Saints is a continuation of my previous work, The High Calling of God. Its purpose is to reintroduce and examine the “harvest concept,” an end-time rapture theory that was widely accepted during the 19th century. Among those noted Christian scholars who have supported the harvest concept are Hudson Taylor, G.H. Lang, Watchman Nee, Robert Chapman, Robert Govett, G.H. Pember, and D.M. Panton.*

For more than a century, the harvest concept has been largely hidden in the shadows. This is undoubtedly due to our relaxed Christian culture—a culture that allows believers to adopt an end-time view that offers them maximum freedom while requiring minimal accountability.

“For the time will come when men will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear. They will turn their ears away from the truth and turn aside to myths” (2 Tim. 4:3–4 NIV).

While the harvest concept offers tremendous hope and encouragement to aspiring overcomers, it’s not warmly embraced by those non-overcoming saints who are caught up in the pursuit of earthly pleasures.

The Harvest of the Saints was not written to discredit other rapture viewpoints, but rather to raise the question, “What if the harvest concept truly is the biblical blueprint that provides increased insight into the specific nature and design of God’s end-time plan?” To better appreciate the potential significance of this possibility, we might consider how the captain of the Titanic would have responded had he known of the iceberg prior to the disaster. Obviously, he would have altered his course and exercised greater caution. As history sadly records, the captain of the Titanic relied excessively upon his own assumptions and the assumptions of others.  As a result, he sailed blindly into the iceberg.

So that we might avoid the possibility of a costly error in judgment, we should each ask ourselves, “Am I willing to risk a portion of my eternal inheritance on the popular assumptions of others?” While we still have the opportunity to alter our course, let’s wisely “test all things; [and trust that God will help us discern and] hold fast what is good” (1 Thess. 5:21). It would indeed be tragic if we were to ignore what might prove to be a timely gift from a loving Father who has already paid the supreme price for us.

Because of the complexity of some of the material to be presented, each chapter will build sequentially upon information provided in previous chapters. As a result, our discussion of the coming harvest, commonly referred to as the rapture, will not rest upon a limited framework of supporting Scripture, but upon a compelling body of biblical evidence that will also provide insight into other related end-time events. I believe we may very well discover that many of the details of God’s meticulously-designed end-time plan have been before our eyes all along.

* G.H. Lang, Firstfruits and Harvest, Kingsley Press, Indiana, 2012; Watchman Nee, The King and the Kingdom of Heaven, Christian Fellowship Publishers, Inc., New York, 1978;