24c for I, the Lord, have put forth my hand to exert the powers of heaven; ye can not see it now, yet a little while and ye shall see it, and know that I am, and that I will come and reign with my people. I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end. Amen.
DC 84 Intro: SECTION 84
An inspired exposition of the parable of the wheat and tares received by Joseph Smith, Jr., December 6, 1832, at Kirtland, Ohio.
1a Verily thus saith the Lord unto you, my servants, concerning the parable of the wheat and of the tares:
1b Behold, verily I say that the field was the world, and the apostles were the sowers of the seed;
1c and after they have fallen asleep, the great persecutor of the church, the apostate, the whore, even Babylon, that maketh all nations to drink of her cup, in whose hearts the enemy, even Satan, sitteth to reign;
1d behold, he soweth the tares, wherefore the tares choke the wheat and drive the church into the wilderness.
2a But, behold, in the last days, even now, while the Lord is beginning to bring forth the word, and the blade is springing up and is yet tender, behold, verily I say unto you,
2b The angels are crying unto the Lord day and night, who are ready and waiting to be sent forth to reap down the fields; but the Lord saith unto them,
2c Pluck not up the tares while the blade is yet tender (for verily your faith is weak), lest you destroy the wheat also; therefore let the wheat and tares grow together until the harvest is fully ripe;
2d then ye shall first gather out the wheat from among the tares, and after the gathering of the wheat, behold, and lo, the tares are bound in bundles, and the field remaineth to be burned.
3a Therefore, thus saith the Lord unto you, with whom the priesthood hath continued through the lineage of your fathers, for ye are lawful heirs, according to the flesh, and have been hid from the world with Christ in God:
