Parables and Illustrations Etcetera

One of the most fertile fields for producing “tares” instead of “wheat” in our reading of the Bible is the misuse of the parables, illustrations, and such like that are contained in it. It is so easily forgotten that, generally speaking, a parable is essentially making one point, or, at most a couple of points. To go beyond this can lead into all kinds of queer notions and it is most often a futile exercise to go looking for “truths” in the parable that were never intended by the parable or the one who used it.

By far the most dangerous aspect of a wrong usage of parable or illustration is when the parable or the illustration becomes the very thing that overturns the truth that is being used to illustrate.

One outstanding example of this is the misuse of our Lord’s words in John chapter ten, where He is speaking about how He will keep His “sheep” so that not one of them shall ever be lost. In the course of proclaiming that blessed fact, our Lord likens Himself to a shepherd holding his sheep in his arms: - “I give unto my sheep eternal life, and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand.” That ought to register quite clear and plain to any of our minds, but when those who oppose the eternal safe-keeping of the believer get their hands on it, it becomes a different story. “Oh yes,” they say, “no one can pluck them out of the shepherd’s hands, but a sheep could jump out of the shepherd’s hands; therefore, it is possible to be saved for a time, but finally lost.”

Apparently that kind of “expounding” an illustration finds acceptance with some; we all know that a sheep can jump our of a shepherd’s arms therefore ... And what has taken place is the addition of a notion to the illustration that was never intended.

We might reply, of course, that Christ would be such a Shepherd who would not permit His sheep to jump our of His arms, because he would hold them to securely and too safely for that to happen. But that, too, would be introducing something to the illustration. What we must do is simply look at the truth being stated; and the truth being stated is, “I give unto my sheep eternal life, and they shall never perish.” Then the illustration about the shepherd’s hands. But the illustration at is used in connection with that truth must never be made to overturn that truth. Seek ye first the stated truth of God, and all these lovely illustrative pictures may be added to it.

If this “rule” had been attended to in much that is termed “prophetic” ministry, the Church of Christ might have been a lot more clear in her calling today. The same holds good with regards to the Old Testament “types” and “shadows,” etc.

One parable that has received a tremendous amount of mistreatment at the hands of men is the Parable of the Prodigal Son, as it is normally called. B.B. Warfield highlights another kind of danger in dealing with parables etc., in his sermon on the Prodigal. He is warning against the idea that the parable of the Prodigal is really the gospel in all its fulness. It is not this of course, he says; “it is that part of the gospel that tells us that God receives wandering souls back to Himself.” There is no “atonement” in the parable, he reminds us; there is no “Holy Spirit” in the parable; indeed, there is “little of Christ” in the parable, he says. “Therefore, the parable of the prodigal son cannot in any way be thought of as the whole of the gospel.” And then, Warfield makes a tremendous statement full of weight and authority: - “... the exaggerated estimate which has been put upon this parable,” he says, “has borne bitter fruit in the world. Beginning with an effort to read into it all the Gospel, or at least the essence of the Gospel, it has ended up by reading out of the Gospel all that is not in the parable.

It was this very approach to the parable of the prodigal son that gave great impetus to the “social gospel,” and so, Warfield says aright, “... thus, this parable, the vehicle of a priceless message, has been Transformed into the instrument of a great wrong. The worst things are often the corruption of the best ....”

In a lighter vein, A.M. Hunter relates a story that ought to remind us that the essential part of any parable or illustration is the “heavenly meaning,” and not “the earthly story.” He tells of a certain “prodigal son” who had “wasted his substance on riotous living,” but who was then advised by an old minister to go back to his father; after all, the old ministers advice ran, “Didn’t the father in the parable kill the fatted calf for the returning son.” The “prodigal duly returned to his father, and in course of time met-up with the old minister again: - “Well, my boy,” he said, “and did your father kill the fatted calf?” “No,” came the rueful reply, “but he nearly killed the prodigal son!” Just so!