The Revelation of Jesus Christ - The Herald

"We are now fast nearing the latter end of the harvest period, when the burning of the
tares and the gathering and treading of the fully ripe clusters of the 'vine of the earth' (the
matured fruits of the false vine--'Babylon') are due."
Another comment by the same author seems to show that it was his thought that the
gathering of the fully ripe clusters of the "vine of the earth," and the gathering or bundling
of the "tare" systems were identical; also that the treading of the great winepress of the
wrath of God refers to the very last feature of the Age:
"The treading of the winepress is the last feature of harvest work. The reaping and
gathering is all done first. So this treading of the winepress of the wrath of God into which
'the vine of the earth' (the false vine, which has misappropriated the name Christian and
Christ's Kingdom) is cast when its iniquitous clusters are fully ripe (Rev. 14:18-20),
represents the last work of this eventful 'harvest' period."
Concerning what is represented by the "vine of the earth," Mr. Elliott, in his Horae
Apocalypticae, seems to have the correct thought. His comment is as follows:
"The vine to be gathered was called 'the vine of the earth,' and designated, . . . first and
chiefly, the ecclesiastical body and church of Antichristendom; inclusive, however, of its
chief secular supporters also. So the Jewish vine signified . . . the Jewish nation as a church
with church privileges. (Isa. 5.) Like as of ancient Judah, so of Christendom it might have
been said, 'I planted thee a noble vine, wholly a right seed; how then art thou turned into
the degenerate plant of a strange vine unto Me?' For too [very] soon [after the Apostle's
day] notwithstanding all its privileges, the Christian Church and people apostatized; 'their
vine degenerating into the vine of Sodom, their grapes becoming grapes of gall, their
clusters bitter, and their wine the poison of dragons.' (Deut. 32:32.) For a greatly protracted
period the long-suffering of God was foreshown as bearing with it. But now that period
was over; its clusters were more than ripe; and its fated time of punishment, like that of
the Jewish vine long before it, fully come."
It is doubtless true that "the vine of the earth" in its widest significance describes what is
commonly misnamed Christendom (professed Christian organizations, national, religious,
and social). It seems evident from the fact that the prophecies that picture the closing
scenes of the Age are now meeting their fulfillment, that Christendom is getting ready
rapidly for the "winepress" of destruction. How clearly this is seen in the great work of
reconstruction now going on--a work made necessary and induced by the devastating
effects of the great war, which itself is a subject of prophecy. Nearly all the nations that
were engaged in the war were professedly Christian nations, and the work of
reconstruction is being engaged in by both civil and religious leaders. The principle that is
influencing the leaders in this work, with a few notable exceptions, is not Christian, but
rather that of selfishness, individual and national. It seemed during the dark days of the
World-war that the spirit of national selfishness was to a considerable extent to become
eliminated and there would come out of it something of a brotherly feeling among the