It is sometimes suggested that it was only the apostles or special officers of the church who were able to exercise this ministry of laying hands upon other believers that they might be filled with the Holy Spirit. However, this is not supported by Scripture. Ananias, who laid hands for this purpose upon Saul of Tarsus in Damascus, is described merely as “a certain disciple” (Acts 9:10). There is no suggestion that he held any special ministry or office in the church. Yet he was directed by God Himself to lay hands upon the one who was destined to become the great apostle to the Gentiles.

This is in line with what Jesus says.

“And these signs will follow those who believe: In My name... they will speak with new tongues... they will lay hands on the sick, and they will recover.” (Mark 16:17-18)

Here Jesus joins closely together the two supernatural signs of speaking with new (or other) tongues and of laying hands upon the sick for healing, and He says that both these signs shall follow (or accompany) the testimony of those who believe. That is to say, the exercise of these supernatural signs is not confined to any special class of believers, such as apostles or bishops or evangelists or pastors, but is open to all believers. Just as the Scripture leaves open to all believers the ministry of laying hands upon the sick for healing, so the Scripture leaves open also to all believers the ministry of laying hands upon other believers that they may receive the Holy Spirit.

100:Td89,

This judgement upon the hypocritical servant leads us to one further important conclusion in connection with the events that will lead up to the judgement seat of Christ.

Before the true Christians are admitted to the place of Christ’s judgement seat, all hypocrites and false Christians will first be separated out from among God’s believing people and will receive the judgement due to them for their hypocrisy and falsehood.

This judgement of hypocrites is described in two parables concerning the kingdom of heaven (see Matt. 13). These two parables are the parable of the wheat and the tares and the parable of the dragnet cast into the sea.

In the first of the two parables the servants ask the owner of the field if they should attempt to pull up the tares.

“But he said, ‘No, lest while you gather up the tares you also uproot the wheat with them.’” (Matt. 13:29)

This indicates that it would have been very hard for the servants to distinguish the tares from the wheat. Obviously this would not be true if the tares represented people who had not made any profession of faith in Christ. Jesus goes on to give a full interpretation of the whole parable.

“He answered and said to them: ‘He who sows the good seed is the Son of Man. The field is the world, the good seeds are the sons of the kingdom, but the tares are the sons of the wicked one. The enemy who sowed them is the devil, the harvest is the end of the age, and the reapers are the angels. Therefore as the tares are gathered and burned in the fire, so it will be at the end of this age. The Son of Man will send out His angels, and they will gather out of His kingdom all things that offend, and those who practice lawlessness, and will cast them into the furnace of fire. There will be wailing a

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