“Yea, and cursed be the land forever and ever unto those workers of darkness and secret combinations, even unto destruction, except they repent before they are fully ripe.” Sometimes because we are careless or foolish or simply overwhelmed, evil seeds are sown into the soil of our heart. We could argue that the right time to act would have been before the evil seeds made their way into our fields. We could have built up a hedge and a guard tower and set a watch and been vigilant. That’s not particularly helpful when we have a field sown full of evil seeds. Obviously, when this happens, it is better to take time and effort to sift through the soil and remove the evil seeds before they can take root. This might represent more work than we are willing or able to do, so the next best time to act would be when they have begun to sprout and grow. Now, maybe it’s easy to tell the good plants from the evil, and maybe it’s not. Then if we start to see the plants bear fruit, then the time to act is when we can distinguish the good fruit from the evil fruit. However, if we wait until the fruit is fully ripened, then we have waited too long. We have now produced evil fruit. By our fruit we will be judged. “And another angel came out from the altar, which had power over fire; and cried with a loud cry to him that had the sharp sickle, saying, Thrust in thy sharp sickle, and gather the clusters of the vine of the earth; for her grapes are fully ripe. And the angel thrust in his sickle into the earth, and gathered the vine of the earth, and cast it into the great winepress of the wrath of God.” (Revelation 14:18-19). There is still time to repent when the seeds are in the ground, and when the plant is growing, and when the fruit is still not yet ripe. God can still work with us. He can still use the power of the Atonement to heal the hurts we may have caused and make all things work together for our good. Jesus Christ will drink the wine from all of our unripe grapes, but our fully ripened grapes of wrath, those we must drink ourselves. But when the grapes are fully ripe, into the winepress of the wrath of God they go. If we have not repented before our fruits are tossed into the winepress, then we must drink the bitter wine that comes out of it. I hope we can all make the choice to repent before the choice is taken from us. I hope we can go out and hack down our unripe grapes before they become fully ripened and God sends an angel to harvest them for us.
