Parable of the Budding Fig Tree Parable of the Budding Fig Tree The Parable of the Budding Fig Tree is a parable told by Jesus in the New Testament, found in , , and . This parable, about the Kingdom of God, involves a fig tree, as does the equally brief parable of the barren fig tree. According to the Gospel of Luke: Luke presents this parable as eschatological in nature: like the leaves of the fig tree, the signs spoken of in the Olivet discourse of Luke 21:5-28 indicate the coming of the Kingdom of God. An alternate interpretation is that the fig tree represents
Parable of the Tares Instead, Williams believed it was God's duty to judge in the end, not man's. This parable lent further support to Williams' Biblical philosophy of a wall of separation between church and state as described in his 1644 book, "The Bloody Tenent of Persecution". John Milton, in Areopagitica (1644), calling for freedom of speech and condemning Parliament's attempt to license printing, referred to this parable and the Parable of Drawing in the Net both only found in Matthew 13: (I)t is not possible for man to sever the wheat from the tares, the good fish from the other fry; that must