Today I wanted to break that neglect and start posting new entries again. I'm still not on a schedule for this, but I will try to post regularly again.
Recently, I saw a discussion about the 10 Virgin's Parable and a side conversation about what the Oil represents.
Most people default to the Holy Spirit on this, and then comes the arguments about how could it be the Holy Spirit if, this and that, and such and such.
I have always held that the Parable of the Ten Virgins is for the Tribulation time. Not about the rapture. The Bridesmaids are not the Bride. Simple as that.
IMHO:
The Oil is "Faith", not the Holy Spirit.
The long term theme has always been about Faith under Pressure, pressed on all sides and yet remaining faithful.
The Olive is crushed under pressure to produce the Olive Oil that is often used in Oil Lamps of the time.
The Bridesmaids all start with OIL, but you don't run out of Holy Spirit, you can however run out of Faith if it was based on the wrong thing.
The Holy Spirit is immersive and over flowing and immeasurable. Faith comes in all sizes and lack, from ones with no faith, to the size of a mustard seed, or as an enduring faith.
The key is: Faith in what? Christ? or yourself?
If Faith is the Oil, then it is a curious comment that the 5 wise tell the 5 foolish to go to town to buy more. :)
Can you buy faith?
Can you buy the Holy Spirit?
Those in the Tribulation will all start out at the same level, but only those with the extra Faith will make it to the end of their run. Only they will go to the Wedding Feast (after the Bride and Groom have already been married).
I still believe this interpretation of this parable even now.
Grace and Peace to you all through our Lord Jesus Christ, God in the flesh!
This parable is actually set in the tribulation period... and applies really to Israel and not the Church. I hadn't known that until I re-read the parable and looked a bit closer.
ReplyDeleteIsrael is pictured as 10 virgins who are awaiting the return of the bridegroom. In wedding customs in Jesus’ day, the bridegroom would return from the house of the bride in a procession leading to his own home where a wedding banquet would be enjoyed. In Jesus’ parable, He as King will return from heaven WITH HIS BRIDE, the church, in order to enter into the Millennium. The Jews in the Tribulation will be some of the invited guests privileged to share in the feast.
In reading several commentaries, I see there are mixed views... and this has created confusion over the timing of this event. First there is a marriage ceremony and then there is a wedding reception which includes a feast.
The first word, 'Then', in Matthew 25 is referring back to chapter 24, clearly places this parable in the time preceding and during the King's return to earth. Those who come to faith during the Tribulation period will be mostly from the Jewish nation of Israel as the gentile bride is already in heaven with Jesus. After the marriage ceremony, there is usually a wedding feast which can last for several hours or even days.
Matthew 25:10-12 While they were gone the bridegroom came. The Syriac and Vulgate versions say that he came with his bride. This fits the prophetic picture perfectly. The Lord Jesus will return from the wedding WITH HIS BRIDE, the church (1Th 3:13). (The wedding takes place in heaven [Eph 5:27] after the Rapture.) The faithful remnant of Tribulation saints will go in with Him to the marriage feast. The marriage feast is a fitting designation of the joy and blessing of Christ's earthly kingdom. The wise virgins went in with him to the wedding (or wedding feast, JND); and the door was closed. It was too late for anyone else to get into the kingdom. This makes me feel the "wise virgins" are those who come to faith during the Tribulation period and are waiting for Christ's return to rule and reign over earth during the 1000 year Millennium.
The kingdom begins at the 1000 year reign of Christ in the millennium after the 7-year Tribulation period ends.
It points to faith rather than being the Holy Spirit.
DeleteThis parable is about more than just Israel in the Tribulation, it is about EVERYONE, one side or the other concerning Faith, and keeping it through all that will occur.
ReplyDeleteThere will not be the luxury of Grace that we have now before it comes.
Luke 18:8
Delete"When the Son of Man comes, will He find faith on earth?"