Are You Ready
for Jesus to Come – Part
3 – The Ten Virgins
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The Parable of the
Ten Virgins
“At that time
the kingdom of Heaven will be
like ten virgins who took their
lamps and went out to meet the
bridegroom. Five of them were
foolish and five were wise. The
foolish ones took their lamps but
did not take any oil with them.
The wise, however, took oil in
jars along with their
lamps.” (Matthew
25:1-4)
Matthew 24 and 25
are one conversation. Jesus
told three parables to amplify
the warnings given in Matthew
24. The first parable in
Matthew 25 concerns a prophetic
event occurring about four years
before Jesus appears which will
have a disastrous effect on
Christianity. The ten
virgins represent elements of
Christianity including Catholics,
Protestants and their
variations. Unlike the
other religious systems on Earth,
Jesus gave Christians the
commission to tell the world of
Christ’s return.
Jesus began the
parable of the ten virgins
saying, “At that
time the kingdom of Heaven.”
The phrase, “At that
time” refers to the comment
He made earlier, a time of
“great distress, unequaled
since the beginning of the
world.” (Matthew
24:21) The phrase,
“the kingdom of Heaven”
means the corporate body of
Christ. (Colossians 1:18)
When these two phrases are
combined, this parable applies to
Christians living on Earth when
the Second Comingbegins.
The Second Coming is not a one
day event; instead, it is a
process that takes 1,335 days.
Even though
weddings today are somewhat
different than they were in Bible
times, enough information is
available in the parable about
weddings in Christ’s day to
understand the story. Jesus
said ten virgins were sent out
with their lamps. Because
the wise virgins anticipated a
lengthy wait, they took extra oil
in jars along with them. In
Bible times, bridesmaids with
lamps were often sent to wait at
designated locations along the
route which the bridegroom would
take. The bridesmaids could
then relay a signal to the bride
that the bridegroom and his party
were near.
“The
bridegroom was a long time in
coming, and they all became
drowsy and fell asleep. At
midnight the cry rang out:
‘Here’s the bridegroom!
Come out to meet him!’
Then all the
virgins woke up and trimmed their
lamps. The foolish ones said to
the wise, ‘Give us some of
your oil; our lamps are going
out.’ ‘No,’ they
replied, ‘there may not be
enough for both us and you.
Instead, go to those who sell oil
and buy some for
yourselves.’ ” (Matthew
25:5-9, italics mine)
The bridegroom
delayed his appearance and all of
the virgins went to sleep. If you
want to test the premise that
Christians are sleeping, confront
a few of them with the timely
information given in Daniel and
Revelation and notice the yawn
that follows. Generally
speaking, many Christians are
fatally satisfied with what they
believe to be truth and this
satisfaction means that “new
light” from the prophecies
is treated as “no
light.” Therefore, Day
1 of the Great Tribulation will
catch the body of Christ by
surprise.
Like a thief, Day
1 will arrive at a time when the
whole world will be focused on
World War III. There will
be a nuclear exchange and people
will be praying for peace and
safety. Then, God will send
peals of intimidating thunder to
roll back and forth through the
Earth, and the sky will become a
mixture of heavy clouds and
blinding sheets of lightning
flashing from east to west.
People will hear loud, booming
voices coming out of the ground
announcing God’s wrath is
coming. Finally, God will send a
global earthquake. The whole
world will tremble;
bridges will fall, houses and
overpasses will collapse,
skyscrapers will crumble, and the
power grids will be pulled
apart. Transportation will
be very difficult and electricity
sparse. The world will find
itself in a state of “lock
down” on Day 1.
Jesus will get the
attention of the world with power
that dwarfs nuclear bombs.
Then, to answer the questions
that surface in every mind, He
will send 144,000
“groomsmen” to tell the
virgins and the rest of the world
that His return has begun.
I like to compare the Second
Coming to the Rose Bowl
parade. The Great Day of
the Lord will consist of a parade
of events taking 1,335 days to
complete. Jesus Himself,
the Grand Marshal of the parade,
will appear at the end of the
parade, sitting at the right hand
of the Father. Jesus is not
returning to Earth for a pleasant
visit; He is returning to
destroy the wicked and rescue His
saints. When Day 1 of the
Second Coming begins, the
“groomsmen” will
announce “Here’s
the bridegroom! Come out to
meet Him” for 1,260
days.
The physical
phenomena displayed on Day 1 will
frighten everyone, but that
display of power is nothing
compared to what is coming.
A few days after Day 1, people
will hear a loud and long trumpet
blast around the world. (I
am speculating that there will be
an audible trumpet sound before
each of the seven trumpet
events. Time will
tell.) Jesus will send
fiery meteors from space to zoom
through the atmosphere at
supersonic speeds which start
fires that burn a third of the
Earth. Christians will
remember that Sodom and Gomorrah
suffered a similar fate. A
few days later, there will be
another long and loud trumpet
blast. Suddenly, an
asteroid will impact an ocean and
the resulting tsunami (possibly a
thousand feet high) will destroy
thousands of coastal cities in
minutes. Christians will
remember the world suffered a
similar fate in Noah’s
day. Then, a few days
later, after another blaring
trumpet sounds, a second asteroid
will fall from the sky and impact
a wicked continent.
According to Revelation 8, this
impact will cause the drinking
water in the springs and rivers
to become poisonous, and millions
of people will die from drinking
poisonous water. A few
Christians will remember God did
the same thing to Israel.
(Jeremiah 9:15,16)
Yet, the drama is
not over. A few days after
the second asteroid impact, and
another trumpet blast, a chain of
mighty volcanic eruptions will
fill the sky with millions of
tons of ash and debris. The
jet stream will circulate the
soot around the middle third of
Earth resulting in dense darkness
for several months! Some
Christians will remember God did
something similar to Egypt, just
before the Exodus. (Exodus
10:21,22)
The horror of
these deadly trumpet-judgments
will be indescribable.
According to Revelation 6:8,
about two billion people
will perish. Five billion
fearful survivors will huddle in
darkness and a great hush will
fall over the whole world.
Everyone will be desperate and
anxious, worried about the
arrival of the next
trumpet-judgment.
Jesus has to
silence the Earth so people will
listen to what He has to
say. He will then speak
through the lips of His servants,
the 144,000. Everyone will
hear the testimony of Jesus and
as they do, a painful revelation
will unfold. Christianity
(the virgins) will wake up and
many will discover that they are
spiritually bankrupt. The
foolish virgins will discover
their traditions and religious
views worthless since they
neglected genuine Bible study;
especially the prophecies that
indicate the time and manner of
Christ’s return.
Millions of Christians will
wonder why there
was no rapture! Others will
wonder how their historical
interpretation of prophecy could
be totally wrong. Christian
clergy and other religious
leaders, previously held in high
esteem, will have their ignorance
revealed. The people
following religious leaders will
find themselves at the center of
the physical and spiritual chaos
caused by God’s wrath.
Initially they will be
despondent, but their despair
will rapidly turn to anger.
According to the
parable, the wise virgins said to
the foolish when they begged for
oil, “go to those who sell
oil and buy some for
yourselves.” The oil
represents the ministry of the
Holy Spirit and the merchants are
Christian clergy. (Ephesians
4:11,12) Jesus created this
parable to make a profound
point: A born-again person
cannot transfer his sanctifying
experience in the Lord to another
person. Perseverance,
patience in suffering, and growth
in the knowledge of the ways of
the Lord is incremental.
Furthermore, each person’s
growth into the fullness of Jesus
is unique, made possible each
day by the ministry
(the energy) of the Holy Spirit
(the oil). The experience
gained through the Holy Sprit is
not transferrable. Sadly,
when Day 1 occurs, the foolish
discover their foolishness and
will be unable to participate in
the wedding banquet.
“But while
they [the foolish virgins] were
on their way to buy the oil, the
bridegroom arrived. The virgins
who were ready went in with him
to the wedding banquet. And the
door was shut. Later the others
also came. ‘Sir! Sir!’
they said. ‘Open the door
for us!’ But he replied,
‘I tell you the truth, I
don’t know you.’
‘Therefore keep watch,
because you do not know the day
or the hour.’ ” (Matthew
25:10-13, insertion mine)
I have a thought
question for your
consideration: Suppose
Jesus will offer salvation to the
people of the world during the
first 1,260 days of the Great
Tribulation. If so, why
can’t the foolish get the
oil and enter the wedding banquet
within that length of time?
Jesus indicates that when the
foolish discover their true
condition, it will prove to be
too late for them to
repent. What keeps the
foolish virgins from getting the
oil?
Suppose the 42
months of persecution mentioned
in Revelation 13:5 begins on Day
64 of the 1,260 days.
Suppose the penalties and
punishments for worshiping the
Creator on His seventh day
Sabbath (first angel’s
message) are very painful and
only those Christians who
understand what faith and
suffering for Christ is all about
will be able to pass the test and
obey Jesus. If many
Christians are hostile to the
idea of worshiping Jesus on
Saturdaybefore Day
1 of the Great Tribulation, I
believe their opposition will
grow stronger when the Christian
component of Babylon asserts its
blasphemous solution of
worshiping on Sunday to appease
God’s wrath. My guess
is that when the first four
trumpets occur, many Christians
will honor their tradition rather
than embrace the testimony of
Jesus. When Babylon begins
its persecution for worshiping
Jesus on His seventh day Sabbath
and the penalty is to separate
people from friends and family,
these Christians will have no
inclination to do what is
right. Instead, they will
save themselves from suffering by
joining with Babylon’s
leaders and they will persecute
those who obey the first
angel’s message. (Revelation
14:7)
