Back Slidden Brides Maids?
Having just read the article on ‘The Rapture and the ten virgins’ I am left feeling very confused. Most bible commentaries I have read suggest that the foolish virgins represent Christians who have become ‘backslidden’. I would be grateful for your comments.
Q. Having just read the article on ‘The Rapture and the ten virgins’ I am left feeling very confused. Most bible commentaries I have read suggest that the foolish virgins represent Christians who have become ‘backslidden’ and do not seek a true relationship with Our Lord or those who have been ‘given over to their sin’ (1 Cor 5:5), but haven’t yet cried out to God for the mercy of His Grace. I would be grateful for your comments.
A. Many commentaries are wrong about this parable on four counts. First, a careful reading shows it takes place after the 2nd Coming. The phrase “At that time” which opens chapter 25 refers back to Matt 24:36, the day of the Lord’s return to earth. Not for the rapture, but the 2nd Coming.
Second, the church is never called a bridesmaid in scripture, yet the 10 virgins are often called bridesmaids. The church is called the bride and the word is always singular. There’s never more than one bride.
Third, every member of the church, “back slidden” or not, has sufficient oil, which represents the Holy Spirit sealed within us at the first moment of belief (Ephes. 1:13-14) before there was any chance to “back slide.” By the way, I consider every believer over let’s say one year old in the Lord to be “backslidden.”
But the parable doesn’t say that five of them had oil and somehow lost it. On the contrary it says that five of them never took any oil in the first place, implying they were never saved. And remember, all 10 of the virgins were asleep at the Lord’s return.
Fourth, the wedding banquet follows the wedding. In the parable there’s no mention of the wedding ceremony or the bride, so all ten missed it, oil or not.
To see this parable as a teaching about the church one would have to believe that if there’s a Rapture it follows the 2nd Coming, that some believers are not the Bride of Christ but are only bridesmaids who can lose their salvation, the Holy Spirit “unsealed” from within them, and their reservation at the wedding canceled for no discernible reason. In short, there’s no Biblical support for the “back slider” view.
Every logical fact about the parable points to the 10 virgins being Tribulation survivors alive at the Lord’s return, some of whom have become believers during the Great Tribulation and are welcomed into the Kingdom, while others are not and are excluded.
