Excerpt taken from this link
Doug,Here is a good explanation of the parable of the Wise and Foolish Virgins. This is only a portion of the link which is quite a bit longer. A more compelling case is made by reading the entire article.Be Blessed and prepared,Steve shackleton
Pictures of Bride Selection
Book of Ruth. Ruth (type of the bride) was a gentile who came from Moab. She married Boaz 'a mighty man of wealth and a kinsman redeemer' who came from Bethlehem (a type of Jesus). Boaz had many maidens that he could have chosen but he chose Ruth. It was Naomi (type of the Holy Spirit) who led her out of Moab* (a type of the carnal, self-pleasing life; a land of many idols) to Bethlehem ("House of Bread") and brought her to a position where she was selected by Boaz as his bride. It was Naomi who was encouraging, leading, counseling her. Ruth (bride) would never have been introduced to Boaz (Jesus) without the intimate leading and relationship and trust in Naomi (Holy Spirit). Neither will we without a very intimate relationship with the Holy Spirit, far more intimate than most Christians are walking in today.
(*Moab is of no small concern to the Christian because it is closely tied to the message of the bride. The Church needs to be challenged to come out of the carnal, self-pleasing life with its many idols of frivolity, entertainment, sports, busyness and business. II Tim chapter 3 says this, reading from the Amplified: "But understand this, that in the last days there will set in perilous times of great stress and trouble- hard to deal with and hard to bear." It then lists 18 character faults starting with lovers of self, lovers of money, and ending with lovers of pleasure more than lovers of God. We live in a world that is far more wicked than we realize and there is far more of the world in Christians than we realize and it results in a terrible loss of the presence of God. And the hideous thing is that we don't realize it. James wrote to Christians, "You adulteresses, do you not know that friendship with the world is hostility toward God? Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God." When one grasps the glorious reward of being the Bride then the things of this earth "will grow strangely dim" and no longer have a dominant place in our hearts.)
Book of Esther. King Xerxes had many virgins to choose from but only one found favor with him, Esther. They all auditioned but "the king loved Esther above all the women, and she obtained grace and favor in his sight more than all the virgins; so that he set the royal crown upon her head, and made her queen". Mordecai (Holy Spirit) led her, and encouraged her and even challenged her. Everyday that she was in the 12 month period of preparation he inquired at the palace gates to see how Esther was doing. Esther was an orphan and she would never have made it without Mordecai and neither will we unless we have a very intimate relationship with him. Jesus said: Jn. 14:16 And I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter, that he may abide with you forever, Jn. 14:17 [Even] the Spirit of truth; whom the world cannot receive, because it seeth him not, neither knoweth him; but ye know him for he dwelleth with you, and shall be in you. Jn. 14:18 I will not leave you as orphans (i.e. Fatherless. "I and My Father are One," John 10:30) I will come to you.
Rebecca in Genesis 24. We have the story of Abraham (Father) who sent his servant (Holy Spirit) to find a bride (Rebecca) for his son, Isaac (Jesus). The servant was instructed to not go to the Canaanites (the world), but to go to his own people ("of my kindred, and of my father's house," the Church) to take a bride for his son. Notice how important the HS is here. He is entrusted to select her. He showers her with expensive gifts. (Who is the giver of gifts in the New Testament?) And He is the one who leads her back to Isaac. Rebecca had to completely trust the servant to led her to Isaac. She left family, siblings, friends, country, everything that was familiar to her and trusted the servant (Holy Spirit) to led her to Isaac (Jesus) and to become his bride. Note: She became his bride in "his mother Sarah's tent," and Sarah was already in Paradise (Gen. 24:67), suggesting that the Marriage of the Lamb will take place in Heaven. Also, Rebecca was given a choice whether to go with the servant right away or to wait 10 days. Could this be a reference to going in the first Rapture in 5758 or waiting 10 days (years) for the second Rapture in 5768?
Comparison of Two Adams
I Cor 15:45 refers to two Adams: "The first man, Adam, became a living soul. The last Adam became a life-giving spirit" That's speaking of Jesus. One of the many titles of Jesus is "the Last Adam". Let me ask you something. When God created a bride for Adam how did He do it? He didn't take every member of Adams body to make a bride. Just a small part of it, the rib. Again, a type and shadow. When God creates a bride for Jesus could it be that He is not going to use the whole Body of Christ but just a part of it? Note that the rib is near the heart. The Bride is close to His heart. The Lord said that David was a man after His own heart. Let's look at the New Testament.
Matthew 25:1-13
The first parable in Matthew 25 is one of the best known and the least understood- the parable of the Wise and Foolish Virgins. It's a parable that has intrigued me for years and that I've never heard a satisfactory explanation of. Who are the Wise, who are the Foolish? I think you will see that it is not too difficult to answer if we take the parable apart. But the difficult question is "What are the Foolish getting locked out of?" Let's take a closer look at some of the details (Matt 25:1-13) here and see if we can bring this into focus. Who are the players and what happens to them?
(1) All are called virgins.
(2) All of them are waiting for the Bridegroom to arrive.
(3) All of them get tired and fall asleep.
(4) All of them hear the call and wake up.
(5) All of them trim their lamps.
(6) All of them have oil in their lamps.
(7) The Foolish do not have enough oil and they have to go buy more oil.
(8) While the Foolish are on their way to get more oil the Bridegroom comes and takes the Wise.
(9) When the Foolish return they are locked out of something.
(1) Now I believe it is safe to assume that all ten virgins are Christians for the following reasons: they are virgins, they are waiting for the Bridegroom, they have oil, they call Him "Lord": The bible never refers to the lost as virgins. The Foolish are called virgins.
(2) The Foolish are waiting for the Bridegroom, who is Jesus. The lost are not waiting for the return of the Bridegroom Jesus. They don't have a clue about the return of Jesus. There are even a lot of Christians who aren't looking for the Bridegroom so I would say that all ten are in the category of born again Christians.
(4), (5), (6) We also know that there is a warning that goes out just before the Bridegroom comes so they are all awake. The problem is that 5 are ready and 5 are not. What's the matter with the Foolish?. The Foolish find out that their lamps are going out due to an insufficient amount of oil. Oil in the Bible is a picture, a symbol, a type of the Holy Spirit. The Foolish were not devoid of oil. They had some, but not enough. Their lamps were going out.
(7) So what did they do? The Foolish recognizing their predicament first asked the Wise for some of their oil. But the Wise said that they only had enough for themselves and they told the Foolish to go buy their own. So they left to go get more oil. Now some have postulated that the Foolish are Christians who have lost their salvation. But this is an indication that the Foolish are not Christians who have lost their salvation otherwise they could not go out and get more oil. They had some oil and apparently manage to buy more oil.
(8), (9) So what happened to them? When they returned they found out that those who were ready, the Wise, went into the wedding feast and the Foolish were locked out. It's a sobering, sobering picture. In desperation they cry out, "Lord, Lord open up for us". This is another indication that these are Christians. The lost don't refer to Jesus as "Lord". And then the Bridegroom, Jesus, answers: "Truly, truly I say to you. I do not know you." What a horrible thing to hear from Jesus, "I do not know you." When the bible says "truly, truly" or "verily, verily" that means 'listen up, take heed, this is very important'.
Luke Chapter 13:23-28
This sheds some more light on this parable in Matthew. This parable in Luke has been applied to the lost but I believe that this is a picture of Christians. Let's take a look at it. "And someone said to Him, "Lord, are there just a few who are being saved?" And He said to them, "Strive to enter by the narrow door; for many, I tell you, will seek to enter and will not be able.
:25"Once the head of the house gets up and shuts the door, and you begin to stand outside and knock on the door, saying, 'Lord, open up to us!' then he will answer and say to you, 'I do not know where you are from.' Sounds very similar to the Foolish virgins. I think these are Christians since
(a) they refer to Him as "Lord",
(b) they say "We ate and drank in your presence" (communion table?); "You taught in our streets" (preaching of the Word). But it's a little different this time. And the difference is this: these are referred to by the Lord as "evildoers."
Here's what I see as an application. The scriptures depict three types of Christians.
1. The Wise who have a sufficient amount of oil in their lamps.
2. The second category of Christians are the Foolish. They have oil but not enough to meet that required to be the Bride of Christ.
3. And the third category are the evildoers. Those, I believe, are the Christians who are out in sin.
Now we all sin and He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and cleans us of all unrighteousness. But there are those who give themselves over to sin (drugs, pornography etc.) and don't fight it and repent and yet call themselves disciples of Christ. These are the hypocrites.
What Event is This?
Now there remains a major question that hasn't been answered regarding this parable and it begs to be explained. The explanation of who-is-who is reasonably evident. But what's going on here with the door being shut and the Foolish and the evildoers being shut out? If we thought that these were unsaved we could surmise that they are being shut out of heaven and cast into hell, end of parable. But these all appear to be saved people, [they were all waiting for Jesus, they all had oil, they all called him Lord] so what is happening here and why? What event is this?
I believe that this has to do with what is described in the Bible as the 'catching away of the saints' or in popular parlance, the Rapture. There is evidence of more than one rapture but the most important one is the 1st Rapture which will be for the Bride of Christ. Maybe this is why there are such strong and unyielding views on the Rapture. Nevertheless, whether you believe in a pre-trib, or a post-trib or a mid-trib or no-trib the heart of the issue is being ready. It applies no matter what position one takes on the timing of the rapture. If you are not ready you are in deep trouble, and we will see why in a minute.
Time and time again, when God is speaking about the marriage or the Marriage Supper of the Lamb there is one word that keeps repeating itself over and over again and that is the word 'Ready'. An understanding of the Bride of Christ and what it means to be ready is one of the greatest motivational factors to wake up, to take your walk seriously and get real with God.