I wanted to thank Matt for his letter on the Ten Virgins. I believe too many people are trying to use this parable as a Rapture teaching when it is really a reference to the Second Coming of Christ in power and glory--the great marriage supper (Rev 19:7). The troubling part is that those who say we are the ten virgins often promote a partial Rapture view and thereby cause the doubting of many Christians. We are all of the Body and Bride of Christ, if we have believed in His sacrifice for us--so I don't see Him dividing this Body at the Rapture. Didn't Paul say we shall all be changed? (1 Cor. 15:51). Instead the virgins are part of the wedding party going to wedding feast of the Bride and Groom (Church and Christ) to fit the Second Coming, in which Christ has been referring. To insert a rapture understanding into this parable is not warranted in the context of Matthew. To also have ten or rather five virgins marrying one groom to fit a raptured church view seems a bit off quilter. It seems more appropriate that they are the wedding party--not the brides.

To me this is an important issue, because it may be easy for us who watch to wish upon other non-watching believers the status of the five virgins without oil. We better be careful because that would be saying that God never knew them (Matt. 25:12).