Jewish Wedding and the Rapture
When Jesus comes for his Bride (all believers who are indwelt with the Holy Spirit), He will come in the clouds and call us all up into the air to meet him. It will be a stealth event and the world will wonder what the heck happened....and Satan will have a hay-day because the Restraining Holy Spirit will be gone and will hold him back no longer.
Where will Christ take us? Into the wedding chamber that has been prepared for us where we will consummate the wedding.
How long will we be gone? About seven earth years....so we will sit out The Tribulation while God's wrath gets poured out on earth.
When we return with Christ (Revelation 19), we will rule, reign and be co-heirs of planet earth for 1000 years while Jesus sits on David's throne and rules with an iron rod.
As the apostles would have been explaining all these things to a Jewish audience and as Jesus told his parables....the audience would have been EXTREMELY FAMILIAR with how Jewish weddings worked....and probably would have understood the rapture A LOT more than us gentiles.
Here are just a few steps;
*Groom pays the bride price.
*Groom leaves to prepare a place for his bride, usually attached to Father's house.
*Bride doesn't know when the groom will come for her...but she stays ready.
*Father sends the groom to collect his bride only when the Father says so.
*Bride and Groom spend 7 days in Bridal chamber consummating their wedding.
*They emerge from the bridal chamber and groom introduces bride to the town.
*Many are then invited to the wedding feast....but the door is closed on many.
Does all this sound familiar? Does it ring any bells on parables you have read from the Bible? Does it confirm with you that we should be expecting a Pre-Tribulation Rapture of the church?
See this link here which confirms much of what is above...but also will give you MANY passages for you to study on for yourselves; http://www.bibleprophesy.org/rapturewedding.htm
Jesus is coming at an hour that we don't know! But the bride price was paid and the signs around us let us know He is close....so let's make sure we are ready for his coming!!
Hat tip to Mack T.
posted by dennis at
10:40 AM
4 Comments:
Where do the ten virgins fit into the rapture (that are mentioned in this same parable) 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. 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.'
"But while they 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...
I have read conflicting commentaries and wonder if the bride and the virgins have any relation at all. Some say yes and some no.
I have also seen a few different commentaries on this issue. On the one hand it meets the "no one knows the day or hour" warning of when the groom is coming for the bride. (rapture) But it then goes on to talk about them going to the wedding banquet....which would mean when Christ returns after the Tribulation. Why? Because the 7 yrs that the church is gone with Christ, we won't be at the wedding banquet, but instead will be in the bridal chamber...consummating the wedding. So I am sticking to the idea that the virgins were those who were left behind and did not have enough "oil" to make it until Christ's 2nd advent...so missed the invitation to join him in paradise. Can anyone else add a good explanation? Again, either way, it is a parable that we are supposed to stay ready and about the Master's work.
This parable is in Matthew 25, but as I was reading Matthew 7:24-28 (the Sermon on the Mount)I found a reference to "wise" and "foolish".
24 So everyone who hears these words of Mine (Matthew 5:3 - 7:29)and acts upon them [obeying them] will be like a sensible (prudent, practical, wise) man who built his house upon the rock...
26And everyone who hears these words of Mine and does not do them will be like a stupid (foolish) man who built his house upon the sand...
28 When Jesus had finished these sayings [the Sermon on the Mount], the crowds were astonished and overwhelmed with bewildered wonder at His teaching...
Here is what John MacCarther had to say on this subject...
QUESTIONER: ...and the Lord came. And then later on, it seems like they got the oil, but when they went back to the Lord, the Lord told them I never knew you.
JOHN: That's right.
QUESTINOER: So, it's really...
JOHN: Well, the point is this. There are plenty of people who are religious, but they're not saved. These are people who procrastinate and procrastinate and put it off, put it off, put it off, put it off and they're religious. They're just like Matthew 7. "Many will say unto Me, Lord, Lord," Matthew 7: 21-23, "we did many wonderful works in Your name and we prophesied and we cast out demons" na-na-na-na, and the Lord says to them, "depart from me, you workers of inequity; I never knew you." In other words, there again, you're right back to the broad road that people think is the road to Heaven, but it isn't. So you've got ten virgins symbolizing spiritual purity, symbolizing religious vows. I mean, a virgin, devoted to God, you know, not even...you might liken this to a priest or a nun in a Roman Catholic system or to a monk, a Tibetan monk in some mystical part of Hinduism or something, whose whole life is prescribed religiously. But the problem is they don't have the oil. Now, the oil is probably a good symbol of the Holy Spirit. And the presence of the Holy Spirit, is that not the affirmation of our salvation? Do we not know we are redeemed because of the presence of the Spirit? Hasn't He given us the earnest of the Spirit that we may know we belong to Him?
All right. So here are these and they're religious, they're circumscribed, they've got their religious activities and the Lord comes, but they're not really ready because all their religious activities are outside and there's no oil in their lamps. And then they go running and they want somebody to give them their oil, but salvation isn't like that. You receive your oil from God and God alone, not from anybody else. I used to...I have a little thing I do with kids. I can't show you cause I don't have any scissors. But I take an 8 1/2" x 11" paper and fold it all over and I tell kids this is their ticket to Heaven and my ticket to Heaven. And I say to them, "Do you have a ticket to Heaven?" "No, we don't have a ticket to Heaven." "Well," I say, "I'll share my ticket with you." So I just cut it up one side and I cut it up the other side and I got a pile of pieces that just fall out. And I organize all those little pieces and they spell "Hell." And then I say, "You see, you can't get to Heaven on anybody else's ticket." And then I unfold what's remaining and it's a cross and that's the only way you get there.
And that's the picture, you see. You can't go and buy somebody else's religion or say, "Hey, share with me your virtue. Share with me the Holy Spirit." You get it directly from God. And so, at that point, the Lord says I'm sorry, I have no relationship with you. And they're shut out. And I think the point that He's making there is, there is a time when it is too late. Back to the pre-flood people, the antediluvians, God said, "My Spirit will not always strive with man." Constant rejection means you come to the point where you can't receive. So that's another tremendously powerful statement by Christ that you can be religious and be lost. Okay.
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