Quote:
Originally Posted by Trapped
The one that comes to mind for me are the ones in Matthew 25 about the 10 virgins. The LR would say that the oil in their lamps represented the Spirit we had gained.
Matthew 25:1-12
1 “At that time the kingdom of heaven will be like ten virgins who took their lamps and went out to meet the bridegroom.
2 Five of them were foolish and five were wise.
3 The foolish ones took their lamps but did not take any oil with them.
4 The wise ones, however, took oil in jars along with their lamps.
5 The bridegroom was a long time in coming, and they all became drowsy and fell asleep.
6 “At midnight the cry rang out: ‘Here’s the bridegroom! Come out to meet him!’
7 “Then all the virgins woke up and trimmed their lamps.
8 The foolish ones said to the wise, ‘Give us some of your oil; our lamps are going out.’
9 “ ‘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.’
10 “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.
11 “Later the others also came. ‘Lord, Lord,’ they said, ‘open the door for us!’
12 “But he replied, ‘Truly I tell you, I don’t know you.’
13 “Therefore keep watch, because you do not know the day or the hour.
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Here are a couple of my thoughts about the local church interpretation of this passage. Essentially the local church's interpretation falls in line with their categories of "real (spiritual) believer", "real (soulish) believer", and everyone else, including false believers and the unsaved.
I personally think the Bible shows "real believer", "false believer (or believer in name only)", and everyone else. And I think that distinction comes into play in this parable.
First of all, we can back up to the parable before this one, in Matthew 24:45-51. It's about the faithful and wise servant put in charge of his master's possessions, and he is contrasted with what is called a "wicked servant" who beats his fellow servants and gets drunk, etc. The wicked servant thinks the master will be gone a long time and so he lives like it.
It seems to me the parable of the 10 virgins is saying something similar. The wise virgins are genuine believers, "in it for the long haul" so to speak, who have oil in their lamps and bring oil with them.....prepared for a long wait but ready for when He comes. The foolish virgins don't do the same thing. This reminds me of the seeds that fell on differing soils. The seeds that fall on rocky soil do spring up, but then wither away because the soil is shallow.
The reason I don't think this parable is about believers who get shut out is because the Lord says "Truly I tell you, I don't know you."
But if we look at related verses in Matthew 7, it seems like the ones the Lord doesn't know are ones He
never knew. Here they are in Matthew 7, saying "Lord, Lord" just like in Matthew 25, and trying to enter the kingdom of the heaven just as described in Matthew 25:
Matthew 7:21-23
21 “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven.
22 Many will say to me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name and in your name drive out demons and in your name perform many miracles?’
23 Then I will tell them plainly, ‘I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!’
And Jesus says not only does He not know them, but He
never knew them.
If the Lord NEVER knew them, then this cannot be believers. So I don't see grounds for applying Matthew 25 and saying that some genuine believers will have the door slammed in their face by the Lord, telling them He doesn't even know them.
It's a great way to keep poor believers paralyzed in a state of fear though.
There are other verses Lee used to justify his teachings; I don't have time to go digging but if anyone knows them and can post them here, we can look into them too.
Trapped
P.S. Bible-believer included the verses in 1 John 5:
1 John 5:4-5
for everyone born of God overcomes the world. This is the victory that has overcome the world, even our faith. Who is it that overcomes the world? Only the one who believes that Jesus is the Son of God.
From the little time I've spent looking into what the Bible says about overcomers/overcoming, this seems to be what we should hang our hat on. Overcomers are simply genuine believers, born of God. Any overcoming we do is because of what Jesus did. He's overcome the world, and we overcome the accuser because of the blood of the Lamb (Rev. 12:11).
What helps me the most for studies like these is to find the root word in Greek, and then pull up all the verses that have any form of that word.....then plod through those verses and see what they all say. Here is the full list of verses in the Bible that have the forms of the word "nikao" (overcome). They are on the right side of the page listed under "Englishman's Concordance":
https://biblehub.com/greek/3528.htm