[OBW]

It is hard to make everything in this parable tie together. We tend to insist on either a kind of purgatory for the foolish virgins, or an Arminian understanding of salvation (salvation can be lost).

And I will be the first to say that the Calvinist position can only be arrived at through ignoring contrary passages (or pulling a "Lee" and arguing some overriding principle means that the contrary passages must mean something else). But the Arminian position also has problems with passages, therefore is not simply the correct answer.

I have been on both sides of this issue during my years as a Christian and am now convinced that the only value in arguing it is to argue who is in and who is out (in terms of alleged heresy). But the line is drawn in a muddy bog and is therefore unimportant. (I will say that I have a significant problem with Calvinism, per se, but not necessarily to the extent of buying into Arminianism. Suffice it to say that even John 3:16 says "whosoever believeS," not "whosoever believeD." But this is another discussion to have somewhere else.)

As someone said, the point seems to be to be ready at all times. While the second coming may still be days, years, even Millennia away, the time of reckoning for each of us is, at most, only some years away. I would suggest that the point of the parable is not to support loss of salvation, or cause disputes over unstated doctrines, but to imply that there is a cost —of unspecified nature — to not being ready. Everything else is to over-milk the metaphors/parable.