Parables of the Ten Virgins and the Talents

This parable, found in Matthew 25:1-13, is often used to support a partial rapture.  The ten virgins are believed to represent the church.  The five virgins who had no extra oil were not ready for the Lord’s coming, and thus were not raptured.  This interpretation would conclude that they were not on the alert (v. 13), and thus only the watchful virgins were raptured.  There are several problems with this view.  First, the church is always referred to as the bride, not the bridesmaid (virgin).  If the church is not in view here, then it cannot be speaking of a rapture.  Also, one cannot say that the five virgins without extra oil were not as watchful as the others, for all ten of the virgins had slumbered waiting for the bridegroom.

In keeping with the context of the discourse, there are two viable interpretations as to who the virgins represent.  Some see the ten virgins as regenerate believers of the tribulation meeting Christ at the Second Coming, and those who are unprepared will miss out on the wedding banquet with the church.³   Others see this parable as the time that Christ will judge Israel, determining who is saved and who is not at the end of the tribulation.⁴  Similar interpretations hold in reference to the Parable of the Talents in Matt. 25:14-30.  Christ is teaching the individual responsibility of Israel to be His servant, and that they will be held accountable at His coming.  The faithful individual will enter His kingdom, and the unfaithful will be cast into the outer darkness.  Again, the unfaithful servant could either be a believer losing his millennial inheritance, or an unbeliever being cast into hell.  In neither of these parables is a rapture being taught, but the judgment of Israel at Christ’s return.