But who loves God that they keep His Commandments the way He worded them, and not as man would pervert them? Indeed, unto many of the present day do the same words of Jesus Christ in Matthew 15:3b,7a,8-9 apply:

"Why do ye also transgress the commandment of God by your tradition?" ((Jesus then explained the hypocrisy of a present-day cultural perversion of doctrine which voided just and only one of all ten of the Ten Commandments of God given in Exodus 20:2-17.)) "Ye hypocrites,... This people draweth nigh unto me with their mouth, and honoureth me with their lips; but their heart is far from me. But in vain they do worship me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men."

Are they not as the five foolish virgins of Matthew 25:1-13? Therein Jesus Christ spoke of the promise of His Second Coming. (The Scriptures do not detail "three comings", nor do the Scriptures suggest that the Second Coming of Christ is somehow "secret" in any way.) Jesus therein says, after He detailed all great tribulations and persecutions ("Which is a manifest token of the righteous judgment of God, that ye may be counted worthy of the kingdom of God, for which ye also suffer" --<2_Thessalonians 1:5-->), "THEN shall the kingdom of heaven be likened unto ten virgins, which took their lamps, and went forth to meet the bridegroom. And five of them were wise, and five were foolish.

"They that were foolish took their lamps, and took no oil with them: But the wise took oil in their vessels with their lamps. While the Bridegroom tarried, they all slumbered and slept.

"And at midnight there was a cry made, Behold, the Bridegroom cometh; go ye out to meet him.

"Then all those virgins arose, and trimmed their lamps. And the foolish said unto the wise, Give us of your oil; for our lamps are gone out.

"But the wise answered, saying, Not so; lest there be not enough for us and you: but go ye rather to them that sell, and buy for yourselves.

"And while they went to buy, the bridegroom came; and they that were READY went in with him to the marriage: and the door was shut. Afterward came also the other virgins, saying, Lord, Lord, open to us.

"But he answered and said, Verily I say unto you, I KNOW YOU NOT.

"Watch therefore, for ye know neither the day nor the hour wherein the son of man cometh."

Christ Jesus is coming again. As a thief in the middle of the night, He will come to marry His ten virgins, but five will not have light in their lamps because they have no oil when He comes. Psalms 119:105: "Thy word is a LAMP unto my feet, and a light unto my path." Isaiah 8:20: "To the law and to the testimony: if they speak not according to this word, it is because there is no LIGHT in them." The five foolish virgins had the LAMP but not LIGHT. They had possession of the LAMP, the word, the law and the testimony, which would give them light if they spoke according to it, but they spoke not according to it. Hence, they had no LIGHT.

And because they prefer their own doctrines and commandments of men, disregarding the true doctrines and Commandments of God, they speak not according to the word of God. Thus, they have no light for when the Bridegroom Jesus Christ returns to marry His beloved wives.

But those who do love God, keeping His Commandments, speaking according to His word, are assured to enter in to that marriage. And "Blessed are they which are called unto the marriage supper of the Lamb." (Revelation 19:9c.) Alleluia!

© March 4, 1997, The Standard Bearer
P.O. Box 765, O.O.B., ME 04064

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