<p>25:6&nbsp;<em>But at midnight-&nbsp;</em>Israel both kept Passover and went through the Red Sea at night.&nbsp; Indeed, it is stressed six times in Ex. 12 that it was &ldquo;night&quot;, and hence Dt. 16:1 reminds them to carefully keep the Passover (i.e. at night), &quot;for... thy God brought thee forth&nbsp;out of Egypt by night&quot;.&nbsp;Other latter day prophecies speak of the events of the second coming being at &quot;night&quot;:&nbsp;Lot left Sodom in the very early hours of the morning; and it was &quot;at midnight (that) there was a cry made&quot; informing the virgins of their Lord's return (Mt. 25:6). There can be little doubt that the parable is intended to have a specific latter-day application.&nbsp;&nbsp;And yet there is a general application of the parable to all believers who at the time of their baptism have oil in their lamps- which needs continual topping up by our freewill effort.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; The virgins &quot;took their lamps, and went forth to meet the bridegroom&quot; (Mt. 25:1), but settled down to slumber due to his unexpected delay.&nbsp;&nbsp; Then &quot;at midnight there was a cry made, Behold, the bridegroom cometh;&nbsp;go ye out to meet him&quot; (Mt. 25:6). The whole of the believer's probation should therefore be in the spirit of a journey to the judgment / wedding, believing that Christ is at the door.&nbsp;The 'arising' of the virgins in Mt. 25:7 would then refer to the resurrection.</p><p><em>There was a cry</em>- This is surely representative of some specific indication given to the latter day believers that the Lord is back and they must now exercise their freewill in going to meet Him. It may be in the form of a trumpet blast. The book of Revelation often uses the same word for the &lsquo;crying&rsquo; of Angels in their various proclamations. So this may refer to the &ldquo;voice of an Archangel&rdquo; (1 Thess. 4:16) with which the Lord returns. This great cry also equates with the &quot;shout&quot; of 1 Thess. 4:17 at the Lord's return and the resurrection. From this it follows that the faithful will have a separate gathering to judgment than the unworthy; Christ &quot;shall gather together his&nbsp;<em>elect</em>&quot; (Mt. 24:31), the unworthy then wish to be with those who have oil, putting their noses in a Bible for a change, and&nbsp;<em>then</em>&nbsp;come to the judgment. The wise trim their lamps and go to meet Jesus. The same Greek word translated 'trim' is rendered 'adorned' in Rev. 21:2, concerning the bride of Christ (the wise virgins) &quot;coming down from God out of Heaven (a literal descent from the sky, having been snatched away in clouds?), prepared as a bride&nbsp;<em>adorned</em>&nbsp;for her husband&quot; (Rev. 21:2). The intimation that the second coming is imminent could be due to a number of factors:<br />-&nbsp; The open presence of 'Elijah'. The cry of the watchman would be in the spirit of the Elijah prophet.<br />-&nbsp; The possible possession of the miraculous spirit gift by the Elijah ministry.<br />-&nbsp; The onset of active persecution<br />-&nbsp; The Arab domination of Israel<br />-&nbsp; Possibly the appearance of a literal sign in the heavenly bodies heralding the Lord's coming; the sign of the Son of man.</p><p><em>Look The bridegroom comes Come out to meet him</em>- &ldquo;Comes&rdquo; translates&nbsp;<em>erchomai</em>&nbsp;and &ldquo;go out&rdquo; is&nbsp;<em>ex-erchomai</em>. The coming of Christ must be greeted by our &lsquo;coming out&rsquo; to meet Him. The idea is that we cannot be merely passive. The whole parable is designed to debunk the idea that we can know the exact date of the Lord&rsquo;s return, with the implication that we are just waiting for things to happen to us. But God&rsquo;s purpose involves us having a hand in the outworking of it; He is responsive to our freewill attitudes and decisions. His coming / going out to us cannot just be waited for by us; we have to go out to Him. The virgins had all &lsquo;gone out&rsquo; to meet the bridegroom (:1 s.w.), but now they actually go out to meet Him after the delay. And it is the response to how the Lord delays which is effectively the division between wise and foolish, worthy and unworthy.</p><p>The same Greek word translated &quot;meet&quot; in Mt. 25:6 concerning the wise virgins going out to &quot;meet&quot; Christ occurs also in 1 Thess. 4:17:&nbsp; &quot;We which are alive and remain shall be caught up... in the clouds to&nbsp;<em>meet</em>&nbsp;the Lord in the air&quot;. The picture is therefore presented of the righteous obeying the call of their own volition, and then being confirmed in this by being 'snatched away' to meet Christ in the (literal) air.&nbsp;We will then travel with Christ &quot;in the clouds&quot; (literally) to judgment in Jerusalem.&nbsp;In no way, of course, does this suggestion give countenance to the preposterous Pentecostal doctrine of being 'raptured' into heaven itself.&nbsp;&nbsp; Every alternative interpretation of 1 Thess. 4:17 seems to run into trouble with the phrase &quot;meet the Lord&nbsp;<em>in the air</em>&quot;.&nbsp;1 Thessalonians is not a letter given to figurative language, but rather to the literal facts of the second coming.</p>