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Heaven is like ten virgins (Matthew 24-25)

Episode 246: Heaven is like ten virgins

Matthew 24-25

The end of the world

24 1 Then Jesus left the temple and said to his disciples,

Everything that you see here will be completely destroyed.

3 His disciples said to him,

When will these things happen?

What will be the sign of your coming and the end of the world?

4 Jesus said,

5 Many will come in my name, saying, "I am Christ", and many will believe them.

6 There will be wars and rumors of wars, but it won't mean the end has come.

7 There will be famines, diseases, and earthquakes.

8 These things are just the beginning of sorrows.

9 You will be afflicted and killed and will be hated by everyone because of me.

10 Many will stop believing and will betray and hate each other.

11 False prophets will deceive many.

12 Evil will be everywhere, and love will be rare.

13 But whoever endures to the end will be saved.

14 The gospel will be preached throughout the world, and then the end will come.

15-16 When you see the abomination of desolation standing in the holy place, then whoever is in Judea should run to the mountains.

17 If you are on your housetop, don't come down to take anything from your house.

18 If you're in the field, don't go back to get your clothes.

19 And woe to pregnant women and nursing mothers in those days!

20 Pray that it doesn't happen in winter or on the sabbath.

21 For then there will be great suffering, worse than any the world has seen or will ever see.

22 If it lasted, no one would survive. But God will end it before his favorite people die.

23 If anyone tells you, "Here is Christ", don't believe it.

24 There will be many false Christs and false prophets who will show great signs and wonders. So many, in fact, that God's favorite people would (if it were possible) be deceived.

27 When the son of man comes, it will be like lightning that comes from the east to the west.

28 Because eagles will gather wherever there's a dead body.

29 After the time of suffering, the sun will darken, the moon won't produce light, the stars will fall from the sky, and the heavenly powers will be shaken.

30 Then the son of man's sign will appear in the sky, all the tribes will mourn, and they'll see the son of man coming in the clouds of heaven with great power and glory.

31 He'll send angels to blow a trumpet. Then they'll gather his favorite people from the earth's four winds, from one end of heaven to the other.

32 Learn the fig tree parable: When its branch sprouts new leaves, summer is coming.

33 When you see these things, it's about to happen.

34 This generation will still be alive when all these things happen.

35 Heaven and earth will end but my words will last forever.

36 No one knows when these things will happen, not even the angels, but only my Father

37 The coming of the Son of man will be like the days of Noah.

38 Before the flood, everyone ate, drank, and got married, until Noah entered the ark.

39 They didn't know the flood was coming until they all drowned. It'll be like that when the Son of man comes.

40 There will be two in the field: one will be taken and the other left.

41 Two women will be grinding: one will be taken and the other left.

42 So watch out and be ready, because you'll never know when your Lord will come.

43 If a man knew when his house would be robbed, he would watch and be ready.

44 So be ready, because the Son of man will come when you least expect it.

45 Who is the faithful and wise servant?

46 Blessed is that servant who will be watching when his lord comes.

47 He will put him in charge of all of his things.

48 But the evil servant says, "My Lord is late in coming."

49 So he hits his fellow servants and eats and drinks with drunk people.

50 The lord of that servant will come when he least expects it.

51 And he'll throw him in with the hypocrites, where they'll cry and gnash their teeth.

Heaven is like ten virgins

25 1 Jesus continued his speech to his disciples, saying,

The kingdom of heaven is like ten virgins who took their lamps and went to meet the bridegroom.

2 Five were wise and five were foolish.

3 The foolish virgins took lamps with no oil in them.

4 The wise virgins had oil in their lamps.

5 The bridegroom was late, so the virgins went to sleep.

6 At midnight, someone cried out, saying, "The bridegroom is coming. Go out to meet him."

7 So the virgins got up and got their lamps ready.

8 The foolish virgins said to the wise, "Give us some of your oil, because our lamps have gone out."

9 But the wise virgins said, "No way. There isn't enough for us all. Go buy some for yourselves."

10 The bridegroom came while the foolish virgins were out buying oil. So the wise virgins had the bridegroom to themselves. And the door was shut.

11 Later the foolish virgins came and said, "Let us in."

12 But the bridegroom answered, saying, "I don't know any of you."

13 So watch out. You don't know when the Son of man will come.

The cruel and unjust master

14 The kingdom of heaven is like a man who entrusted his money to his servants, while he traveled to a far-away country.

15 He gave five talents to one servant, two to another, and one to a third.

16 The servant with five talents invested them and made five more talents.

17 The servant with two talents earned two more.

18 But the servant with one talent hid it in a hole in the ground.

19 When their master returned he asked them about the money he'd given them.

20 The servant with five talents said, "You gave me five talents; I've earned you five more."

21 His master said to him, "Well done, good and faithful servant. You've done well with a few things; I'll make you ruler over many. Enter into my joy."

22 The servant with two talents said, "You gave me two talents; I've earned you two more."

23 His master said to him, "Well done, good and faithful servant. You've done well with a few things; I'll make you ruler over many. Enter into my joy."

24 The servant who received one talent said to his master, "I knew you were a hard man, reaping what you don't sow. So I was afraid and hid your talent in a hole. Here it is.

26 His master said to him,

You wicked and lazy servant. You knew that I reap what I don't sow.

27 So you should have invested my money so I would profit from usury. Take the talent from him and give it to the servant with ten talents.

29 For whoever has something will be given even more, but whoever has nothing will have even that taken away from him.

30 Cast the servant who didn't make me any profit into the outer darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.

The sheep and the goats

31-32 When the Son of man comes in all his glory, all the nations will be gathered in front of him, and he'll separate them, as a shepherd separates sheep from goats.

33 He'll put the sheep on his right hand, and the goats on the left.

34 Then the king will say to them on his right hand,

Come, you blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you at the beginning of the world.

35 For I was hungry, and you fed me; I was thirsty, and you gave me something to drink; I was a stranger, and you let me live with you.

36 I was naked, and you gave me clothes to wear; I was sick and in prison, and you visited me.

37 Then the righteous people will say,

Lord, when did we feed you when you were hungry? Or give you water when you were thirsty?

38 When did we see you as a stranger and take you in?

39 Or naked, and give you clothes to wear? Or visit you when you were sick or in prison?

40 The King will answer them,

Whenever you did it to the least of my brothers, you did it to me.

41 Then the King will say to them on his left hand,

Get away from me, you cursed people! Go into the everlasting fire prepared for the devils and his angels.

42 For I was hungry, and you didn't feed me; I was thirsty, and you didn't give me something to drink;

43 I was a stranger, and you didn't let me live with you. I was naked, and you didn't give me clothes to wear; I was sick and in prison, and you didn't visit me.

44 The cursed people will say,

Lord, when did we not feed you when you were hungry, or thirsty, or a stranger, or naked, or sick, or in prison?

45 The King will answer them, saying,

Whenever you did it to the least of these, you did it to me.

46 These will go into everlasting punishment, but the righteous to eternal life.

A few more words about this episode

Learn the fig tree parable (24:32-34)
Based on these verses, Hal Linsey's The Late, Great Planet Earth predicted that the end of the world would occur before 1988. The fig tree represents Israel, Israel came back to life in 1948, and Jesus said the end would come within one generation (40 years). [Wikipedia: The Late Great Planet Earth]
This generation will still be alive when all these things happen. (24:34)
The Jehovah's Witnesses used to interpret this verse to mean that some of those who witnessed Jesus's return in 1914 would still be alive when Armageddon happened. Now that those alive in 1914 are pretty much dead, the JWs have given up on this prediction.
No one knows when these things will happen, not even the angels, but only my Father. (24:36)
The best and earliest Greek manuscripts say, "not the angels of heaven, neither the son, but the Father only." But apparently it bothered the scribes that there were some things Jesus didn't know, so they fixed it by omitting the phrase, "neither the son." [Bart D. Ehrman, Misquoting Jesus (2005), p.95]
As the days of Noah were, so shall also the coming of the Son of man be. (24:37)
Jesus believed that Noah's flood actually happened and he had no problem with drowning everyone on earth. It'll be just like that when he returns.
There will be two in the field: one will be taken and the other left. (24:40-41)

These verses are often used to say that Jesus was talking about the rapture here. But, in fact, it's just the opposite. The ones who are taken are the ones to be destroyed, and the ones who remain are the ones who will survive. (Just like in Noah's flood, as Jesus said in verses 37-39.)

See Dan McClellan's video below.

Who is the faithful and wise servant? (24:45)
This is the basis for the central dogma of the Jehovah's Witnesses, that the governing body of the Jehovah's Witnesses is the "faithful and wise servant," or as the New World Translation puts it "the faithful and discrete slave." As such, the governing body must be obeyed in all matters and all of their teachings must be accepted. Those who do so will survive Armageddon; those who do not, will not.
He gave five talents to one servant, two to another, and one to a third. (25:15)
A talent was a unit of money, worth about 20 years of a worker's wages.
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