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The phrase that I am using for the name of this study is taken from a parable that is quite familiar to us at this point. We read Yahshua’s tale of the wise and foolish virgins here: “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.” (Mat 25:1-13)
There is quite a lot to learn from this parable. For example, we should note that all the virgins technically did what as required of them. All their works were identical. They obediently went to the waiting-place for the bridegroom, and they were not distracted or prone to wandering away. When something unexpected happened, however, their characters were tested. Although all had brought what they thought was needed, those who merely did the works, who went through the motions, were not prepared for the delay.
Here we see the difference between those who rely on instructions, rules, and doctrines, which outline proper behavior, in contrast to those who have a desire to please their Creator, and will use wisdom, care, and forethought, to consider how best to succeed at accomplishing His will.
The Scriptures actually discuss this very principle in another parable as well, and in the very same chapter. In the parable of the talents, we read of three men in whom their master invested some of his wealth. One received five talents (which is a coin of a certain weight, and therefore value), one received two, and the third servant received one. We read, “Then he that had received the five talents went and traded with the same, and made them other five talents. And likewise he that had received two, he also gained other two. But he that had received one went and digged in the earth, and hid his lord’s money.” (Mat 25:16-18)
It is not a coincidence that these two parables appear together. While the first appears to discuss being ready for Christ’s return in time, and the second the effective use of resources, they are actually illustrating the same spiritual lesson. Both the first and second servant, who increased the master’s wealth, received praise for what they had done. When the one with a single talent came to account, however, “His lord answered and said unto him, ‘Thou wicked and slothful servant, thou knewest that I reap where I sowed not, and gather where I have not strawed. Thou oughtest therefore to have put my money to the exchangers, and then at my coming I should have received mine own with usury. Take therefore the talent from him, and give it unto him which hath ten talents.’” (Mat 25:26-28)
To the natural mind, to the carnal man, this hardly seems fair. After all, how were the foolish virgins to know that their lord’s coming would be delayed? They did what they were supposed to do, and it wasn’t their fault – surely – that they weren’t told to bring extra oil. Similarly, in the second parable, the master admits, he outright says, that he expected to gain more than he invested. He even used the word “usury,” a term in the Scriptures for a kind of unjust interest on a loan. We read, for example, “Thou shalt not lend upon usury to thy brother; usury of money, usury of victuals, usury of anything that is lent upon usury.” (Deu 23:19) How, then, is it right that the servant is judged for not providing his master with this additional income on his investment?
What is being evaluated is not the degree of wisdom that the virgins had, although their wisdom is what made the difference in their preparation. What is being evaluated is not the amount of money that the servants could produce; after all, the one who made five talents and the one who made two were equally praised. It was their dedication and initiative that made the difference between doubling what they had received, and doing nothing to improve it. The servants who longed to please their master thought, with their own intelligence and desire, beyond what was instructed, “I can improve my master’s wealth.” The thought excited them. They were not acting out of fear of punishment, or even a desire for reward. No, they wanted to do something for their master that they knew He would appreciate, even when there was a lack of explicit doctrinal instruction to follow, if I may bend the metaphor slightly toward reality here.
In the case of the foolish virgins, I want you to imagine that you are about to receive a visit from a beloved friend whom you have not seen in many years. You are supposed to pick him up at the airport at 10am, and the airport is an hour away. What time do you leave home for the airport? Do you leave at nine?
If it was me, I might have difficulty getting to sleep the night before. I would probably wake up early, and make sure that I take with me some water in case he’s thirsty, some money in case we stop for lunch somewhere on the way home, and of course, I would leave much earlier than is strictly necessary. What if there’s traffic? What if he was somehow able to catch an earlier flight? What if I get a flat tire? I wouldn’t want to disappoint my friend and not be there when he arrives, and so, yes, I would go well above and beyond what might seem strictly and even reasonably necessary, because it is important to me that I do well by my anticipated visitor.
This is kindness, this is courtesy; this is love expressed as wisdom. So let us not imagine that the judgment here is unfair; we are talking about Yahweh’s judgment. It is not based on the requirements. It is not based on the checklist of thoughts and actions that will get a human being into Heaven. It is about character – kindness, and courtesy, and love expressed as wisdom. When we have this, obedience will be almost a secondary consideration. Yes, we have the Law. We have the commandments to tell us what righteousness is, because the world doesn’t know what it looks like – but once we have entered into that love, once we have been made the righteousness of Yahweh because of Christ dwelling within us, (2Cor 5:21) we are not legalistic in our view of either ourselves, or others.
Among the foolish virgins, there may have been some who arrived with better dresses, or more expensive lamps. They may have worn sweet-smelling fragrances, and used higher-quality oil. In terms of their obedience to the instructions, to the commands, they may have been flawless. Paul writes of himself that he was, “touching the righteousness which is in the Law, blameless.” (Phil 3:6) But that is not what mattered in the end. What matters is the relationship with the Father and Son which, for the foolish virgins, was missing. Did they eagerly await the bridegroom, to the degree that they planned and acted to ensure that they would be ready even in unusual circumstances? When put that way, it does not seem like a high bar at all, for one who claims to love the Master’s appearing.
But now, here is something a little new, and it explains the reason for the name of this study. When the foolish virgins noticed that they were running out of oil, what did they do? They did not say, “Oh, well…the Master is late. I guess I’ll just go back home.” They didn’t say, “I did what was expected of me, it’s not my fault. I’m going to stay right here until he arrives, even if I don’t have my lamp lit.” They did not get angry, or frustrated, or even discouraged.
They asked for help. They sought the resources they needed from the wise virgins. When it was discovered that the wise virgins could not share what they had, they eagerly followed the advice that they received. They went to buy new oil. They went to the store to get what they needed. They were neither unwilling, nor unable, to take the steps necessary to accomplish what they understood of the bridegroom’s will.
The problem is, they were too late.
Now, I want to be very careful here when talking about timing, because traditional Seventh-day Adventists have not taught the Judgment of the Living properly. We have been taught that you can be saved one moment and then, suddenly, without notice, your name comes up in the Sanctuary’s scales, and if you happen to be sinning at that moment, your fate is sealed. It’s too late.
You see, because they do not believe, or teach, righteousness by faith, because they do not understand the Gospel of Yahshua the Messiah, who sets His people free from sin, always and continuously, salvation becomes a matter of luck, chance, and timing. As much as they protest that they have a religion of faith and not works, the way that they traditionally understand the investigative judgment reveals the truth that underlies their obedience. And I am not saying that every Seventh-day Adventist is a legalist, not at all… but if they are not a legalist, it is in spite of what they have been taught, not because of it.
When I was a conference SDA, I was a legalist. I was not outwardly judgmental, but I was a legalist nonetheless. I believed that my actions from moment to moment were an indication of the state of my salvation. If I was doing good, praying, reading the Bible, and helping the poor, then I was saved at that time. If tomorrow I were to be rude, lazy, or carnal, then I was in trouble should probation suddenly end for me or if I were to meet with a fatal accident. If you asked me what I understood of salvation, I would have the right answer. I would say, “Salvation is of faith,” but what I meant was, “In the moments that I am acting by faith, in the moments where my faith leads me to be righteous, in those moments I am saved.”
This is why Adventists are taught, “You cannot say, ‘I am saved.’” It is because they believe that their salvation is a second-by-second, up-and-down experience, and if you say, “I am saved,” that’s dangerous, because the very pride that allows you to say that will drop you right down out of salvation and into the need for repentance.
Now, I was only a Conference Adventist for a few years before I fell away – I will not say my reasons for doing so were good, but I will say that the mental experience of believing what I have just described was not pleasant. For those who believe the way that I did, it is impossible to be a Sabbath-keeper, if you understand what that truly means. I sincerely wonder, what do beliefs like this do to people who are faithful modern SDAs for years and years and years? How does it affect them, these inconsistencies between what they say they believe, and what they hold to be true in their innermost hearts? Perhaps this explains why Adventism, like other conservative religions, seems to be attract those with some form of mental instability or fanaticism. Being “close” to the truth, without having it, is the worst place to be. It is no wonder that most of the Adventists with whom we speak reject the Victory message when they hear it, because they can’t imagine a belief that gives them Sabbath peace, true joy, all of the time. It is because they cannot understand the kind of sincerity, that kind of earnestness, that being set free from sin allows you to have. They have become so used to lying to themselves that they imagine everyone else must be doing the same thing, and so subtle, so ingrained is the lie, that only the flash of light that occurs upon Yahshua’s return can possibly save us.
It is true that only Yahshua’s light can save us… but that light, that saving and healing light, does not come to us at His second advent. Paul writes, “Ye are all the children of light, and the children of the day; we are not of the night, nor of darkness.” (1Th 5:5) This is a description of the saint now, in the days of his earthly life after conversion, but before death or translation. What we are “children of” tells us what we were born from. Isn’t that so? If I am the son of a king, then I am a prince the instant I am born. If we are children of the light, then the light is our starting point, our origin. If we are children of the light, it means that the light is not something we aspire to. It is not something we will have some day, or obtain at the end of a journey. No, the opposite is true.
We read, “This then is the message which we have heard of Him, and declare unto you, that Yahweh is light, and in Him is no darkness at all.” (1John 1:5) Of Yahshua, John says this in his Gospel, “That was the true Light, which lighteth every man that cometh into the world. He was in the world, and the world was made by Him, and the world knew Him not. He came unto His own, and His own received Him not. But as many as received Him, to them gave He power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on His name.” (John 1:9-12)
Believe it or not, I am still talking about the parable of the ten virgins. What I am doing now is laying the foundation for how we ought to think of Yahweh’s judgment. What I am emphasizing here is that we have what we need from the very beginning of our Christian experience.
This is all about our origin as saints. The Father is light. The Son is light. The Father sent the Son to be our Light, and as many as receive the Son, we are made children of the light. This does not happen at the end of sanctification. This happens at the beginning of our Christian walk, when Christ accepts us, breathes on us His Holy Spirit, and declares us “just.” At that very moment, we are children of the light, and in us can dwell no darkness at all. We are free from sin, and that is our new nature, not our circumstantial status.
The light that we receive from the beginning of our new birth is what shapes our characters, along with our daily experiences. It gives us the fruit of the Spirit, and it attunes our mind to spiritual things, so that we know the will of the Father and Son, and know how to walk according to Their good pleasure. The Law is written down, and we have the writings of Moses, the prophets, and the apostles. These spiritual resources teach our minds who our Father is, and then we know how to double the investment our Father has made in us. We know how to wait through a long night. We desire to do it even if we are not explicitly asked. We know to bring extra oil for our lamps, because the fulfillment of our Father’s promises sometimes seems to be delayed, but we will rise early, and prepare to stay late, because we would not miss the Bridegroom’s appearing for anything.
Here is a brief, more modern, example of this principle, of which there could be many, but this one is particularly appropriate. As Adventists, we have been told that the Mark of The Beast will appear as a Sunday Law. This is the instruction, this is the interpretation of the prophecy, plainly given. But something unexpected happened. When a Trademark Law appeared, fulfilling every element of the Mark of The Beast that we actually find in Scripture, and when we see the spirit of the world behind it even though it originated from a church, we recognized its danger. We did not need to be told, explicitly, that imprisoning commandment-keeping Christians for obeying their consciences is something that the Bride of Christ would never seek to do. We did not need to be instructed by a voice from Heaven, or a newly discovered chapter of the Book of Revelation in some ancient cave, that religion enforced by man’s law is an insult to the God of Heaven. No. Because we have had the light from the beginning, and understood and loved the One who gave us the first instruction, we have the “mind of Christ,” and judge things spiritually, as He does. We began our vigil just as the foolish virgins did, with clean clothing and brightly burning lamps… standing side-by-side with them, indistinguishable. However, when the circumstances seemed to change, when the rules seemed to no longer clearly guide the way, we had oil enough to light the darkness, while they could not see past the obedience they had offered so far.
So, back to the parable. When I say that the foolish virgins were doing the right things, and following the right advice, only “too late,” I do not mean in the sense that they randomly and accidentally missed probation’s deadline. I mean that their character was such, their true love for the Master was so little, that they were not equipped spiritually to have met the deadline that had been ordained for them from the foundation of the world. Because of their character, they would have always missed the deadline. Yahweh’s timing is not arbitrary. His justice is not random. He knows when to hide Himself, when to extend grace, and when to appear with fire and wrath. He calls names, He calls souls to account, when they are best able to accept the truth and respond positively. He gives every soul the most advantageous circumstances to hear and believe the Gospel. Those circumstances may not seem, to the flesh, to be convenient. In fact, should the intended messengers of the truth not do their duty, that has an impact on whether or not, and how favorably, others hear the message… but even within those circumstances, everyone who hears the truth is given grace to receive it and be saved.
The way that providence and free will cooperate in those who choose salvation is a matter far too delicate for human minds to competently examine, but this we know: our Father loves us, every one of us. (1John 4:19) He is not willing that any should be lost. (2Pet 3:9) He has made His grace appear to everyone, (Titus 2:11) and His longsuffering and patience with us is our salvation. (2Pet 3:15) These are aspects of our Father’s character in which we may safely trust.
And so, when the time of testing closes for the foolish virgins, leaving them outside, it is not because they are unlucky. It is not because the bridegroom comes at a time when He knows they will be “caught out” through some malicious intent or trickery. No, it is because they do not understand what I have just described of the faith. The occasion of them being too late reveals the lack of love, the lack of dedication that was within them all along, even while they were standing among the other virgins, looking identical, and perfectly obeying the instructions they had received. They were not unlucky, they were not even disobedient; and yet, circumstances had occurred perfectly as they were intended to – in order to reveal the difference in character between the foolish and the wise. Those who desire to meet the bridegroom must pray, while the day waits, for the wisdom that they will need.
The unrighteous, the foolish, will try indeed, to do the right thing, but it will be too late. There is a danger in “wait,” when the waiting is to decide to do righteousness. But the danger comes from the character that would wait, not the actions undone, or the duties neglected. Like every other work, these are the result of the inner spirit. Those with the spirit of Christ do not hesitate when they see righteousness to do. They do not neglect a work that they know to be good… and when circumstances reveal flaws, it is so that either the willing will recognize a “blind spot” and repent, or the universe will understand that a judgment is just.
For those who are of a character to wait, to delay, or to fail to prepare for reasonable circumstances, even if they do the right thing, it is not motivated by genuine faith. If salvation were of works, what the foolish virgins did would be fine. They would be praised for running out to get more oil, and the door would have been opened unto them upon their return. Unfortunately, their works were not motivated by a genuine desire to be with the Groom, only to avoid the condemnation of missing the wedding ceremony.
While the foolish virgins have gone to buy oil, the Bridegroom appears. When the foolish virgins go to buy, their characters are revealed, so that it will be understood why they are not permitted into the celebration, and never would have been. Even though they were obedient, even though, like tares among the wheat, they could not be distinguished from the wise ones by appearance, the light of Yahweh’s judgment reveals not only the works, but the heart behind them. Even the final judgment, even the close of probation, is about faith, not works. The foolish virgins were not left out because they missed the Bridegroom’s coming by trying to do the right thing. They were left out because they did not have the oil, they did not have the love and understanding for the Groom that would have caused them to do the right thing from the beginning, when it was possible to do so. The judgment they received was not, “You didn’t do the right thing,” but rather, “I say unto you, I know you not.” (Mat 25:12) The relationship that would have directed their behavior was missing. The spirit of love that would have motivated their adequate preparation was absent.
This is how we know the true oil from the false. The true oil kills sin in the heart, so that works of wickedness, discourtesy, and neglect, do not appear. Works of righteousness are done, and that from a good and pure motive. The true oil, in its proper measure, gives wisdom and light, so that we know what might occur during our time of waiting… and so we prepare. We leave for the airport early, we watch for the signs of the times, we are sensitive to the nature of the Mark of the Beast, and we bring extra oil for our lamps. These are not arbitrary tests, none of them. These are reasonable things for the divine mind to consider, that very “mind of Christ” that we each receive the moment we are declared to be children of the light.
Let us “watch and pray,” as the instructions are indeed given: “Watch and pray, that ye enter not into temptation; the spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak.” (Mat 26:41) Yes, by all means the saints will obey the instructions; but let us also rest, and rejoice, and be thankful, that as individuals, and as a Church Body, we have been gifted, blessed, with divine wisdom, so that on this Highway of Holiness, even the most “foolish,” to the eyes of the world, will desire and know how to do all those things that please our Father, and “shall not err therein.” (Isa 35:8)
David.
An Enduring Witness
“Peter kept alive in his heart the hope of Christ’s return, and he assured the church of the certain fulfillment of the Saviour’s promise, ‘If I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto Myself.’ John 14:3. To the tried and faithful ones the coming might seem long delayed, but the apostle assured them: ‘The Lord is not slack concerning His promise, as some men count slackness; but is long-suffering to usward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.’” [Acts of The Apostles, p. 536]
“Jesus looked upon the world in its fallen state with infinite pity. He took humanity upon himself that he might touch and elevate humanity. He came to seek and to save that which was lost.” [The Review and Herald, December 15, 1891]
“It is the motive that gives character to our acts, stamping them with ignominy or with high moral worth. Not the great things which every eye sees and every tongue praises does God account most precious. The little duties cheerfully done, the little gifts which make no show, and which to human eyes may appear worthless, often stand highest in His sight. A heart of faith and love is dearer to God than the most costly gift.” [The Desire of Ages, p. 615]