Do not be tempted to think that these recent studies from the Book of Isaiah compose some esoteric study of prophecy bearing no relation to us today. The last three articles relate specifically to the well-known parable Jesus himself uttered.

“Then the kingdom of heaven shall be likened to ten virgins who took their lamps and went out to meet the bridegroom. 2 Now five of them were wise, and five were foolish. 3 Those who were foolish took their lamps and took no oil with them, 4 but the wise took oil in their vessels with their lamps. 5 But while the bridegroom was delayed, they all slumbered and slept.

6 “And at midnight a cry was heard: ‘Behold, the bridegroom is coming;a]” style=”font-size: 0.65em; line-height: normal; font-weight: bold; vertical-align: top;”>[a] go out to meet him!’ 7 Then all those virgins arose and trimmed their lamps. 8 And the foolish said to the wise, ‘Give us some of your oil, for our lamps are going out.’9 But the wise answered, saying, ‘No, lest there should not be enough for us and you; but go rather to those who sell, and buy for yourselves.’ 10 And while they went to buy, the bridegroom came, and those who were ready went in with him to the wedding; and the door was shut.

11 “Afterward the other virgins came also, saying, ‘Lord, Lord, open to us!’ 12 But he answered and said, ‘Assuredly, I say to you, I do not know you.’ 

13 “Watch therefore, for you know neither the day nor the hour in which the Son of Man is coming. 

(Matthew 25:1-13 NKJV)

Notice especially verse 5, But while the bridegroom was delayed, they all slumbered and slept. They all slumbered and slept. That includes you and me. In 1997 I had been a Christian for twenty years, but at that time I was a state legislator. As a politician I thought about long-range future things, not the imminent return of Christ. That was the year that the Hale-Bopp comet approached earth. One clear evening that spring I went out into the country to look at it, for I had heard that it was a harbinger of Christ’s return. When I looked up into the sky, I saw it immediately and the ball and the tail of it were awesome to behold with the naked eye! But, it looked like it was leaving earth’s area, not coming toward it. Then the voice of the LORD spoke to me and said, “If that had been me, you would have missed my coming.”

When I heard these words I determined to begin faithfully watching for his coming! I did want to be “left behind.” I decided not to run for legislative office again and from that time until today I have been diligently watching for the LORD’s return. Until then I had been sleeping with respect to his soon coming. On that particular day I awoke and determined to fill myself with the oil of God’s Holy Spirit and Word. And now another seventeen years have passed! The temptation to slumber again always lurks near, for still very few seem to believe the LORD is coming soon and often scoff at my words.

Are you awake yet? Do you tell others to awake as Isaiah proclaimed?

I thought world events were bad and could hardly get worse in 1997. In fact I wrote a book in 1993 entitled “No Justice in the Land” in response to many evil American court rulings and social patterns occurring over the previous few decades. But, the drastic slide in national morals and the many court decisions overturning ancient Christian values since 1997 are literally breathtaking. Who could have ever foreseen the United States on the brink of civil war and revolution that we see today as witnessed in the recent Cliven Bundy standoff in Nevada? Who would ever have believed that our own government would be complicit in something as devastating as 911 or that our nation would be ruled for decades by legislators and presidents guilty of treason against their own nation? Which obedient Christian ever thought twenty years ago that he would be forced to bake a “wedding” cake for homosexuals under threat of bankruptcy and losing his business? When will the Bible itself be banned, or when will every moral law of God be stripped from its pages under threat of persecution, prison, or death?

The sad reality of Christ’s Bride and of most the Christian Church is that she has played the harlot. She did not judge sin in herself or in her assembly according to God’s Word. Instead she partook of the many sins of Babylon and taught others to do the same. She mixed a cup full of her adulteries and taught the world to drink it with her. And instead of loving her for it the beast still hates her and desires to destroy every memory of her. Even churches which do not blatantly engage in sexual sin remain guilty of their false doctrine and their hypocrisy. They have all become leavened. Let me give you one more poignant example.

I have a thirty-two year old virgin daughter who has always wanted to become a wife and a mother. God has given my wife prophetic words about her and has always seen her as a type of the Bride of Christ. She took part in a few courtships and even became engaged once ten years ago and broke it off the day after the engagement. She always discovered that the men were not truly spiritual and were not really seeking Christ first in their lives. Finally, just this year, she found true love in a spiritual man five years older than her whose wife divorced him several years ago and who has a seven year old child by that first marriage. They plan to marry in June this year and my wife and I bless their marriage.

We are planning an outdoor wedding and in order to prepare we have to have two hundred or more chairs with tables for a lunch. I asked the ruling elder of a local Mennonite church if they would loan us tables and chairs and we would pay some of their men to deliver them. He seemed agreeable, but wanted to talk to the other two or three elders first. Two days later he came to my office to tell me that they had heard that my daughter was marrying a divorced man and therefore could not help with the wedding. They would, he said, be partaking of my daughter’s sin in marrying the man.

Really? I spent the next ten minutes rebuking this elder and told him that his church engaged in false doctrine (they will only drive black cars and trucks for example) and that his decision regarding my daughter was exactly like the decisions rendered by the Pharisees in Jesus’ day and that they were hypocrites. I further told him that unless his church repented their decision I would not do business with any of the local Mennonite community any longer for they would have proved themselves worse than the repentant harlot who comes in to my office for help from time to time. He merely smiled arrogantly. They have not repented.

If Jesus intends to “marry” a bride who once played the harlot with many lovers, can it be a sin for my virgin daughter to marry a man who diligently seeks God whose first wife divorced him? Do you remember that God actually commanded Hosea to marry a prostitute? Consider what that represents! Is the timing of my daughter’s wedding and the LORD’s rebuke of the hypocritical Mennonite church just a coincidence? No, the time of the marriage supper is at hand. Wake up!