Most see the parable of the ten virgins as being the rapture. The prudent virgins being the saved with the oil representing the Holy Spirit within them. I cannot help but think this has to be wrong. There are too many flaws in the parable for that. I would like to see if anyone can explain this problems to me, or if someone can give an alternate understanding of the parable all together that fits better.
How does the oil in the lamps represent the Holy SPirit? All ten virgins had oil in their lamps but for 5 of them it was running out. Do we run out of the Holy SPirit?
Either all five of these were believers or none of them represent the saved. This would give the image that half of the Saved would lose their salvation. I dont buy that. There must be something we are not seeing here.
When the foolish virgins ask the others for some of their oil, their response is that they would not have enough for themselves. How much of the Holy Spirit is enough? It doesnt seem right that we have to have a certain amount of the Holy Spirit or that we can run out of the Holy Spirit.
It never says they dont have oil in their lamps. Only that they didnt have any extra oil. The lamps of the first century would only last for a few hours and need to be refilled. The extra oil was kept in larger containers. We do not keep the Holy SPirit in a separate container and only use as much as we need at a time. … This parable does not seem focused on the lamps not being filled, but instead it seems focused on the fact that they didnt bring extra oil.