that parable has nothing to do with a timing of a rapture, but is speaking of getting into the kingdom of heaven.
It touches the timing of a first rapture, since it shows 5 believers left behind. Additionally, Mt 25:1 begins "the kingdom of the heavens will be likened to 10 virgins." Yes 5 enter the manifestation of the kingdom, but all 10 are the Lord's children. (As also proven by the very word "virgins," 2 Cor 11:2, and the fact that they all have lighted lamps, Prov: "the spirit of man is the lamp of the Lord;" 1 Cor 6:17. They all have Christ in them.)
Lastly, it is speaking of all the believers who have died before the last 3 1/2 years. This is indicated by the parable: "While the bridegroom delayed, they all became drowsy and slept." Sleep is a figure of death, physical death. There will be two (main) raptures for the simple fact that 5 are taken, 5 are left (in Paradise, in death, below).
and the door to heaven was shut.
'Heaven' is not the issue here. It's not really an issue anywhere. All believers will be caught up, at the end,
to the heavens, or to the air, either pre-Trib or at the end of the Tribulation, to meet, and be judged by, the Lord.
Concerning the reward of the kingdom, or the punishment of the loss of it. The door being shut, later, to the 5 foolish, means that they miss out on living and ruling with their Lord for 1000 years. The fact that the 5 wise left first, shows that they were resurrected and raptured before the Tribulation, Revelation 12:5; Philippians 3:11; cf Luke 21:36.
The 5 foolish did not inherit the kingdom of heaven but were cast away by the Lord because they did not obey His teaching and follow the gospel message.
More precisely, it is because they failed to grow or mature in their Christian life. They didn't gain Christ, gain the Holy Spirit, the oil, in their vessels (souls) to accompany their lamps (their spirits). Philippians 3:8-13; Matthew 16:24-27; 1 Cor 9:24-27.
Those who wash their robes in white that come out of the Great Tribulation are unbelievers who come to accept Jesus Christ, not those who knew of Christ but missed out on the rapture because their full trust was not in Him.
I thought, to the contrary, that Revelation 7:14, refers to believers who were raptured before the Tribulation, based on the fact that they are before the throne of God after the 6th seal and right before the start of the Great Tribulation: the 7th seal.
This vision in chapter 7 accompanies the Lord's sealing of 144,000 Hebrews/Israelis, 12,000 from each tribe, on earth, to be protected from physical death during the Great Tribulation. The phrase that they "came out of the great tribulation," I understood to refer not to The Great Tribulation, but rather to their experience beforehand, as believers and often martyrs, during the entire church age. This is all based simply on the sequence and timing of these "inserted" visions, between 6th and 7th seals. Lastly, unlike to FancyNancy or most Christians, it appears to me that being reborn is no longer a possibility for people during the Great Tribulation. Only except for all Israel, who are born again at the end.
A pretrib rapture teaching completely denies and casts away clear words of the Apostle Paul.
For he told believers back in his time that were debating this issue to not be fooled into thinking it had already happened, for a falling away of the church into apostasy and the man of sin (antichrits) has to be revealed first. There will be no rapture (gathering) event before those 2 events take place
To the contrary, just as there will be an end-Trib rapture (of the large majority of saints), there will also be a smaller, "hidden," pre-Trib rapture of His overcomers. It will not be a big flashy sign to the world since it will be a minority of believers. This rapture of overcomers is taught by Jesus, Paul, and John, Matthew and Luke. Paul mentions the prize of the "out-resurrection," or the outstanding resurrection from the dead in Philippians 3:11. He also gives the clue of the pre-Trib rapture of living saints where in 1 Thes 4:13-18 he describes the end-Trib rapture as including those who are living who are LEFT REMAINING unto His coming. "Left remaining" is not a redundant repetition of "living," or "surviving." Since that is what "living" means. Rather it indicates believers who have gone through the Great Tribulation (cf Rev 12:6, 14; 14:14-16).
It is certainly true that Paul in 2 Thessalonians 2:1-5 says that His coming, and our gathering, does not happen until the "falling away"-----a phrase I am studying and trying to understand---- and also until the man of lawlessness is revealed, the Antichrist. The church in Thessalonica was a brand new, young church, or young believers, and so this is one reason I believe the Lord led Paul to write about these things more generally, and not in detail as in Revelation. Most believers alive at the end will pass through the 3 1/2 years of the Great Tribulation
