Are There Foolish Virgins in Every Age or Only the Last Age?
Direct answer:
They are manifested at the end. The parable of the ten virgins points to the last church age when the Bridegroom comes and the final separation takes place. While that same kind of believer—clean, church-going, but without the oil of the Holy Ghost—has appeared in every age, the Scripture applies the name “foolish virgins” to those at the time of the Bridegroom’s coming.
Scriptural explanation:
- Matthew 25:1-13 says, “Then shall the kingdom of heaven be likened unto ten virgins… at midnight there was a cry made… they that were ready went in with him to the marriage: and the door was shut.” Notice “Then”—it follows the end-time signs of Matthew 24. The midnight cry is a final call. The shutting of the door is a single closing, not a repeating event in every age.
- Revelation 3:14-22 shows the last age (Laodicea): lukewarm, self-sufficient, and the Lord outside knocking. “Buy of me gold tried in the fire… and anoint thine eyes with eyesalve.” You see the language of buying and lacking—just like the foolish virgins who “went to buy,” showing an end-time condition.
- Revelation 19:7-9 shows the Wife has made herself ready and goes to the marriage—those are the wise with oil.
Simple clarifying logic:
- Oil represents the Holy Ghost. The wise had it before the cry; the foolish tried to get it after the cry. The marriage call and the shut door happen once—at the end—so the formal separation of wise and foolish virgins belongs to the last age.
- If it were every age, when did the door shut and the midnight cry sound again and again? The Bible shows one final cry and one closing.
Short reinforcement:
So, the condition existed in all ages, but the parable’s foolish virgins are identified at the end-time. The Bride, with oil, goes in; the foolish, without oil, miss the rapture and are dealt with in the tribulation.
Ask a Follow-up Question
What did the Laodicean Church Age (our age) Angel (- messenger) Say about this?
Ranked passages from the local William Branham sermon and Church Age Book database. Relevance is relative, not a statement of doctrinal certainty.
The End-time Evangelism
62-0603 §63
Now, now we want to think of another one here. I got ... if you want to read some of it, Matthew 24. Jesus told of this day, He said the Jews would gather again at the last day. He said, "When you see the fig tree putting forth its buds, then know the time is at hand." He said, "There'll be a perplexity of time, distress between nations, the sea a-roaring; men failing of heart trouble, constantly," not among the women, now, it's amongst the men. Jesus never said the women, "men." Look at the plague! And in that day...
Daniel 9: Daniel's Seventy Weeks
61-0806 §57
Now, we find ourself beyond any shadow of doubt in the Laodicean age. We know we are. We've come through the Lutheran age, we've come through the Wesley age, now we're in the Laodicean age, the last age. And we realize that each one of those churches had a messenger. We find out that. Seven stars in his hand, which was seven spirits, went forth before God. Each one had a messenger. And we come down and we find out by the Bible what the nature of that messenger would be. And we pick up the man in history that had th...
Seals 9: Questions and Answers on the Seals
63-0324M §19
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The Identified Christ of all ages
64-0401 §3
...e with cooperation and prayer, and all of us together, to blend together and put our hearts together, and pray. And now we've enjoyed about a fifteen-year revival, which according to history is longer than any revival has ever lasted, to my knowing. Usually, a revival lasts about three years, then it gets scattered. But believing that this is one of the last great revivals that the world will receive, and it's come in the last age, the Laodicean age, at the end of the Pentecostal dispensation. And I believe the chu...
A Paradox
65-0117 §32
Now, we're taught in Revelation, the 6th chapter (I believe, yes, 6th chapter) of the seventh seal that's supposed ... the book to be sealed up with seven mysteries, or seven seals, Revelation 6. And in the last days---Revelation 10---in Revelation 10, we find out that the Laodicea, last messenger of the last age, in the ... during the time of his prophecy, that the seven seals would be opened---the seven mysteries, seven-fold mystery---that had been left off. In every age there'd been some of it left off. The refo...