Who is the Wife, the Bride, the Virgin?

[whirlwind]

We are told of the wife and the bride, who is "the virgin" before she/he/they become the bride. What are their/our roles? Who is the wife or the bride?

• Revelation 21:9-10 And there came unto me one of the seven angels which had the seven vials full of the seven last plagues, and talked with me, saying, Come hither, I will shew thee the bride, the Lamb's wife. And he carried me away in the spirit to a great and high mountain, and shewed me that great city, the holy Jerusalem, descending out of heaven from God.

The bride IS the holy city Jerusalem. A literal city? No, those that are the bride are the city.

• Isaiah 62:1 For Zion's sake will I not hold My peace, and for Jerusalem's sake I will not rest, until the righteousness thereof go forth as brightness, and the salvation therof as a lamp that burneth. (5) For as a young man marrieth a virgin, so shall thy sons marry thee: and as the bridegroom rejoiceth over the bride, so shall thy God rejoice over thee.

The virgin is the bride is Jerusalem. The young man/man child are the sons of God are Zion. The bridegroom is Christ that rejoices over His children....Zion and Jerusalem.

• Leviticus 21:13-14 And he shall take a wife in her virginity. A widow, or a divorced woman, or profane, or an harlot, these shall he not take: but he shall take a virgin of his own people to wife.

The "virgin of his own people" will be the bride and the bride will be...the wife. The "young man," the man child, will marry the virgin, (Zion and Jerusalem).

• 1 Corinthians 7:32-34 But I would have you without carefulness. He that is unmarried careth for the things that belong to the Lord, how he may please the Lord: But he that is married careth for the things that are of the world, how he may please his wife. There is difference also between a wife and a virgin. The unmarried woman careth for the things of the Lord, that she may be holy both in body and in spirit: but she that is married careth for the things of the world, how she may please her husband.
  
  2 Corinthians 11:2 For I am jealous over you with godly jealousy: for I have espoused you to one husband, that I may present you as a chaste virgin to Christ.

Spiritually speaking....we, whether we are the man child or the virgin, Zion or Jerusalem, are to remain virgins to be married to our One Husband....Christ. Then, the virgin bride becomes the wife. The virgin (male and female) "careth for the things that belong to the Lord."

• Deuteronomy 32:25 The sword without, and terror within, shall destroy both the young man and the virgin, the suckling also with the man of gray hairs.

The "sword without" I believe, is deception, twisted teaching of God's Sword...His Holy Word. The "terror within" is, I believe, our carnal natures believing the "sword without." It shall destroy many, including the man child and virgin. They are of the elect but nevertheless....some shall be destroyed. Is this being physically destroyed and not spiritually or...is it both?

• Lamentations 1:18 The LORD is righteous; for I have rebelled against his commandment: hear, I pray you, all people, and behold my sorrow: my virgins and my young men are gone into captivity.
  
  Amos 8:11-13 Behold, the days come, saith the Lord GOD, that I will send a famine in the land, not a famine of bread, nor a thirst for water, but of hearing the words of the LORD: And they shall wander from sea to sea, from the north even to the east, they shall run to and fro to seek the word of the LORD, and shall not find it. In that day shall the fair virgins and young men faint for thirst.

Are those days here now? Are we in captivity to false teaching, to not hearing His Word. Those that love Him hunger for His truths and seek it but instead...they faint for thirst. They/we must seek it from our Father and "take the water of life freely"...not from man, nor by searching from sea to sea.

As we've been shown, the man child is different from the virgin....they are two different groups, Zion and Jerusalem, that shall be joined. Are the two witnesses...the man child and the virgin? The Spirit speaks from them and...their destiny is foretold.

Revelation 22:17 And the Spirit and the bride say, Come. And let him that heareth say, Come. And let him that is athirst come. And whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely.

• Revelation 11:7-8 And when they shall have finished their testimony, the beast that ascendeth out of the bottomless pit shall make war against them, and shall overcome them, and kill them. And their dead bodies shall lie in the street of the great city, which spiritually is called Sodom and Egypt, where also our Lord was crucified.
  
  Lamentations 2:21 The young and the old lie on the ground in the streets: my virgins and my young men are fallen by the sword; thou hast slain them in the day of thine anger; thou hast killed, and not pitied.

They will testify, allowing the Holy Spirit to speak through them and....they shall fall.

• Revelation 14:1 And I looked, and lo, a Lamb stood on the mount Sion, and with Him an hundred forty and four thousand, having His father's name written in their foreheads. (3-4) And they sung as it were a new song before the throne, and before the four beasts, and the elders: and no man could learn that song but the hundred and forty and four thousand, which were redeemed from the earth. These are they which were not defiled with women; for they are virgins. These are they which follow the Lamb whithersoever he goeth. These were redeemed from among men, being the firstfruits unto God and to the Lamb.

Christ, the Lamb, stands on mount Sion, the spiritual mount Zion. Christ is in His elect, in His man child, in His Zion. And with them is the virgin...the bride. Has the wedding taken place? Has Zion joined Jerusalem, the man child the bride? Is this when the bride comes out of her closet?

• Joel 2:16 Gather the people, sanctify the congregation, assemble the elders, gather the children, and those that suck the breasts: let the bridegroom go forth of his chamber, and the bride out of her closet.
  
  1 Corinthians 7:28 But and if thou marry, thou hast not sinned; and if a virgin marry, she hath not sinned. Nevertheless such shall have trouble in the flesh: but I spare you.

When the virgin becomes the bride they "shall have trouble in the flesh" for they shall be delivered to death...in order to allow the Spirit to speak through them which confronts death...Satan. Not all virgins will become the bride.

• Matthew 25:1 Then shall the kingdom of heaven be likened unto ten virgins, which took their lamps, and went forth to meet the bridegroom.

All ten of the virgins (the ten lost tribes of Israel...Christians) are of the kingdom and as such are promised to, and love the groom. But, as the parable tells us, they don't have enough oil (truth). They will follow the imposter, the fake christ. These virgins will not be the bride, will not become the wife. Only those that marry Him...becoming the bride, will "have trouble in the flesh." But, if we are sons of God...this trouble must happen, this scourging (Hebrews 12:6/666) by Satan/death, happens as the witnesses testify for Him.

 

[Blazin Bones]

I have two things that you may wish to consider from this little thought train.

1) What exactly is the idea you are attempting to put forth? Just sharing identities of characters and events of the times?

2)When you pull together so many passages from so many different stories and contexts, are you making these passages fit your doctrines or are you keeping them relevant to the contexts they present?

 

[whirlwind]

I have two things that you may wish to consider from this little thought train.

1) What exactly is the idea you are attempting to put forth? Just sharing identities of characters and events of the times?

2)When you pull together so many passages from so many different stories and contexts, are you making these passages fit your doctrines or are you keeping them relevant to the contexts they present?

The different stories and contexts can be taken as a whole in this "little thought train." They are ALL about the wife, the bride, the virgin and the man child. They are us...believers. The "idea" is so we, as the virgin or young man, understand what is to happen, what we should prepare for, how we....so we may be presented as chaste virgins, won't be among the five without enough oil in their lamp.

 

[Blazin Bones]

Well your assumption that these passages may all be taken together as all proving one point is speculative due to the fact that many of the contexts do not speak to one specific eschatological bride/wife/virgin, but many different ideas concerning marraige, intimacy, and other things.

Take your use of the 1 Corinthians 7 passage. This is not Paul teaching a spiritual lesson as much as it is a physical lesson. It is simple common sense that makes one understand that when Paul teaches that a unmarried man can serve the Lord unhindered, he is simply stating the obvious. A married man cannot up and leave for a mission feild because he has a wife and possibly a family to consider and make preparations for where as a single man only has his own life to provide for.

There is nothing that Paul gives in the passage allowing for your removal of context. This only makes one suspect you are force fitting a passage into an idea.

 

[follower of Christ]

Well your assumption that these passages may all be taken together as all proving one point is speculative due to the fact that many of the contexts do not speak to one specific eschatological bride/wife/virgin, but many different ideas concerning marraige, intimacy, and other things.

Take your use of the 1 Corinthians 7 passage. This is not Paul teaching a spiritual lesson as much as it is a physical lesson. It is simple common sense that makes one understand that when Paul teaches that a unmarried man can serve the Lord unhindered, he is simply stating the obvious. A married man cannot up and leave for a mission feild because he has a wife and possibly a family to consider and make preparations for where as a single man only has his own life to provide for.

There is nothing that Paul gives in the passage allowing for your removal of context. This only makes one suspect you are force fitting a passage into an idea.

Id have to second Bones assessment.
The 2 Corinthians passage seems to be relevant enough, given that it may fit the context. The 1 Corinthians passage, however, is simply Pauls observations of the unmarried and their priorities...no need to make it much more than what it is on the surface.

 

[whirlwind]

Well your assumption that these passages may all be taken together as all proving one point is speculative due to the fact that many of the contexts do not speak to one specific eschatological bride/wife/virgin, but many different ideas concerning marraige, intimacy, and other things.

Take your use of the 1 Corinthians 7 passage. This is not Paul teaching a spiritual lesson as much as it is a physical lesson. It is simple common sense that makes one understand that when Paul teaches that a unmarried man can serve the Lord unhindered, he is simply stating the obvious. A married man cannot up and leave for a mission feild because he has a wife and possibly a family to consider and make preparations for where as a single man only has his own life to provide for.

There is nothing that Paul gives in the passage allowing for your removal of context. This only makes one suspect you are force fitting a passage into an idea.

I was told that Paul teaches on three levels and I believe he does. The understanding you have rightly given is one level and it is "the obvious." Another level is that those that remain a "chaste virgin," both male and female, "careth for the things that belong to the Lord."

Our Father isn't against marriage and yet Paul wrote that both the male or female that married, "careth for the things that are of the world, how he may please his wife." I am married. You are married and we both "careth for the things that belong to the Lord," so the teaching is not about literal marriage. It is about remaining a chaste virgin spiritually.

 

[Joe67]

WW,

Thanks be to God, in Jesus Christ our Lord, that we who are like Gomer have been, are being and will be bought back from from the slave market after we have spiritually given birth to three unclean spirits to obtain the corn and the oil and the wine; through our continued harlotry.

We were spiritually whores when our spiritual Hosea married us, and we went a-whoring after other gods, which are no gods, but our husband loved us and bought us from slavery. He is loving us and he will fully love us at his appearing. Then we will call him Ishi; and no longer call him Baali.

We who have known the depths of Satan and his spiritual whoredoms will be made a chaste virgin by the blood of Jesus and the water of his word and through loving not our lives unto the death. Revelation 12:11.

"Blessed are they who die in the Lord from henceforth, for they shall rest from their labors (whoredoms), and their works do follow them." "Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life(Christ is the daysman of my life): and I will dwell in the house of the Lord (the body of Jesus/the new Jerusalem) forever." Revelation 14:12; Psalms 23:6. KJV

Joe

 

[whirlwind]

WW,

Thanks be to God, in Jesus Christ our Lord, that we who are like Gomer have been, are being and will be bought back from from the slave market after we have spiritually given birth to three unclean spirits to obtain the corn and the oil and the wine; through our continued harlotry.

We were spiritually whores when our spiritual Hosea married us, and we went a-whoring after other gods, which are no gods, but our husband loved us and bought us from slavery. He is loving us and he will fully love us at his appearing. Then we will call him Ishi; and no longer call him Baali.

We who have known the depths of Satan and his spiritual whoredoms will be made a chaste virgin by the blood of Jesus and the water of his word and through loving not our lives unto the death. Revelation 12:11.

"Blessed are they who die in the Lord from henceforth, for they shall rest from their labors (whoredoms), and their works do follow them." "Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life(Christ is the daysman of my life): and I will dwell in the house of the Lord (the body of Jesus/the new Jerusalem) forever." Revelation 14:12; Psalms 23:6. KJV

Joe

Part of becoming wiser in knowledge of Him is in understanding that being "in the Lord," as you have pointed out, doesn't mean we don't continue in "harlotry." I thought it would, I wish it did but....it doesn't.

We are being perfected, an ongoing process. Not all of us are at the same stage yet all are facing in the same direction with the same goal. Someone once said a person shouldn't teach until they are "pure in doctrine." And that we are not to take up the role of teacher without His anointing. To me, the Spirit giving insight into His Word is that anointing, is that calling to speak, to witness for Him. As far as being "pure in doctrine," I don't know if anyone under the sun is yet at that point. Not even His chosen disciples that walked with Him were perfect...nor are any of us that now walk with Him.

• Matthew 13:12 For whosoever hath, to him shall be given, and he shall have more abundance: but whosoever hath not, from him shall be taken away even that he hath.
  
  Luke 12:48 But he that knew not, and did commit things worthy of stripes, shall be beaten with few stripes. For unto whomsoever much is given, of him shall be much required: and to whom men have committed much, of him they will ask the more.

 

[toddm]

The Bride, virgin, & New Jerusalem in Revelation are all synonyms for the Church. I admit that I didn't really read any of the other passages because I was pretty sure they had nothing to do with each other.

 

[whirlwind]

The Bride, virgin, & New Jerusalem in Revelation are all synonyms for the Church. I admit that I didn't really read any of the other passages because I was pretty sure they had nothing to do with each other.

The passages are connected Todd. As God separates the bride, the virgin and the wife in His teaching it means...they are separate and should be understood as such. They are all the church but He tells us some are Zion and some are Jerusalem. As we near the end of this age it is important, I believe, to understand our roles and not be the virgins with no oil in their lamp.

 

[toddm]

The Bride, virgin, & New Jerusalem in Revelation are all synonyms for the Church. I admit that I didn't really read any of the other passages because I was pretty sure they had nothing to do with each other.

The passages are connected Todd. As God separates the bride, the virgin and the wife in His teaching it means...they are separate and should be understood as such. They are all the church but He tells us some are Zion and some are Jerusalem. As we near the end of this age it is important, I believe, to understand our roles and not be the virgins with no oil in their lamp.

1 Corinthians 7 is not referring to the Church, Paul's referring to physical, earthly marriage. It does not say some are Zion and some are Jerusalem. The New Jerusalem is the Church. The bride of Christ is the Church. And yes, we are presented as pure, undefiled virgins before God because of Christ's atonement. There's nothing in there about apostasy or anything else.

 

[whirlwind]

The Bride, virgin, & New Jerusalem in Revelation are all synonyms for the Church. I admit that I didn't really read any of the other passages because I was pretty sure they had nothing to do with each other.

The passages are connected Todd. As God separates the bride, the virgin and the wife in His teaching it means...they are separate and should be understood as such. They are all the church but He tells us some are Zion and some are Jerusalem. As we near the end of this age it is important, I believe, to understand our roles and not be the virgins with no oil in their lamp.

1 Corinthians 7 is not referring to the Church, Paul's referring to physical, earthly marriage. It does not say some are Zion and some are Jerusalem. The New Jerusalem is the Church. The bride of Christ is the Church. And yes, we are presented as pure, undefiled virgins before God because of Christ's atonement. There's nothing in there about apostasy or anything else.

Todd, everything in the Bible is telling the same story over and over and over again. Each time with different players but it is warning us to remain virgins.

No, it doesn't write out that some are Zion and some are Jerusalem but we are.

 

[Joe67]

Oil in our vessel and oil in our lamp is symbolic of a double edged sword of repentance. Virgins with oil only in their gospel/forgiveness lamp but none in their vessel of suffering shame for Christ's name will go buy more oil and come back to find the door shut.

The sellers, of God's love in Jesus without suffering shame for Jesus' name, have more and more icons and books and trips to sell to those with itching ears. They make merchandise of the grace of God and count gain as godliness.

Phil 1:29
29 For unto you it is given in the behalf of Christ, not only to believe on him, but also to suffer for his sake; KJV

Joe

 

[Blazin Bones]

Well your assumption that these passages may all be taken together as all proving one point is speculative due to the fact that many of the contexts do not speak to one specific eschatological bride/wife/virgin, but many different ideas concerning marraige, intimacy, and other things.

Take your use of the 1 Corinthians 7 passage. This is not Paul teaching a spiritual lesson as much as it is a physical lesson. It is simple common sense that makes one understand that when Paul teaches that a unmarried man can serve the Lord unhindered, he is simply stating the obvious. A married man cannot up and leave for a mission feild because he has a wife and possibly a family to consider and make preparations for where as a single man only has his own life to provide for.

There is nothing that Paul gives in the passage allowing for your removal of context. This only makes one suspect you are force fitting a passage into an idea.

I was told that Paul teaches on three levels and I believe he does. The understanding you have rightly given is one level and it is "the obvious." Another level is that those that remain a "chaste virgin," both male and female, "careth for the things that belong to the Lord."

Our Father isn't against marriage and yet Paul wrote that both the male or female that married, "careth for the things that are of the world, how he may please his wife." I am married. You are married and we both "careth for the things that belong to the Lord," so the teaching is not about literal marriage. It is about remaining a chaste virgin spiritually.

Being told that doesn't always make that true, whirl. A Gnostic will tell you that the Gospel of Judas is authoritative scripture and it is not. An atheist will tell you there is no God, but he has no proof to the contrary. If you want to beleive something that was told to you, find more than just word of mouth for that beleif.

As for the theme of Scriptue, I would contend that you are half right. It's not just about God's virgin, his church, but it is about our Bridegroom, the Christ! However, even as this is true, not every thought is given to instruct about these two themes. Remembering the sabbath day is not at all about anything other than giving reverence to the Father how he deems right.