Some Teach That The foolish virgins Must Have Had Some Oil for Their Lamps to Light Up at All and What the Actually Lacked Was Extra Oil. Is This True
No. That is not true. The parable draws a sharp line: some had oil; some did not.
Scriptural explanation:
- “They that were foolish took their lamps, and took no oil with them” (Matthew 25:3). The wise “took oil in their vessels with their lamps” (Matthew 25:4). That’s the Spirit-supplied life within.
- When the cry came, the foolish said, “Our lamps are going out,” and they tried to borrow and then went to buy (Matthew 25:8-10). If they had the Oil, they wouldn’t need to borrow or buy at midnight.
Simple clarifying logic:
- The lamp is the outward profession; the oil is the Holy Spirit. You can trim a wick and get a momentary flare, but without oil there is no lasting light. That’s why their lamps went out at the crisis.
- The text never says “some” oil or “only lacked extra.” It says they took no oil with them, while the wise had a supply in their vessels. Either you have the indwelling Oil or you don’t—you cannot borrow it, and you cannot rush out to purchase it when the Door is opening.
Short reinforcement:
Now notice, the shut door proves it: those without Oil were not ready. It’s not a matter of “not enough extra,” but of not having the Spirit’s supply when the Bridegroom came.
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.
Church Ages, part 8: The Philadelphian Church Age
60-1210 §89
...efore your feet, ... Don't you remember the sleeping virgin, when she raised up? Now, remember, what was she called? There's ten of them went out to meet the bridegroom. Is that right? Five was wise, had oil in their lamp. How many knows what oil signifies in the Bible? Spirit. Now, one couldn't say, "You're not sanctified, and I'm not..." They was all sanctified, every one of them. All sanctified. But five was wise enough to have the wisdom of revelation to catch that door, see, to be filled with the Spirit. They...
An Exposition Of The Seven Church Ages
CAB 2:E-27
If you want to get a beautiful picture of the lamp, read about it in Zechariah 4:1-6, "And the angel that talked with me came again, and waked me, as a man that is wakened out of his sleep. And said unto me, What seest thou? And I said, I have looked, and behold a candlestick all of gold, with a bowl upon the top of it, and his seven lamps thereon, and seven pipes to the seven lamps, which are upon the top thereof. And two olive trees by it, one upon the right side of the bowl, and the other upon the left side ther...
We have seen His star and have come to worship Him
63-1216 §91
But He has a little church that He wants to take. He's got many thousands laying, sleeping in the earth; first watch, second watch, third, fourth, fifth, sixth. And this is the seventh watch. Remember, that's when He come, in the seventh watch. And in that watch, He found wise virgins, and virgins that had the oil out of their lamp. Oil is a symbol of the Holy Spirit. If you haven't found that in your lamp tonight, my brother, sister, why don't you take that, God's greatest Christmas present.
Church Ages, part 9: The ten virgins, and the 144,000
60-1211M §92
The same thing with the sleeping virgin, and the wise virgin. They were both sanctified people. But this one had oil, and this one did not have oil. So they said, "We're as good as you are. [There's none of us good, as far as that's concerned] Why, you're a bunch of holy rollers." Well, okay, that's all right. There's none of us good. We all sin and come short of the glory of God. But the only way you'll ever know it is not by joining church, not by trying to live good, but by receiving Christ. It ain't what I live...
Letting off the pressure
62-0518 §110
Look what's happened now. What is it? The World Council of Churches---they talk about that. And they say all these ... like our brother Presbyterian, and so forth coming in. That's wonderful. I believe in that too. But did you ever wake up to think that Jesus said that that foolish virgin, when she begin to call for oil, it was right then the bridegroom come! When they woke up and begin to realize that they had no oil, they went to buy oil. And it's at that minute, when they went to buy oil, that the bridegroom com...