Bride of Christ — Jacob Prasch

The Wise and Foolish Virgins

Good morning. I would like to the gospel of St. Matthew, Chapter 25, Matthew Chapter 25. If you don't have a Bible, please share a Bible with the person next to you. Matthew 25, commencing in verse one, in the kingdom of heaven will be comparable to ten virgins who took their lamps and went out to meet the bridegroom and five of them were foolish and five were prudent.

For when the foolish took the lamps, they took no oil with them, but the prudent took oil in their flasks along with their lamps. Now, while the bridegroom was delaying, they all became drowsy and began to sleep.

But at midnight there was a shout, behold, the bridegroom, come out to meet him. Then all of those virgins rose and shunned their lamps, and the prudent said to the prudent, give us some of your oil. Give us oil for our lamps, for our lamps are going out.

But the prudent answered, saying, no, there will not be enough for us and for you as well. Go instead to the dealers and buy some for yourselves. And while they were going away to make the purchase, the bridegroom came home, and those who were ready went in with him to the wedding feast, and the door was closed.

And later the other virgins also came saying, Lord, Lord, open for us. But he answered and said, Truly, I say to you, I do not know you. Be on the alert then, for you do not know the day nor the hour.

Heavenly Father, we come before you in the name of your son our Messiah, Jesus. We ask you, Lord God, for the power and presence of your Holy Spirit to open our eyes, our minds, and above all, our hearts for the glory and meaning of your word.

Above all, Father, we ask that in your grace and in your strength, we would be not only dealers of your word, but doers also in Jesus' name, for Jesus' sake. The parable of the wise and the foolish virgins.

Jewish Weddings and the Bridegroom's Return

Five prudent, five imprudent. Five ready for the bridegroom to come, five who were not. This draws on a number of Old Testament passages, but we have to understand something about a Jewish wedding in the time of Jesus, in the Second Temple period.

A wedding had three stages, all of them crucial, all of them significant. Without all three, a wedding was not a wedding. That is to say, a marriage was not a marriage. The first was betrothal, betrothal.

Engagement was more than an engagement in our sense. You couldn't break it off. It was legally binding. When Joseph intended to quietly divorce Mary, he needed, again, a certificate of divorce to do it.

The engagement was more than an engagement in our Western sense. It was legally binding. Without the betrothal, the bridegroom would go away for at least a year. His bride would not see him for this intermittent period to which she was already committed to him, and he would go away to his father's house and build an annex onto his father's house, additional rooms or a wing onto his father's house to prepare a place for the bride.

When he went away, she knew he was going to prepare a place for her. That was the betrothal. Then you have the actual nuptial itself. We read in the Song of Solomon, his banner opened me his love, and at a Jewish wedding to this day, we get married under something called a chuppah, a banner.

I was married under a chuppah in Israel. That was the nuptial service. Finally, there was the confirmation of the marriage. All three were absolutely crucial for a wedding to be a wedding, for a marriage to be a marriage, even though it was an intermittent time period.

And it's against this background that Jesus is speaking. But let's look very briefly at Psalm 45, verse 14. Enter the king in embroidered work. The virgins, her companions who follow her, will be brought to thee.

They will be led forth with gladness and rejoicing. They will enter the king's palace. All of this, of course, is a typology of the Messiah coming for his bride. We have to understand a number of things about the bride.

Biblical Pictures of the Bride

The same as the wicked women in Scripture, teach something about the great harlot of Revelation. All of the wicked women in the Bible teach something about her in Revelation 17 and 18, particularly Jezebel, Queen of Leah, Delilah, the wicked woman in Proverbs 5 and so on.

They all teach something about the wicked woman. The good women of the Bible all teach something about the true bride. Sarah, Rachel, Leah, Rebecca, Queen Esther at her wedding, as we studied yesterday, Ruth.

All of them teach something about the bride in different aspects. One bride. It goes back, of course, to Genesis 3, where God makes man in his image and in his likeness. He gives certain aspects of the divine nature to males and certain to females, that between the two they would reproduce his image and likeness on the earth.

He makes man a majodevi in his image. So the same as a plural God, a triune God, comes together in an act of creative love, the Hebrew word achduth, oneness, so too, in marital procreation, we are replaying what God does in the creation.

One reflects the other. But then we see that Israel was to be Yahweh's bride. That's why the Old Testament equates idolatry with adultery. Idolatry, as it were, equals spiritual adultery. When Israel went into sin, worshipping other gods, the Old Testament calls it by the Hebrew terms nuth, harlotry or whoredom.

Oh, daughter of Zion, you've played the harlot. That is to say, idolatry equals spiritual adultery. Something becomes more important than her lover. It's very interesting that the Hebrew word for husband, master, owner, is barith.

Barith. Yahweh was to be Israel's barith. But Satan comes and tries to counterfeit barith. And you have the Canaanite pagan deity, Bar-Hashemayim, the master of heaven. What happens was, in the story of Elijah, for instance, in 1 Kings, was this.

The Hebrews of the north, in Israel, on Mount Carmel, began worshipping the true God in an unbiblical way. They began worshipping the right Baal in the wrong way. Instead of on Mount Zion in Jerusalem, they did it on Mount Carmel in Galilee.

We'll be looking at this Monday night. When you begin to worship the right God in an unbiblical way, an alien spirit gets an encounter with him. They didn't just begin worshipping this false Baal, they thought they were worshipping the true one.

This is spiritual seduction. We'll look at this in the study of the golden calf, Lord willing, tomorrow night. But then this becomes extended into the Messiah's relationship with his bride. Adam is a type of Jesus, isn't he?

Jesus is called the second Adam, and Eve his bride. I'll put enmity between you and the woman, between your seed and her seed. Now some people are telling us the church will be triumphant. I read a book by a chap in Australia called Kevin Conner, and he said, you know the church is going to be triumphant because of what it says in Genesis 3, the woman will be triumphant.

But in fact it says the seed of the woman, Jesus the Messiah, will crush the serpent's head. It says in Romans, the Lord of Glory will conquer him. We have a big error today. The error is called Kingdom Now Theology, triumphalism, dominionism.

Rejecting Kingdom Now Triumphalism

It is no more typical on one extreme than a bunker mentality is on the other. The idea that we're going to conquer the whole world for Christ and set up his kingdom before he comes is absolutely false.

It is as wrong on one extreme as a bunker mentality is on the other. And when you understand the presuppositions of the people who teach it, you understand people like Rick Oswald and what they're saying and what they're coming from.

You see, this thing we just read here in Matthew 25 is part of something called the Olivet Discourse. Matthew 24 and 25, you have it in Mark 13, you have it in various sections of Luke. But here, the most comprehensive presentation of the Olivet Discourse, what Jesus said about the last days, is Matthew 24 and 25.

He talks of the last days. These people caught up in triumphalism today are telling us that Matthew 24 and 25 are not about the last days. These things have no future meaning. They already happened in the year 70 A .D.

In other words, the very passages of scripture that the Lord Jesus gave us so we would not be unprepared, so we would not be deceived, so we would not be foolish virgins. These people, like Mr. Godwin and these other people who come to the table, are telling us are not even about the last days.

The very things Jesus gave so you and your family would not be deceived and unprepared, they are teaching them not about the last days. Now, this is very, very dangerous. What these people are saying is Jesus comes to the church somehow before he comes for it.

That the return of Christ is realized in the church. Now, Jesus directly warns against what these people are teaching. If they say he's in the inner rooms, don't go there. If they say he's in the wilderness, don't go there.

The Son of Man will go the way you saw him. Come, you understand? We are living in an age of deception and spiritual seduction. In the Olivet Discourse, when the apostles ask him, what's the sign of the end?

How are we going to be ready? How are we going to be prepared? How are we not going to be deceived? The first thing he warns about are false teachers, false prophets, and false messiahs. That is, people with a false anointing.

The only thing a false Christ needs is somebody with a false anointing. That's all it means. He warns about the things we're hearing and being taught today. Those who heed his word will be wise virgins.

Those who don't will be foolish. As anyone can read for themselves in Matthew 25. Verse 32, all the nations will be gathered before him. He'll separate one from another, as one separates sheep from goats.

Then he'll give out the rewards. That didn't happen in 70 A .D., did it? We're going to have a three-minute Bible study on how to understand prophecy from a Jewish perspective. Western Protestant hermeneutics, the way we interpret the Bible with our Western minds, is Hellenistic.

It comes from Greek civilization. It came to us from the humanism of the 16th century. That's where the Reformers imitated it. I'm not saying it's completely wrong. I'm simply saying it's not adequate.

Western way of looking at the Bible says, an eschatological prophecy, or a prophecy about the return of Christ, or the last days, or anything like this, is that we have a prediction and a fulfillment.

Something's predicted in Scripture, and then it's fulfilled. That's what our Western minds have been taught to think. However, the minds that wrote the Bible thought of prophecy totally different. To the Jewish worldview that wrote the Bible, prophecy is a pattern.

Multiple fulfillments. But each fulfillment is a type or a shadow of the ultimate one. Let me explain. Let's look at the book of Daniel, chapter 7. Daniel here is making predictions about someone called Antiochus Epiphanes, who's a major type or symbol of the Antichrist.

The Antichrist will replay what Antiochus did. He slaughtered the pig in the temple. He sets up a false image in the temple. And it says this in Daniel, chapter 7, verse 21. I kept looking, and that one was raging war with the saints and overpowering them, until the Ancient of Days came and judgment was passed in favor of the saints of the highest one.

And at that time arrived when the saints took possession of the kingdom. When will the saints take possession of the kingdom? When the Ancient of Days comes. When Jesus returns. The kingdom now, preachers are saying, no, the kingdom is not when he returns.

The kingdom is now. Do you understand? Instead of thy kingdom come, they're saying thy kingdom has come, and it is us. We're going to throw back the powers of darkness and set up the kingdom on earth.

They get into all kinds of errors known as reconstructionism, trying to turn the church into a political institution and all this kind of stuff. But Jesus said his kingdom was not of this world. Now, Daniel goes on to make this prediction.

He talks about something called in Aramaic, the abomination of desolation in Daniel, chapter 9, verse 27. That literally happened about 150 years before Jesus was born. This guy named Antiochus comes and sets up an image in the temple.

Jesus knew it because the Jews celebrated the liberation of the temple with something called Hanukkah, which begins in a few weeks. And in John, chapter 10, Jesus celebrated Hanukkah. Your Bible probably calls it the Feast of Dedication.

So this already happened. But in all of the discourse of Matthew 24, Jesus takes something that already happened and says it's going to happen again. Matthew chapter 24, Jesus says this. When you see the abomination of desolation in verse 15, spoken of by Daniel the prophet, Jesus took something that already happened and said it's going to happen again.

Prophecy, Typology, and Future Fulfillment

Now, the Western way of looking at the Bible will tell you there's four ways to interpret a prophecy. If you went to a theological cemetery like I go to seminary, they'll tell you the first way is called preterism.

You take something that already happened and write about it in the future tense and try to turn a past event into a prediction. The liberals love it. Liberal theologians can't believe there's a God anyway and if there is, you can't know the future.

Even if he did, he wouldn't be able to tell Isaiah. So therefore, when Isaiah says that a king named Cyrus would send the Jews back to Israel after the Babylonian captivity 200 years before Cyrus was born, that proves Isaiah didn't write Isaiah.

Understand, they can't accept the supernatural, so they love preterism. They say that they just took things that already happened and then wrote them. They call it ex-Sapphachina interpolation. The second is something called historicism.

It says that these events were already fulfilled in the early church and have no future meaning. The third thing they say is, the third way is polemicism. These predictions of the last days are only really given to encourage the church at times of persecution.

But the fourth way they say you can interpret it is futurism. Like Barry Smith and Hal Lindsey, it's going to happen in the future. The Western mind says one of those four is true. It's preterism, it already happened and they wrote it afterwards.

It's historicism, it really was a prophecy, but it's already fulfilled in the early church. It's polemicism, it's just poetry to encourage the church when the church is being persecuted. Or it's going to happen in the future.

To the Jewish mind, however, all four are true. You understand? Jesus took something that already happened. He took Daniel's prediction that already happened with the Maccabees and Antiochus Epiphanes and Hanukkah and he says it's going to happen again.

So Jesus uses preterism. But then, in 70 AD, the temple is destroyed as Jesus predicts. And when the temple is destroyed, if you were to read Josephus, the Romans set up pagan ensigns on the temple mount and worshiped them, symbolizing political dominion over the church, over the house of God.

It was an abomination of desolation in the early church. In the second century, the Emperor Hadrian built a city called Arilena Capitolina and put a temple of Jupiter on the temple mount. In the fourth century, Constantine's nephew, Julius the Apostate, tried to rebuild the temple and all these mysterious fires happened.

Today, if you come to Israel, you'll see on the temple mount the Mosque of Omar, the Dome of the Rock, the gold dome. On the outside of it, it says God has no son, a quotation from the Koran. Now we're told in John's epistle that which denies the father and son relationship is antichrist.

So there is an antichrist on the temple mount. Historicism is true, but ultimately it still has to happen. Yes, polemicism is true. John wrote the book of Revelation when he was exiled on Patmos, when the church was being persecuted to encourage the church.

It did happen. It happened in the early church, but it's going to happen again. Jesus didn't come and separate the sheep from goats in 70 A .D. He didn't come and bring in God's judgment and give out the rewards in 70 A .D.

These prophecies were partially fulfilled in the early church. These people who are telling you that this stuff has no future meaning like Rick Godwin are very dangerous. If you believe that kind of doctrine, you're going to be a foolish virgin.

Jesus gave us Matthew 24 and Matthew 25, so you and I will not be deceived. These things are going to happen. The emergence of antichrist will take place and we're already seeing more and more signs of it.

Oil, the Holy Spirit, and Spiritual Illumination

But let's look at these versions. The wise and the foolish. The wise ones had oil for their lamps. Extra oil. Different liquids typify or symbolize the Holy Spirit in different aspects of his ministry.

As you may have heard me say already. Isaiah chapter 44 verse 3. Let's look at one of the liquids. Water on the thirsty land and streams on the dry ground. I'll pour out my spirit on your offspring. The Holy Spirit outpoured is typified by rain.

It forms something we call in Hebrew, mine hyen, living water. In John chapter 7, Jesus says I'll give you living water. But in verse 39 it says, this he spoke of the Holy Spirit. Rain being outpoured is the outpouring of the Holy Spirit.

The Holy Spirit in worship is called new wine. If you want to know how the charismatic movement is going to end up, look at Isaiah 24 verse 7. Remember after 30 years of charismatic renewal, it is not for either revival to the church or repentance to society.

I believe it began as the work of God's spirit, but it was quickly compromised with experiential theology. People basing doctrines on their own inventions instead of the word of God, and the whole thing was compromised with ecumenism and Rome and the rest of it, and it has no prospect of bringing revival.

After 30 years, the charismatic renewal has not delivered what it promised. Is there less crime now than it was 30 years ago? No, there's more. Is there less divorce now than it was 30 years ago? No, there's more.

Is there less racism now in the world than it was 30 years ago? No, there's more. Less homosexuality now than 30 years ago? No, there's more. Society is far worse off now than it was before the charismatic renewal.

You find these dominionists who are triumphant, who are taking victory, kingdom now. Are they even living in the real world? What's happening is what the Bible said. It would get worse and worse, not better and better.

But that doesn't mean it can't be a revival before Jesus comes, but it certainly does mean that if revival does come, it'll be on the basis of Scripture, not their nonsense. How can this movement have revived the society when it hasn't even been able to revive the church?

I live in England. We had an Anglican bishop say that you don't have to believe in the resurrection or the virgin birth to be a Christian, and two-thirds of the other Anglican bishops defended him. We had another Anglican bishop named Derrick Rawcliffe, gave an interview to a major newspaper in England, and he said, I know some gay men are bishops, but most of us make better priests than other men because we're more sensitive.

These things wouldn't have happened before the renewal. Yet you'll find people in charismatic Anglican churches in England rolling on the floor laughing like hyenas, saying God's doing a great thing while their church and their society is going to the wall.

The blindness of Satan. It's like the mask of the Red Death. Here's what happens. The new wine mourns, in verse 7, the vine decays, the merry-hearted sigh, the gaiety of the tambourine ceases, the noise of the reveler stops, and the gaiety of the heart comes to an end.

So much for it. But we see here the new wine is the Holy Spirit in worship, and it will mourn. What we have today in the body of Christ, in the charismatic movement, and so much of Pentecostalism, and I am a Pentecostal by the way, I believe in the gift of the Spirit.

What you see today is not the worship of the Lord, what you see is the worship of worship. And the faith that's being taught is not faith in Jesus, it is faith in faith. So the third liquid is the oil.

In this sense, the oil is for the Lamb. The illumination of the Holy Spirit. Thy word is a lamp unto my feet. Without the illumination of the Holy Spirit in your Bible teaching, you will not be able to see in the dark.

Now understand why it says He comes in the night. The Bridegroom comes in the night. The night is the most frequent metaphor in Scripture for the Great Tribulation. Hatekufat ha-Torat yakov in Hebrew, through the time of Jacob's trouble.

Watchman, watchman, how far is the night? Is he coming in the second watch of the night or the third? He's coming like a thief in the night. Jesus says work while you have the light, for night will come when no man can work.

You don't need much light when it's not dark out, but things are getting darker. At a time when Christians should be learning and understanding the word of God. The most, they are going the further and furthest away from it in favor of experience and doctrines of their own invention.

Laodicea and the Need for Faithful Understanding

Let me explain. Laodicea is the final church. Laodicea in Greek means people's opinions. Man-made doctrines are replacing the truth of Scripture. Laodicea is a lukewarm materialistic church that because it is well off financially and materially is deceived into thinking it is well off spiritually.

It is Western mainstream evangelical Christianity. Laodicea was the by-prod to anoint its eyes with it may see. Laodicea's first problem is that it doesn't know it's Laodicea. That's its first problem.

It's the church of people's opinions. So you wind up with a gospel based on Western consumerism. We're not persecuted so therefore you don't have to suffer. Most Christians throughout most of history have suffered.

Our freedom to be Christians and our standard of living is a historical anomaly. As I always point out the only reason you have the standard of living and the degree of freedom you've had in Western democracies like this one is because of the influences of Biblical Christianity on our foundations of culture, government and economy.

Now that we're turning away from Christianity towards New Age religion and God knows what else, our freedom and affluence are disintegrating. That's what's underlying the decline of Western civilization more than anything else.

Laodicea. So they rewrite the gospel in light of their freedom. You don't have to suffer. Name it and claim it. Just give us your Visa card. Phone in and give us your Visa card. You can have this. You wind up with a Western consumerist Christianity.

And they invent their own doctrines to accommodate it. People's opinions. Laodicea will have no oil in its lamp. In the last days faithfulness and understanding become very closely associated. You understand?

In the last days before Jesus comes, someone's understanding of God's word will in some way be a reflection of or a barometer of their faithfulness to the Lord. Look at the book of Daniel. Daniel saw things of the last days and he was told, feel these things up.

For it pertains to the last days. There's no new revelation, but there will be an understanding and unveiling of what's already in the Bible. What's already revealed. That's what apocalypse means. Apocalypse is unveiling.

The mysteries of the last days that you read about in books like Ezekiel, Revelation and Daniel are sealed up to the last days. They were told to seal them up in the last days. The Holy Spirit will illuminate those mysteries to the faithful to unveil those things.

But if you don't have oil in your lamp, you're not going to see in the dark. Look what it says in Daniel chapter 12 after he's called to seal these things up. Verse 10. None of the wicked will understand, but those who have insight will understand.

Daniel 11, those who have insight among the people will give understanding to the many. Revelation by far that you may see where he was wisdom. Count the number of the beast. If people, if Christians, if our brethren in Christ can't see through obvious con men like Kenneth Hagan and Kenneth Copeland, what are they going to do when real deception comes?

If they can't see through a meathead like Rodney Howard Brown, what are they going to do when this guy shows up? When you talk to these people in these rainbow tide churches, the first thing you discover, ask anybody who knows them.

It doesn't bother me that they're uneducated, man. That doesn't bother me. What bothers me is they are untaught in the word of God. In 1st Timothy chapter one, if people are untaught in the word of God, they have no right whatsoever to be in Christian leadership.

These people are there by the hands of man, not the hands of God. They do not meet God's standards for being in the ministry. They don't know his word. That's why they'll never be baited by like Dave Hunt or Hank Hattigrass or me.

They'll never be baited because they know they'll be shown up for what they are. Empty barrels making a lot of noise. I don't say that in arrogance. We have nothing that which we've received, but they haven't received anything.

They're too filled with themselves to make room for anything God wants to give them. If you don't have oil in your lamp, you will not see. But not only that, they needed flasks. You see, you can have the oil in your lamp, but that'll only burn for a certain amount of time.

When things get darker and darker, you're going to have to burn more and more oil, but they won't have the oil. At a time when people should be into the word of God the most, they're going the furthest away from it.

And not only that, their leaders are leading them away from it. Look what the lies they're teaching. In America, Rick Godwin is promoted on the TVN by Paul Crouch. His wife dresses like a gaudy old hag.

She looks like an old prostitute who's too old for the games. And she comes out. When unsaved people see this gaudiness, it discredits the gospel. You understand? When unsaved people see this whorish-looking old woman saying this to me, it discredits the gospel.

If I was unsaved and I thought that was Christianity, I wouldn't want to become a Christian either. And he says, we don't need doctrine. Doctrine breeds division. Well, let's look at what the word of God says.

Let's look at Philippians chapter 1, verse 9. This I pray, that your love may abound still more and more in real knowledge and all discernment. We don't want doctrine. We want love. Doctrine will bring division.

The Bible says if you don't have real knowledge, you won't have real love. If you have real love, it will be love with true knowledge and true discernment. Where is the discernment? Where is the knowledge of God's word?

It's not there. You know why? Because it's not real love. The only love these hyper-faith preachers have is the love of money. If you don't have it, you're going to be deceived. If you don't have it, when Jesus comes, you will not be ready.

It does not only mean individuals, but remember, brides are types of churches. You're going to have two kinds of churches before Jesus comes. The prudish and the foolish. The ones who have the oil and the ones who are going to wish they got it when they get in with good.

A time comes when it's too late to obtain it. The time to get it is now. But when they should be getting it now, they're doing everything and anything except getting it now. They're inventing their own doctrine.

The Song of Solomon and the Bride of Christ

With this background, let's understand what Jesus was doing. Jews have a liturgy for the synagogue called a Shidur. But there's a special Shidur for holidays called a Makhzor. And a Makhzor dictates certain passages of the Tanakh, the Old Testament, will be read for certain Jewish holidays.

The Olivet Discourse, Matthew 24 and 25, just prior to Jesus' crucifixion, was the Jewish feast of Passover, Pesach. What was being read, and to this day, what is read in the Jewish synagogues at Pesach, at Passover?

Hashir Hashirim, the song of songs, the song of Solomon. What the Lord Jesus does in Matthew 25 is He takes what was being read in the synagogues at this particular time and interprets it for the church.

He takes what the Jews were hearing read in the synagogues at this very time and says, this is what it means. Let's look at what Jesus was talking about with the wise and the foolish virgins. Turn with me, please, to Hashir Hashirim, the song of Solomon.

Let's look, first of all, at chapter 4. We have here, poetic allegory of some kind, more metaphor, actually, not allegory, of Solomon's romance with Shulamit. Solomon typifies the Messiah and Shulamit his bride.

Look at chapter 4, verse 6. Now, we understand from the gender and number in the Hebrew text, what singular, what plural, what masculine, what feminine, what the bride is singing to the bridegroom, what the bridegroom is singing to the bride, and what the witnesses to the relationship who correspond to the Sevaot, the host of heaven, what they're singing to what they witness.

And here, the bride is being sung to by the bridegroom. Until the cool of day, when the shadows flee away, I will go my way to the mountain of Mer, to the hill of frankincense. Mer was anointing for burial.

Mer was anointing for burial. It's what bodies were anointed with. The persecuted church of Revelation, Smyrna, comes from the same word. The modern city of Izmir. The Christians there were terribly persecuted.

Mer, anointing for burial. John 19, what did they anoint Jesus' corpse with, when Nicodemus comes with Joseph, with Allos, Mer. He goes to the mountain of Mer, now Calvary, to die for his bride. To the hill of frankincense, to offer a sacrifice, as the high priest.

You understand? Husbands, love your wives as Christ does the church, in Ephesians. How did Christ love the church? How did he love his bride? He gave his life for her. A wife's submission to her husband is not based on the fact that he has bigger muscles.

Her submission to her husband is that God requires him to lay his life down for her good. The whole idea of the bride. Body life of the church begins with family life. Marriage is the closest form of fellowship God has ordained.

It goes back, again, even to sexual unity, to the creation, when we procreate. A prayer of God coming together. The Hebrew word bevek, kareem is oneness. You're going back and replaying something of the divine nature.

It's the closest form of unity. I and the father are one, the husband and wife one. The same Hebrew concept of akthuth, you understand? A pregnant woman, one person inside of another. Is it one body or is it two?

Well, it's both. These things teach about the triune Godhead in different ways, you understand? A husband, his wife, and a conceived child. All these things are images which reflect things about God's own triune nature.

Trinity. When a Christian couple have sexual relations, it is a picture of Jesus going inside of his bride, causing his bride to be fruitful, you understand? When a husband and wife, who are Christians, make love, it's a picture, it's a reflection of Christ going inside of the church, causing the church to be fruitful.

All this stuff fits right. Know ye not, your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit. That's one of the reasons sexual sin is so serious. The husband representing Christ, he's joining the body of Jesus to a harlot.

If he commits adultery, a Christian wife, her body is the temple of the Spirit. We're told in Hebrews that the high priest, the Aaronic high priest, is a symbol of Jesus, aren't we? Hence, it's the high priest entering the temple.

You even think of the female anatomy, it's supposed to be a mystery what's on the back of the hymen membrane, the same as it was supposed to be a mystery what's on the back of the curtain in the Holy of Holies, understand?

Only the high priest was supposed to know what it was like in there. Only the husband is supposed to know what it's like. It's all this kind of picture. You understand sexual sin for what it is when you understand how important it is.

We have a lot of good books on Christian marriage counseling. There are also a lot of bad ones. But even the good ones have one flaw by and large. They don't begin with the biblical theology of marriage.

I wish they would give more emphasis on understanding the doctrine of marriage. Then you'd understand the psychology of it and the sociology of it and the sexuality of it a lot more. You'd understand these things a lot more if you began with the biblical teaching on marriage.