Then?
45 Who then is a faithful and wise servant, whom his lord hath made ruler over his household, to give them meat in due season?
46 Blessed is that servant, whom his lord when he cometh shall find so doing.
47 Verily I say unto you, That he shall make him ruler over all his goods.
48 But and if that evil servant shall say in his heart, My lord delayeth his coming;
49 And shall begin to smite his fellowservants, and to eat and drink with the drunken;
50 The lord of that servant shall come in a day when he looketh not for him, and in an hour that he is not aware of,
51 And shall cut him asunder, and appoint him his portion with the hypocrites: there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth.
25:1 Then shall the kingdom of heaven be likened unto ten virgins, which took their lamps, and went forth to meet the bridegroom.
2 And five of them were wise, and five were foolish.
3 They that were foolish took their lamps, and took no oil with them:
4 But the wise took oil in their vessels with their lamps.
5 While the bridegroom tarried, they all slumbered and slept.
6 And at midnight there was a cry made, Behold, the bridegroom cometh; go ye out to meet him.
7 Then all those virgins arose, and trimmed their lamps.
8 And the foolish said unto the wise, Give us of your oil; for our lamps are gone out.
9 But the wise answered, saying, Not so; lest there be not enough for us and you: but go ye rather to them that sell, and buy for yourselves.
10 And while they went to buy, the bridegroom came; and they that were ready went in with him to the marriage: and the door was shut.
11 Afterward came also the other virgins, saying, Lord, Lord, open to us.
12 But he answered and said, Verily I say unto you, I know you not.
The word "Then" bothered me in the beginning of Chapter 25. I know that there were no chapters in the gospel of Matthew so I feel this needs to be seen as a continuation of what chapter 24 ended with.
So in one we have a servant who is beating the fellow servants and eating and drinking with the drunken. He is punished with the hypocrites where there is weeping and gnashing of teeth.
But in the other we have virgins, they aren't beating anyone and they aren't eating and drinking with the drunken. They are waiting for the Lord and they do have lit lamps (torches).
They aren't "hypocrites" but they are "foolish". What is the difference? We often refer to politicians as hypocrites because they made promises when they campaigned but then they did something else once elected. They said one thing but did another. However, if we vote for this person and then realize we were duped we will say "I was a fool". So the guy who scammed us was a hypocrite and the person scammed was a fool.
This brings us to the word "then", it means both of these stories take place at the same time, the difference is that one person is a hypocrite and the other is a fool. Notice how this cry takes place at "midnight". We have Christians in every country on earth, it will only be midnight in a thin slice of the earth. At the same time it is midnight in one place it is noon in another. Only 1/24th of the earth is in midnight. So then, perhaps this is not referring to a normal situation. Maybe this is the "3 days of darkness" we hear about in Exodus. Ecclesiastes tells us there is no new thing, but the thing that will be is the thing that has been. This aligns with my theory that the rapture takes place during the 9th plague, the three days of darkness.
We have already been told that at the time of the rapture the "churches" will be burned and the pastors beaten or killed. They will be treated as hypocrites. What about all the left behind Christians? They will all be saying "I was a fool". They go to buy the oil from the ones who sell, the two witnesses called the two olive trees. We don't see the two witnesses until the start of the 70th week, so we know that this event is not taking place in the middle of the tribulation, the two witnesses are killed in the middle of the tribulation.