Webmaster, I found the link for the \"Parable of Servants\" to lead me afar to the Parable of the Unmerciful Servant. Without a page for Matt. 24:45-51, I include it with this Parable of the Ten Virgins. The preceding Parable of the Two Servants is critical to the Parable of the Ten Virgins, which begins with the word \"Then\" (Matt. 25:1). Therefore, the fulfillment of the Parable of the Ten Virgins will shorly follow that of the preceding Parable of the Two Servants (Matt. 24:45-51). Well, when will that be? Who are the servants in charge, and who is their master? For centuries churches have taught that Jesus Christ is the Master of His parable, but this understanding is collapsing before our very eyes in today\'s end times. He has prophesied that the end of the age, when He would rapture us home to heaven, would come once the gospel of salvation through Him got spread throughout the whole inhabitable earth for a testimony to all peoples (Matt. 24:14). My problem with the traditional church teaching is as follows: what if the evil servant in charge should prevent world evangelism so that Christ should never return? Well, in that case, Jesus Christ obviously was not the master of His parable. Hebrew and Aramaic grammar can shed light on this. In English, we usually speak of classes of things in the plural unless we use collective nouns. The same was true of Greek, yet Hebrew and Aramaic were exceptions. In those two tongues, there is a \"general (use of the) masculine singular\" as we see in Psalm 1, in which a righteous (man) in Hebrew represents righteous people (\"am) in general. In the Parable of the Two Servants (Matt. 24:45-51), the general masculine singular \"master,\" \"wise and faithful servant,\" and \"evil servant\" have been retained upon translation to Greek and English rather than receiving grammatrically correct plural translations to preserve the meaning of the text. The verb \"dichotome^sei\" (will cut asunder) could merely mean \"will categorize\" if the evil servant were presented naturally in the plural in Matt. 24:51. By leaving the general masculine singular forms intact upon translation to Greek, Saint Matthew makes it completely clear to us that, yes, the master(s) will most certainly cut the evil servant(s) to pieces. Now that we understand the general masculine singular, I examine the plural meanings of the master and each servant in charge. If the master be not Jesus, he must have entrusted the servants in charge of his wealth or at least now hold the position to return and judge them. Only the people, or successors threof, who entrusted the servants in charge of the goods of God\'s people and responsible to nourish them can then be this master. Furthermore, when this master returns, he must recognize faithful service and entrust the good servant with all his goods: who is so incredibly generous today? Furthermore, he must conceal his intentions to return to the evil servant unawares, do so in good times, cut him to pieces, understand how the evil servant was hypocritical and assign him his portion of the hypocrites, cast him out knowing the weeping and gnashing of teeth to result, and beat or flog the evil servant according to the servant\'s conscience (Luke\'s account). The text to condemn the evil servant is Matt. 7:7 to refute the spiritual claims of every pastor who browbeat his needy while he lived it up. By putting his needy down when they made requests, the evil servant has caused them to sin habitually (worth a curse, Matt. 18:5-7) by putting aside Jesus\' commands not to worry but to ask, seek, and knock. In light of the general use of the Hebrew or Aramaic masculine singular forms, the master, if not Jesus, over servants, represent the following situations... Board of elders (master) over pastor, treasurer, Sunday school teacher; State legislature or accreditation board (master) over psychiatrists, corrections officers, physicians, psychiatric gatekeepers, etc.; HR Department (master) over hospital billing staff, nurses, etc.; College of cardinals (master) over Roman Catholic bishops (servants); Head of the United Methodist Church (master) over itinerant ministers; and so on. Still, this judgement cannot happen yet because these masters still have today\'s laws to fear, laws against aggravated assault and battery. Remember, in order to return as master, each of these gatherings in power must be able to amputate the evil servants, so literal a word in the Greek as to make Matthew retain the general masculine singular of Hebrew in Greek translation to preserve its meaning of cutting into pieces, of absolute amputations, perhaps just one, perhaps several amputations. Furthermore, from Luke\'s account they must have the power and will to beat the crying evil servants already kicked out severely according to the content of the conscience of each. How the various masters will gain their rights to impose these corporal punishments, judgements of Scripture, I leave to the Lord Almighty. (Lord\'s Prayer) Next, after all this has happened, the Parable of the Virgins will be fulfilled as the church worship industry dies and loses its buildings. The five wise virgins with extra oil represent believers, such as churchgoers, with salvation and sufficient obedience to Jesus to be received into house churches. In contrast, the five foolish virgins represent lukewarm so-called or backslidden Christians who believe or go to church for social reasons and are unwilling to desist from sin in order to stay welcome at a house church. When the Kingdom of Heaven moves out of the dedicated church buildings and into house churches to meet in mundane places, will the social churchgoers indeed feel locked out! And thus our \"extra oil\" represents sanctification beyond the oil in the lamps, justification. Lastly, the wedding banquet will occur then in the house churches if not after the Rapture in heaven. Finally, the Parable of the Talents (Matt. 25:14-30) will be fulfilled as masters call their rank-and-file stewards to account. Each steward, each of us in charge of wealth of our own, however little, has been entrusted to make a profit according to our abilities. The good stewards or servants (not necessarily in charge of people) will have profits to show their masters, their rich friends of Luke 16 if not Jesus Christ in heaven. The lazy servants have failed to do what was right: to trade with their wealth and make profits. Perhaps the load of seventy-six pounds avordupois of silver was too heavy for the lazy to carry; soldiers who drop their seventy-pound rucksacks are those most likely to get killed because others have to carry their packs for them. Perhaps his experience is with funerals and burials rather than in trading; perhaps he does not trust in his master\'s return, thinking instead, \"He won\'t ever come back. When he dies, I won\'t trust his heirs; they won\'t know what I have hidden to free myself.\" In the worst case, however, the lazy servants say they never had money to invest. In that case, I, Kevin Douglas Rosenberg, prophet of Luke 16, or some ally of mine, shall be their master if the faithful servants answer to their rich friends then instead of to Jesus Christ after the Rapture. I will tell the hard-lot lazy servants that they had Luke 16:1-13 in their bibles; how come they contented themselves with financially limited congregations despising Jesus\' commands to generosity as they hewed to their Budgets? Very few of them indeed in Christ can say they never had the chance to read this passage, only that no one led them to it. I will be far less sympathetic toward those lazy servants who did not have such a problem as incarceration yet still ignored Jesus\' clear command to make friends with the rich people of the world so that people might welcome us into everlasting dwellings if we lost our homes and so that our congregations might be granted the wealth for our ministries. And the profitable servants will be commended by their grantors while the lazy servants get stripped of their little wealth and possessions and cast out into the outer darkness of homelessness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. Yes, the lazy servants content to serve God by themselves with what they have will lose it all, and that will be given to the best stewards. By obeying Luke 16, we may know the rich people of the world, and they may let us in on their investment advice. In contrast, the proud among us who avoid the rich will make dumb investments such as gambling. Therefore, faithfulness even in the unrighteous mammon of Luke 16:1-13 is even more important than investment advice for hard-earned money. I wish you all the best of luck in these end times as we get our houses in order for these awesome events. Yours in Christ, +++ Kevin D. Rosenberg (reply here; e-mail is exclusive of junk mail)