Someone recently asked a question about teachers who say the Bridegroom Paradigm is not Biblical. Here was part of my response:
John 3:29 describes Jesus as the Bridegroom. Revelation 21 describes the New Jerusalem as being like a bride. Jesus uses the parable of the Ten Virgins in Matt 25. These alone keep the Bridegroom paradigm on the table.. unless someone wants to claim that Matt 25 doesn’t apply to Christians.
In terms of actual interpretation, yes, there are many layers of meaning. Scripture is poetic, which means that it has artistic and literal meanings—BOTH.
In terms of the paradigm itself, technically, Israel/Jerusalem is the actual Bride, and the Gentile Church is the FRIEND of the Bridegroom. However, furthering our walk with Christ by considering the relationship between Bride and Bridegroom can be useful and accurate.
But let’s make this super-simple, and not to be crass, but look at what their objection actually implies: They accuse Bridegroom paradigms of being grotesque. · · · →