Outer Darkness

Jay Ross said:

Perhaps it is best to go to the scriptural passages in question for the scriptural references provided in the OP: -

First scriptural reference provided in the OP: -

Matthew 8: 10 – 12: - 10 When Jesus heard it, He marveled, and said to those who followed, "Assuredly, I say to you, I have not found such great faith, not even in Israel! 11 And I say to you that many will come from east and west, and sit down with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven. 12 But the sons of the kingdom will be cast out into outer darkness. There will be weeping and gnashing of teeth."​

Now who are “the sons of the kingdom”? let us consider the first occurrence of the Greek word, βασιλείας which is found 14 times in the New Testament and is first used in this scriptural passage: -

Matthew 4: 8 - 10: - 8 Again, the devil took Him up on an exceedingly high mountain, and showed Him all the kingdoms of the world and their glory. 9 And he said to Him, "All these things I will give You if You will fall down and worship me."

10 Then Jesus said to him, "Away with you, Satan! For it is written, 'You shall worship the Lord your God, and Him only you shall serve.'"​

In this passage, Satan showed Jesus all of the kingdom in the world that were his. So, the “sons of the kingdom” belong to Satan.

Second scriptural reference provided in the OP: -

Matthew 22: 11 – 13: - 11 "But when the king came in to see the guests, he saw a man there who did not have on a wedding garment. 12 So he said to him, 'Friend, how did you come in here without a wedding garment?' And he was speechless. 13 Then the king said to the servants, 'Bind him hand and foot, take him away, and cast him into outer darkness; there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.'​

The man without the garment was not invited to the wedding feast, so was not adorned in the raiment of God’s Glory. He was not from God’s kingdom but he was rather from Satan’s Kingdom.

Third scriptural reference provided in the OP: -

Matthew 25: 26 – 30: - 26 But his master answered, 'Evil and lazy slave! So, you knew that I harvest where I didn't sow and gather where I didn't scatter? 27 Then you should have deposited my money with the bankers, and on my return, I would have received my money back with interest! 28 Therefore take the talent from him and give it to the one who has ten. 29 For the one who has will be given more, and he will have more than enough. But the one who does not have, even what he has will be taken from him. 30 And throw that worthless slave into the outer darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.'​

The understanding of this parable is centred around who we believe the “master” is. In another thread, this is being discussed. It is my firm belief that the master being referenced in this parable is Satan.

Jesus in telling this parable to His disciples is answering their question about the signs of the Age to come, the millennium age. At the beginning of the Millennium Age, Jesus tells us about the Wedding Feast, after Israel is redeemed. Then he tells us what will happen while Satan is locked up in the bottomless pit during the first 1,000 years of the Millennium Age, in that Satan will have organised Good and Faithful Servants to do his work on the earth while he is in the Bottomless Pit. Then when Satan return He return claiming that while he was in the Bottomless pit that he had been given a kingdom to rule over, but when he return the Book of Revelation tells us that he has to take that kingdom by force to install himself as a deity over that kingdom. Jesus indicates in this parable that Satan will act as if he has the power to dispatch someone into the outer darkness when he returns. God’s saints know that this is not true. Jesus in this parable is being a little bit tongue in cheek when He stated that Satan will attempt to dispatch the “Wicked servant,” in Satan’s eyes into the outer darkness.

All of the above are scriptural references are associated with the same Greek Root Word G:1857, which is translated as “outer.”

Now, we need to consider the Greek word σκότος which is derived from the Greek Root G:4655 and is found 14 times in the New Testament. (Greek Concordance: σκότος (skotos) -- 14 Occurrences) The first occurrence of this Greek word is found in Matthew 6: 23 and occurs twice in this verse.

Matthew 6: 22 – 23: - The Lamp of the Body
(Luke 11:34-36)

22 "The lamp of the body is the eye. If therefore your eye is good, your whole body will be full of light. 23 But if your eye is bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. If therefore the light that is in you is darkness, how great is that darkness!​

In the context of this verse, the knowledge of light, i.e. God, is being compared to knowledge of darkness, i.e. evil. We first encounter this concept of Light and Darkness in Genesis 1:2.

Genesis 1: 2: - The earth was without form, and void; and darkness/evil was on the face of the deep/abyss. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters.​

So darkness is the lack of knowledge and when we have a lack of knowledge, there is much weeping and gnashing of teeth.

So a paraphrase of this concept might just simply be: - cast out into the outside place where there is no knowledge of God.

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Episkopos said:

I'll try PM'ing you with it...

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faithfulness said:

Me too?

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Hidden In Him said:

Jay, I hate to pick this apart, seeing as how you apparently put some work into it. But there's a whole bunch of supposition in this post.

If you don't mind my asking, what is the driving point of this teaching? It appears to be a denunciation of Hell, though I cannot be certain that's the premise. I admit I don't know what you are proposing here. Mind explaining it in a sentence?

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Hidden In Him said:

This is correct. Outer Darkness is largely reserved for the unfaithful who did not shine light as they were supposed to. Hence their judgment. But while the Lake of Fire and Outer Darkness will indeed be two different places, they are both described as the scene of similar torments, presumably both in fire, because the same exact expression "weeping and gnashing of teeth" is used of both (Matthew 13:42, Matthew 13:50 for the former. Matthew 24:51, Matthew 25:30 of the latter). Gnashing of teeth is a reference to experiencing physical torment.

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Episkopos said:

Just as their are different kinds of sins...so there are different kinds of torments.

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Naomi25 said:

Fire is an extraordinary metaphor to use for something like this; it is a living thing that eats everything

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Enoch111 said:

What you have said about internal anguish is fine, but that goes along with external fire.

In the case of the Lake of Fire and brimstone, there is no metaphor, since there are several passages which speak of a literal Lake of Fire. Imagine a volcanic eruption and a lake of molten lava formed beneath the volcano. Except that it is extremely hot and it never cool down, since it is meant to burn eternally, and it is molten sulphur (Gk theion called brimstone in Scripture).

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Jay Ross said:

Perhaps it is best to go to the scriptural passages in question for the scriptural references provided in the OP: -

First scriptural reference provided in the OP: -

Matthew 8: 10 – 12: - 10 When Jesus heard it, He marveled, and said to those who followed, "Assuredly, I say to you, I have not found such great faith, not even in Israel! 11 And I say to you that many will come from east and west, and sit down with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven. 12 But the sons of the kingdom will be cast out into outer darkness. There will be weeping and gnashing of teeth."​

Now who are “the sons of the kingdom”? let us consider the first occurrence of the Greek word, βασιλείας which is found 14 times in the New Testament and is first used in this scriptural passage: -

Matthew 4: 8 - 10: - 8 Again, the devil took Him up on an exceedingly high mountain, and showed Him all the kingdoms of the world and their glory. 9 And he said to Him, "All these things I will give You if You will fall down and worship me."

10 Then Jesus said to him, "Away with you, Satan! For it is written, 'You shall worship the Lord your God, and Him only you shall serve.'"​

In this passage, Satan showed Jesus all of the kingdom in the world that were his. So, the “sons of the kingdom” belong to Satan.

Second scriptural reference provided in the OP: -

Matthew 22: 11 – 13: - 11 "But when the king came in to see the guests, he saw a man there who did not have on a wedding garment. 12 So he said to him, 'Friend, how did you come in here without a wedding garment?' And he was speechless. 13 Then the king said to the servants, 'Bind him hand and foot, take him away, and cast him into outer darkness; there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.'​

The man without the garment was not invited to the wedding feast, so was not adorned in the raiment of God’s Glory. He was not from God’s kingdom but he was rather from Satan’s Kingdom.

Third scriptural reference provided in the OP: -

Matthew 25: 26 – 30: - 26 But his master answered, 'Evil and lazy slave! So, you knew that I harvest where I didn't sow and gather where I didn't scatter? 27 Then you should have deposited my money with the bankers, and on my return, I would have received my money back with interest! 28 Therefore take the talent from him and give it to the one who has ten. 29 For the one who has will be given more, and he will have more than enough. But the one who does not have, even what he has will be taken from him. 30 And throw that worthless slave into the outer darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.'​

The understanding of this parable is centred around who we believe the “master” is. In another thread, this is being discussed. It is my firm belief that the master being referenced in this parable is Satan.

Jesus in telling this parable to His disciples is answering their question about the signs of the Age to come, the millennium age. At the beginning of the Millennium Age, Jesus tells us about the Wedding Feast, after Israel is redeemed. Then he tells us what will happen while Satan is locked up in the bottomless pit during the first 1,000 years of the Millennium Age, in that Satan will have organised Good and Faithful Servants to do his work on the earth while he is in the Bottomless Pit. Then when Satan return He return claiming that while he was in the Bottomless pit that he had been given a kingdom to rule over, but when he return the Book of Revelation tells us that he has to take that kingdom by force to install himself as a deity over that kingdom. Jesus indicates in this parable that Satan will act as if he has the power to dispatch someone into the outer darkness when he returns. God’s saints know that this is not true. Jesus in this parable is being a little bit tongue in cheek when He stated that Satan will attempt to dispatch the “Wicked servant,” in Satan’s eyes into the outer darkness.

All of the above are scriptural references are associated with the same Greek Root Word G:1857, which is translated as “outer.”

Now, we need to consider the Greek word σκότος which is derived from the Greek Root G:4655 and is found 14 times in the New Testament. (Greek Concordance: σκότος (skotos) -- 14 Occurrences) The first occurrence of this Greek word is found in Matthew 6: 23 and occurs twice in this verse.

Matthew 6: 22 – 23: - The Lamp of the Body
(Luke 11:34-36)

22 "The lamp of the body is the eye. If therefore your eye is good, your whole body will be full of light. 23 But if your eye is bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. If therefore the light that is in you is darkness, how great is that darkness!​

In the context of this verse, the knowledge of light, i.e. God, is being compared to knowledge of darkness, i.e. evil. We first encounter this concept of Light and Darkness in Genesis 1:2.

Genesis 1: 2: - The earth was without form, and void; and darkness/evil was on the face of the deep/abyss. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters.​

So darkness is the lack of knowledge and when we have a lack of knowledge, there is much weeping and gnashing of teeth.

So a paraphrase of this concept might just simply be: - cast out into the outside place where there is no knowledge of God.

Click to expand...

Jay Ross said:

If light is the knowledge of God, then darkness is an ignorance of the knowledge of God, then the outer darkness is even further outside of the ignorance of the knowledge of God where there is no knowledge of God. "Hell" is where there is no knowledge of God

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Naomi25 said:

In regards to this, just as I see @bellgamin mentioned (welcome!)...I think we must ask ourselves if the "flames of torment" must be taken literally.
Please understand that I'm not saying they must not, but when we consider, as @Hidden In Him said above, that both the scenes of fire and darkness are both expressed in passages of 'weeping and gnashing of teeth', we start to understand the nature behind what is talked about...deep, burning, anguish and torment. What is often the word we use when we say we are plagued by something like this? That it burns within us? Like a fire that will not die? Fire is an extraordinary metaphor to use for something like this; it is a living thing that eats everything; as long as something remains, so does the fire, consuming as it goes. This rather implies, does it not, that as long as people exists in open rebellion against God, which we know they will, as we are told the darkness has been reserved for them "forever".

‘where their worm does not die and the fire is not quenched.’ - Mark 9:48
This rather suggests this burning, churning inner torment, rather than outright torture over a naked flame.

Just a thought to throw into the mix....

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