This Week’s Feature Article by Jack Kelley

I’ve received several emails lately asking for clarification of the term “Outer Darkness.” It’s mentioned a total of 4 times in the New Testament, three by name and one by implication, and always by Jesus. The term is not used any where else, Old Testament or New, by any other writer. Those who ask want to know if it’s another name for the place of eternal punishment, or if it’s some place different. And they want to know who’s going there.

The problem I’ve had in researching this is there’s no general agreement among scholars as to what it is, where it is, or for whom it’s intended either. There’s also no agreement as to whether it’s a physical location or a state of being. The phrase outer darkness literally means, “outside, where there’s no light”. The Greek word for darkness can be used metaphorically to mean obscurity, which is the condition of being unknown. And there’s also a sense in which spiritual ignorance or blindness can apply. An accompanying phrase describes it as a place of weeping and gnashing of teeth, which denotes extreme anguish and utter despair. No matter what else you think about it, the Outer Darkness is definitely not a nice place to be.

For many generations it was simply thought to be another name for Hell. But Hell, or more accurately Hades, is not a permanent destination. It’s a temporary one that will be thrown into the Lake of Fire at the end of the Millennium (Rev. 20:14). To me, the concept of utter despair denotes permanence.

So let’s take another look at its four appearances to see if we can answer some of the lingering questions about the Outer Darkness.

Matt. 8:12.

When Jesus had entered Capernaum, a centurion came to him, asking for help. “Lord,” he said, “my servant lies at home paralyzed and in terrible suffering.”

Jesus said to him, “I will go and heal him.”

The centurion replied, “Lord, I do not deserve to have you come under my roof. But just say the word, and my servant will be healed. For I myself am a man under authority, with soldiers under me. I tell this one, ‘Go,’ and he goes; and that one, ‘Come,’ and he comes. I say to my servant, ‘Do this,’ and he does it.”

When Jesus heard this, he was astonished and said to those following him, “I tell you the truth, I have not found anyone in Israel with such great faith. I say to you that many will come from the east and the west, and will take their places at the feast with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven. But the subjects of the kingdom will be thrown outside, into the darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.” (Matt. 8:5-12)

In His first reference to the Outer Darkness, Jesus was clearly speaking to and about Israel. He was criticizing the Jews for letting a Gentile Roman soldier demonstrate a stronger faith in Him than they had. He said that their lack of faith would result in people from all over the world (Gentiles) inheriting the Kingdom, while the Jews, who were the Kingdom’s subjects, would be thrown into the Outer Darkness, a place of weeping and gnashing of teeth.

Israel was then (and will be again) God’s Kingdom on Earth. The Lord repeated His warning to them in Matt. 21:43 when He said, “Therefore I tell you that the Kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a people who will produce its fruit.” It’s obvious that the Lord believed they were the subjects of the Kingdom or else why would He threaten to take it away from them?

So in His first mention of the Outer Darkness the Lord warned the Jewish people that at the End of the Age Gentile believers, like the Centurion, would join their patriarchs at the Wedding Feast while they themselves sat outside in the darkness for failing to recognize their Messiah.

Matt 22:13

Jesus spoke to them again in parables, saying: “The kingdom of heaven is like a king who prepared a wedding banquet for his son. He sent his servants to those who had been invited to the banquet to tell them to come, but they refused to come.

“Then he sent some more servants and said, ‘Tell those who have been invited that I have prepared my dinner: My oxen and fattened cattle have been butchered, and everything is ready. Come to the wedding banquet.’

“But they paid no attention and went off—one to his field, another to his business. The rest seized his servants, mistreated them and killed them. The king was enraged. He sent his army and destroyed those murderers and burned their city.

“Then he said to his servants, ‘The wedding banquet is ready, but those I invited did not deserve to come. Go to the street corners and invite to the banquet anyone you find.’ So the servants went out into the streets and gathered all the people they could find, both good and bad, and the wedding hall was filled with guests. “But when the king came in to see the guests, he noticed a man there who was not wearing wedding clothes. ‘Friend,’ he asked, ‘how did you get in here without wedding clothes?’ The man was speechless.

“Then the king told the attendants, ‘Tie him hand and foot, and throw him outside, into the darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.’

“For many are invited, but few are chosen.” (Matt. 22:1-14)

This is the parable of the Wedding Banquet, and there are three things to keep in mind here. First, the bride is never mentioned in this parable. Second, a bride is not considered a guest and could never be thrown out of her own wedding. And third, the banquet follows the wedding, so in the context of the parable the wedding has already taken place.

To accept the view that this parable is about the Church you have to start with the belief that some in the Church will become the Bride of Christ while others will not. But the Bible never even hints of that. It’s a man made conclusion without any Biblical support. If we’re saved, we’re in the church and are the Bride of Christ. If we’re not, we’re not.

In parables everything is symbolic of something else, and the Bible always explains what they stand for. Isaiah 61:10 explains that the wedding clothes represent righteousness;

I delight greatly in the LORD; my soul rejoices in my God. For he has clothed me with garments of salvation and arrayed me in a robe of righteousness, as a bridegroom adorns his head like a priest, and as a bride adorns herself with her jewels.

Here’s how I see it. In Rev. 16:15, just after the 6th Bowl judgment and long after the church has departed, the Lord said, “Behold, I come like a thief! Blessed is he who stays awake and keeps his clothes with him, so that he may not go naked and be shamefully exposed.”

He was alluding to the fact that the Doctrine of Eternal Security expires with the Rapture, a fact that Jesus taught in the Parable of the 10 Virgins. Tribulation believers will be saved by faith, just like everyone else, but will be responsible for keeping themselves saved, or as John said, keeping their clothes with them. Rev. 14:12 says they will do this by obeying God’s commandments and remaining faithful to Jesus.

The man ejected from the banquet was a last minute guest. He represents tribulation survivors who are not part of the Church. He was trying to receive the blessing of those invited to the wedding feast that occurs at the time of the 2nd Coming (Rev. 19:9). But He either hadn’t remained faithful and had lost his salvation, or never was saved at all. Remember the servants invited both the “good” and the “bad” and it isn’t clear whether this man had wedding clothes and lost them, or never had them in the first place. When he tried to gain entrance into the banquet, he was discovered and ejected.

So the 2nd reference applies to unbelieving survivors from the Great Tribulation who will be denied a place in the Kingdom for lack of the righteousness that comes by faith, and banished to the Outer Darkness instead.

Matt. 24:51

Who then is the faithful and wise servant, whom the master has put in charge of the servants in his household to give them their food at the proper time? It will be good for that servant whose master finds him doing so when he returns. I tell you the truth, he will put him in charge of all his possessions.

But suppose that servant is wicked and says to himself, ‘My master is staying away a long time,’ and he then begins to beat his fellow servants and to eat and drink with drunkards. The master of that servant will come on a day when he does not expect him and at an hour he is not aware of. He will cut him to pieces and assign him a place with the hypocrites, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. (Matt. 24:45-51)

The Parable of the Servants has only an implied reference to the Outer Darkness, calling it a place for hypocrites where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. Since that phrase accompanies every other mention of the Outer Darkness, I think it’s safe to include it in our study. The timing of this parable was established as early as Matt. 24:29-30 which makes every thing that follows pertain to those on Earth at the time of the 2nd Coming. As a matter of fact, all the Olivet Discourse parables describe the destinies of Tribulation Survivors. You can easily confirm this by also looking at Matt. 24:36-37, Matt. 25:1, and Matt. 25:14.

This parable is about those who will have held positions of spiritual leadership during the Great Tribulation. In the Millennial Kingdom, the Lord will elevate to a place of authority leaders who have kept the word of God through the intense hardship and persecution of the times, and have taught sound doctrine to the flocks entrusted to them. (Remember, no Tribulation survivor will enter the New Jerusalem, but will dwell on Earth during the Lord’s Millennial reign.)

But having forsaken the truth, the wicked servants no will longer be watching for the Lord’s return, ignoring the obvious fulfillment of prophecy all around them and ridiculing those whose child-like faith sustains them. They are the worst of all enemies because they’ll look and sound like friends. They’re like the one John describes as appearing to have the authority of the Lamb but who speaks the words of the Dragon (Rev. 13:11). The Greek word translated hypocrite was often used to describe an actor or pretender, someone who appears to be something he’s not. So for the third time we see the Outer Darkness as a place for unbelievers. In this case it’s those who have betrayed the trust placed in them.

Matt. 25:30

The Lord’s final reference to the Outer Darkness appears at the end of the Parable of the Talents.

“Again, it will be like a man going on a journey, who called his servants and entrusted his property to them. To one he gave five talents of money, to another two talents, and to another one talent, each according to his ability. Then he went on his journey. The man who had received the five talents went at once and put his money to work and gained five more. So also, the one with the two talents gained two more. But the man who had received the one talent went off, dug a hole in the ground and hid his master’s money.

“After a long time the master of those servants returned and settled accounts with them. The man who had received the five talents brought the other five. ‘Master,’ he said, ‘you entrusted me with five talents. See, I have gained five more.’

“His master replied, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant! You have been faithful with a few things; I will put you in charge of many things. Come and share your master’s happiness!’

“The man with the two talents also came. ‘Master,’ he said, ‘you entrusted me with two talents; see, I have gained two more.’

“His master replied, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant! You have been faithful with a few things; I will put you in charge of many things. Come and share your master’s happiness!’

“Then the man who had received the one talent came. ‘Master,’ he said, ‘I knew that you are a hard man, harvesting where you have not sown and gathering where you have not scattered seed. So I was afraid and went out and hid your talent in the ground. See, here is what belongs to you.’

“His master replied, ‘You wicked, lazy servant! So you knew that I harvest where I have not sown and gather where I have not scattered seed? Well then, you should have put my money on deposit with the bankers, so that when I returned I would have received it back with interest.

” ‘Take the talent from him and give it to the one who has the ten talents. For everyone who has will be given more, and he will have an abundance. Whoever does not have, even what he has will be taken from him. And throw that worthless servant outside, into the darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.’ (Matt. 25:14-30)

For a more complete treatment of the Parable of the Talents click here. The relevant points for this study are that like the other Olivet Discourse parables, the timing is after the 2nd coming, the judgment is on Earth, and the man who had his only talent confiscated demonstrated a complete lack of knowledge of and faith in his master. He thought of Him as a hard man who accepted credit He didn’t deserve and he was afraid the master would treat him unfairly. No believer feels that way about Jesus. His punishment was to be consigned to the outer darkness.

So in all four cases, the ones being judged are unbelievers and their punishment is to live in a state of total obscurity where they will experience extreme anguish and utter despair. The fact that there’s no expanded teaching on the outer darkness elsewhere in the Bible leads me to believe the Lord was speaking of a place we’re already familiar with, but describing it in a way that helps us understand how it will feel to be there.

Remember, the words obscurity, extreme anguish and utter despair are associated with the phrase Outer Darkness. To be there is to be cut off from the presence of the Lord and everyone else, existing in total obscurity. The dictionary defines anguish as excruciating or acute distress, suffering, or pain, and despair as a state of utter hopelessness.

That, my friends, is the consequence of unbelief. Whether you call it Hell, Hades, Gehenna, the Lake of Fire, or the Outer Darkness, it’s all the same and you wouldn’t want your worst enemy to spend even an hour there. 03-13-10

A. Just as mankind has a physical life and a physical death, we also have a spiritual life and a spiritual death.  Spiritual life consists of an eternity of blessing in the presence of God and is called eternal life. It’s reserved for believers only.  Spiritual death, also referred to as the second death,  consists of eternal punishment and separation from God.  It’s for unbelievers.  Revelation 20:14 says the lake of fire is the second death. This is what Paul referred to as everlasting destruction in 2 Thes. 1:9, and what Jesus called the eternal fires in Matt. 25:41.  There is no Biblical evidence to support any alternative to eternal punishment. It’s the reverse image of eternal blessing.

A. The Story of the Rich man and Lazarus (Luke 16:19-31) is the Lord’s clearest teaching on the after life.  In the story the rich man knew immediately after dying that he was in a place of torment and begged Abraham to let him go back and warn his brothers so they wouldn’t also come there.  Limbo is a non-Biblical concept from Catholic theology, where it only applies to righteous but unbaptized souls such as little children, not to unsaved sinners.

A. I’ve never heard that before nor have I ever heard of Satan’s heaven.  In Luke 16:19-31 Jesus told the story of the rich man and Lazarus.  In it the rich man, who was in torment, asked to be sent back to the living to warn his brothers to change their ways so they could avoid being sent there to join him.  Abraham refused, saying that the Bible should be sufficient warning.   So I ask you, why would God change his mind and send some one back now, when He refused to do it then?  Answer, He wouldn’t.  Don’t believe everything you hear, no matter how sincere the person might sound.  A number of people have made similar claims and yet they all have different stories.

A. To me the idea that after the rapture we’ll be with the Lord forever doesn’t necessarily mean we’ll tag along where ever He goes and participate in what ever He does.  It means we’ll live where He lives.  Rev. 20:11 says that Earth and Heaven will flee from God’s presence at the time of the judgment and there will be no place for them.  This could be interpreted to mean that we won’t be present at the judgment of unbelievers.

Soon after she died, I kept asking our pastor, is she really gone?  Is she OK?  Is she scared to go on to Heaven without us?  He said, she would never be afraid of Jesus and His angels, and that she was already running the streets of gold.  Would we see her as herself?

A. Those who’ve gone to be with Jesus are currently in spirit form and would not be visible to us (2 cor. 5:6-8).  But the brain tumor that caused your daughter’s death was a physical affliction and was buried with her body when her spirit went to heaven. No trace of it remains with her today.  At the rapture she’ll be given a new physical body that will function perfectly and never again be subject to any kind of ailment.  The Bible doesn’t offer physical descriptions of our resurrection bodies except to say that we’ll be like Jesus (1 John 3:2).  Paul wrote that our earthly bodies compare to our resurrection bodies the way a seed compares to the plant that grows from it.  It will be recognizable to us because of what it was, but ever so much more glorious in its perfected state. (1 Cor. 15:35-44)

Your pastor is correct about one thing.  Your daughter has never known even the faintest trace of fear or uncertainty since the moment her spirit left her body and was carried to the arms of the Lord.

A. I think the language of 1 Samuel 28 makes it clear that the witch of Endor really did summon Samuel up from Sheol, the abode of the dead.  Not that Samuel was resurrected mind you, but that he appeared as an apparition to the witch.  Remember Saul couldn’t see him. He had to ask the witch to describe Samuel. From that point on Saul and Samuel had a conversation through the witch, who was acting as a medium. I believe the Lord permitted this to happen to advise Saul of his fate, the result of his ongoing disobedience to the Lord.  His final act of disobedience, consulting a medium in violation of Deut. 18:10-11, resulted in the announcement of his death.

Before the cross, no one who died went to heaven.  Instead they went to Sheol to await the Lord’s sacrifice, which would open Heaven to all who had died in faith.  But I don’t believe Saul was saved, if that’s what you mean. 1 Samuel 16:14 says that the Holy spirit had departed from Saul and that the Lord had sent an evil spirit to torment him.

A. Part of the problem with thinking ahead is that we only have our Earthly perspectives with which to frame our thoughts. When Paul described the resurrection in terms of a tiny brown seed becoming a beautiful plant or flower in 1 Cor. 15, he was verbalizing that difficulty. We know from the picture on the packet what the seed will grow into, but we would never be able to predict it by merely looking at the seed.

It’s the same with us. We only see ourselves as the seed, it’s all we know. To many, especially the young, our Earthly future can look pretty good, full of adventure and promise, and we don’t want to miss it. But God has seen the flower and already perceives us this way. And He took Paul on a little tour of the future one day to give him a taste of what it will be like. While Paul said he was not allowed to describe it (2 Cor. 12:4) he did say that no eye has seen, no ear has heard, and no mind has conceived what God has prepared for those who love Him. (1 Cor 2:9)

But think about this. We’ve been created with incredible powers of intellect and creativity, and at the rapture the constraints on those powers, imposed both by our sin nature and our Earth bound existence, will be removed as we become the perfect version of our currently imperfect selves. It’ll be like receiving the most incredible upgrade imaginable.

We’ll be able to travel at the speed of thought to any place and time in Creation, exploring the vast reaches of the universe from the instant of its inception to the very edge of its territory, satisfying every whim of our curiosity, and answering every question of our intellect. We’ll know and understand things that currently leave us hopelessly confused and will easily learn and master skills and abilities we can’t even dream about now.

Of course God will have amazing things for us to do. Otherwise why give us such ability? And as we’re doing them, we’ll recall our Earthly perspective and wonder how we could ever have dreamed so small and settled for so little.

I guess the reason I’m wondering is that we were made in God’s image with similar emotions (love,joy,sadness etc) and there must be a reason that we are drawn to certain people in life more so than others…will we recognize family and friends, husbands and wives in heaven and still have stronger feelings for those people than others, or will it be every ‘believer’ for themselves – our earthly relationships diminished and a new ‘family’ developed with our fellow believers?

Sorry if I’m getting a bit carried away…I hope I’m not being too confusing – I’ve just been wondering about it that’s all! I don’t expect that you’ll have all the answers but any perspective you have on this would be much appreciated Thanks – keep up the good work…you’ve been a great inspiration!

A. The Bible doesn’t speak about these things except to say that we neither marry nor are we given in marriage, but will be like the angels. (Matt 22:29-30) I think this means that our capacity for relational love will be primarily directed toward and filled by the Lord.

Paul wrote that we will know as we are known (1 Cor 13:12) and to me that means that among other things we’ll recognize and know not only our earthly friends and family, but everyone in the family of God. While these relationships will be different I don’t think there’s any way in which they’ll be diminished. On the contrary our awareness and capacity for feeling will be heightened in our new bodies, not only by the removal of the contamination and distortion caused by sin, but also by the increased abilities our new bodies will have.

Paul also wrote that no eye has seen, no ear has heard, no mind has conceived what God has prepared for those who love him. (1 Cor. 2:9) It’s beyond our comprehension.

Generally I believe our new lives will be similar to our old ones in the way a 3-D color picture is comparable to a 2-D black and white. The objects are recognizable as being the same, but that’s about it. No one will miss “the good old days.” In fact, according to Isaiah 65:17 the former things will not be remembered, nor will they come to mind.

If this is what you mean, then the answer would be yes. But I don’t think He can simply go back to the way He was before He became a man anytime he wants. When we receive our resurrection bodies, we’ll have the capabilities He demonstrated,  (1 John 3:2)  but that doesn’t mean we’ll be just like God.