PHASE ONE:
OUTER DARKNESS
Men come into this life as prisoners bound by the limits of their environment, of time and of their own bodies of flesh! The experiences that they attempt to hold are short lived and a poor substitute for what they think freedom and happiness is! They quickly become slaves to their immediate circumstances which renders them void of any concern as to their purpose and destiny. How they got here and where they will be after they leave hold little or no interest as they drink in the emptiness of the things found in this life. This condition is only aggravated by the reality of human sin which has left them in a state of supreme enmity and hatred against the God of truth. Thus when they are confronted with the marvelous grace of a loving Creator in the gospel of Jesus Christ they turn a deaf ear and continue in their enjoyment of that which will soon pass. They simply refuse to believe that the truth of God offers them the true freedom they so desperately need. That truth not only has the power to set them free from the prison house of this world but also bring them to a full maturity of understanding as to their purpose in this life and their ultimate destiny. The very focus of the mission of the Son of God was to reveal to men the God of truth through His own person. He Himself said "I am the way, the truth and the life...". The great testimony to the natural hatred and enmity of God and His truth followed as they delivered the Son of the Living God to His death. While He was on earth He did everything in His power to deliver men from the prison houses of their flesh, time and death. One of the ways He accomplished this was by speaking often of what awaits men beyond the grave. His teaching made it plain that all men do not look forward to the same destiny. Those who, by the grace and power of God are delivered from their sin and the emptiness of this world may expect nothing but the fullness of everlasting happiness as they are received into the kingdom of God and His Son Jesus Christ. But to those who continue to raise a deaf ear to the overtures of God's grace there awaits for them the most unimaginable state of suffering and misery which was so clearly taught by the Son of God in the Scriptures. It is from these Scriptures that we obtain such a concept for they are unique to all other writings that claim to be the truth. This one teaching alone is a testimony to that uniqueness for just as men naturally hate God and His truth they will conjure up ten times the energy in denying the existence of such a place called Hell! One should be considered some kind of madman to go off and concoct a condition of unending suffering for human beings. But this teaching is not some concoction from the human brain; it is a sobering reality and truth that is made sure by God Himself in His Scriptures and that is where we shall look for our learning. If you give a man the smallest loophole out of a difficult situation he will find a way to enlarge it to the point of fitting an army through. Thus if a man can discover the smallest of possibilities that he can escape the consequences of his sin he finds more than enough room to take his ease and neglect the eternal welfare of his soul. But once a man is truly convinced of the reality of hell he will do all in his power to avoid such a place. When the Biblical doctrine of hell is seen for what it truly is nothing that men could conceive of could be more terrifying. But if men are convinced that there is no such place as hell what need do they have to be concerned for their souls' destiny? Whatever happens after death cannot be all that bad as long as there is no hell. But the truth of God tells us plainly that such a place does exist and gives men clear warning to flee from the wrath to come. We begin by noting the two Greek words that denote "Hell" in the New Testament. The first is Hades. Found in 11 places it denotes a temporary place of torment for the wicked between physical death and the resurrection. We see this for example in Luke 16 where it is said of the rich man who died;
Lu 16:23 And in hell (Hades) he lift up his eyes, being in torments, and seeth Abraham afar off, and Lazarus in his bosom.
In several other places it is mistranslated Hell and in 1Cor 15:55 it is mistranslated the grave. The soul of Messiah went there after His death on the cross; Acts 2:27,31. That it is temporary is further seen by the fact that Hades shall be cast into the Lake of Fire subsequent to the resurrection. It is in that awful Lake that those who temporarily suffered in Hades in their disembodied spirits will then experience eternal misery in both soul and resurrected bodies. This is what Christ was teaching in Matt 10 where He says;
Mt 10:28 And fear not them which kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul: but rather fear him which is able to destroy both soul and body in hell.
Refer to the article "Soul and Body" for a discussion of this passage. This verse contains the second term rendered 'hell' in the KJV... that of Gehenna. Christ tells us that God shall resurrect the bodies of the wicked & re-unite it to the soul and 'destroy both soul and body in Gehenna' showing that this is after the wicked are resurrected. They are, in the physical body as well as in soul, cast into Hell; (Gehenna). In Matt 9:45 Christ describes this 'Gehenna' as consisting of the 'fire that shall never be quenched'! If annihilationism were true what sense would it make for God to raise the dead bodies of the wicked which for the most part have long since been disintergrated & gone back to dust... re-unite them to the soul once again... only to send them back into non-existence?
Aside from these technical descriptions of the two words, my use of the term "Hell" in this paper is meant to be more of a summation of all the elements in the Bible that are used to describe the eternal state of the lost. Each element is calculated to impart a different aspect of that awful place but in this study I am attempting to conglomerate all of them into one great concept that can only be described by the term that most, if not all men are familiar with, that being the term Hell. In a general sense then, the term Hell should suffice to attempt to depict the torments of the damned.
When we open the Bible to discover what it has to say about hell we find that most of the teaching about it comes from Jesus Christ Himself. It is spoken of in other parts of the New Testament but the bulk of the teaching comes to us from Christ in the gospels. As he seeks to impress upon men the realities of the future world he does so by the use of several images calculated to give the human mind some idea of what it's like in that world particularly with reference to the lost. We begin by looking at those images. The first one is found in three places in Matthew and when seen in its full scope is nothing less than frightening! I refer to that which our Lord called... Outer Darkness. Let us look at this in Matt. 8.
Matthew 8: 11 And I say unto you, That many shall come from the east and west, and shall sit down with Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob, in the kingdom of heaven. 12 But the children of the kingdom shall be cast out into outer darkness: there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth.
Here is the teaching of Christ that hell is a place and a very real one! It is not an abstract concept or philosophical idea made up by the human mind. Hell is a place that is characterized by three things. 1. Outer darkness; 2. Weeping; 3. Gnashing of teeth. It is a place where people are! And they are involved in the activity of weeping due to untold sorrow and gnashing of teeth due to untold pain and anguish! This will be seen clearer as we look at other passages but for now we view hell as taught by the Son of God as a place and he says THERE! in THAT PLACE... shall be the weeping and gnashing of teeth! Of all the people who think that there is no such place as hell Jesus Christ was not one of them! He taught that it is a place of great sorrow and suffering enshrouded by an unimaginable degree of darkness. No light! At all! Those who are there can never find their way. They are hopelessly and forever LOST! That alone is enough to make one weep. But the imagery of darkness used here by Jesus is forced home by His use of the double definite article! Thus the literal translation can be correctly rendered... THE darkness, THE outer! Any darkness that man finds in this world is but a small foretaste of the TRUE outer darkness that awaits to receive its inhabitants. If we could find somewhere "out there" in the universe a section where there are no stars; nothing but the blackest of night... it would be but a small comparison to the true outer darkness of which our Lord spoke! What a shocking thought! We find the same reference to these 3 things; outer darkness, weeping and gnashing of teeth in Matt 22:13
13 Then said the king to the servants, Bind him hand and foot, and take him away, and cast [him] into outer darkness; there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth.
Here in the parable of a wedding feast Christ tells of a guest who had given great offense to the king of the feast. The king gives instructions as to what is to be done to him. He is to be bound hand and foot and cast into the outer darkness. People at that time well understood the force of this expression for remember, there was no electricity. No street lights, no automobiles, no sports stadiums, no shopping malls, no gas stations; nothing in the way of lighting that we are so accustomed to today. It was a matter of great concern to be in a situation of being left in the outdoors after sundown. If you were any distance from a town or place where you could go inside you were exposed to all the dangers of the night. To be out in the darkness of night meant to be cut off from all the sustenance of life. It was to be in a situation of distress and urgency! You could not take out a flashlight to find your way. No! Darkness was a situation to be avoided at all costs. The mention of darkness left one with a sense of fear and dread. Christ knew what He was saying when He used the expression of outer darkness. We often use the expression; it was so dark I couldn't see my hand in front of my face. In the Old Testament there was an occasion where the darkness was so intense that they could actually feel it!
Exodus 10: 21 And the LORD said unto Moses, Stretch out thine hand toward heaven, that there may be darkness over the land of Egypt, even darkness [which] may be felt. 22 And Moses stretched forth his hand toward heaven; and there was a thick darkness in all the land of Egypt three days: 23 They saw not one another, neither rose any from his place for three days: but all the children of Israel had light in their dwellings.
Notice that according to verse 23 no one even dared to move, it was so dark! How much more frightening must the true outer darkness of the damned be! Here the darkness was so intense that no one even moved. But there in the true outer darkness people will not even be able to move for notice the element Christ introduces in Matt 22:13 above... that of binding! Bind him says Jesus... bind him both hand and foot... and then cast him into the outer darkness! The binding of both the hands and the feet renders one completely immobile so that even if one could see there would be no ability to move. To simply be in a place of total darkness where you cannot see to find your way around is frightening enough. But to be in a condition of complete immobility while engulfed in total darkness only adds to and intensifies the terror of the situation! Again the same thing is repeated in Matt 25:30 along with the weeping and gnashing of teeth and all of this is experienced by people who are in a PLACE that is engulfed in an ocean of nothing but pitch black darkness! They are LOST! They are IMMOBILE! Who can imagine the terror of such a plight? Both Peter and Jude came to a full understanding of this truth for Peter tells us that for certain wicked people who walk after the flesh there is a reservation awaiting them in this place of darkness. Notice;
2 Peter 2:17 These are springs without water, and mists driven by a storm; for whom the blackness of darkness hath been reserved. ASV
And Jude gives almost a verbatim assessment of what awaits the lost;
Jude 1:13 Raging waves of the sea, foaming out their own shame; wandering stars, to whom is reserved the blackness of darkness for ever.
Is there a Hell? According to Jesus Christ there is. What is it like? Hell is first of all a place. There, in that place are those who, having passed their allotted time on earth in rebellion against God are enmeshed in an ocean of blackness greater than any mind can conceive of! The fear is intensified to a horrifying degree as they find themselves securely bound hand and foot so that they cannot move. All thoughts and desires of escape are banished into oblivion. And as they thus come to a full realization of their hopeless and wretched condition the springs of emotional pain and anguish at such a fate well up inside them until, raging with violent fury they BURST FORTH into the blood-curdling wailings of the damned! In that condition, in that place these wretched souls know nothing but the grim activities of everlasting weeping and gnashing of teeth which resound throughout the recesses of the eternal pitch black darkness!
Further... as if that's not enough; the Bible tells us that that place of outer darkness will be shared by a company of both people and those of the spirit world who have rebelled against the God of heaven;
2 Peter 2:4 For if God spared not the angels that sinned, but cast [them] down to hell, and delivered [them] into chains of darkness, to be reserved unto judgment;
And again in Jude almost word for word.
Jude 1:6 And the angels which kept not their first estate, but left their own habitation, he hath reserved in everlasting chains under darkness unto the judgment of the great day.
Demons and fallen angels, along with the devil himself, that Prince of Darkness! They are clapped into the chains of darkness and held captive there until God is ready to render His complete judgment on them. For them the Blackness of Darkness has been reserved, as Jude says... for ever! And what the eye cannot see there in that woeful place the ear will more than compensate for; for the great company of the damned shall be engaged in lifting up their cries of despair and anguish, wailing and moaning, weeping and gnashing of the teeth, both men and angels who passed the time of their existence in hatred toward God shall chant the miseries of an existence apart from the God who is Light... in The Outer Darkness... for all eternity!
| | V
WEEPING AND GNASHING OF TEETH
The next image we look at that our Lord used to describe the hopeless anguish of the lost is the combination of weeping and gnashing of teeth. What did Jesus mean to convey by the use of such imagery? Most of us are familiar with the experience of expressing our emotional distress through the activity of weeping. The weeping itself is painful enough but it is only the outward release of the true sorrow that lies within. It is the inward pain and anguish that causes one to weep. Thus when Jesus tells us that in that awful place of outer darkness there is weeping He means to tell us that there is a great ocean of inward pain that is causing such weeping. Further He does not simply say that there is weeping... no, He goes beyond the mere fact of weeping taking place. In looking at the original language we discover that again Jesus uses the definite article to describe the sorrows of the lost. He says that in that place of outer darkness there is THE weeping.. and THE gnashing of teeth! His use of the definite article in all three instances... Matt 8:11; 22:13; 25:30 is calculated to impress upon us that the weeping that is taking place in hell is the expression of the epitome of human sorrow and suffering, built up into an unbearable intensity of which all the weeping that ever has occurred in this life was but a small preview. There is THE TRUE weeping because of the hopelessness of the lost. In this life weeping as we know it comes to an end but not so in the outer darkness. There, in that place of outer darkness there shall be no end to the experience of sorrow over the loss of one's soul and so the resulting weeping shall persist for all eternity. There, in that place of outer darkness all hope of escape or being let out shall be banished from the mind. There, in that place of outer darkness there is no solution for the cause of the weeping and so it shall continue to grow in its intensity forever. The overwhelming sense of despair that accompanies such sorrow shall increase with each passing moment as it continues to add to the weight of suffering that will accomplish its work of crushing the lost into greater depths of darkness and woe! There in that place shall be THE weeping and THE gnashing of teeth. Again what did Jesus mean? Gnashing of teeth is nothing more than an expression of one of two things; Hatred and pain. It is usually used when the ability to express such things goes beyond the point of words. With hatred and frustration gnashing of teeth is the middle between angry words and angry action. Men usually express anger by words until it gets to a point where the emotion builds to such a degree that words elude them. The eyes grow big, the blood boils hot and the teeth are forced together under the pressure of the jaw muscles until they are tightly clench in preparation for a violent explosion of action motivated by extreme anger. We have an example in the book of Acts. Notice;
Acts 7:54 When they heard these things, they were cut to the heart, and they gnashed on him with their teeth.
Spoken of Stephen as he preached, whereupon they immediately seized him and put him to death. Their anger went beyond words and so they clenched the teeth and murdered Stephen! But also, as with anger, the experience of pain can and often does cause one to clench the teeth. This usually happens when pain becomes so intense it is unbearable to the conscious mind and the only thing one can do is gnash their teeth and moan in anguish. Jesus used these images to tell us that those in that place of outer darkness are engaged in the activity of not just gnashing... but THE gnashing of teeth. Why? For one thing, and this is a numbing thought... the lost will be subject to BOTH anguish and hatred at the same time. This is indeed a unique imagery and is difficult to imagine someone under the influence of both pain and hatred at the same time but in the outer darkness this will be the natural and ongoing state of existence for all eternity. The lost will express both hatred toward God as they bear the brunt of His wrath for their sin and at the same time will gnash their teeth in pain because of that wrath. For another, in the outer darkness the pain is so intense that they can do no other then to cry out in anguish and gnash their teeth. There, in that place, men shall express their complete hatred for God and the resultant wrath that they shall endure shall cause them to gnash the teeth and gnaw the tongue for all the pain and hatred that is within them. Hence in these three passages alone we have the teaching on hell given by the Son of God himself and it is indeed terrifying. Hell, says Jesus is a PLACE. It is the place where is found nothing but darkness. In that place of darkness the cries of the damned can be heard as they are held captive, bound hand and foot in chains of darkness. There is no hope of their ever being released from such a prison of darkness and so they continue to sink in a sea of darkness until the anguish within them wells up, ever growing in its intensity as it produces the sighs of weeping, wailing, gnashing of teeth in pain and rage. Blackness of Darkness forever! Who can Imagine it? May God deliver us by His mercy!
Intro and contents TWO Prove All Things Soul and Body