Outer Darkness

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amigo de christo

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"What do the words "outer" and "darkness" conjure up for you?"

Isolation from others, especially from God. Inability to enjoy even happy times like, a wedding or a new baby; you get the point brother o mine. Very deep sadness and crying over any little thing, flailing alone, alone, alone. Indecisiveness like I've never had before (that is improving, thank God!)
Just a few things that come to mind.
Thanks for the replies!
A place none wants to be is what those words conjure up to me .
But boy do i have some good news and before i tell it allow me to remind us WE SURE NEEDS to let all know .
To BELEIVE JESUS IS the CHRIST . cause those who do wont have to go to the bad place .
There be no need for man to try and temper down what awaits all who rejected Christ .
Rather there is only THIS need , SOUND JESUS OUT to all that has breath . Cause they who beleive HAVE eternal life .
 

Jay Ross

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A weird observation that came to me while I was praying about this thread (yes, sometimes I do pray before posting) ...

One of the three mentions of the Outer Darkness is Matthew 25:14-30, the Parable of the Talents. That one's a head-scratcher. I can't help but wonder, what happened to the fourth servant who invested his talents in Enron stock and blew the whole bundle? (That one is in the apocryphal Gospel of Philip, which didn't make the cut into the canon.) Did he get tossed into the Outer Darkness too? Or did the Master say, "Well, at least you tried, unlike your former colleague out there in the darkness. You're forgiven. Now what did you learn from the experience?" (And a certain scene with Jack Nicholson from One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest comes to mind.)

Do I let the fear of failing, even the fear of sinning, keep me from at least TRYING to do the right thing? (We seem to define "righteousness" as "not doing bad things" and forgetting about actually accomplishing some good.)

Your weird observation shows a lack of understanding what Christ was tell His disciples. When looking at the parable of the Talents we also must consider the Parable of the Minas in Luke.

In both parables the man who goes away for a time, nominally for 1,000 years, is Satan. In both parables Satan is providing the means, i.e. money, for his good and faithful servants to oppose God as He establishes His Everlasting Kingdom on the earth.

In Both parables the master is going on a forced journey for a period of time, knowing that even though he will be imprisoned in the Bottomless pit, that eventually he will be released and will then be able to return to the face of the earth, claiming that he is now a king/deity in his own right.

The wicked servant in both parables informs his master that the master has no right to the harvest to which the servants master agrees with, "You knew that I was an austere man, collecting what I did not deposit and reaping what I did not sow." as recorded in the parable in Luke, and, "You wicked and lazy servant, you knew that I reap where I have not sown, and gather where I have not scattered seed. 27So you ought to have deposited my money with the bankers, and at my coming I would have received back my own with interest." as recorded in the Parable in Matthew.

Now in the parable of the Minas, it ends with, "But bring here those enemies of mine, who did not want me to reign over them, and slay them before me." which is also told to us in Rev 12.

Also, in the parable of the Talents, it ends with, "cast the unprofitable servant into the outer darkness. There will be weeping and gnashing of teeth." However, Satan does not have the power of casting the unprofitable servant into the lake of fire, so he attempts to cast the unprofitable servant into the outer darkness where there will weeping and the gnashing of teeth. In this Satan failed because the light was in the heart of the Wicked Servant. The casting away of the " labelled Wicked Servant" is Satan's attempt to stop his good and faithful servants to hear the good news of the Gospel in the future from the "supposed wicked servant". The Good and faithful servants are invited by Satan, their master to join him in his joy of now being a deity.

The other two occurrences of the "Outer Darkness" are also found in the Gospel of Matthew.
Matthew 8:10-12: - 10 When Jesus heard it, He marvelled, 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."​
NKJV
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.'​
NKJV

It should be noted that the Sons of the Kingdom in Matt 8:12 is the nation of Israel, and during the third and the four ages of their existence they were cast into the outer darkness until such times as they repent of their continual idolatrous worship.

In Matthew 22:13, it is my view that, the outer darkness is the place where unrighteous are sent to await the time of the Final judgement​

What I have presented above is a very "perverse left field" understanding of the "outer Darkness," in that it is very different to the traditional understandings particularly of the Parable of the Minas and the Talents.

Shalom