Outer Darkness

The revelations of God's Word are not obvious to the casual reader but are made known to those who seek God with all their hearts. God's truths cannot be obtained by worldly IQ and scholarship but are given by God to those who search for Him in childlike faith and simplicity. God's revelations are like precious gems...you must search and dig for them. Today's subject will be just such an example.

GOD SAID that the final judgment of evil is a place called the lake of fire that exists in a place called outer darkness. Hell, which presently resides in the heart of the earth, is removed from its present location at the end of this world and finds its final residence in the lake of fire.

Revelation, Chapter 20, Verse 14:

And death and hell were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death.

Revelation, Chapter 19, Verse 20 also speaks of the lake of fire:

And the beast was taken, and with him the false prophet that wrought miracles before him, with which he deceived them that had received the mark of the beast, and them that worshipped his image. These both were cast alive into a lake of fire burning with brimstone.

At the end of all time an event known as the great white throne judgment takes place where all are judged by God. This account is recorded in Revelation, Chapter 20, Verses 10-15:

10 And the devil that deceived them was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone, where the beast and the false prophet are, and shall be tormented day and night for ever and ever.

11 And I saw a great white throne, and him that sat on it, from whose face the earth and the heaven fled away; and there was found no place for them.

12 And I saw the dead, small and great, stand before God; and the books were opened: and another book was opened, which is the book of life: and the dead were judged out of those things which were written in the books, according to their works.

13 And the sea gave up the dead which were in it; and death and hell delivered up the dead which were in them: and they were judged every man according to their works.

14 And death and hell were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death.

15 And whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire.

Foolish people joke about this final judgment but be assured it is no laughing matter. There is no good thing in this terrible lake of fire that exists in outer darkness. There is only terrible grievous punishment that lasts for eternity...there shall be weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth. In this place of unimaginable damnation there are no good things...no comforting breezes, no places to rest your head, no kind words, no love, no one to place a cold rag on your fevered brow, no glass of cold water, no oblivion and no end. Jesus said it lasts forever (Matthew 18:8, 25:41, 25:46, Jude 7). This final judgment place was made for the devil and his angels and now it also includes all those who follow his rebellious spirit.

The Lord Jesus Christ speaks about God's judgment and outer darkness in Matthew, Chapter 8, Verse 11-12:

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.

In Matthew, Chapter 22, Jesus likens the kingdom of Heaven to a king making a wedding for his son. One attempted to attend the wedding without his wedding garments. The wedding garments in this parable represented salvation of the soul. In verses 13 and 14, the end of the would-be interloper reads:

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.

14 For many are called, but few are chosen.

In Matthew, Chapter 25, Jesus likens the kingdom of heaven to a businessman who is preparing to leave on a long journey. He calls his servants and gives unto them his goods for them to buy and sell and create profit. One servant didn't work in good faith with his master's goods and was unprofitable. His end is written in verse 30:

And cast ye the unprofitable servant into outer darkness: there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth.

The General Epistle of Jude speaks of ungodly men who deny the Father and the Son and says of them in verses 12 and 13:

12 These are spots in your feasts of charity, when they feast with you, feeding themselves without fear: clouds they are without water, carried about of winds; trees whose fruit withereth, without fruit, twice dead, plucked up by the roots;

13 Raging waves of the sea, foaming out their own shame; wandering stars, to whom is reserved the blackness of darkness for ever.

GOD SAID there is a lake of fire which is hell's final destiny and is found in a place called outer darkness. In reading the scriptures the "lake of fire" and "outer darkness" appear to be synonymous.

MAN SAID, "There is no creator and there is no final everlasting judgement; one simply dies and that's the end of it."

Now THE RECORD. The concept of outer darkness and the lake of fire is becoming more and more apparent in the science of astronomy. Charles Seife, in an article in Science made this comment:

No matter where astronomers point their telescopes, they see a distant sheet of light surrounding us. Beyond that enormous shell of radiation, astronomers can see nothing. We are caged in by this surface.

Dr. Henry Morris, founder of the prestigious Institute for Creation Research, had this to say about Mr. Seife's comments:

Since there is no radiation beyond this limit, there are no stars and no light either—only outer darkness, so far as we can tell. But even within the known cosmos, evolutionary astronomers seem increasingly obsessed with the idea of darkness. Even with the tremendous mass of those possibly 10²⁵ stars, these theorists believe that there are still vast amounts of certain mysterious kinds of matter which cannot be seen or measured. They call this dark matter, the gravitational influence of which somehow holds galaxies and galactic clusters together.

Dark matter, the astronomers theorize, is an invisible material that gathers together in large clumps and affects its surroundings with the tug of gravity. They also theorize of a thing called dark energy, which is evenly distributed through empty space and could certainly be "outer darkness."

I'm sure all have heard of what astronomers call a black hole. Several years ago the Hubble Telescope detected what they called a black hole. They defined it as a cauldron of infinite heat, its darkness and gravitational pull so strong, that light could not escape it.

According to a Northwestern University astronomer, an enormous black hole has been discovered at the center of our Milky Way galaxy. An article in USA Today by Paul Hoversten reported on this news. Two paragraphs from Mr. Hoversten's article concerning this black hole follow:

New data from radio and optical telescopes shows the object is 2.6 million times the size of our sun and is causing stars to speed by at 2 million miles per hour, astronomers told the American Astronomical Society on Wednesday.

Only a black hole that big could cause stars to move so fast, they said. A black hole is a collapsed star so dense that not even light escapes its gravity.

Astronomers claim that a black hole is a collapsed star and the one discussed above is super massive. Now consider this about Jesus Christ, angels, and Satan and his fallen angels. Revelation, Chapter 22, Verse 16:

I Jesus have sent mine angel to testify unto you these things in the churches. I am the root and the offspring of David, and the bright and morning star.

Jesus Christ is the bright and morning star. God's Word teaches that the sun, which is also a morning star, is ashamed in his presence. When the Lord Jesus returns with his saints to do battle at the very end, it is written that he will destroy the wicked one with the brightness of his coming. In Revelation, Chapter 1, Verse 20, Jesus says the mystery of the "seven stars are the angels of the seven churches." Daniel, Chapter 12, Verse 3 speaks about those who win many to Christ and says:

And they that be wise shall shine as the brightness of the firmament; and they that turn many to righteousness as the stars for ever and ever.

Satan was once called Lucifer and was also at one time called son of the morning. Isaiah, Chapter 14, Verses 12-15:

12 How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning! how art thou cut down to the ground, which didst weaken the nations!

13 For thou hast said in thine heart, I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God: I will sit also upon the mount of the congregation, in the sides of the north:

14 I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will be like the most High.

15 Yet thou shalt be brought down to hell, to the sides of the pit.

Jesus speaks of this issue in Luke, Chapter 10, Verse 18:

And he said unto them, I beheld Satan as lightning fall from heaven.

Satan's insurrection against God was broken and destroyed by the Lord Jesus Christ upon the cross of Calvary. After Jesus' resurrection Satan and his angels were cast down to the earth. Satan is a fallen angel and his light has been quenched and he is now the power of darkness. The Apostle Paul writes in Ephesians, Chapter 6, Verse 12:

For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.

Satan is a fallen angel. He is a collapsed star. Wouldn't it be ironic if the one once called the morning star, whose light was quenched, making him exceedingly dark, would find his end in a black hole that astronomers say is a collapsed star? Wouldn't it also be ironic if astronomers have actually tripped over the "lake of fire" in "outer darkness" where all evil finds its end...a cauldron of infinite heat where no light dwells?

GOD SAID that the final judgment of evil is a place called the "lake of fire" which exists in a place called "outer darkness."

MAN SAID, "There is no creator and there is no final everlasting judgement; one simply dies and that's the end of it."

Now you have THE RECORD.

If you personally have not made your peace with God, please click on to "Further with Jesus" on this web site.

 

References:

King James Bible

Seife, C., "Peering Backward to the Cosmos's Fiery Birth," Science (vol. 292, June 22, 2001) P. 2236.

Morris, H.M., "The Outer Darkness," Back to Genesis, pub. Oct. 2001.

Hoversten, P., "Evidence Points to Massive Black Hole," USA Today, Jan. 8, 1998.

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