Quote:
Originally Posted by Ohio
But the Bible doesn't say that. Unfortunately we all can find "scholars" to say anything we want.
Matt 25.9-10 indicates that these virgins were forced to buy more oil since theirs was inadequate, and there was a way to buy more. They missed the marriage feast, but nothing indicates they burn forever in the lake of fire.
Purgatory, which comes from "place of purging," comes from I Cor 3.13-15. How can fire be a test for each one's work, with some receiving a reward and some obviously not, if we are still saved, though the fire has burnt up all our work?
Apostle Paul says a workman must rightly divide the word of God. You have not rightly divided the matter of sins and work. Most of your comments and the verses you have selected prove this.
Please do not think that the length of one's posts proves anything. Quality supersedes quantity.
|
Sorry for my shoddy scholarship
If I have more time later I'll pull up the references. My data for this is simply that most bible scholars come from Lordship Salvation backgrounds and not free grace. Millennial exclusion is only found in seminaries that adhere to free grace theology. It really sounds like a case of eisigesis to me. I don't think you can come up with this doctrine from a plain reading of scripture without being bound by believing in eternal security after saying the sinner's prayer.
Despite this, I think the burden of proof should be on showing that outer darkness is for a thousand years. After all this is an eternity we're talking about! I haven't been convinced by WNee and WLee's arguments. Perhaps others here including Ohio could do better? How would you respond to "weeping and gnashing of teeth" being used to describe punishment in the fiery furnace in Matthew 13:41–42?
------------------------------------------------------------------------
In the few references to outer darkness in the gospels, it's usually described as a place of "weeping and gnashing of teeth":
Luke 13:28
In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth, when you see Abraham and Isaac and Jacob and all the prophets in the kingdom of God but you yourselves cast out.
If there were still hope of eternity with Jesus, then there would be at least some glory to look forward to. But one can probably infer that because there is no hope, all one can do is weep and gnash their teeth.
According to wikipedia:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Weeping...shing_of_teeth
"The phrase "(there shall be) weeping and gnashing of teeth" (in the original Greek ὁ κλαυθμὸς καὶ ὁ βρυγμὸς τῶν ὀδόντων) appears seven times in the New Testament as a description of the torments of the damned in Hell. It is thought to derive from a logion in the hypothetical Q source, which yielded Matthew 8:12 and Luke 13:28. The other five occurrences are all within the context of parables and are widely held to be redactional additions by Matthew."
In fact in Matthew 13:41–42, the phrase "weeping and gnashing of teeth" is used in the context of the "fiery furnace", presumably the lake of fire!
Matthew 13
41 The Son of Man will send his angels, and they will gather out of his kingdom all causes of sin and all law-breakers, and throw them into the fiery furnace. In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.
Lending credence to the idea that outer darkness is synonymous with the lake of fire or part of it. It's a place that's dark because there is no light, yet it is burning. This is because God is light and his presence is not there. Without God there is no light and only darkness.