[OBW]

BB,

I think that one problem that is going on in this discussion is the notion of how extreme one must be to believe and obey. I would not say that it is simple, like mental belief. But neither do I think that the kind of extreme that is getting implied here is what it means.

I note that Jesus went throughout his ministry preaching righteousness and sending the people home to live right.

Not to become one of the people who followed him everywhere he went.

That is one of the millstone burdens of both the Pharisees of old and the "serious" Christians of this age. They think that life must be overanalyzed. That we must beat ourselves up for every mistake. That we must spend an hour in the word and prayer each morning. That we must never fail or fall. That we must be burning in the meetings. And go to more meetings than anyone else we know.

Problem is that we all fall. And we do it at some level every day. While there is clearly a level of failure that will be recompensed on "the day" by something other than a crown with many stars in it.

In the mean time, there really is not sufficient evidence of what that recompense is to insist on any particular understanding of it.

And it is evident that we have multiple understandings about outer darkness. We can go on brow-beating each other with wet noodles and get nowhere because we simply do not know. The only thing we do know is to believe and obey. Take care of that and it will pan out in the end.