Outer darkness: A thousand years? or for eternity?

[awareness]

What is outer darkness? It's not the lake of fire. Fire makes lightness not darkness. Is it being tossed into outer space? Where it's cold not hot?

I think all this is symbol-speak, in terms of images commonly understood back then. I don't think it should be taken literal. So much of it was common mythology tossed around long before and in common currency.

Make of it as you wish. To each his, or her, own.

But I'm not much on bogeyman Christianity. I grew up with fire and brimstone sermons, meant to scare people to Jesus, and everybody else.

As a result, I'm numb to hell-fire preachin. Overloaded, actually.

But I know people who awake with panic attacks from fear of damnation. Won't all these scary verses just exasperate those attacks ... not, perchance, bring needed salvation?

Scaring people to Christianity in the end is counter-productive. And why scare believers?

Some people love scary movies. So I guess some Christians like to be scared ... for those I present :

"The bow of God’s wrath is bent, and the arrow made ready on the string; and justice directs the bow to your heart, and strains at the bow: and it is nothing but the mere pleasure of God, and that of an angry God, without any promise or obligation at all, that keeps the arrow one moment from being made drunk with your blood."
~ Sinners in the hands of an angry God - Jonathan Edwards
http://www.ccel.org/ccel/edwards/sermons.sinners.html

[bearbear]

Originally Posted by awareness

But I'm not much on bogeyman Christianity. I grew up with fire and brimstone sermons, meant to scare people to Jesus, and everybody else.

As a result, I'm numb to hell-fire preachin. Overloaded, actually.

But I know people who awake with panic attacks from fear of damnation. Won't all these scary verses just exasperate those attacks ... not, perchance, bring needed salvation?

Scaring people to Christianity in the end is counter-productive. And why scare believers?

Some people love scary movies. So I guess some Christians like to be scared ... for those I present :

"The bow of God’s wrath is bent, and the arrow made ready on the string; and justice directs the bow to your heart, and strains at the bow: and it is nothing but the mere pleasure of God, and that of an angry God, without any promise or obligation at all, that keeps the arrow one moment from being made drunk with your blood."
~ Sinners in the hands of an angry God - Jonathan Edwards
http://www.ccel.org/ccel/edwards/sermons.sinners.html

Jeremiah 32:40
And I will make an everlasting covenant with them, that I will not turn away from them, to do them good; but I will put my fear in their hearts, that they shall not depart from me.

Some Christians I've met actually view fear of God as a gift Yet perfect love casts out fear. Fear of God has prevented me from doing many stupid things. It's saved me from a lot of trouble in recent years. I think it was well worth the negative aspects of the emotion of fear. But I think God took care of that in my life so I no longer dwell on the fear but on his love instead.

Don't you wish our former ministry leaders in the LC could have shared in the fear of God? Doesn't seem like any fear was present when Lee was setting up bank accounts to launder money, instead it seemed like greed, a lust of the flesh was controlling his behaviour. If he understood and practiced living according to the Spirit, the LCs would be totally different from what they are today.

[bearbear]

Originally Posted by awareness

What is outer darkness? It's not the lake of fire. Fire makes lightness not darkness. Is it being tossed into outer space? Where it's cold not hot?

Many people who have had NDEs report seeing people burning in agony in hell, yet there was no light or any fire visible. It's described a place of total darkness, yet burning. Here's one of them:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mAmtJF3YuhQ

[Ohio]

Originally Posted by bearbear

Many people who have had NDEs report seeing people burning in agony in hell, yet there was no light or any fire visible. It's described a place of total darkness, yet burning. Here's one of them:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mAmtJF3YuhQ

How could they see people in hell when the judgment of the Great White throne has not yet occurred.

To me it seems a little unwise to base our belief system on NDE's.

[bearbear]

Originally Posted by Ohio

How could they see people in hell when the judgment of the Great White throne has not yet occurred.

To me it seems a little unwise to base our belief system on NDE's.

When most Christians say hell they mean Hades which is in the pit of the earth. The lake of fire is understood to be the second or final hell by most Christians. I'm not saying what he saw was what Jesus considered to be outer darkness, but it can explain how it's possible to have burning in a place with no light.

And I agree we shouldn't base our theology off NDEs but off the word of God. But sometimes these experiences can give us greater insight, with discernment of course, and we should reject that ones the clearly go against God's word or deny Jesus' words.