The other thing that has always sparked curiosity, is what does God mean when he says cast into outer darkness?
There is another term, such as being cast into the lake of fire, but is outer darkness different? and in what way?
It can be easy to lump in all the "judgment" language of the Bible into a single basket and call it "hell". The problem is that the Bible presents a more complex picture than that.
Let's start at the beginning.
When one reads through the Old Testament one is going to notice mention of She'ol, this is often translated as "hell" in older Bible translations, and sometimes translated "the grave" in modern ones (it is also sometimes simply left untranslated). She'ol isn't "hell", it's simply the "place of the dead". When David talks about seeing his dead infant again, he means in She'ol, in the place of the dead. No distinction is made between the place of righteous dead or the place of wicked dead--there's really just the one common destination, She'ol, the grave.
In the Second Temple Period (from the time of the rebuilding of Solomon's Temple after the Babylonian Exile until the destruction of this Temple in 70 AD) Jewish views about life after death became more complex. She'ol, the place of the dead, translated into Greek as Hades, gets divided into two parts: The place of the righteous dead called Gan-Eden ("The Garden of Eden"), or translated into Greek as
Paradeisos ("Paradise"), literally "a garden", which was also conceived as being in "the third heaven" (out of seven heavens, with the seventh heaven being conceived as the highest heaven). On the other hand, the place of the wicked dead was called Ge-Hinnom ("The Valley of Hinnom"), which in Greek was written as Gehenna, the word Jesus uses often when talking about "hell" in the Gospels. The Hinnom Valley is a literal valley that was, in ancient times, located outside the city of Jerusalem, and it was the site in ancient Israel where the cult of Molech worship was centered; the pagan god Molech was worshiped by heating up a metal image of the god until it was red hot, and then making human sacrifice upon it, specifically the sacrifice of small children and even infants. The imagery associated with the Hinnom Valley was so horrific, that it became the symbol of what the wicked experience--fire, darkness, death.
Gehenna isn't a literal place, it is a way of talking about the judgment of the wicked. Fire, darkness, undying maggots, these are metaphors, not literal things.
Further, the main thing to keep in mind is that "Heaven and Hell" are not the point. The point is Jesus Christ, His death and resurrection by which He saves us and is saving us and will set the whole world to rights. The day is coming when He will return, the dead shall be raised, there will be final judgment, and then God will make all things new. And in that Day the joy of the saints shall be full as we experience the rich and full depths of life with God in the renewal of all creation--new heavens and new earth. As for the rest, they are described as being outside of the city, and they are described as being in a lake burning with fire and sulfur (symbols both of judgment and divine purification). Again, we shouldn't try to think that there is a literal city, nor a literal lake of fire somewhere with geographical coordinates. Rather it means that there are those who are outside of the full joy and vibrant life of God in the new world, too busy gnashing their teeth to enjoy anything at all; theirs is "second death", a death-beyond-death, not by being erased from existence, but by that not sharing in the blessed life of that future world.
Though I will add that I think the Apocalypse of St. John gives us a fascinating glimmer of hope, even here, as having described all those outside of the City also speaks of the leaves of the tree of life which grows on both banks of the river that flows out from the city as being "for the healing of the nations". Like so many things in the Apocalypse, we aren't told what this means, but I can't help but think that this detail is there to remind us of hope, perhaps even in deepest darkest hell. After all, Christ our Lord has destroyed hell, and torn down its ancient gates by His victorious rising from the dead--He entered into deepest darkest hell, and obliterated its power.
But beyond this, we should not say too much--because we do not know, nor can we know, and we will not know until we no longer "see through a glass dimly", but "face to face, knowing even as I am known".
-CryptoLutheran
