“I will make you into a great nation and I will bless you; I will make your name great, and you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and whoever curses you I will curse; and all peoples on earth will be blessed through you.”(Genesis 12:2-3)

” ‘The land must not be sold permanently, because the land is mine and you are but aliens and my tenants. Throughout the country that you hold as a possession, you must provide for the redemption of the land. (Leviticus 25:23-24)

Right from the beginning, the Lord made good on His promise to bless those who blessed Abraham and curse those who cursed him. When the kings of 5 nations kidnapped Lot and his family, Abraham went after them, aided by Aner, Eschol, and Mamre, three leaders of the Amorites. When the dust had settled, Lot was freed, the 5 kings were defeated, and the Amorites received a handsome spoil from the King of Sodom (Gen.14). Those who had blessed Abraham were blessed and those who had cursed him were cursed.

When Pharaoh tried to prevent the Israelites from leaving Egypt, pursuing them all the way down the Arabian Peninsula, his armies were drowned beneath the Red Sea. (Exodus 15:4)

When the Amalekites attacked Israel in the desert and were defeated, the Lord declared war on them “from generation to generation.” (Exodus 17:16) Seen any Amalekites lately?

When Joshua made a pact with the Gibeonites to help the Israelites during the conquest of the land, the Lord honored it, and the Gibeonites were spared. Later when Saul set out to eliminate them from the land the Lord was angered and sent David to apologize and restore them. (2 Samuel 21:1-4)

The Ammonites, the Edomites, the Moabites, and the Philistines all gave Israel trouble from time to time after they settled in the land. Sometimes God used them as agents of His judgment against disobedient Israel, and other times it was of their own volition. But eventually their animosity toward Israel brought about their destruction. When the Lord sent Babylon to execute His judgment against Israel, He had Nebuchadnezzar destroy those nations completely.

But even the mighty Babylon earned the Lord’s displeasure for the way they treated His people.  He told Jeremiah that as soon as Israel’s 70-year exile had been completed, He would judge their captors (Jer. 25:12).   150 years earlier God had warned Babylon they would mistreat His people and He would judge them because of it, but they paid no heed.  Read the words of Isaiah.

“I was angry with my people and desecrated my inheritance; I gave them into your hand, and you showed them no mercy. Even on the aged you laid a very heavy yoke. You said, I will continue forever— the eternal queen!’ But you did not consider these things or reflect on what might happen.

“Now then, listen, you wanton creature, lounging in your security and saying to yourself, ‘I am, and there is none besides me. I will never be a widow or suffer the loss of children.’ Both of these will overtake you in a moment, on a single day: loss of children and widowhood. They will come upon you in full measure, in spite of your many sorceries and all your potent spells.

You have trusted in your wickedness and have said, ‘No one sees me.’ Your wisdom and knowledge mislead you when you say to yourself, ‘I am, and there is none besides me.’

Disaster will come upon you, and you will not know how to conjure it away. A calamity will fall upon you that you cannot ward off with a ransom; a catastrophe you cannot foresee will suddenly come upon you.” (Isaiah 47:6-11)

At the end of the 70 years, the Lord sent the Medes and Persians against them and the great City of Babylon was conquered. Cyrus the Persian set the Israelites free, returned the loot stolen from the Temple Nebuchadnezzar had destroyed and helped them rebuild it.  Later Persian King Artaxerxes gave Nehemiah permission to rebuild the Holy City and its walls (Nehemiah 2) an event that started the clock running on Daniel’s 70 Weeks prophecy (Daniel 9:24-27).  In return the Kingdom of Persia enjoyed several generations of peace and prosperity.

When Alexander the Great came through the Middle East but spared Jerusalem, he was blessed with an unbroken string of victories the likes of which the world had never seen, reaching into Africa and all the way across India.

That Was Then. What About Now?
In modern times Israel’s first benefactor was Great Britain. The Balfour Declaration of 1917 made the creation of the modern nation possible. The Lord had given the British lands that spanned the globe. “The sun never sets on the British Empire,” was their legitimate boast. But in 1938 when they suddenly changed their tune and began a period of open hostility toward Israel things changed. Today most of that Empire is gone and Britain is no longer the dominant world power.

And now it seems like the US is learning a similar lesson. In the years since the Madrid Conference was held in 1991, a series of “natural” disasters have struck the US, each on the heels of something we did or helped do that runs contrary to God’s declaration concerning the real ownership of the Land of Israel. I’ve listed them below.

1. October 30, 1991: The Perfect Storm – As President George H. W. Bush is opening the Madrid (Spain) Conference to consider “land for peace” and Israel’s Middle East role, the “perfect storm” develops in the North Atlantic, creating the largest waves ever recorded in that region. The storm travels 1000 miles from “east to west” instead of the normal “west to east” pattern and crashes into the New England Coast. Thirty-five foot waves pound Kennebunkport,Maine,  the summer home of the Bush family.

2. August 23, 1992: Hurricane Andrew – When the Madrid Conference moves to Washington DC and the peace talks resume, Hurricane Andrew, the worst natural disaster ever to hit America, comes ashore and produces an estimated $30 billion in damage and leaving 180,000 homeless in Florida.

3. January 16, 1994: Northridge Earthquake—President Bill Clinton meets with Syria’s President Hafez el-Assad in Geneva. They talk about a peace agreement with Israel that includes giving up the Golan Heights. Within 24 hours, a powerful 6.9 earthquake rocks Southern California, This quake, centered in Northridge, becomes the second most destructive natural disaster to hit the United States, behind Hurricane Andrew.

4. January 21, 1998: Lewinsky Scandal – Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu meets with President Clinton at the White House and is coldly received. Clinton and Secretary of State Madeleine Albright refuse to have lunch with him. Shortly afterwards on that day, the Monica Lewinsky scandal breaks into the mass media and begins to occupy a major portion of Clinton’s time.

5. September 28, 1998: Hurricane George – As Secretary of State Albright works on the final details of an agreement in which Israel would give up 13 percent of the West Bank, Hurricane George slams into the United States Gulf Coast with 110 mph winds and gusts up to 175 mph. The hurricane hits the coast and is stalled there. On September 28, Clinton meets with Yasser Arafat and Netanyahu at the White House to finalize this land deal. Later, Arafat addresses the United Nations about declaring an independent Palestinian state by May 1999, as Hurricane George pounds the Gulf Coast, causing $1 billion in damage. At the exact time that Arafat departs the country, the storm begins to dissipate.

6. October 15-22, 1998: Texas Flooded – On October 15, 1998, Arafat and Netanyahu meet at the Wye River Plantation in Maryland. The talks are scheduled to last five days with the focus on Israel giving up the aforementioned 13 percent of the West Bank. The talks are extended and conclude on October 23. On October 17, awesome rains and tornadoes hit southern Texas. The San Antonio area is deluged with rain. The rain and flooding in Texas continue until October 22 and then subside. The floods ravage 25 percent of Texas and leave over one billion dollars in damage. On October 21, Clinton declares this section of Texas a major disaster area.

7. November 30, 1998: Market Capitalization Evaporates – Arafat comes to Washington again to meet with President Clinton to raise money for a Palestinian state with Jerusalem as the capitol. A total of 42 other nations were represented in Washington. All the nations agreed to give Arafat $3 billion in aid. Clinton promised $400 million, and the European nations $1.7 billion. On the same day, the Dow Jones average drops 216 points, and on December 1, the European Market had its third worst day in history. Hundreds of billions of market capitalization were wiped out in the U.S. and Europe.

8. December 12, 1998: Clinton is Impeached – As Clinton lands in the Palestinian-controlled section of Israel to discuss the “land for peace” process, the House of Representatives votes four articles of impeachment against him.

9. May 3, 1999: The Powerful Super Tornado – On the day that Yasser Arafat is scheduled to declare a Palestinian state with Jerusalem as the capital, the most powerful tornado storm system ever to hit the United States sweeps across Oklahoma and Kansas. The winds are clocked at 316 mph the fastest wind speed ever recorded. The declaration is postponed to December 1999 at the request of President Clinton, whose letter to Arafat encourages him in his “aspirations for his own land.” He also writes that the Palestinians have a right to “determine their own future on their own land” and that they deserve to “live free, today, tomorrow and forever.”

10. Week of October 11, 1999: Hurricane, Earthquake and Dow Collapse – As Jewish settlers in 15 West Bank settlements are evicted from covenant land, the Dow-Jones financial averages lose 5.7 percent in the worst week since October 1989. On October 15 the Dow lost 266 points, and a hurricane slams into North Carolina. On the next morning, October 16, a magnitude 7.1 earthquake rocks the southwest in the fifth most powerful earthquake in 20th Century. The earthquake was centered in the California desert and did little damage but was felt in three states. (source: www.truthorfiction.com)

11. August 29, 2005.  Hurricane Katrina. One week before Katrina made landfall, Israel carried out the evacuation of 9,500 residents from Gush Katif and four Samaria communities. Residents were forced from their homes by Israeli troops, some dragged away kicking and screaming and placed on buses that took them from the area. The Gaza evacuation had been supported and even urged upon Israel by the US.  Projected to be one of the most expensive natural disasters in our history, Katrina is the latest in a string of events that most experts agree are too consistent to be mere coincidence, but disagree as to their relevance. (Source: www.wnd.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=46178)

Coincidence Is Not A Kosher Word
The lessons of history are unmistakably clear. Those who have blessed Abraham have been blessed, while those who have cursed him have been cursed.  The Law of Cause and Effect is clearly established in the incidents I’ve described above. Even those who  deny the existence of God have seen the trend.  So when the US makes such an obvious change in course toward Israel as our government seems to be making now, what right have we to expect anything but disaster? Applying the historic trend to the present, it wouldn’t take a prophet to predict even greater disasters for the US in the weeks and months ahead.

Here’s the latest development in the current diplomatic crisis between Israel and the US.  Pres. Obama and Sec’y of State Clinton have issued the following ultimatum to Israel:

1.  The Netanyahu government must extend the 10-month freeze on West Bank settlement construction to include East Jerusalem;

2.  When the moratorium runs out in September, it must be renewed for the duration of peace negotiations with the Palestinians;

3. Israeli must make more concessions to the Palestinian Authority and its chairman Mahmoud Abbas.

This is all part of an effort to force Israel and the Palestinians to start negotiating again.  The Israeli government was informed that until those conditions were met, its ministers would not be received in Washington by high-level American officials.  This is a virtual boycott, which downgrades the normal diplomatic, strategic and security exchanges between the two administrations.  So far neither party to the difference has mentioned the US administration’s fourth condition for resuming normal relations:  an Israeli commitment to refrain from attacking Iran’s nuclear program without prior US consent.

But there’s still more.  CENTCOM chief, Gen. David Petraeus, has not as yet formally asked for the Palestinian territories to be transferred to his command, but did say: “Staff members at various times have discussed asking for the Palestinian territories to be added to CENTCOM’s turf.”  If approved, this step would be tantamount to providing the Palestinians with an American military umbrella against Israel. (Source: debkafile.  www.debka.com/article/8657/)

And this week Pres. Obama ordered a shipment of arms already bound for Israel to be diverted instead to the US Air Force base in Diego Garcia.  Israeli PM Netanyahu and Defense minister Barak will be in the US this week and will try to persuade Pres. Obama to change his mind.

On the issue of Israel American believers are hopelessly divided. Many of us have been so blinded by the heresy called Replacement Theology (it teaches that the Church has replaced Israel in God’s plan) that we’re like Belshazzar, the spoiled Prince of Babylon. We’re trembling in fear but can’t read the handwriting on the wall. (Daniel 5:5-6)

We need to forget everything else where Israel is concerned and remember this one thing. God has claimed that land for Himself. No power on Earth is great enough to give even one inch of it to anyone else at any time for any reason without suffering the consequences. We now have eleven clear examples of that truth. How many will it take before we learn?

I’ve received several emails lately asking for clarification of the term “Outer Darkness.” It’s  mentioned a total of 4 times in the New Testament,  three by name and one by implication, and always by Jesus. The term is not used any where else, Old Testament or New, by any other writer.  Those who ask want to know if it’s another name for the place of eternal punishment, or if it’s someplace different.  And they want to know who’s going there.

The problem I’ve had in researching this is there’s no general agreement among scholars as to what it is, where it is, or for whom it’s intended either.  There’s also no agreement as to whether it’s a physical location or a state of being.  The phrase Outer Darkness literally means, “outside, where there’s no light”.  The Greek word for darkness can be used metaphorically to mean obscurity, which is the condition of being unknown.  And there’s also a sense in which spiritual ignorance or blindness can apply.  An accompanying phrase describes it as a place of weeping and gnashing of teeth, which denotes extreme anguish and utter despair.  No matter what else you think about it, the Outer Darkness is definitely not a nice place to be.

For many generations it was simply thought to be another name for Hell.  But Hell, or more accurately Hades, is not a permanent destination.   It’s a temporary one that will be thrown into the Lake of Fire at the end of the Millennium (Rev. 20:14).  To me, the concept of utter despair denotes permanence.

 

So let’s take another look at its four appearances to see if we can answer some of the lingering questions about the Outer Darkness.

Matt. 8:12.
When Jesus had entered Capernaum, a centurion came to him, asking for help. “Lord,” he said, “my servant lies at home paralyzed and in terrible suffering.”

Jesus said to him, “I will go and heal him.”

The centurion replied, “Lord, I do not deserve to have you come under my roof. But just say the word, and my servant will be healed. For I myself am a man under authority, with soldiers under me. I tell this one, ‘Go,’ and he goes; and that one, ‘Come,’ and he comes. I say to my servant, ‘Do this,’ and he does it.”

When Jesus heard this, he was astonished and said to those following him, “I tell you the truth, I have not found anyone in Israel with such great faith. I say to you that many will come from the east and the west, and will take their places at the feast with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven. But the subjects of the kingdom will be thrown outside, into the darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.” (Matt. 8:5-12)

In His first reference to the Outer Darkness, Jesus was clearly speaking to and about Israel. He was criticizing the Jews for letting a Gentile Roman soldier demonstrate a stronger faith in Him than they had. He said that their lack of faith would result in people from all over the world (Gentiles) inheriting the Kingdom, while the Jews, who were the Kingdom’s subjects, would be thrown into the Outer Darkness, a place of weeping and gnashing of teeth.

Israel was then (and will be again) God’s Kingdom on Earth. The Lord repeated His warning to them  in Matt. 21:43 when He said, “Therefore I tell you that the Kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a people who will produce its fruit.” It’s obvious that the Lord believed they were the subjects of the Kingdom or else why would He threaten to take it away from them?

So in His first mention of the Outer Darkness the Lord warned the Jewish people that at the End of the Age Gentile believers, like the Centurion, would join their patriarchs at the Wedding Feast while they themselves sat outside in the darkness for failing to recognize their Messiah.

Matt 22:13
Jesus spoke to them again in parables, saying: “The kingdom of heaven is like a king who prepared a wedding banquet for his son. He sent his servants to those who had been invited to the banquet to tell them to come, but they refused to come.

“Then he sent some more servants and said, ‘Tell those who have been invited that I have prepared my dinner: My oxen and fattened cattle have been butchered, and everything is ready. Come to the wedding banquet.’

“But they paid no attention and went off—one to his field, another to his business. The rest seized his servants, mistreated them and killed them. The king was enraged. He sent his army and destroyed those murderers and burned their city.

“Then he said to his servants, ‘The wedding banquet is ready, but those I invited did not deserve to come. Go to the street corners and invite to the banquet anyone you find.’ So the servants went out into the streets and gathered all the people they could find, both good and bad, and the wedding hall was filled with guests. “But when the king came in to see the guests, he noticed a man there who was not wearing wedding clothes. ‘Friend,’ he asked, ‘how did you get in here without wedding clothes?’ The man was speechless.

“Then the king told the attendants, ‘Tie him hand and foot, and throw him outside, into the darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.’

“For many are invited, but few are chosen.” (Matt. 22:1-14)

This is the parable of the Wedding Banquet, and there are three things to keep in mind here. First, the bride is never mentioned in this parable.  Second, a bride is not considered a guest and could never be thrown out of her own wedding. And third, the banquet follows the wedding, so in the context of the parable the wedding has already taken place.

To accept the view that this parable is about the Church you have to start with the belief that some in the Church will become the Bride of Christ while others will not. But the Bible never even hints of that.  It’s a man made conclusion without any Biblical support. If we’re saved, we’re in the church and are the Bride of Christ.  If we’re not, we’re not.

In parables everything is symbolic of something else, and the Bible always explains what they stand for.  Isaiah 61:10 explains that the wedding clothes represent righteousness;

I delight greatly in the LORD;  my soul rejoices in my God.  For he has clothed me with garments of salvation  and arrayed me in a robe of righteousness,  as a bridegroom adorns his head like a priest,  and as a bride adorns herself with her jewels.

Here’s how I see it. In Rev. 16:15, just after the 6th Bowl judgment and long after the church has departed, the Lord said, “Behold, I come like a thief! Blessed is he who stays awake and keeps his clothes with him, so that he may not go naked and be shamefully exposed.”

He was alluding to the fact that the Doctrine of Eternal Security expires with the Rapture, a fact that Jesus taught in the Parable of the 10 Virgins. Tribulation believers will be saved by faith, just like everyone else, but will be responsible for keeping themselves saved, or as John said, keeping their clothes with them. Rev. 14:12 says they will do this by obeying God’s commandments and remaining faithful to Jesus.

The man ejected from the banquet was a last minute guest.  He represents tribulation survivors who are not part of the Church. He was trying to receive the blessing of those invited to the wedding feast  that occurs at the time of the 2nd Coming (Rev. 19:9).  But He either hadn’t remained faithful and had lost his salvation, or never was saved at all.  Remember the servants invited both the “good” and the “bad” and it isn’t clear whether this man had wedding clothes and lost them, or never had them in the first place. When he tried to gain entrance into the banquet, he was discovered and ejected.

So the 2nd reference applies to unbelieving survivors from the Great Tribulation who will be denied a place in the Kingdom for lack of the righteousness that comes by faith, and banished to the Outer Darkness instead.

Matt. 24:51
Who then is the faithful and wise servant, whom the master has put in charge of the servants in his household to give them their food at the proper time? It will be good for that servant whose master finds him doing so when he returns. I tell you the truth, he will put him in charge of all his possessions.

But suppose that servant is wicked and says to himself, ‘My master is staying away a long time,’ and he then begins to beat his fellow servants and to eat and drink with drunkards. The master of that servant will come on a day when he does not expect him and at an hour he is not aware of. He will cut him to pieces and assign him a place with the hypocrites, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. (Matt. 24:45-51)

The Parable of the Servants has only an  implied reference to the Outer Darkness, calling it a place for hypocrites where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.  Since that phrase accompanies every other mention of the Outer Darkness, I think it’s safe to include it in our study.  The timing of this parable was established as early as Matt. 24:29-30 which makes every thing that follows pertain to those on Earth at the time of the 2nd Coming.  As a matter of fact, all the Olivet Discourse parables describe the destinies of Tribulation Survivors.  You can easily confirm this by also looking at Matt. 24:36-37, Matt. 25:1, and Matt. 25:14.

This parable is about those who will have held positions of spiritual leadership during the Great Tribulation. In the Millennial Kingdom, the Lord will elevate to a place of authority leaders who have kept the word of God through the intense hardship and persecution of the times, and have taught sound doctrine to the flocks entrusted to them. (Remember, no Tribulation survivor will enter the New Jerusalem, but will dwell on Earth during the Lord’s Millennial reign.)

But having forsaken the truth, the wicked servants no will longer be watching for the Lord’s return, ignoring the obvious fulfillment of prophecy all around them and ridiculing those whose child-like faith sustains them. They are the worst of all enemies because they’ll look and sound like friends. They’re like the one John describes as appearing to have the authority of the Lamb but who speaks the words of the Dragon (Rev. 13:11).  The Greek word translated hypocrite was often used to describe an actor or pretender, someone who appears to be something he’s not. So for the third time we see the Outer Darkness as a place for unbelievers. In this case it’s those who have betrayed the trust placed in them.

Matt. 25:30
The Lord’s final reference to the Outer Darkness appears at the end of the Parable of the Talents.

“Again, it will be like a man going on a journey, who called his servants and entrusted his property to them. To one he gave five talents of money, to another two talents, and to another one talent, each according to his ability. Then he went on his journey. The man who had received the five talents went at once and put his money to work and gained five more. So also, the one with the two talents gained two more. But the man who had received the one talent went off, dug a hole in the ground and hid his master’s money.

“After a long time the master of those servants returned and settled accounts with them. The man who had received the five talents brought the other five. ‘Master,’ he said, ‘you entrusted me with five talents. See, I have gained five more.’

“His master replied, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant! You have been faithful with a few things; I will put you in charge of many things. Come and share your master’s happiness!’

“The man with the two talents also came. ‘Master,’ he said, ‘you entrusted me with two talents; see, I have gained two more.’

“His master replied, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant! You have been faithful with a few things; I will put you in charge of many things. Come and share your master’s happiness!’

“Then the man who had received the one talent came. ‘Master,’ he said, ‘I knew that you are a hard man, harvesting where you have not sown and gathering where you have not scattered seed. So I was afraid and went out and hid your talent in the ground. See, here is what belongs to you.’

“His master replied, ‘You wicked, lazy servant! So you knew that I harvest where I have not sown and gather where I have not scattered seed? Well then, you should have put my money on deposit with the bankers, so that when I returned I would have received it back with interest.

” ‘Take the talent from him and give it to the one who has the ten talents. For everyone who has will be given more, and he will have an abundance. Whoever does not have, even what he has will be taken from him. And throw that worthless servant outside, into the darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.’ (Matt. 25:14-30)

For a more complete treatment of the Parable of the Talents click here. The relevant points for this study are that like the other Olivet Discourse parables, the timing is after the 2nd coming, the judgment is on Earth, and the man who had his only talent confiscated demonstrated a complete lack of knowledge of and faith in his master.  He thought of Him as a hard man who accepted credit He didn’t deserve and he was afraid the master would treat him unfairly.  No believer feels that way about Jesus.  His punishment was to be consigned to the outer darkness.

So in all four cases, the ones being judged are unbelievers and their punishment is to live in a state of total obscurity where they will experience extreme anguish and utter despair.  The fact that there’s no expanded teaching on the Outer Darkness elsewhere in the Bible leads me to believe the Lord was speaking of a place we’re already familiar with, but describing it in a way that helps us understand how it will feel to be there.

Remember, the words obscurity, extreme anguish and utter despair are associated with the phrase outer darkness. To be there is to be cut off from the presence of the Lord and everyone else, existing in total obscurity.  The dictionary defines anguish as excruciating or acute distress, suffering, or pain, and despair as a state of utter hopelessness.

That, my friends, is the consequence of unbelief. Whether you call it Hell, Hades, Gehenna, the Lake of Fire, or the Outer Darkness, it’s all the same and you wouldn’t want your worst enemy to spend even an hour there.