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OUTER DARKNESS

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Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Mar 23, 1869

FromReview and Herald, Vol. 33, No. 13.

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OUTER DARKNESS.

By John Nevins Andrews

1 Sam. ii, 9: “He will keep the feet of his saints, and the wicked shall be silent in darkness; for by strength shall no man prevail.”
Matt. viii, 12: “But the children of the kingdom shall be cast out into outer darkness; there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth.”
2 Pet. ii, 17: “These are wells without water, clouds that are carried with a tempest; to whom the mist of darkness is reserved forever.”
Jude 13: “Raging waves of the sea, foaming out their own shame; wandering stars, to whom is reserved the blackness of darkness forever.”
These texts relating to the fate of the wicked, are surely terrific and awful. “Darkness,” “outer darkness,” “mist of darkness,” “blackness of darkness,” are terms calculated to impress our minds with the hopeless despair of the lost. Three facts are particularly worthy of notice.
1. This darkness is never to end. It is never to be succeeded by light.
2. When the wicked are cast into this darkness, there is to be wailing and gnashing of teeth. With what bitterness the wicked shall lament we can judge from that fact that their punishment is in the presence of the heavenly Jerusalem and its inhabitants. For some most expressive words of lamentation which they shall utter, see Wisdom of Solomon, chap. v.
3. But, thank God, this awful wail of despair shall cease. “The wicked shall be SILENT IN DARKNESS.” Never indeed shall a ray of light or hope pierce that blackness of darkness. No morrow of relief and joy shall succeed that awful darkness. Their star sets in darkness, and goes out never to be lighted again. The silence of the wicked can never be in that awful anguish till He who alone is able shall destroy them, soul and body, in the gehenna of fire.
Then there shall be silence. Not that of conscious relief, for their last moments are those of utter anguish and hopeless despair; but this silence shall be when God’s indignation shall cease in their destruction. Let us thank God that wickedness is not immortal, and that wicked men shall not live forever.
J. N. A.