Unique to the gospel of Matthew is the expression - "outer darkness" - in describing the punishment of the damned. Associated with this expression is the reaction of those consigned to that "outer darkness" - "there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth." The references in Matthew are: 8:11-12; 22:11-13; 25:30. We do well to observe carefully those whom Jesus said would be consigned to outer darkness.

Matthew 8:11-12 reads:

I say unto you, That many shall come from the east and the west and shall sit down with Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob, in the kingdom of heaven. But the children of the kingdom shall be cast into outer darkness: there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth.

Jesus made this comparison after He had observed the faith of the centurion who had requested healing for his servant. He had not found such "faith" in Israel. First, the centurion sensed himself as "unworthy." Secondly, he recognized the authority of Jesus over the forces that produce sickness and death. Simply summarized Jesus was recognized as the sole "saviour" of unworthy people.

The "children of the kingdom" - those who assume privilege because of connection - will go into outer darkness. They believed themselves secure because they were blood descendants of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. They were worthy not only that the Messiah come "under their roof," but they were fit to sit down in the kingdom of heaven. They needed no , "saviour"; they were already "whole."

The second reference in Matthew focuses on what our own relationship to outer darkness could be. It reads:

And when the king came in to see the guests, he saw there a man which had not on a wedding garment: and he said to him, Friend, how comest thou in hither not having a wedding garment? And he was speechless. Then said the king to the servant, Bind him hand and foot, and take him away, and cast him into outer darkness; there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth. (22:11-13)

This parable tells about an inspection - an investigative judgment - prior to entrance into the wedding of the king's son.

Again we have a word unique to Matthew's gospel which defines the relationship between the king and the guest " Friend " It is the same word used by Jesus in addressing Judas when he led a band of temple guards to the Garden of Gethsemane to take Jesus. (Matt. 26:50) The "guest " came and assuming a special status as a " friend," he felt no need to change his attire - It was good enough. After all a special friend of the king would not be poverty stricken. It would be a fine robe that he would wear on such an occasion - his very best! But his very best was not good enough. It had to be a robe in which there was not a thread of human devising. Into outer darkness, he was consigned, robe and all.

The third reference in Matthew (25:30) concerns a servant to whom his employer entrusted his goods. Though trusted, he proved unworthy. He was satisfied to hold it in safe keeping that which was entrusted to him. He didn't squander it, nor lose it. But neither did he enlarge it. He was satisfied with no growth. He, too, was consigned to outer darkness.

Associated with the phrase - "weeping and gnashing of teeth" is the more common understanding of the punishment of the lost. In the parable of the wheat and tares, Jesus indicated that "all things that offend" will be cast into a furnace of fire and "there will be wailing and gnashing of teeth." (Matt. 13:41-42) We have no problem with the "furnace of fire" as

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associated with the punishment of the wicked. It is simply "hell fire," the fire that comes down from God out of heaven and devours the wicked. (Rev. 20:9) But why the two facets? - "furnace of fire" which destroys the body, and "outer darkness." Jesus warned - "Fear not them which kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul: but rather fear Him who is able to destroy both soul and body in hell." (Matt. 10:28) Why?

Luke emphasizes the contrast. He records that Jesus said that those who kill the body "have no more they can do." But we are to fear Him, which after He hath killed hath power to cast into hell." (Luke 12:4-5) It is evident that God can and will do more than simply consume the body. What then is "outer darkness" which Luke has Jesus linking with "hell" itself? It is obvious that God's judgment against sin is not complete with merely a consuming fire, but involves what Matthew heard Jesus call "outer darkness."

From its very inception, God's attitude toward sin has been constant. "The wages of sin is death." (Rom. 6:23) "The soul that sinneth, it shall die." (Eze. 18:20) The Lord God told our first parents that in the day they ate of the forbidden tree, they would "surely die." (Gen. 2:17) In His relationship to sin, God has clearly differentiated between sin and the acts which result from sin. His mercy is extended toward those who, because of sin, transgress, but who turn to Him in confession. "If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins." (1 John 1:9) Through the redemption in Christ Jesus, God declares "His righteousness for the remission of sins that are past." (Rom. 3:24-25) However, God cannot and will not forgive the sin nature. So long as the sin nature remains alive, sins will continue.

This differentiation between sins and sin is seen in the Lamb provision for us. In the Messianic prophecy of Isaiah, we read - "He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities...and the Lord laid on Him the iniquity of us all." (Isa. 53:5-6) But there is more - God was to "make His soul an offering for sin." (53:10) God "made Him to be sin for us, who knew no sin." (II Cor. 5:21)

The cross alone reveals the meaning of "His soul an offering for sin." It is true the struggle began in the Garden. The two are linked. Matthew tells us that coming to the Garden, Jesus took three with Him into its inner recesses. To them, He said - "My soul is exceeding sorrowful, even unto death." He went a little farther and began to pray. Three times, He uttered that little understood prayer - "O my Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from Me." (Matt. 26:36-44) But in that thrice repeated petition, Jesus never defined what that mysterious "cup" was.

At the cross, we discover the meaning of the "cup." Let us simply re-read the events surrounding the cross, and see what they tell us.

People, priests and rulers stood in groups about the cross. One taunt came from their lips - "He saved others, let Him save Himself, if He be Christ, the chosen of God." (Luke 23:35) Matthew singles out the loudest voices in that chorus - "the chief priests ... with the scribes and elders, said, He saved others, Himself He cannot save." (Matt. 27:41-42)

Here were the members of the highest authority in Israel. What an admission escaped their lips - "He saved others." His miracles were genuine: the dead did live again, and those with sicknesses were really healed. But all of these acts of restoration were parabolic, demonstrating His power to save the soul. "Let Him save Himself" - this He could not do and save others. The whole religious economy of Israel taught this in every sacrifice offered by the priests. The victim could not be saved, forgiveness extended to the offer-er. In this is found a penetrating question. How much can one know about the theory of religion and still miss its import as did those religious leaders at the cross? These priests performed the shadowy types every day throughout the whole ceremonial year, yet they did not recognize the reality and scoffed at it.

Next the soldiers, mockingly came before Him with an offering of vinegar, saying, "If thou be the King of the Jews, save thyself." (Luke 23:36-37) A brief time before, as they pounded the nails, Jesus had prayed, "Father forgive them, for they know not what they do." (ver. 34) Do we really understand the meaning of our sins? Do we understand that we crucify the Son of God afresh? Do we understand sin? Or do we mockingly offer the chalice of works of righteousness's thinking that He will rejoice in our accomplishments, and the pain of our sins which He carried will be dulled?

Even the two thieves cast the same into His teeth. (Matt. 27:44) From the highest ecclesiastics of Jewry to the criminals hung with Him, one common taunt echoed in His ears - He could not save Himself. From the selfish human point of view it was saying, what good

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was His message anyway? Human nature wants no cost to self in whatever it does, but gain. But because Jesus would not save Himself, there is the power of His message. It is our only hope.

Let us continue at the cross.

Matthew who alone speaks of "outer darkness," alone reveals the meaning of that "mysterious cup" about which Jesus had prayed in Gethsemane. He tells us:

Now from the sixth hour there was darkness over all the land unto the ninth hour. And about the ninth hour Jesus cried with a loud voice, saying, Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani? that is to say, My God, my God, why hast Thou forsaken Me? (Matt. 27:45-46)

I could have captioned this article - "The Final Entry into the Ledger Book." As you know the book of Matthew was written by a former collector of customs, who had kept an honest accounting of all his transactions. He made no confession as did Zacchaeus, but rather gave a well attended feast in Jesus' honor. His gospel record is an accounting between the Messianic prophecies and their fulfillment in the life of Jesus. In the first two chapters of his gospel, there are five such entries. Now as Jesus hung upon the cross, he enters his last entry. It is taken from Psalm 22:1. The prophecy reads:

My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? why art thou so far from helping me, and from the words of my roaring?

All they that see me laugh me to scorn: they shoot out the lip, they shake the head, saying, he trusted on the Lord that he would deliver him: let him deliver him, seeing he delighted in him. (Ps. 22:1-8)

I have tried to find a human illustration so that we could in a limited way perceive the meaning of the "cup" Jesus drank. Any such illustration at best, can be only hypothetical. Imagine, if you can, a boy in the middle of a deep lake, being pushed under the water by professed friends of his father who is standing on the beach. The boy cries to his father for help, but the father turns away. As the boy is about to go under the final time, he cries out to his father, "Daddy, I still love you."

"The cross is a revelation to our dull senses of the pain that, from its inception, sin has brought to the heart of God." (Education, p. 263)

But this is not all there is to the cross. Death by crucifixion was a lingering death. You will recall that when Joseph of Arimathaea requested the body of Jesus, Pilate marveled "if He were already dead." He was so skeptical that he verified through the centurion the fact before releasing the body. (Mark 15:43-45) The simple fact is that the cross did not kill Jesus. He had declared during His ministry that He had authority to lay down His life. No man could take it from Him, but He would lay it down of Himself. (John 10:17-18) Luke records Jesus last words - "Father into Thy hands, I commend my Spirit." (Luke 23:46) He was "a divine spirit" dwelling "in a temple of flesh." (4BC:1147) He drank the "cup" - separation from His Father. There was a "sundering of the divine powers." (7BC:924) He offered Himself through the eternal Spirit (Heb. 9 :14), returning His Identity to the Father, and passed into "outer darkness." A divine sacrifice had been made for sin. The Son of God had given His "soul" as an offering for sin!

~~~~~

How only can I relate - how should I relate to this great eternal sacrifice? First, I must admit my state, and accept the only solution for my condition.

First, what is my condition? God's analysis is dear with no room for maneuvering. "The heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked." (Jer. 17:9) "There is none righteous, no, not one...There is none that doeth good, no, not one. " (Rom. 3:10-18) " In me (that is, in my flesh) dwelleth no good thing." (Rom. 7:18a) Over this we wince - this is not me! But tragically it is. We refuse to recognize ourselves as "wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked." (Rev. 3:17) That may be the members of the Church, but not me. I am not connected with

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the apostasy.

In our inmost souls, we are not true and honest. We seek to avoid the recognition that every one of us has a sin that so easily besets us, and we fall into that sin often whether it be in word, deed, or thought. We forget the illustrations Jesus used to describe those who will be consigned to outer darkness.

Recall the man who came to the wedding feast, how he was clothed? Keep in mind that he was a "friend" of the king, not an impoverished citizen. Being a friend, he would provide the most costly of apparel. He thought that such a display would meet with the approval of the king. He refused the offered robe, since in his judgment, it wasn't much more expensive than his, and besides this, he wanted the king to know just how much he had personally expended to be there. The lesson of Jesus should be clear. God is the "king," and the "friend" refused the gift provided by heaven - the robe of Christ's righteousness in which there is not one thread of human devising. I care not if one is clothed in the rich apparel of the affluent, or if one is dressed according to the strictest standards of dress reform, so long as the human ego is projected, the actions do not reflect the righteousness of Christ. When one says by his dress either, "See, who I am," or "See, what I can do," he is reflecting the thinking of the "friend" who was consigned to "outer darkness."

Consider, the other illustration Jesus used - the children of the kingdom being cast out. Among those listening to Jesus were Pharisees, who lived according to the strictest letter of the law of Moses. They were sure that by their works, they would be a part of the kingdom of God. On one occasion as Jesus was dining as a guest of a leading Pharisee, in the midst of the dinner conversation, one invitee blurted out - "Blessed is he that shall eat bread in the kingdom of God." (Luke 14:15) We forget that the kingdom of God "is not meat and drink: but righteousness, and peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit." (Rom. 14:17) The issue is simply not the exterior of man, but the sin nature which we all have, and which we cannot conquer.

~~~~~

What is the solution? Jesus gave the answer. "If any man will come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me. For whosoever will save his life shall lose it: and whosoever will lose his life for my sake shall find it." (Matt. 16:24-25) It is much more than a mere theoretical assent, it is the denial of the very self. It is either that this sin nature must go now in life, or I must go with it in the final consignment. It cannot; it will not inherit the kingdom of God. "Knowing this, that our old man is crucified with Him, that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin." (Rom. 6:6) How can this be my experience? "I am crucified with Christ." (Gal. 2:20) This crucifixion is renewed daily even as the morning and evening sacrifice. (1 Cor. 15:31) But yet the text reads - "Nevertheless I live." But how? - "I live by the faith of the Son of God." Paul puts it this way - "Reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord." (Rom. 6:11)

"Reckon" -- in the same way that you reckoned yourselves forgiven of your sins. But some of us have not so reckoned on the forgiveness level, then how can we "reckon" on the cleansing level. We cannot begin to understand this "reckoning" process for life, after we are crucified with Christ, until we can by faith accept His provision for the forgiveness of sins. Too many are still trying to atone for sins by works of external righteousness's instead of letting our lives reflect our gratitude that we can stand before God due to His forgiveness as if we had never sinned. 0, His boundless mercy and grace! Just so, when crucified with Christ that the "man of sin" might die, we can by faith live. We "reckon" ourselves indeed dead, but alive unto God.

What is the teaching of the Scriptures on the state of man in death? But too many, in the realm of the Christian experience, believe in the "immortality of the old man." We glorify him immediately after death, and clothe him in the robes of our own works - and say this is the new man. If we truly believe what God has promised through Jesus Christ, we can trust that He is able to keep us from falling. We do not have to shore up our profession with a bulwark of works. Our actions will flow from a new heart - a new life - given to us from above. The interior will be dead, and there will come forth true righteousness, peace and joy because the Holy Spirit dwells within us.

All of this has some down-to-earth, practical realities. No amount of health reform, dress reform, or any other kind of reform, can solve the sin problem. Only the blood of Jesus Christ, who made His soul an offering for sin is efficacious.

We can study, we can talk about the 144,000. In their mouth is found no guile. Their hearts have been washed in the blood of the Lamb, for out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh. What does it mean to strive with all the power to be among that group? In a section of Thoughts from the Mount of Blessing commenting on "Strive to enter into the straight gate" is found the following:

The battle which we have to fight - the greatest battle that was ever fought by man - is the surrender of self to the will of God, the yielding of the heart to the sovereignty of love. The old nature, born of blood and the will of the flesh, cannot inherit the kingdom of God ...

He who enters the spiritual kingdom will find that all the powers at an unregenerated nature, backed by the forces of the kingdom of darkness, arrayed against him. Selfishness and pride will make a stand against anything that will show them to be sinful. We cannot, of ourselves, conquer the evil desires and habits that strive for the mastery. We cannot overcome the mighty foe who holds us in his thrall. God alone can give us the victory. (pp. 203-204: emphasis supplied)

God is not looking for 144,000 "reformers" - He could have found enough perfect reformers decades ago. Neither is He looking for 144,000 perfect people, that would be much more difficult. He is looking for 144,000 sinners, who so recognize themselves, and who are willing to be crucified to sin, not just sins. He desires to resurrect them now in life so that through them He might display His mighty power to save from sin. Unless this shall be our experience, we shall be plunged into "outer darkness." Jesus went there so that we need not go. There need not be bitter weeping and gnashing of teeth, but rather the Song of Moses and the Lamb -

Great and marvelous are thy works, Lord God Almighty; just and true are thy ways, thou King of saints. Who shall not fear Thee, 0 Lord, and glorify Thy name? For Thou only art holy. (Rev. 15:3-4)

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& THE CAPITALIST WEST

MALACHI MARTIN

Author of The Jesuits and The Final Conclave

Malachi Martin, eminent theologian and expert on the Roman Catholic Church, is a former Jesuit and professor at the Vatican's Pontifical Institute. The Keys of this Blood is a book of stunning geopolitical revelations. It presents a compelling array of daring blueprints for global power, and one of them is the portrait of our near future as individuals and citizens of the nations.

EXCERPTS

A new world order is all but upon us, demanding a geopolitical structure in the immediate here and now. (p. 36)

Everyone who was a major player (in the struggle for world dominion) understood that structures were already being built that would soon enough include the world's every nation and race, its every culture and subgroup. John Paul knew that neither he nor anyone else could reverse that momentum....It had to be nothing less than a fight to capture the minds - to direct the very impetus of will - of men and women everywhere, at the unique moment when all the structures of civilization, including those of John Paul's Church, were being transformed into the framework that would not only house the new global society but shape everything about lt.

Within that unprecedented context, those closest to John Paul knew he had, and still does have, his own unwavering vision of the way human affairs will develop and climax....In other words, John Paul has a clear vision of our near-future world. (pp. 88, 89)

It is an open secret - especially since the 1981 attempt on the Pope's life - that not only the Italian secret services but at least three other governments participate in the most minute monitoring of John Paul: his comings and goings; his staff; his food; his clothes; who reaches him by letter and by phone, and whom he reaches; who sees him and why and for how long and what transpires between them. (pp. 120-121, emphasis supplied)

John Paul was asked toward the end of a private audience for visiting dignitaries in 1983. Can we expect Your Holiness to undertake many more of these papal visits to different parts of the world?" John Paul replied with candor. "Until as many men and women and children as I can reach have seen the face and heard the voice of Christ's Vicar; for I am their Pope, and this is what the Blessed Mother wishes her Son's Vicar to do." (p. 122)

Any world leader who discounts the eternal revelations on which papal power claims to be based flirts with problems. But at the same time, any world leader who takes the Roman Pontiff as possessing only the spiritual weapons of the unseen world and the afterlife with which to deal in practical, this-worldly matters

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is making a strategic error of great proportions.(p. 132)

For the secular world, there are just two facts about the Holy See that are convincing: the fact that, in his person, the Roman Pontiff is the embodiment of the Holy See; and the fact that the organization he heads came at last, and alone, to fulfill all the prerequisites of a geo-religious institution. These are the tangible truths that provide the Pope in secular eyes with the unique capability to act in and for the world community - to serve and tend mankind as one family - as it gropes its own way toward the borderless international plane on which he already - and prior to anyone else - stands. (p.137)

What captures the unwavering attention of the secular leaders of the world in this remarkable (papal) network of the Roman Catholic Church is precisely the fact that it places at the personal disposal of the Pope a supranational, supra-continental, supra-trade-bloc structure that is so built and orientated that if tomorrow or next week, by a sudden miracle, a one world government were established, the Church would not have to undergo any essential structural change in order to retain its dominant position and to further its global aims. (pp. 142-143)

And the Pope, as the sole legitimate head of the Holy See's organizational Institution and structures - as the only one who fixes the overall goal of that institution's efforts - is by definition the world's first fully fledged geopolitical leader. (p. 143)

But in the face of the geopolitical world, John Paul relies on the authority symbolized by those scarlet keys, the "Keys of this Blood." Precisely because of his unique power and status as head of that geo-religious and geopolitical colossus, the Roman Catholic Church, his analysis of his secular counterparts has to be weighed into the balance of an accurate judgment of this extraordinary Pope. (p. 148)

Because it was only to Simon Peter, the chief of his Apostles, and to Simon Peter's lawful successors in the Holy See, that Jesus confided the Keys of his moral authority, the Roman Catholic Church has always claimed - and, under John Paul II, claims today - to be the ultimate arbiter of what is morally good and morally bad in human actions. (p. 157)

The essence of the gospel and man's relationship to that gospel as presented by Paul to the churches of Galatia is summarized in one verse: "I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live: yet not I but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave Himself for me." (Gal. 2:20)

We often concentrate on the meaning being crucified, yet living, but fail to note by what we live. It is not my faith in Jesus Christ, but "by the faith of the Son of God." The Eternal Word had such faith in humanity - His creation - that He so loved, and gave His life to be a ransom. When I sense that love, and behold the price He paid - even "outer darkness" - I am constrained. "The love of Christ constraineth us." (II Cor. 5:14) He had faith in me. I dare not let Him down.

I am a rebel at heart with an entrenched fallen nature. Most of my life has, whether admitted or not, reflected the rebellion against God. But there stands the record of His love for me: His faith in me - the Cross - that should I see, I will no longer continue in that rebellion. When I do see, what should I do? There is only one thing - surrender - I become a willing captive to the Lord Jesus Christ. His love; His sacrifice captivates me.

All who enter the gates of the City of God - the New Jerusalem - will be those who have surrendered to Jesus in the great controversy between Himself and Satan. We may talk much about the coming controversy. We may spend hours seeking to arrange all of the events in their proper sequence. But unless we begin at the right point in that controversy all of our chronological endeavors will be but vanity when the final showdown of human history arrives - that time to which we are rapidly approaching. It is much easier and far less humiliating to speculate on "the times and seasons" which "the Father has put in His own power," than to face the reality of our own hearts.

Many look upon the earthly conflict between Christ and Satan as "having no special bearing on their own life, and for

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them it has little interest. But within the domain of every heart this controversy is being repeated." (DA, p. 117) This battle for our hearts is just "as real as those fought by the armies of this world, and on the issue of the spiritual conflict eternal destinies depend." (PK, p. 176) There is no truce, nor cease fire in this battle. The Cross demonstrated that fact. Jesus drank every drop of the cup. The only way out is to surrender, or remain with Satan. And the surrendered heart can only be cleansed by the blood of Jesus. No amount of human "suds and soap" will do it.

This does not end the battle, for once over on God's side, we are given weapons to join in the controversy under a different banner. We continue to battle with the "word of (our) own testimony" and into the heat of the battle we plunge "loving not our lives unto death." (Rev. 12:11) Here are the victors of earth; here are they who "keep. . . the faith of Jesus." They are constrained indeed by His love and His sacrifice - the cup He drank so that they need not drink.