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The Teachings of
Zane
Hodges,
Joseph Dillow,
Robert Wilkin and the extreme teachings of J. D. Faust |
Weeping and Gnashing of Teeth and Outer Darkness
"But the children of the kingdom shall be cast out into outer darkness: there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth" (Matt. 8:12).
"Then said the king to the servants, Bind him hand and foot, and take him away, and cast him into outer darkness; there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth" (Matt. 22:13).
"And shall cut him asunder, and appoint him his portion with the hypocrites: there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth" (Matt. 24:51).
"And cast ye the unprofitable servant into outer darkness: there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth" (Matt. 25:30).
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The Teaching of Zane Hodges and Joseph Dillow |
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The fruitful believer The partaker or heir The believing believer The overcomer |
The barren believer The carnal one (non-heir) The saved person who stops believing The non-overcomer |
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This saved person will participate in the great wedding banquet at the beginning of the kingdom age. Because of his faithfulness, he will reign with Christ. |
This saved person will be excluded from the wedding banquet, and for him there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. This will involve great anguish and remorse and regret ("weeping and gnashing of teeth"). It even involves outer darkness!! Faust takes this teaching to the extreme. He says that these wicked believers will be tortured in the fires of Hades for 1000 years. |
Observations:
Dillow acknowledges that the phrase "wailing (weeping) and gnashing of teeth" is used on three occasions of the experience of the unregenerate in hell (Matt. 13:42,50; Luke 13:28). However he insists that in the other four places where it is found (the four passages cited above), it is used of the regenerate in the kingdom (see page 351).
Hodges agrees that saved people will experience weeping and gnashing of teeth (Grace In Eclipse, see chapters 8-9).
In Matthew 13:41-43 two and only two groups are mentioned: 1) the righteous (v.43); and 2) those which do iniquity or lawlessness (v.41). Also two and only two destinies are mentioned: 1) the righteous will shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of their Father (v.43); 2) those who practice lawlessness will be cast into a furnace of fire where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth (v.42).
Dillow and Hodges teach that some of the righteous (the carnal ones, the non-overcomers) practice lawlessness, whereas Matthew 13:41-43 makes a sharp contrast between the righteous and those who practice lawlessness (compare also Matthew 7:23 where the lawless ones are clearly those who are not saved). Dillow and Hodges teach that many of the righteous will be cast into outer darkness, whereas Matthew 13:41-43 teaches that the righteous will shine as the sun in the kingdom of their Father. Dillow and Hodges teach that some of the righteous will be weeping and gnashing their teeth, whereas Matthew 13:41-43 teaches that it is the unsaved that will be doing this at the end of the age.
It is interesting that Merrill F. Unger, though agreeing with Hodges/Dillow that unrighteous believers will enter but not inherit the kingdom (1 Cor. 6:9-11; etc.), nevertheless believed that the "weeping and gnashing of teeth" passages all referred to hell. See Unger’s Handbook and his discussion under Matthew 25:1-30 where he says, "The one talent servant, a mere professor, is excluded from the kingdom (‘outer darkness’) and swept away in judgment with the ungodly."
For a detailed and lengthy study on this issue, see Weeping and Gnashing of Teeth--Will This Be the Fate of True Christians? The reader is urged to give this article careful consideration.
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