If the Second Death Is Literally Death, How Can There Be “Weeping and Gnashing of Teeth”?

The “weeping and gnashing of teeth” of which (among other Scriptures) Matt. 8:12 speaks, among other places, has nothing to do with the judgment at the Great White Throne. In Matt. 8:12, it is about the time when the Kingdom will arrive, while “the children of the Kingdom,” that is, members of the people for whom that Kingdom is primarily intended — read: Israel; Acts 3:26 — will be excluded from it. They stand outside the banquet hall, in the darkness. Hence “the outer darkness.” They perhaps thought they would play a prominent role in that Kingdom, but in reality many of them will not even experience the Kingdom (Acts 3:23). They will perish with “weeping and gnashing of teeth.” This judgment takes place over living people before the thousand years. In Rev. 20:11-15, by contrast, it concerns resurrected dead people after the thousand years.

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