ETERNAL???
We have been taught that the words WORLD, ETERNAL, FOREVER, FOR EVER AND EVER, EVERMORE, and EVERLASTING, all mean unending time. If that is the case, then Jonah is should still be in the whale!
Jonah 2:6 I went down to the bottoms of the mountains; the earth with her bars was about me for ever: yet hast thou brought up my life from corruption, O LORD my God. We all know that Jonah did not stay in the belly of the whale with the rib cage appearing as a prison to him, for ever. Under the modern misunderstanding, he would still be there and likely to remain there! The account shows that Jonah was restricted within the whale for an age ... a predetermined time of three days in which God accomplished His plan for Jonah’s life.
Rev.20:10 And the devil that deceived them was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone, where the beast and the false prophet are, and shall be tormented day and night for ever and ever. ‘Day and Night’ is associated with time and thus not ‘eternity’!
1 Kings 9:3 And the LORD said unto him, I have heard thy prayer and thy supplication, that thou hast made before me: I have hallowed this house, which thou hast built, to put my name there for ever; and mine eyes and mine heart shall be there perpetually. The temple lasted for about 400 years . . . God’s intention was to dwell there for a specific period of time only. Exodus 21:6 and Exodus 40:15 are similar regarding subsequent change.
The Hebrew word so used is OLAM meaning AGES. In the Greek the word used is Aion (noun) or Aionos (adjective) which actually means an age and this form is used 198 times in the New Testament. An AGE is a specific period of time in which God accomplishes His purposes. The Greek has a completely different word for ENDLESS life and it is AKATALUTOS (used Heb.7:16) plus APERANTOS which means unfinished ... still going on (1 Tim.1:14). Whenever the word AION is translated as eternal (etc.), one draws the conclusion that it has nothing to do with time! The English word EON is derived from AION.
Hebrews 9:26 For then must he often have suffered since the foundation of the world: but now once in the end of the world (= the end of the AIONS or ages!) hath he appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself. How can something that has an ‘end’ be eternal?
Isaiah 14:24 The LORD of hosts hath sworn, saying, Surely as I have thought, so shall it come to pass; and as I have purposed, so shall it stand:
(26) This is the purpose that is purposed upon the whole earth: and this is the hand that is stretched out upon all the nations.
(27) For the LORD of hosts hath purposed, and who shall disannul it? And his hand is stretched out, and who shall turn it back?
Eph 3:(11) According to the eternal purpose which he (God) purposed in Christ Jesus our Lord:
‘Eternal purpose’ (from the Greek text )= the purpose of the ages. . . or the plan of the ages.
MATTHEW 25:31-46 ACCOUNT
(32) And before him shall be gathered all nations: and he shall separate them one from another, as a shepherd divideth his sheep from the goats: Note that this is a collective judgment for one person does not make a nation!
(33) And he shall set the sheep on his right hand, but the goats on the left.
(34) Then shall the King say unto them on his right hand, Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world: Here there are two sorts of nations that God produced. Those on His right hand have learned compassion and could then move in blessing the brethren . . . these ones receive the Kingdom of Heaven/God.
(37) Then shall the righteous answer him, saying, Lord, when saw we thee an hungred, and fed thee? or thirsty, and gave thee drink?
(40) And the King shall answer and say unto them, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me.
(41) Then shall he say also unto them on the left hand, Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels: This corrective punishment (for all of God’s judgments are for correction not annihilation!). The Ferrar Fenton Version reads, ‘And these He will dismiss into a long correction’. Rotherham’s Version says, ‘These shall go away into age-abiding correction’.
(46) And these shall go away into everlasting punishment: but the righteous into life eternal.
These goat nations need correction which they receive as their ‘flesh’ is removed by God who is the ‘consuming fire’. . . all done in the time period (age) set for it.
Everlasting punishment
‘Everlasting punishment’ . . . let us look at the Greek words without any hangover from Roman teaching. ‘Punishment’ comes from the Greek word KOLASIS which simply means punishment. However the root word is KOLAZO which means to curtail or chastise. ‘Curtail’ means to be restricted for a period of time (like a child being ‘grounded’). ‘To chastise’ simply means to punish in order to correct. It does NOT mean unending torture, but rather PURPOSEFUL CORRECTION for an AGE however long that might be . . . but it does have an ending for God, being God, will achieve His purpose. He can thus deal with nations . . . even those who have sinned the ‘unpardonable sin’ (it is that if you believe that the Blood of Jesus wasn’t powerful enough to remove all sin!) . . . (Matt. 12:32) And whosoever speaks a word against the Son of man, it shall be forgiven him: but whosoever speaks against the Holy Ghost, it shall not be forgiven him, neither in this world (AGE), neither in the world (AGE) to come.
Isaiah 32:13
Upon the land of my people shall come up thorns and briers; yea, upon all the houses of joy in the joyous city:
(14) Because the palaces shall be forsaken; the multitude of the city shall be left; the forts and towers shall be for dens for ever, a joy of wild asses, a pasture of flocks;
(15) Until the spirit be poured upon us from on high, and the wilderness be a fruitful field, and the fruitful field be counted for a forest. Marvellous changes can be expected as we see God fulfilling this pattern . . . for God does not change!
All ‘things’ are contained in the ages and are centred in Christ. Hebrews 1:2 Hath in these last days spoken unto us by his Son, whom he hath appointed heir of all things, by whom also he made the worlds (AIONS = AGES). God has already set out the plan of the ages which He knows will be fulfilled exactly as He purposed. Hebrews 11:3 Through faith we understand that the worlds (AIONS = AGES) were framed by the word of God, so that things which are seen were not made of things which do appear.
WHAT’S AHEAD?
Eph 2:7 That in the ages (AIONS) to come he might show the exceeding riches of his grace in his kindness toward us through Christ Jesus. Not just His grace . . . but the exceeding riches of His grace. Read Romans 5 and see the the ‘much-mores’ spoken therein.
This is simply an accumulation of specific periods of time. It is the superlative of the ages — just like ‘King of kings’, ‘Lord of lord’s or ‘Song of sings’ — the all encompassing age of triumph and glory for nothing shall fail or fall short of His plan. “What a mighty God we serve”.
One cannot logically translate AION as ‘eternity’ etc. for in Matthew 13:39 . . . the harvest is the end of the world (AGE) . . . one cannot have an ‘end’ to ‘eternity’ in the old way of thinking.§
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