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In any discussion of the duration of the lake of
fire, it inevitably boils down to the meaning of the Greek word
aionios and the Hebrew word olam. The words
literally mean “age” or “age-abiding,” but they are often translated
“eternal” or “everlasting” in the modern English translations. And
so, this normally becomes the central issue.
The judgments of God are aionios (and
olam) in duration. This Greek term has been misunderstood for
about 1,500 years, but the early Church in Asia, Greece, and Egypt
understood it to mean “pertaining to an eon.” It is the adjective
form of the Greek word eon, that is, an AGE. In spite of this,
many English translations continue to translate the word to mean
“eternal” or “everlasting,” because of their doctrinal
bias.
Strong's Concordance says this about the Greek word
aion: “aion: from the same as 104 [aei,
‘continued duration']; prop. an age; by extens. perpetuity
(also past); by impl. the world; spec. (Jewish) a Messianic period
(present or future).” In other words, according to Strong's Concordance,
aion properly means “an age,” but he says that by extension
it means “perpetuity.” Thus, he says that it can mean either
a limited period of time or an unlimited period of time. But to make
it an unlimited period of time requires extending
its basic, usual meaning, which is limited.
He also shows
that in Jewish usage of the term, “The Age” referred to the
Messianic Age—that is, the age in which the Messiah would rule the
earth. This particular application, we will discuss
shortly.
Dr. Bullinger, in
his Appendix 129 to The Companion Bible, says:
“aion = an age, or age-time, the duration
of which is indefinite, and may be limited or extended as the
context of each occurrence may demand.
“The root meaning of aion is expressed by
the Heb. olam . . . which denotes
indefinite, unknown or concealed duration; just as we speak of
‘the patriarchal age', or ‘the golden age', etc. Hence, it has
come to denote any given period of time, characterized by a
special form of Divine administration or dispensation.
“In the plural we have the Heb. olamim and
Gr. aiones used of ages, or of a succession of age-times,
and of an abiding from age to age. From this comes the adjective
aionios . . . used of an unrestricted duration, as distinct
from a particular or limited age-time. These age-times must be
distinct or they could not be added to, or multiplied, as in the
expression aions of aions. “These ages or
age-times were all prepared and arranged by God (see Heb. 1:2;
11:3); and there is a constant distinction in the New Testament
between ‘this age' and the ‘coming age' (see Matt. 12:32; Heb.
1:2; Eph. 1:21).”
Thus, Dr. Bullinger agrees with Strong that the
basic meaning of aion is an age that lasts an indefinite
period of time. In other words, some ages are longer than others,
but an age has both a beginning and an end.
The Interpreter's Dictionary of the Bible,
Vol. IV, p. 643, says under “Time,”
“The OT and the NT are not acquainted with this
conception of eternity as timelessness. God, according to Rev.
1:4, is the one ‘who is and who was and who is to come'; and if in
Rom. 16:26 (the only time in the NT) he is called the ‘eternal
[aionios] God,' this does not mean that as a timeless God
he would have nothing to do with time, but rather that he is also
Lord of the greatest spans of time, which he uses in his
revelation (vs. 25).” On page 644 of
the same article, it says: “The OT has not developed a special term for
‘eternity' which one could contrast with
‘temporality'.” On page 645 it
says, “The word aion originally meant ‘vital
force,' ‘life;' then ‘age,' ‘lifetime.' It is, however, also used
generally of a (limited or unlimited) long space of time. In many
cases it should then be translated by ‘eternity.' To be sure,
naturally, one cannot assume a philosophical concept of eternity
here either.” Later on the same
page, the author continues, “The use of the word aion is determined
very much by the OT and the LXX [Septuagint]. Aion means
‘long distant uninterrupted time' in the past (Luke 1:70), as well
as in the future (John 4:14). The adjective aionios,
‘eternal,' especially, serves for the actual statements of
eternity (2 Cor. 4:18; Heb. 9:12, 15), but nowhere is a clear
distinction made between limited and unlimited duration of time ….
The intensifying plural occurs frequently in the NT, especially in
the doxologies (Rom. 1:25; 9:5; Heb. 13:8), but it adds no new
meaning.” This should be sufficient to show that it is by
no means certain that the Hebrew word olam (Old
Testament) and the Greek word aionios (New Testament) must be translated
“eternal” or “everlasting.” This is plainly stated in many
theological dictionaries and other articles. It is unfortunate that
this fact is not transmitted to the average Christian believer—or
even to the preachers and teachers, who seem totally convinced that
these words can mean nothing other than unending time.
But if olam and aionios occasionally
should be understood in terms of unending time, these occasions are
the exception to the general rule. It may be that when
aionios is used a few times in reference to
God that it could be understood in terms of unending time, rather
than to His sovereignty over those future ages. We will let the
scholars debate this issue. Some say it can mean only a limited
period of time—others insist that it can mean either limited or
unlimited time.
It comes down to
a matter of controversy and disagreement between scholars. So who is
to be believed?
Let us, for the moment, concede to the opposition.
Let us agree with them that aionios can mean either
endlessness or a limited period of time. If that were the case,
then every passage which uses this term will be interpreted
according to the bias of the translator. All the passages that
deal with aionios judgment can mean
either endless judgment or age-abiding judgment, depending upon how
we wish to understand it.
If this were the case, then it would be impossible
to prove EITHER view by using the Biblical passages that talk about
aionios judgment. We must then rely totally upon other Bible
passages to prove either view. We challenge anyone believing
eternal judgment to prove their case without using any verse talking
about aionios judgment or olam judgment. The fact
is, THEY HAVE NO CASE, because these verses form the entire basis of
their doctrine. Their entire case rests upon the assumption that
aionios and olam mean endlessness. Many scholars do not believe that there is a single
passage where aionios MUST always mean endlessness. However,
we do recognize that there are passages where the word seems to
imply endlessness. For this reason, we are willing to concede
the point for the sake of argument. Conceding thi s point in no way
diminishes the force of our argument, because the Bible teaches the
Restoration of All Things from Genesis to Revelation without
relying upon the word aionios. We can prove that God will save all men by showing
that the divine law mandates a Jubilee, which is a limit to all
judgment. We do not need to rely upon the word aionios. We can prove that God will save all men by the
passages in the New Testament where Jesus came to save not only us,
but “the whole world” (1 John 2:2). We do not need to rely upon the
word aionios. We rely instead upon the phrase “the whole
world.” We can show it by Paul's writings, who said that
all things (ta panta, “the all”) were created by Christ and
will be reconciled to him as well (Col. 1:16-20). In this, we rely
upon the phrase, ta panta, which is
defined by the context as meaning the created universe.
We can show it again in Paul's writings, when he
said that “as in Adam all die, even in Christ will all be made
alive” (1 Cor. 15:22). Even as ALL die in Adam, so will ALL be
made alive in Christ. We do not need to use aionios to prove this.
We can go to the
last book of the Bible, where John sees all of creation praising God
in Rev. 5:13,
13 And every created thing which is
in heaven and on the earth and under the earth and on the sea, and
all things in them, I heard saying, To Him who sits on the throne
and to the Lamb be blessing and honor and glory and dominion
forever and ever [aionas ton aionon, “for the ages of
the ages”]. This passages uses the phrase aionas ton
aionon, but our argument does not rest upon that phrase, but
upon the earlier phrase, “every created thing.” In these few
passages there are many ways in which God's great Restoration of
creation is expressed and established. All we must do is show that
aionios does not have to mean endless time. Once we have
established that fact—as we have done—then it is self-evident that
aionios judgment
cannot be used to contradict our view. The bottom line is this: all we must do is show
that aionios does not ALWAYS have to be understood as endless
time. If we can show that, then we have won the debate, because if
it can mean either limited or unlimited time, then those who believe
in eternal torment have lost their trump card. But even our
opposition concedes that there are MANY passages where aionios
cannot possibly mean endlessness. In fact, that is why
they must fall back upon the position that aionios has a double meaning. They would
dearly love to make it endless all the time, but even they know that
this is impossible.
Thus, from a
clear-headed perspective, one can only conclude that God intends to
bring all creation back under His dominion and will lose nothing in
the end. The blood of Jesus to save His creation is more powerful
than the sin of Adam was in its fall. God will be the big Winner in
the end—not the Big Loser who has lost 99 percent of creation to the
wiles of the devil.
There are at
least four modern translations, however, which attempt to correct
this mistranslation:
Young's Literal Translation was done by Dr. Robert
Young in 1898. He was also the author of the Young's Analytical
Concordance. Dr. Young says in his Concordance that aion means “age,
age-lasting.” For example, Matthew 13:39, when Jesus explained the
meaning of His parable about the wheat and the tares, He said,
according to the King James Version,
39 The enemy that sowed them
is the devil; the harvest is the end of the world
[Greek: aion, “age”]; and the reapers are the
angels. The Greek word translated world is not aion,
but kosmos. So quite obviously, this is not a
good translation of the verse. Most modern translations have made
this correction, including the marginal references in the King
James. Dr. Young renders this verse,
39 and the enemy who sowed
them is the devil, and the harvest is a full end of the
age, and the reapers are messengers. The Greek word aionios is the adjective form
of aion, “pertaining to an age.” Young's Concordance says
that it means “age-lasting.” In his Bible translation, he
consistently translates the Greek word aionios into English
even more literally as “age-during” to show that it means the events
occur “during” whatever age the author was discussing. This is very
literal and precise. Even so, another Bible translator, Weymouth, on
page 657 of The New Testament in Modern Speech,
quibbles with Dr. Young, saying,
“Eternal: Greek: ‘aeonion,' i.e., ‘of the
ages.' Etymologically this adjective, like others similarly
formed, does not signify ‘during,' but ‘belonging to' the
aeons or ages.” I suppose we must allow scholars to dispute the
fine points of each word, for that is their vocation. But regardless
of who is correct, they both agree on the essential fact that
aionios does not
mean “eternal.” Dr. Young used this term “age-during” so that the
reader would not be compelled to believe that it meant “eternal or
“everlasting.” For example, in Matthew 25:45, 46, we
read,
45 Then shall he answer
them, saying, Verily I say to you, Inasmuch as ye did it not to
one of these, the least, ye did it not to me.
46 And those shall go away to punishment
age-during, but the righteous to life
age-during. Rotherham's The
Emphasized Bible, is much like Young's Literal Translation. He
renders verse 46,
46 And these shall go away
into age-abiding correction, but the righteous into
age-abiding life. Benjamin Wilson's Emphatic Diaglott does not
presume to render aionios “everlasting,” but prefers to just
transliterate it directly from the Greek. This non-committal
attitude allows men to interpret this word as they wish. He renders
verse 46:
46 And these shall go forth
to the aionian cutting-off; but the righteous
to aionian Life. The Cambridge Bible Commentary, by A. W.
Argyle, has this to say about Matthew 25:46,
“46. eternal punishment, i.e., punishment
characteristic of the Age to come, not meaning that it lasts for
ever. eternal life, i.e., the life that belongs to the Age
to come, the full abundant life which is fellowship with
God.” Argyle recognizes that the term aionios
refers to “the Age to come” rather than eternity as such. In our
next section we will have more to say about “The Age,” that is, the
Messianic Age. This is the key to understanding how aion and
aionios we re defined when the Bible was
written—and for many years afterward.
Wilson's
translation is prefaced by the statement,
“This Volume, principally designed for the
instruction and advantage of others, is now reverently committed
to the blessing of our Father in the heavens, with an earnest and
sincere desire that many of those who peruse its pages may be led
by the knowledge, faith and obedience inculcated therein to obtain
an inheritance in the aionian kingdom of Jesus the Anointed
One.” Some will say that the Kingdom has “no end” (Luke
1:33); thus, they will say, aionian must be everlasting. The
term “aionian kingdom” is used only once in the
Bible—in 2 Peter 1:11, where the Apostle says (according to Wilson
himself in The Emphatic Diaglott),
10 Therefore, brethren, more
earnestly endeavor to make your calling and election sure; since
by these things you will never fall; 11
for thus richly will be furnished to you the entrance into the
aionian kingdom of our Lord and Saviour Jesus
Christ. Peter, like most of the other New Testament
writers, exhorted the believers to make their “calling and election
sure,” that is, press on to being overcomers that will inherit the
first resurrection. These will inherit “the aionian kingdom,”
that is, they will receive their reward of immortality at the
beginning of that thousand-year reign of Christ. Revelation 20:6
says that these will “reign with him a thousand years.” This
does not mean that the kingdom lasts only a thousand years, nor even
that their reign is limited to a thousand years. But that phase of
the kingdom is limited to a specific age; hence it is
aionian. We will develop this concept a bit further in our
next section on “The Messianic Age.” Anyway, Wilson's term,
aionian, is
much like that found in The Concordant Literal New Testament, which
renders verse 46,
46 And these shall be coming
away into chastening eonian, yet the just into
life eonian. A second example
useful for our purposes is found in Matthew 18:8, which Young's
Literal Translation renders:
8 And if thy hand or thy
foot doth cause thee to stumble, cut them off and cast from thee;
it is good for thee to enter into the life lame or maimed, rather
than having two hands or two feet, to be cast to the fire the
age-during. The Emphasized
Bible says, 8 But if thy hand or thy
foot be causing thee to stumble, cut it off, and cast it from
thee; it is seemly for thee to enter into life maimed or lame,
rather than having two hands or two feet to be cast into the
age-abiding fire. Wilson's The
Emphatic Diaglott says,, 8 If, then, thy hand or thy
foot insnare thee, cut it off, and throw it away; it is better for
thee to enter Life crippled or lame, than having two hands or two
feet to be cast into the aionian
fire. The Concordant
Literal New Testament says, 8 Now, if your hand or your
foot is snaring you, strike it off and cast it from you. Is it
ideal for you to be entering into life maimed or lame, or, having
two hands or two feet, to be cast into the fire
eonian? We see from these examples—particularly from
Matthew 25:46—that the Greek term aionios is used to describe both the
judgment of fire upon the sinners and the life that is given to the
believers.
In Matthew 19:29 Jesus spoke of the reward of the
righteous, which is zoen aionion. This is usually translated
“life eternal” or “life everlasting.” Dr. Young renders the
verse,
29 and every one who left
houses, or brothers, or sisters, or father, or mother, or wife, or
children, or fields, for my name's sake, an hundredfold shall
receive and life age-during shall
inherit. What is the meaning of “life age-during?” Is it the
same as immorality? Not exactly. Immortality is a word describing
the quality of life that we have after death is abolished.
Life that is “age-during,” describes the age in which we shall have that
immortality. That age is specifically what the ancient rabbis called
the “Messianic Age,” or “The Age.” Since David wrote that a day was
as a thousand years (Psalm 90:4), the rabbis spoke about the seventh
thousand-year period as a great Sabbath-rest for the earth. They
identified it with the reign of the Messiah.
Revelation 20:1-6
treats the reign of Christ in the same manner.
Irenaeus, one of the earliest of the Christian
fathers (120-203 A.D.) believed that a wicked man called
“Antichrist” would arise at the end of the present age. In that
context, he wrote in his book, Against Heresies, “and the number
is six hundred and sixty-six, that is, six times a hundred, six
times ten, and six units. [He gives this] as a summing up of the
whole of that apostasy which has taken place during six thousand
years. (Book V, xxviii, 2)
“For in as many
days as this world was made, in so many thousand years shall it be
concluded. . . . (Book V, xxviii, 3)
“For the day of
the Lord is as a thousand years; it is evident, therefore, that
they will come to an end at the sixth thousand year.” (Book V,
xxviii, 3)
“. . . bringing
in for the righteous the times of the kingdom, that is, the rest,
the hallowed seventh day.” (Book V, xxx,
3)
According to Revelation 20, this thousand-year
reign of Christ begins with “the first resurrection” and ends with
the general resurrection of the rest of the dead. This means that
those who inherit the first resurrection will receive immortality
during “The Age.” But as we have seen in the previous chapter and in
other books, ONLY believers, but NOT ALL believers will be raised in
the first resurrection. Thus, only the overcomers (the barley
company—see The Barley
Overcomers) will receive “life age-during.” That is,
only the overcomers will receive their reward of life (immortality)
at the beginning of “The Age.” Only the overcomers will have life
during that thousand-year Age.
The rest of the believers will receive immortality
afterward, and hence, strictly speaking, they will not receive “life
age-during.” This is because they will have to receive their reward
at the same time as the unbelievers receive judgment, for both will
be judged. The believers will be “saved, yet so as through
fire,”
receiving either few stripes or many stripes. The unbelievers will
be cast into the lake of fire and will serve their sentence until
the great Jubilee sets all creation free.
This concept of the eons, or ages, is obscured by
translating zoen aionion as “life everlasting” and
kolasin aionion
as “everlasting punishment.” (Matthew 25:46). The fact is that
neither is “everlasting.” Certainly, immortality itself is life that
never ends. But “age-during life” points specifically to AN AGE when
some believers will enjoy the blessings of immortal life. And
“age-during judgment” points specifically to AN AGE of judgment for
unbelievers.
Matthew 25:46 has been used since the time of
Augustine, the bishop of Hippo, in the early fifth century to prove
that aionian means an unending duration of time. Though
Augustine spoke eloquently in Latin, he did not speak Greek. Thus,
he was unfamiliar with the language of the New Testament, except
insofar as it had been translated into Latin. Peter Brown tells us
in his book, Augustine of Hippo, p. 36, “Augustine's failure to learn Greek was a
momentous casualty of the late Roman educational system; he will
become the only Latin philosopher in antiquity to be virtually
ignorant of Greek.” Worse yet, the
more influential Augustine became, the less the Latin Christians
felt the need to read the New Testament in Greek. Peter Brown says
again on p. 272,
“Gradually the ‘learned fellowship' would cease
to feel the need for Greek books. For they had
Augustine.” Perhaps this is a
good illustration of what Jesus said in Matthew 6:23,
23 . . . If therefore the
light that is in thee be darkness, how great is that
darkness. The Christians in the Latin-speaking Church took
Augustine's word for it that aionios meant everlasting. This
was their “light,” but unfortunately, their light was darkness. And
even today, most of the popular translations have continued to
mistranslate aionios. So average
Christians today who read the easy-reading Bibles do not realize
that what they think is light (in regard to future rewards and
judgments) is actually darkness.
In Book XXI, chapter xxiii, of Augustine's City
of God, he sets forth his argument that the judgment upon the
unbelievers would be unending torture in fire. His argument is based
upon the Latin translation of Matthew 25:46, which we have already
quoted earlier. Augustine interprets this passage in this
way:
“For Christ said in the very same place,
including both in one and the same sentence: ‘So these will go
into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life.' If
both are eternal, then surely both must be understood as ‘long,'
but having an end, or else as ‘everlasting' without an end. For
they are matched with each other. In one clause eternal
punishment, in the other eternal life. (To say) “eternal life
shall be without end, (but) eternal punishment will have an end'
is utterly absurd. Hence, since eternal life of the saints will be
without end, eternal punishment also will surely have no end, for
those whose lot it is.” The primary
problem is that Augustine did not understand the Hebrew concept of
“The Age.” He presumed that aionios life was the same as
immortality, instead of seeing that it referred specifically to life
(immortality) during the Messianic Age. To inherit life during this
Age means to be an inheritor of the first resurrection promised to
the overcomers alone. The rest of humanity, and even the rest of the
Christians, will not receive their immortality until the end of the
Messianic Age at the Great White Throne. We showed this in Chapter
Four, quoting Jesus' words in John 5:28, 29, as well as His parable
in Luke 12:42-49. Augustine did not understand this
concept.
Secondly, Augustine did not properly understand the
Greek word aionios, at least not in the way that the
Greek-speaking Church in Asia understood the term. He was looking at
it from the Roman mindset, using an old Latin translation of the
Scripture. The Latin translation at Augustine's disposal used two
different words for aionios: seculum and
aeternum. Alexander Thomson's book, Whence Eternity? says on page
11,
“Seculum meant a generation, an age, the
world, the times, the spirit of the times and a period of a
hundred years. That which is secular pertains to the present
world, especially to the world as not spiritual.
“Long ago in Rome, periodic games were held,
which were called ‘secular' games. Herodian, the historian,
writing in Greek about the end of the second or the beginning of
the third century, calls these ‘eonian' games. In no sense were
the games eternal. Eonian did not mean eternal any more than a
seculum meant
eternity.” Aeternas, or Aeternitas, is where
we get our English words “eternal” and “eternity.” However,
originally these had a double meaning, as we find in a scholar's
footnote in Augustine's City of God, XXII, i, which says,
“The words ‘eternal' and ‘eternity' from Latin
aeternus, aeternitas, are related to aevum, which
means BOTH ‘unending time' and ‘a period of time;' for the
second meaning the commoner word is
aetas.” This footnote was inserted in order to inform
readers who did not realize that Augustine was engaging in some
deceptive rhetoric. Augustine failed to mention in his book that
aeternus
also meant a limited period of time. Aeternus was the Latin near-equivalent of
the Greek word aionios, not because it meant unending time,
but because it also meant a limited duration of time.
Aeternus did have a double meaning, but Augustine applied the
wrong meaning to aionios according to his own personal bias.
That is why we are given the footnote in the modern publication of
Augustine's City of God. Yet in all fairness to Augustine, at least one
Church historian tells us that Augustine “all but abandoned” this
argument later in life. Dr. F.W. Farrar informs us of this in his
book, Mercy and Judgment, p. 378, “Since aion meant ‘age,' aionios
means, properly, ‘belonging to an age,' or ‘age-long,' and
anyone who asserts that it must mean ‘endless' defends a position
which even Augustine practically abandoned twelve centuries
ago. Even if aion always meant ‘eternity,' which is not
the case in classic or Hellenistic Greek—aionios could
still mean only ‘belonging to eternity' and not ‘lasting through
it'.” As for Augustine's argument that aionios in
Matthew 25:46 must mean the same amount of time for both the
believers and the unbelievers, this is contradicted by Dr. Alford
Plumer in An Exegetical Commentary on the Gospel of Matthew, pp. 351-352,
“It is often pointed out that ‘eternal'
(aionios) in ‘eternal punishment' must have the same
meaning as in ‘eternal life.' No doubt, but that does not give
us the right to say that ‘eternal' in both cases means
‘endless'.” We have already
shown that the Bible speaks of more than one age to come. Revelation
20 makes it clear that there are at least two future ages that run
concurrently. The first is the Messianic Age that was commonly
believed to be the seventh millennium from creation—the Creation
Sabbath. After that age was the Judgment Age of unknown duration—at
least no one in those days claimed to know.
It is my belief,
as I said ear lier, that the divine law implies a 49,000-year time
of man's history. If we are now about to enter into the first
Sabbath millennium, then the Judgment Age would have to continue for
another 42,000 years beyond it, or six more great
Sabbaths.
The Hebrew word olam is the Old Testament
equivalent of the Greek word aionios. Olam literally
means “to an obscurity,” but it is understood to mean an age, that
is, an indefinite period of time, but not of infinite duration.
Strong's Concordance says that olam means “concealed, i.e., to the
vanishing point.”
Dr. Bullinger, in
his Appendix 151 of The Companion Bible, says of olam:
“This word is derived from alam (to hide),
and means the hidden time or age, like aion. . . by
which word, or its Adjective aionios, it is generally
rendered in the Sept.” Under the heading “Eternal,” Smith's Bible
Dictionary (Dr. William Smith) tells us what olam
means:
“Eternal (Heb. OLAM, hidden, time long
past, and of future to the end).” Thus, Strong, Bullinger, and Smith all agree that
the word means “hidden” or “obscure.” Hence, the time of olam
is indefinite (obscure, hidden), rather than
never-ending time, eternity, or everlasting. It is indefinite,
because an age can be anywhere from a lifetime to thousands of years
in length.
Rotherham's The
Emphasized Bible renders Psalm 45:6,
6 Thy throne, O God, is
to times age-abiding and beyond [Heb. olam
va'ad, “to the age and beyond”], a sceptre of equity is the
sceptre of thy kingdom. The King James Version incorrectly translates it
“for ever and ever,” which makes no sense at all. God's throne will
indeed be for ever, but does it require two “evers” to describe
never-ending time? The Psalmist did NOT say, olam
va'olam. Psalm 45:6 shows that olam by itself was
insufficient to express eternity. The Psalmist had to add the phrase
va'ad, “and beyond,” to show that God's throne extends beyond
the olam of the Messianic Age. Young's Concordance tells us
that the Hebrew word ad means “duration, continuity,” and for
this reason Dr. Young believed that this term really did describe
eternity.
The Bible uses this same Hebrew phrase, olam
va'ad, in
the Exodus 15:18, which Young's Literal Translation
renders:
Exodus 15:18 18 Jehovah reigneth—to the
age and for ever! (olam va'ad) Jerome, who translated the Latin Vulgate in the
latter part of the fourth century, rendered the phrase olam
va'ad to Latin as: in aeternum et ultra, or “into
eternity and beyond.” This would be very strange if one insists
that aeternum meant endless time. Jerome lived at the same
time as Augustine and was well qualified to do a Latin translation
of the Bible. In fact, the Latin Vulgate was the standard Bible used
in the Church for the next thousand years. It is obvious that Jerome
did not think that aeternum had to mean endless time, in spite
of what Augustine believed.
Psalm 10:16
(Young's Literal Translation) 16 Jehovah is king to the
age, and for ever (olam va'ad), the nations have
perished out of His land! Daniel 12:2, 3 (Note the contrast between
olam and olam va'ad.) 2 And the multitude of those
sleeping in the dust of the ground do awake, some to life
age-during [olam], and some to reproaches—to
abhorrence age-during [olam]. 3
And those teaching do shine as the brightness of the expanse, and
those justifying the multitude as stars to the age and for
ever [olam va'ad]. In these verses
we see that Jehovah, or Yahweh, will reign not only to the age, but
beyond the age as well. Hence, this could express the idea of
eternity. Daniel speaks of the resurrection, where some will be
raised to life during the age, and others to judgment during the
age. Then he takes it further, telling us that “those teaching” and
“justifying the multitude” will shine to the age and beyond. His
specific terminology sheds light on the meaning of these
terms.
Dr. Young's translation is not without certain
problems, however. There are times when olam va'ad ought not
to be translated “to the age and for ever” but left as “to the age
and beyond.” This is because there is more than one future age, and
sometimes “the age” is a reference to the first age. “And beyond”
(va'ad) can also be a reference to the
following age, rather than “for ever.” For example, Psalm 9:5 says
in Young's Literal,
5 Thou hast rebuked nations,
Thou hast destroyed the wicked, their name Thou hast blotted out
to the age and for ever [olam va'ad]. In this case “for
ever” is not a valid translation. The wicked will not be destroyed
for ever. God will rebuke the nations and blot out their name during
the Messianic Age (when Christ and His overcomers will rule) and
also in the age beyond (during the time of the lake of fire). So
this verse does not prove that the wicked will be destroyed for all
time. There will still be a Jubilee that will restore all nations to
Him, as Psalm 86:9 says,
9 All nations that Thou hast
made come and bow themselves before Thee, O Lord, and give honour
to Thy name. Psalm 67:1- 3
says in Young's Literal, 3 Praise Thee do peoples, O
God, praise Thee do peoples, all of them. 4
Rejoice and sing do nations, for Thou judgest peoples uprightly,
and peoples on earth comfortest. Selah. 5 Confess Thee
do peoples, O God, confess Thee do peoples—all of them.
6 Earth hath given her increase, God doth bless us—our
God, 7 God doth bless us, and all ends of the earth
fear Him! The psalmist realizes that all the nations will
rejoice in the judgments of God, because
His judgments are corrective and remedial, not destructive. The only
thing that is destroyed is the fleshly corruption and the injustice
of man's governmental systems that have prevailed in the present
age. Psalm 72:11 says,
11 And all kings do bow
themselves to him, all nations do serve
him. Psalm 82:8 also says that God will “inherit all
nations.” How can God inherit all nations if He has destroyed
them? And so we can only conclude that God does not intend to
destroy the people of all nations who are currently unbelievers. God
intends to inherit them. Isaiah 2:2-4 tells us that during that Age
the people who did not know God will come to learn of
Him,
2 Now it will come about
that in the last days the mountain [Kingdom] of the house
of the Lord will be established as the chief of the mountains, and
will be raised above the hills [smaller kingdoms];
and all the nations will stream to it. 3 And
many peoples will come and say, Come, let us go up to the mountain
of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob; that He may teach
us concerning His ways, and that we may walk in His paths. For the
law will go forth from Zion, and the word of the Lord from
Jerusalem. 4 And He will judge between the nations, and
will render decisions for many peoples; and they will hammer their
swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks.
Nation will not lift up sword against nation, and never again will
they learn war. The old forms of
government will be abolished “for ever,” and Christ will be the Head
of a true United Nations to render decisions that will resolve all
disputes without resorting to war. The individual people themselves
will rejoice as they come into the glorious liberty of the sons of
God.
The bottom line
is that the law of Jubilee mandates by law a limit on liability for
all debt—and sin, in the Bible, is reckoned as a debt. The Lord's
prayer says in Matthew 6:12 says,
12 And forgive us our debts,
as we also have forgiven our debtors. In Luke 11:4 it
is rendered this way: 4 And forgive us our
sins; for we also forgive every one that is indebted
to us. Luke's account
specifically equates sins with debts. The same is true in a number
of Jesus' parables, such as the one found in Matthew 18 about the
debtor who owed ten thousand talents. A “talent” of gold in those
days weighed 131 pounds, or 2096 ounces of gold per “talent.” Ten
thousand talents would equal 20,960,000 ounces of gold. At the price
of $400 per ounce, this today would represent (literally) a debt of
$8,384,000,000.
In the parable,
the debtor was forgiven his huge, unpayable debt. But he, in turn,
refused to forgive the small debt that his neighbor owed him. So his
huge debt was put back upon him. The final verse of the parable is
Matthew 18:35,
35 So shall My heavenly
Father also do to you, if each of you does not forgive his brother
from your heart. This does not mean that believers can lose their
salvation and go to hell. It means that believers may lose the
blessing of the first resurrection and will be “saved, yet so as
through fire” at the general resurrection of the dead. Forgiveness is
the primary requirement to be an overcomer, because forgiveness is
the way in which we live and breathe the principles of the
Jubilee.
In view of the law of Jubilee, where all debts are
cancelled, it is not difficult to see that the time of aionios
kolasis (eonian judgment) must of necessity be
limited. To make it never-ending would be a violation of biblical
law, regardless of our view of its actual nature. That is to say,
whether we believe the fire is literal or symbolic of the divine
law, it must be of limited
duration.
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