First let me tell you that I have went through the article that you
shared on Facebook, and read every word of it, and looked at it in a scientific
& logical manner.
Notes: Much of the below information is
taken from the book "Hope Beyond Hell" by "Gerry
Beauchemin"www.hopebeyondhell.net, and direct
extracts from several articles available online at the website: www.tentmaker.org
If you are interested to further study
the subject, I invite you to visit the all these websites to get deeper
insight on the subject.
What are you trying to Prove?
The writer of the article you shared tried to prove that the Greek words
"Aion" and "Aionios" - Which are usually translated
"Eternal" and "Everlasting" both mean ever and everlasting
somehow exclusively in the Bible, and especially in the new Testament and thus
trying to prove that the "Punishment", and "Torment", which
are mentioned in the Bible as for an "Aion" or "Aionios"
(per the Greek language) are unending, and as a result, Universal Salvation
(which I proudly and openly preach) is just a heresy and not true from a
Biblical perspective. In his pursuit to prove the above, the writer gave the
examples of:
1. The Greek Septuagint (LXX )
translation of Ezekial 37: 26.
2. 2 Corinth 4: 18.
3. Romans 16: 26.
4. Hebrews 9: 12.
5. 1 Timothy 6: 16.
6. 2 Corinth 5: 1.
Looking at the knowledge that the writer of this article portrays, I
have a huge question mark about him avoiding so many other places where
"Aion" & "Aionios" and other derivatives of the word
occur. So let me give the following remarks about the article:
"Eternal" So what?
No doubt that in some of
the above Biblical verses, the word Aion and Aionios can be translated eternal
or Everlasting properly. So, I do not believe that the term will always mean
the same thing in every verse where it is mentioned across the New Testament or
the Bible. The Picture that I put above of “Greek & English Lexicon of the
New Testament” by Edward Robinson (DD, LL.D) explains that the meaning of the
word is “Time Indefinite… as determined by the context…”. The word carries the
meaning of indefinite time, which can mean Eternal, if the context indicates
it. As Dr. Edward Beecher mentions: “Aion denotes an age, great or small, so
the adjective Aionios expressed the idea pertaining to or belonging to the
Aion, whether great or small. But in every case this adjective derives its
character and duration from the Aion to which it refers.
What about the Rest?
The Disturbing thing is that the writer of the article does not mention
or defend the other verses where Aionion or Aion are mentioned and where it is
whatsoever impossible for them to mean Eternal or Everlasting, as this
does not make any logical sense and let me give you a sample:
a. Matthew 24: 3 “The end of
the world” (KJV, Living Bible, Philips Modern English, Jerusalem Bible) (“Age”
RSV, TEV, NIV, NEB, Vandyck Arabic)
b. Matthew 28: 20 “to the end of the
World”(KJV, Living Bible, Philips), “Age” (RSV, TEV, NIV, Vandyck Arabic)
“Time” (Jerusalem Bible, NEB).
c. Luke 16: 8 “The Children of
this World” (KJV, Living Bible, Philips, RSV, TEV, NIV, Jerusalem Bible)
“Worldly” (NEB) “Age” (Vandyck Arabic).
d. Luke 20; 34.
e. Luke 20: 35.
f. John 9: 32; Acts 3:
21.
g. Romans 12: 2.
h. Romans 16: 25-26.
i. 1 Corinth 1: 20.
j. 1 Corinth 2: 6-8.
k. 1 Corinth 3: 18.
l. 1 Corinth 10:
11.
m. 2 Corinth 4: 4.
n. Galatians 1: 4.
o. Ephesians 1: 21.
p. Ephesians 2: 2.
q. Ephesians 2: 7.
r. Ephesians 3: 9.
s. Colossians 1: 26.
t. 2 timothy 4: 10.
u. Philippians 1: 15.
v. Hebrews 6: 5.
w. Hebrews 9: 26.
x. Hebrews 11: 3.
all the above mentioned verses are places where Aion and Aionion are
mentioned in the greek text, and where it is impossible for the word to mean
"Eternal or Everlasting"
Romans 16: 25-26
A worth mentioning point which is important for two reasons is Romans
16: 25-26. The writer of the article mentions verse 26, and focuses on it,
and uses this paragraph as a proof that the word “Ainios” means Eternal, as it
is mentioned describing God, the one and only. And thus, if it is said about
God, and we can’t say “the Age-Lasting God”, then Aionios does not mean
“age-Lasting” but Ever-Lasting (in his opinion)… but the writer fails to
mention, and in view of his research resources it seems intentional, that the
same word Aionios was mentioned another time in the same paragraph and actually
just one verse before… in verse 25, where it is written – according to Revised
Standard Version- “the mystery which was kept secret for long Ages
(Aionios)”. and here it does not mean "Eternal or Everlasting"
whatsoever. This point is crucial because:
a. The writer considers the
verse 26 a clear proof that the meaning of the word is Eternal,while in the
same passage it is used and translated otherwise by all translations ( it is
translated “since the world Began” KJV, NKJV; “from
the beginning of time” Living Bible; “Long Ages” (Philips;
RSV, TEV, NIV, NEB, ESV, Amplified) “endless Ages” (Jerusalem
Bible) “ages and ages” (CEV).
b. Some, Including St. Augustine, who
promoted the modern doctrine of hell, argue that once the word Aionios is
mentioned in the same context twice then it should mean the same meaning. The
reason for the above was mainly related to Matthew 25: 46, where the word is
used for Aionian Life, and Aionian Punishment (Greek: Kolasis). But Romans 16:
25-26 is a clear example that this can be different, and that the use of the
word Aionios and its meaning are related to the context of what it is speaking
about, and it is speaking of limited age as well as the unlimited God within
the same sentence or context in the above mentioned paragraph.
(In addition to
the above, Gerry Beauchemin in his book “Hope Beyond Hell” page 27 gives
another parallel in the Hebrew language in Habbakuk 3: 6).
The Hebrew
The same concept applies to the Hebrew word “Olam”
which was mainly translated in the Greek Septuagint (LXX) translation- which
was somehow the Old Testament of the early Church fathers- as “Aion” and
“Aionion”,where the Hebrew word was used in many places to indicate an age,
shorter than eternity.
a. Jonah was in the belly of
the Fish for “Olam” time (Jonah 1: 17, 2: 6).
b. Sodom’s Fire was for “Olam” until
God returns them to their initial state (Ezekiel 16: 53-55; Jude 7).
c. A Moabite is not to enter to
the Lord’s Congregation for Olam (until the 10th Generation –
Deuteronomy 23:3).
d. Hills are everlasting (Genesis 49:
26; De. 33: 15; Is 40: 4; 2 Peter 3: 10).
e. Mountains everlasting??? (Habakkuk
3: 6).
f. A slave serves the
master for Ever (Exodus 21: 6).
g. In addition to many many
other examples such as (Le. 24: 8; Heb. 8: 7-13; Ex. 40: 15; Numbers 25: 3; He.
7: 14-22; Joshua 4: 7; 2 kings 5: 27; 2 Chronicles 7: 16; 1 Kings 8: 13; 9: 3;
2 Chronicles 2: 4; Hebrews 7: 11-10: 18; Genesis 17: 9-13; Isaiah 32: 13-15;
Isaiah 60: 15… etc.
Life Divine/Punishment
Divine
Until now, we have worked in a linguistic Manner
and searched for verbal use of the word. Still there is another view that we
need to take into consideration and this view is held by major thinkers such as
Theologian William Barkley, and Universalist/Christian philosopher Thomas
Talbott, and this view is that Aionios is not an indication of time whatsoever,
but rather a quality, as it is related to the Divine plan of the ages… thus,
eternal life is not eternal life in the meaning of unending life, but rather a
quality of life, linked to the God of Ages/Eternity… In John 17: 3 (KJV) it is
clearly stated that “This is Life Eternal “Aionios”, that they might
know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ…”. Also in 1 John
1: 2; and 1 John 5: 20 the same message is conveyed where God/Jesus is the Life
Aionios… if the above is true, then the meaning of the word “Eternal Life” is actually,
“life related to the Eternal” or “Divine Life”, while “Eternal Punishment” – As
the term is translated in many Bible translations- would mean “the Punishment
related or pertaining to the Divine or eternal” and again there is no
indication of “unending torment" as many people want to indicate…
If Aion meant Eternal:
Let me state the
dilemma clearly. Aion either means endless duration as its necessary, or at
least its ordinary significance, or it does not. If it does, the following
difficulties at once arise;
1 -- How, if it mean
an endless period, can aion have a plural?
2 -- How came such
phrases to be used as those repeatedly occurring in Scripture, where aion is
added to aion, if aion is of itself infinite?
3 -- How come such
phrases as for the "aion" or aions and BEYOND? -- ton aiona kai ep
aiona kai eti: eis tous aionas kai eti. -- See (Sept.) Ex. 15:18; Dan. 12:3;
Micah 4:5.
4 -- How is it that
we repeatedly read of the end of the aion? -- Matt. 13:39,40,49; 24:3; 28:20; I
Cor. 10:11; Heb. 9:26.
5 -- Finally, if
aion be infinite, why is it applied over and over to what is strictly finite?
e.g., Mark 4:19; Acts 3:21; Rom. 12:2; I Cor. 1:20, 2:20, 2:6, 3:18, 10:11,
etc. But if an aion be not definite, what right have we to render the adjective
aionios (which depends for its meaning on aion) by the terms
"eternal" (when used as the equivalent of "endless") and
"everlasting?"
What did the experts say actually?
Dr. R.F. Weymouth, a translator who was adept in Greek, states in The
New Testament I Modern Speech (p. 657), “Eternal, Greek aeonian,
i.e., of the ages: Etymologically this adjective, like others similarly
formed does not signify, “during” but “belonging to” the aeons or ages.”
Dr. F.W. Farrar, author of The Life of Christ and The Life and Work of
St. Paul, as well as books about Greek grammar and syntax, writes in The
Eternal Hope (p. 198), “That the adjective is applied to some things which are
“endless” does not, of course, for one moment prove that the word itself meant
‘endless;’ and to introduce this rendering into many passages would be utterly
impossible and absurd.” In his book, Mercy and Judgment, Dr. Farrar
states (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.’”
Lange’s Commentary American Edition (vol. V, p. 48), on Ecclesiastes
chapter 1 verse 4, in commenting upon the statement “The earth abideth forever”
says, “The preacher, in contending with the universalist, or restorationist,
would commit an error, and, it may be, suffer a failure in his argument, should
he lay the whole stress of it on the etymological or historical significance of
the words, aion, aionios, and attempt to prove that, of themselves, they
necessarily carry the meaning of endless duration.” On page 45 of the
same work, Dr. Taylor Lewis says: “The Greek ‘aiones’ and ‘aiones ton
aionon,’ the Latin ‘secula,’ and ‘secula seculorum,’ the Old Saxon, or Old
English of Wicliffe, ‘to world is or world is’ (Heb. XIII 21), or our more
modern phrase, ‘for ever and ever,’ wherever the German ewig, was originally a
noun denoting age or a vast period, just like the Greek, Latin, and Hebrew
words corresponding to it.”
The Rev. Bennet, in his “Olam Hanneshamoth” (p. 44), says, “The primary
nature of olam is ‘hidden,’ and both as to past and future denotes a duration
that is unknown.” “Olam” is the Hebrew word corresponding to the Greek
word “aion.” The Greek Septuagint (a Greek translation of the Hebrew
Scriptures) renders the Hebrew word “olam” as “aion” or it’s adjective “aionios.”
The Parkhurst Lexicon: “Olam (aeon) seems to be used much more for
an indefinite than for an infinite time.”
Dr. MacKnight: “I must be so candid as to acknowledge that the use
of these terms ‘forever,’ ‘eternal,’ ‘everlasting,’ shows that they who
understand these words in a limited sense when applied to punishment put no
forced interpretation upon them.”
Dr. Nigel Turner, in Christian Words, says (p. 457), “All the way
through it is never feasible to understand aionios as everlasting.”
The Pulpit Commentary, vol. 15, p. 485, says, “It is possible that
‘aeonian’ may denote merely indefinite duration without the connotation of
never ending.”
The Interpreter’s Dictionary of the Bible, vol. 4, p. 643, says, “The
O.T. and the N.T. are not acquainted with conception of eternity as
timelessness.” Page 644: “The O.T. has not developed a special term
for eternity.” Page 645: “The use of the word aion in the N.T. is
determined very much by the O.T. and the LXX. Aion means long, distant,
uninterrupted time. The intensifying plural occurs frequently in the N.T.
...but it adds no new meaning.”
Dr. Lammenois, a man adept with languages, states, “In Hebrew and Greek
the words rendered ‘everlasting’ have not this sense. They signify a long
duration of time, a period; whence the phrase, during these eternities and
beyond.”
Marvin
R. Vincent: a Presbyterian minister, best known for his Word Studies in the New Testament.
From 1888, he was professor of New Testament exegesis and criticism at Union Theological Seminary, New York City.
Says about AION and its derivatives:
Note on
Olethron Aionion
(Eternal destruction)
'Aion, transliterated aeon, is a
period of longer or shorter duration, having a beginning and an end, and
complete in itself. Aristotle (peri ouravou, i. 9,15) says: "The
period which includes the whole time of one's life is called the aeon of
each one." Hence it often means the life of a man, as in Homer, where
one's life (aion) is said to leave him or to consume away (Iliad v.
685; Odyssey v. 160). It is not, however, limited to human life; it
signifies any period in the course of events, as the period or age before
Christ; the period of the millennium; the mythological period before the
beginnings of history. The word has not "a stationary and mechanical
value" (De Quincey). It does not mean a period of a fixed length for all
cases. There are as many aeons as entities, the respective durations of which
are fixed by the normal conditions of the several entities. There is one aeon
of a human life, another of the life of a nation, another of a crow's life,
another of an oak's life. The length of the aeon depends on the subject to
which it is attached.
It is sometimes translated world; world represents a
period or a series of periods of time. See Matt 12:32; 13:40,49; Luke 1:70; 1
Cor 1:20; 2:6; Eph 1:21. Similarly oi aiones, the worlds, the
universe, the aggregate of the ages or periods, and their contents which are
included in the duration of the world. 1 Cor 2:7; 10:11; Heb 1:2; 9:26; 11:3.
The word always carries the notion of time, and not of eternity. It always
means a period of time. Otherwise it would be impossible to account for the
plural, or for such qualifying expressions as this age, or the age to
come. It does not mean something endless or everlasting. To deduce that
meaning from its relation to aei is absurd; for, apart
from the fact that the meaning of a word is not definitely fixed by its
derivation, aei does not signify endless duration. When
the writer of the Pastoral Epistles quotes the saying that the Cretans
are always (aei) liars (Tit. 1:12), he surely does not
mean that the Cretans will go on lying to all eternity. See also Acts 7:51; 2
Cor. 4:11; 6:10; Heb 3:10; 1 Pet. 3:15. Aei means habitually or continually
within the limit of the subject's life. In our colloquial dialect everlastingly is
used in the same way. "The boy is everlastingly tormenting me to buy him a
drum."
In the New Testament the history of the world is conceived as developed through
a succession of aeons. A series of such aeons precedes the introduction of a
new series inaugurated by the Christian dispensation, and the end of the world
and the second coming of Christ are to mark the beginning of another series.
Eph. 1:21; 2:7; 3:9,21; 1 Cor 10:11; compare Heb. 9:26. He includes the series
of aeons in one great aeon, 'o aion ton aionon, the aeon of the
aeons (Eph. 3:21); and the author of the Epistle to the Hebrews describe the
throne of God as enduring unto the aeon of the aeons (Heb 1:8). The plural is
also used, aeons of the aeons, signifying all the successive periods which make
up the sum total of the ages collectively. Rom. 16:27; Gal. 1:5; Philip. 4:20,
etc. This plural phrase is applied by Paul to God only.
The adjective aionios in like manner carries the idea
of time. Neither the noun nor the adjective, in themselves, carry the sense
of endless or everlasting. They may acquire that sense
by their connotation, as, on the other hand, aidios, which
means everlasting, has its meaning limited to a given point of time
in Jude 6. Aionios means enduring through or pertaining
to a period of time. Both the noun and the adjective are applied to limited
periods. Thus the phrase eis ton aiona, habitually rendered forever,
is often used of duration which is limited in the very nature of the case. See,
for a few out of many instances, LXX, Exod 21:6; 29:9; 32:13; Josh. 14:9 1 Sam
8:13; Lev. 25:46; Deut. 15:17; 1 Chron. 28:4;. See also Matt. 21:19; John 13:8
1 Cor. 8:13. The same is true of aionios. Out of 150 instances in
LXX, four-fifths imply limited duration. For a few instances see Gen. 48:4;
Num. 10:8; 15:15; Prov. 22:28; Jonah 2:6; Hab. 3:6; Isa. 61:17.
Words which are habitually applied to things temporal or material cannot
carry in themselves the sense of endlessness. Even when applied to God, we are
not forced to render aionios everlasting. Of course the
life of God is endless; but the question is whether, in describing God as aionios,
it was intended to describe the duration of his being, or whether some
different and larger idea was not contemplated. That God lives longer than men,
and lives on everlastingly, and has lived everlastingly, are, no doubt, great
and significant facts; yet they are not the dominant or the most impressive
facts in God's relations to time. God's eternity does not stand merely or
chiefly for a scale of length. It is not primarily a mathematical but a moral
fact. The relations of God to time include and imply far more than the bare
fact of endless continuance. They carry with them the fact that God transcends
time; works on different principles and on a vaster scale than the wisdom of
time provides; oversteps the conditions and the motives of time; marshals the
successive aeons from a point outside of time, on lines which run out into his
own measureless cycles, and for sublime moral ends which the creature of
threescore and ten years cannot grasp and does not even suspect.
There is a word for everlasting if that idea is demanded. That aiodios
occurs rarely in the New Testament and in LXX does not prove that its place
was taken by aionios. It rather goes to show that less importance
was attached to the bare idea of everlastingness than later theological thought
has given it. Paul uses the word once, in Rom. 1:20, where he speaks of "the
everlasting power and divinity of God." In Rom. 16:26 he speaks
of the eternal God (tou aioniou theou); but that he
does not mean the everlasting God is perfectly clear from the context. He has
said that "the mystery" has been kept in silence in
times eternal (chronois aioniois), by which he does not mean everlasting times,
but the successive aeons which elapsed before Christ was proclaimed. God
therefore is described as the God of the aeons, the God who
pervaded and controlled those periods before the incarnation. To the same
effect is the title 'o basileus ton aionon, the King of the
aeons, applied to God in 1 Tim. 1:17; Rev. 15:3; compare Tob. 13:6, 10. The
phrase pro chronon aionion, before eternal times (2
Tim. 1:9; Tit. 1:2), cannot mean before everlasting times. To
say that God bestowed grace on men, or promised them eternal life before
endless times, would be absurd. The meaning is of old, as Luke
1:70. The grace and the promise were given in time, but far back in the ages, before
the times of reckoning the aeons.
Zoe aionios eternal life, which occurs
42 times in N. T., but not in LXX, is not endless life, but life pertaining to
a certain age or aeon, or continuing during that aeon. I repeat, life may be
endless. The life in union with Christ is endless, but the fact is not
expressed by aionios.Kolasis aionios, rendered everlasting
punishment (Matt. 25:46), is the punishment peculiar to an aeon other than
that in which Christ is speaking. In some cases zoe aionios does
not refer specifically to the life beyond time, but rather to the aeon or
dispensation of Messiah which succeeds the legal dispensation. See Matt. 19:16;
John 5:39. John says that zoe aionios is the present possession
of those who believe on the Son of God, John 3:36; 5:24; 6:47,54. The Father's
commandment is zoe aionios, John 1250; to know the only true God
and Jesus Christ is zoe aionios. John 17:3.
Bishop Westcott very justly says, commenting upon the terms used by John
to describe life under different aspects: "In considering these phrases it
is necessary to premise that in spiritual things we must guard against all
conclusions which rest upon the notions of succession and duration. 'Eternal
life' is that which St. Paul speaks of as 'e outos Zoe the
life which is life indeed, and 'e zoe tou theou, the
life of God. It is not an endless duration of being in time, but being of
which time is not a measure. We have indeed no powers to grasp the idea except
through forms and images of sense. These must be used, but we must not transfer
them as realities to another order."
Thus, while aionios carries the idea of time, though
not of endlessness, there belongs to it also, more or less, a sense of quality.
Its character is ethical rather than mathematical. The deepest significance of
the life beyond time lies, not in endlessness, but in the moral quality of the
aeon into which the life passes. It is comparatively unimportant whether or not
the rich fool, when his soul was required of him (Luke 12:20), entered upon a
state that was endless. The principal, the tremendous fact, as Christ
unmistakably puts it, was that, in the new aeon, the motives, the aims, the
conditions, the successes and awards of time counted for nothing. In time, his
barns and their contents were everything; the soul was nothing. In the new life
the soul was first and everything, and the barns and storehouses nothing. The
bliss of the sanctified does not consist primarily in its endlessness, but in
the nobler moral conditions of the new aeon, the years of the holy and eternal
God. Duration is a secondary idea. When it enters it enters as an accompaniment
and outgrowth of moral conditions.
In the present passage it is urged that olethron destruction points
to an unchangeable, irremediable, and endless condition. If this be true,
if olethros is extinction, then the passage
teaches the annihilation of the wicked, in which case the adjective aionios is
superfluous, since extinction is final, and excludes the idea of duration.
But olethros does not always mean destruction or extinction.
Take the kindred verb apollumi to destroy, put an end to, or
in the middle voice, to be lost, to perish. Peter says "the
world being deluged with water, perished (apoleto, 2 Pet. 3:6); but
the world did not become extinct, it was renewed. In Heb. 1:11,12, quoted from
Ps. 102, we read concerning the heavens and the earth as compared with the
eternity of God, "they shall perish" (apolountai). But
the perishing is only preparatory to change and renewal. "They shall be
changed" (allagesontai). Compare Isa. 51:6,16; 65:22; 2 Pet.
3:13; Rev. 21:1. Similarly, "the Son of man came to save that which was
lost" (apololos), Luke 19:10. Jesus charged his apostles to go
to the lost (apololota) sheep of the house of
Israel, Matt. 10:6, compare 15:24, "He that shall lose(apolese) his
life for my sake shall find it," Matt. 16:25. Compare Luke 15:6,9,32.
In this passage, the word destruction is qualified. It
is "destruction from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of his
power," at his second coming, in the new aeon. In other words, it is the
severance, at a given point of time, of those who obey not the gospel from the
presence and the glory of Christ. Aionios may therefore
describe this severance as continuing during the millenial aeon between
Christ's coming and the final judgment; as being for the wicked prolonged
throughout that aeon and characteristic of it, or it may describe the severance
as characterising or enduring through a period or aeon succeeding the final
judgment, the extent of which period is not defined. In neither case is aionios,
to be interpreted as everlasting or endless.
Open Your eyes
At the end, dear Maya, the best you could find on the internet can’t
whatsoever justify the pagan doctrine of eternal torment that invaded a "Church
–turning –pagan" on the hands of "Paganism –Influenced"
Philosophers such as Augustine, who led the Church with their harsh doctrine
into the dark ages, justifying the murder of heretics, allowing the Church to
Control the poor and ignorant with an iron fist, which is the fear of hell.
some did all of this with a good intentions, as they thought they are pushing
people away for the torment of hell and pulling them to the Eternal bliss of
heaven. But it was done with ignorance, an ignorance of the scriptures and of
the love of God.
God is Love, and the more we meditate on the love of God, the more we
understand that Inescapable Love that Surpasses Knowledge (Ephesians 3: 19) and
that “Never Ends or Fails” (1 Corinth 13: 8). I pray that God opens the eyes of
His church to the real Good News of Christ, the Salvation of All.
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