concering the aions. (Micah, Gomorrah, Sodom, punishment)

[pneuma]

One of the reasons I am writing this is to set the record straight on just what the Christ centered Universalist believes. We are often accused of saying things that we simply do not believe. For example, our adversaries’ state things like Universalist do not believe God will punish people for their sins. Universalists believe nothing of the kind. We absolutely believe God punishes people for their sins; however, we believe God punishes people in order to correct them of the errors of their ways.


To miss the mark is the definition of SIN.

To the Jewish mind to miss the mark is likened to an archer taking aim at a target and missing the target.

God took aim at the salvation of the world, so if the world is not saved God missed the mark/sinned.



Matthew 25:46
46 And these shall go away into everlasting punishment: but the righteous into life eternal.

Let’s look at Matt.25:46 in a few literal translations

Young's Literal Translation has it.
46And these shall go away to punishment age-during, but the righteous to life age-during.'

Rotherham Emphasized Bible has it.
And, these, shall go away, into, age-abiding, correction, but, the righteous, into, age-abiding, life.

There is much that can be said of the word aion and its adjective aionios and I will get into further detail as time allows. But for now, the reader can see the way one translates the word aionios makes a HUGE difference in what the scriptures actually say.

So how can we know which translation is more accurate?

Some problems with translating aionios as eternal.

Eternal means without beginning and without end.

Scripture tells us the aionios has a beginning.

Titus 1:2
2 In hope of eternal/aionios life, which God, that cannot lie, promised before the world/aionios began;

Thus the reader can see aionios has a beginning.

So how can that which has a beginning be said to be without beginning?

Scripture also tells us the aions end


Matthew 13:39-40
39 The enemy that sowed them is the devil; the harvest is the end of the world/aion; and the reapers are the angels. 40 As therefore the tares are gathered and burned in the fire; so shall it be in the end of this world/aion.


So how can that which has an end be said to be without end?

Scripture does a fine job in defining the words used in them, and we can see scripture defines the aion as ending and its adjective aionios as having a beginning. One has to go outside of scripture to get aion and its adjective aionios to mean without beginning and without end.

Let’s look at a few more scriptures that speak of the aions (plural) to come.

Mark 10:30
30 But he shall receive an hundredfold now in this time, houses, and brethren, and sisters, and mothers, and children, and lands, with persecutions; and in the world/aion to come eternal/aionios life.

Luke 18:30
30 Who shall not receive manifold more in this present time, and in the world/aion to come life everlasting/aionios.

Here we have both the word aion and its adjective aionios used in the same sentence. An adjective always deals with the noun that is in use, thus if the noun pertains to an age so too does its adjective.


Ephesians 2:7
7 That in the ages/aions to come he might shew the exceeding riches of his grace in his kindness toward us through Christ Jesus.

Now if aionios life is without end so too is its noun aion. Most believe that the aion to come is eternal or without end. However, Paul says in Ephesians that in the ages (plural) to come. So how can the aion to come be without end if there are aions that come afterword?



More problems in translation aion and aionios as eternal

As stated before eternal means without beginning and without end.
Yet this eternal suffering has a beginning after the judgment. So how can it be eternal?

Many do not see the inconstancy in translating the words aion and aionios as eternal, however the use of eternal means without beginning and without end. No matter where you read in scripture eternal, whether it be eternal life, which one does not receive until they accept Christ, or eternal punishment, which does not start until after the great white throne judgment, it always show a BEGINNING. Thus proving translating aion and aionios as eternal simply cannot be a correct translation of the words aion and aionios.


Another major problem with the belief that people are going to suffer for all eternity is that that if people are alive to suffering for all eternity then they have eternal life without Christ.

How can people live eternally in a lake of fire without Christ?

It is only in Christ that one has eternal life correct?


Quotes about aion and aionios from some scholars.

The word "Aionios" by itself, whether adjective or substantive, never means endless"--Canon Farrar -

"The conception of eternity, in the Semitic languages, is that of a long duration and series of ages."--Rev. J. S. Blunt-- Dictionary of Theology.

" 'Tis notoriously known," says Bishop Rust, "that the Jews, whether writing in Hebrew or Greek, do by 'olam' (the Hebrew word corresponding to "aion"), and aion mean any remarkable period or duration, whether it be of life, or dispensation, or polity."

Tomas allinfrom his book Christ triumphant.

Aionios Repeatedly Applied To Things That Have Long Ago Ceased To Exist

As a further illustration of the meaning of aion and aionios, let me point out that in the Greek version of the Old Testament (the Septuagint)--in common use among the Jews in our Lord's time, from which He and the Apostles usually quoted, and whose authority, therefore, should be decisive on this point--these terms are repeatedly applied to things that have long ceased to exist.

Thus

The Aaronic priesthood is said to be "everlasting," -Numb.25:13-

The land of Canaan is given as an "everlasting" possession, and "for ever" -Gen. 17:8...Gen. 18:15-

In Deut. 23:3, "for ever" is distinctly made an equivalent to "even to the tenth generation."

In Lamentations 5:19, "for ever and ever" is the equivalent of from "generation to generation."

The inhabitants of Palestine are to be bondsmen "for ever" -Lev. 25:46-

In Numb. 18:19, the heave offerings of the holy things are a covenant "for ever."

Caleb obtains his inheritance "for ever" -Joshua 14:9-

And David's seed is to endure "for ever," his throne "for ever," his house "for ever;" nay, the passover is to endure "for ever;" and in Isa. 32:14, the forts and towers shall be "dens for ever, until the spirit be poured upon us."

So in Jude 7, Sodom and Gomorrah are said to be suffering the vengeance of eternal (aeonian) fire, i.e., their temporal overthrow by fire, for they have a definite promise of final restoration.--(Ezek. 16:55)

Christ's Kingdom Is To Last Forever & Yet

And Christ's kingdom is to last "for ever," yet we are distinctly told that this very kingdom is to end.--(I Cor. 15:24) Indeed, quotation might be added to quotation, both from the Bible and from early authors, to prove this limited meaning of aion and its derivatives; but enough has probably been said to prove that it is wholly impossible, and indeed absurd, to contend that any idea of endless duration is necessarily or commonly implied by either aion or aionios.

NOTE:

Thus Josephus calls "aeonian," the temple of Herod, which was actually destroyed when he wrote. PHILO never uses aionios of endless duration.

Aion Either Means Endless Duration Or It Does Not

Further, if this translation of aionios as "eternal," in the sense of endless, be correct, aion must mean eternity, i.e., endless duration. But so to render it would reduce Scripture to an absurdity.

In the first place, you would have over and over again to talk of the "eternities." We can comprehend what "eternity" is, but what are the "eternities?" You cannot have more than one eternity. The doxology would run thus: "Thine is the kingdom, the power, and the glory, unto the eternities."

In the case of the sin against the Holy Ghost, the translation would then be, "it shall not be forgiven him, neither in this eternity nor in that to come."


Our Lord's words, (Matt. 13:39), would then be, "the harvest is the end of the eternity," i.e., the end of the endless, which is to make our Lord talk nonsense.


Again, in Mark 4:19, the translation should be, "the cares," not of "this world," but "the cares of this eternity choke the word."

In Luke 16:8, "The children of this world," should be "the children of this eternity."


In 1 Cor. 10:11, the words, "upon whom the ends of the world are come," should be: "the ends of the eternities."

Take next, Gal. 1:4: "That He might deliver us from this present evil world," should run thus: "from this present evil eternity."

In 2 Tim. 4:10, the translation should be: "Demas hath forsaken me, having loved this present eternity."


And "Now once at the end of the ages hath He been manifested," should read, on the popular view, "at the end of the eternities."



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;



Difficulties



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 aionakaiepaionakaieti: eistousaionaskaieti.--(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;...Matt. 24:3...Matt. 28:20...1 Cor. 10:11...Hebr. 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...1 Cor. 1:20...1 Cor. 2:6...1 Cor. 3:18, 10:11, etc. etc.



If Aion Is Not Infinite



But if aion be not infinite, 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?"



Indeed our translators have really done further hurt to those who can only read their English Bible.



They have, wholly obscured a very important doctrine, that of "the ages." This when fully understood throws a flood of light on the plan of redemption, and the method of the divine working. Take a few instances which show the force and clearness gained, by restoring the true rendering of the words aion and aionios.


Turn to Matt. 24:3. There our version represents the disciples as asking "what should be the sign of the end of the world." It should be the end of the "age;" the close of the Jewish age marked by the fall of Jerusalem.


In Matt. 13:39-40-49, the true rendering is not the end of the "world," but of the "age," an important change.


So John 17:3, "this is life eternal," should be "the life of the ages," i.e., peculiar to those ages, in which the scheme of salvation is being worked out.


Or take Heb 5:9; Heb. 9:12; Heb. 13:20, "eternal salvation" should be "aeonian" or of the ages; "eternal redemption" is the redemption "of the ages;" the eternal covenant is the "covenant of the ages," the covenant peculiar to the ages of redemption.


In Eph. 3:11, "the eternal purpose" is really the purpose of "the ages," i.e., worked out in "the ages."



In Eph. 3:21, there occurs a suggestive phrase altogether obscured (as usual, where this word is in question), by our version, "until all the generations of the age of the ages." Thus it runs in the original, and it is altogether unfair to conceal this elaborate statement by merely rendering "throughout all ages."



In 1 Cor. 10:11 "the ends of the world" are the "ends of the ages." In 1 Cor. 2:6-7-8, the word aion is four times translated "world," it should be "age' or "ages" in all cases.



And here it is impossible to avoid asking how--assuming that aion does mean "world" in these cases--how it can yield, as an adjective, such a term as "everlasting?" If it mean "world," then the adjective should be "worldly," "of the world." And great force and freshness would be gained in our version by always adhering to the one rendering "age."



End quote

[pneuma]

Do scholars translate according to bias? Well many scholars translate aionous to mean without beginning and without end. However can this be substantiated by the scriptures themselves? Well lets take a look.



Scripture testifies that the aions have a beginning.

Hebrews 1:2
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.

The aions were MADE.

1 Corinthians 2:7
7 But we speak the wisdom of God in a mystery, even the hidden wisdom, which God ordained before the world/aion unto our glory:

BEFORE the aion.



2 Timothy 1:9
9 Who hath saved us, and called us with an holy calling, not according to our works, but according to his own purpose and grace, which was given us in Christ Jesus before the world/aionion began,


BEFORE the aionion BEGAN.


Scripture testifies that the aions have an end.

Hebrews 9:26
26 For then must he often have suffered since the foundation of the world: but now once in the end of the world/aion hath he appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself.

The aion ENDS


1 Corinthians 10:11
11 Now all these things happened unto them for ensamples: and they are written for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the world/aion are come.

The aion ENDS


Matthew 24:3
3 And as he sat upon the mount of Olives, the disciples came unto him privately, saying, Tell us, when shall these things be? and what shall be the sign of thy coming, and of the end of the world/aion?


The aion ENDS.


Thus we can see that scripture testifies for itself that the aions have a beginning and end.


But what else do these set of scriptures show us besides stating that the aions have a beginning and an end?

They show us the timeline of the meaning of the usage of the aions and it adjective aionion.

Scholar argue at the time of the writings of the New Testament that aionios (the adjective of aion) meant without beginning and without end (eternal). However what they fail to realise is that the scriptures I quoted above were written at the time of the writing of the New Testament. In other words they are of the timeline of the writings of the New Testament.

Thus not only do the scriptures tell us that aion and its adjective have a beginning and an end so to do those same scriptures show us the timeline ,or meaning of usage, during the time the New Testament was written.

Thus showing us that the scholars who translate aionios as eternal do so according to their own bias.