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“The gospel of love heard from the churches is at bottom a gospel at gunpoint. This gospel claims to speak of a great love, but only one step behind this “love” is an unspoken, or often very vocal great threat – the threat of eternity in “hell” if we refuse this love. What a travesty of love, even human love, not to mention God’s! For one would think that God’s love ought to be at least as great as what human beings are capable of. It is precisely the implied or expressed threat of eternal perdition that compromises the churches’ ‘gospel of love,’ and gives this ‘gospel’ the lie to ordinary people, and is in fact behind by far, most of atheism.
On the other hand, this is not the quality of mercy I see in God. I get the strong feeling of an infinite, unconditional, no-strings-attached love for all people. At the same time this love is all-powerful and sovereign. It is not so flimsy and pitifully weak that it can be finally frustrated or defeated by mere human whim or by meager man’s arrogant illusion called ‘free will.’ ”
Two readers wrote with similar questions about the Greek word aionios as it appears in the Bible. They questioned the translation or definition of the Greek word with the English word “eternal” or “everlasting.”
I understand the meaning of the word aionios (often appearing in genitive plural aionion ) in Greek to carry the connotation of ‘pertaining to the age’ or ‘age enduring.’ The word is a form of the word we have borrowed into English from the Latin transliteration of the Greek as aeon or eon . The problems in interpreting it as the English “eternal” or “everlasting” are several.
Let’s get in focus some working principles of languages, meaning and translation. First of all, a word in one language and the culture it represents does not “mean” a word or the cultural concept it carries in another language.
Usage
Keep in mind that a “definition” is only a summary of how a word has been used. Meanings are all determined by usage. This what makes human speech so creative, dynamic, expressive and flexible. Inadequate assumptions about words, language and meaning can mislead us from the beginning.
So we first need to take a step back to look at the cultural or worldview concept. What we do is look at how we find a word being used. We honor the language and its cultural integrity. We do not assume in language that there is some objective authoritative “meaning” or “definition” that prescribes what a word can or must mean. That is not how language works.
We consider what underlying ideas are carried in words in a particular language. No language is independent of a historical, cultural context and the worldview of the culture using that language.
Thus in the strictest term, a word in Greek does not “mean” in English. Greek words “mean” what the Greek speaker was thinking in the Greek-speaking environment of that era and location. Similarly, today a Greek speaker is not referencing anything in English when he thinks and speaks fluently in his native tongue, or reads his Bible in his native tongue! Greek “means” in “Greek.”
The English speaker/reader must get into that world to determine meaning, then search for the most adequate word or phrase to express that in the English language and cultural-social context.
THE TEACHING OF THE SCRIPTURES about the eons provides answers to frustrating questions concerning the meaning of human existence. God’s purpose in creating man, and God’s purpose of the eons are inseparably related. Many are unfamiliar with this important subject because the facts have been concealed by incorrect and misleading translations of the Bible from the original languages into English.
The eons are the longest periods of time referred to in the Scriptures. Time-wise they are of indefinite duration, but event-wise they are distinctly marked off by great cataclysms which affect the whole earth.
FACTS REVEALED CONCERNING THE EONS=
The eons of the Bible With Concordance, God’s purpose of the eons.
The same God who loves us as we are also loves us to much to leave us as we are.
Perhaps because we tend to hold to ideas about God that reflect our own suppositions and fears, more than God's self-revelation. We reduce God to our own dimensions, ascribing to him our own reactions and responses, especially our own petty and conditional kind of love, and so end up believing in a God cast in our own image and likeness.
But the true God, the living God, is entirely "other":. Precisely from this radical otherness derives the inscrutable and transcendent nature of divine love-- for which our limited human love is but a distant metaphor. God's love is much more than our human love simply multiplied and expanded. God's love for us will ever be mystery; unfathomable, awesome, entirely beyond human expectation.
Precisely because God's love is something "no eyes have seen, nor ear heard nor the heart of man conceived" (1 Cor 2:9), Mother Teresa meditated on it continuously, and encouraged us to do the same, to continue plumbing this mystery more deeply. To this end she invites us: "Try to deepen your understanding of these two words, 'Thirst of God.;
― Joseph Langford
Are our broadest hopes broad enough? Shall there be a nook or abyss, in all the universe of God, finally unlightened by the Cross? Shall there be a sin, or sorrow, or pain unhealed? Is the very universe, is creation in all its extent, a field wide enough for the Son of God?
"That IN the Name of Jesus every knee shall bow and tongue shall confess He is Lord to the glory of God the Father"
Every knee
Every tongue
Every dimension
Heavens & earth & underworld.
"For this reason, God also lifts Him up above (highly exalts Him; elevates Him over) and by grace gives to Him (graces on Him) the Name -- the one over and above every name! -- to the end that within The Name: Jesus! (or: in the name of {or: belonging to} Jesus), EVERY KNEE -- of the men upon the heavens (of those belonging to the super-heavens) and of the men existing upon the earth and of the men dwelling down under the ground (or: pertaining to subterranean ones) -- may bend (should bow) in worship or prayer, and EVERY TONGUE may speak out the same thing (should openly agree, confess and acclaim) that Jesus Christ [is] Lord [= Yahweh?] -- into [the] glory of Father God (or: unto Father God’s reputation)!" J. Mitchell N.T.
The promise of the Lord is to restore all creation back into fellowship with Himself! He has declared this "by Himself."
The slightest variance is total and complete failure! If ta pante does not mean the all, any deviation is failure, total and complete failure!
If the Last Adam does not make the mass of mankind "righteous", the first Adam has succeeded in keeping the polus captive in sin. Again, total failure by the One who declares the same mass/polus made sinners destined to be made righteous. Total and complete failure by the Will of all wills!
"The whole of created life shall be delivered/set free/emancipated..."
Every last fallen son of Adam1 will not only be saved, every last one will be reconciled: every last one!>>>>>>>But there is more>>>>>
"Saved">>>>>>
"Reconciled"
&
"made righteous"
The polus of mankind made sinners in Adam1=
The polus of mankind made righteous in the Last Adam
"That in the name of Jesus every knee should bow ( ina en twi onomati Ihsou pan gonu kampsh ). First aorist active subjunctive of kamptw , old verb, to bend, to bow, in purpose clause with ina . Not perfunctory genuflections whenever the name of Jesus is mentioned, but universal acknowledgment of the majesty and power of Jesus who carries his human name and nature to heaven. This universal homage to Jesus is seen in Romans 8:22 ;Ephesians 1:20-22 and in particular Revelation 5:13 . Under the earth ( katacqoniwn ). Homeric adjective for departed souls, subterranean, simply the dead. Here only in the N.T." -F.W. Robertson Word Pictures
Yup! The radical all have sinned! And, the radical all of sinners is met by the "all the more" remedy, the Last Adam, the Saviour of the radical all, Jesus Christ the Lord.
In Adam1 the polus "made sinners">>>>>>>>
In the Last Adam the identical polus are "made righteous."
“Many do no understand the extent and purpose of God, that He is the propitiation for sins, and not for ours ONLY
BUT
also for the sins of the whole world (1John 4:10).
God is calling us to come up higher into Him and begin to see from His eyes, from His position.
God never loses! He wins all
He said, ‘Pick up the fragments, let nothing be lost.
This is seen from His side of the picture. We do not have a tired and frustrated God unable or unwilling to save His own creation. He will vindicate His own character and nature of love and power. Praise His Name! -Dora Van Essen-
There is a First Birth (physical) and a Second Birth (spiritual) - being BORN AGAIN!).
There is a First Death (physical) and a Second Death (spiritual) - which results in a "New creature in Christ."
The "flesh" cannot be "converted;" it must be "destroyed," disassembled, made new. The "Old man of Sin" must be buried. The carnal (fleshly) mind "is enmity against God; for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be. So then they that are flesh can not please God."
0 8: 7,8
The "flesh" is "destroyed," but the person is not. After all, Jesus said He came "to DESTROY the WORKS of the DEVIL." (1 John 3:8)
We are the Works of Christ. He created us. We are NOT the works of the devil. Only the SIN in our lives is the work of the devil. It is the SIN ONLY that is permanently destroyed. Then we become "A NEW creature in Christ."
Jesus said: "Behold, I make ALL THINGS NEW!!"
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