CONCERNING THE CONFUSION IN THE SUBJECT OF ETERNAL DEATH Everlasting punishment. In speaking of the punishment of the wicked, the New Testament uses the terms everlasting and eternal. These terms translate the Greek word aionios, and apply to God as well as to man. To avoid misunderstanding, one must remember that aionios is a relative term; its meaning is determined by the object it modifies. So when Scripture uses aionios (everlasting, eternal) of God, it does mean that He possesses infinite existence—for God is immortal. But when it uses this word of mortal human beings or perishable things, it means as long as the person lives or the thing exists. Jude 7, for example, says that Sodom and Gomorrah suffered the vengeance of eternal fire. Yet those cities are not burning today. Peter said that that fire turned those cities into ashes, condemning them to destruction (2 Peter 2:6). The eternal fire burned until there was nothing left to burn, and then it went out (see also Jer. 17:27; 2 Chron. 36:19). Similarly, when Christ assigns the wicked to everlasting fire (Matt. 25:41), that fire that will burn up the wicked will be unquenchable (Matt. 3:12). Only when there is nothing left to burn will it go out. When Christ spoke of everlasting punishment (Matt. 25:46) He did not mean everlasting punishing. He meant that as the eternal life [the righteous will enjoy] will continue throughout the ceaseless ages of eternity; and the punishment [the wicked will suffer] will also be eternal—not eternal duration of conscious suffering, however, but punishment that is complete and final. The end of those who thus suffer is the second death. This death will be eternal, from which there will not, and cannot, be any resurrection.16 When the Bible speaks of eternal redemption (Heb. 9:12) and eternal judgment (Heb. 6:2), it is referring to the eternal results of the redemption and the judgment—not to an endless process of redemption and judgment. In the same way, when it speaks of eternal or everlasting punishment, it is speaking of the results and not of the process of that punishment. The death the wicked die will be final and everlasting. Tormented forever and ever. Scriptures use of the expression forever and ever (Rev. 14:11; 19:3; 20:10) has also contributed to the conclusion that the process of punishing Satan and the wicked will go on throughout eternity. But like everlasting, the object it modifies determines the meaning of the word forever. When it is associated with God, its meaning is absolute—for God is immortal; when it is associated with mortal humans, its meaning is limited. Scriptures description of Gods punishment of Edom yields a good example of this usage. Isaiah says that God would turn that country into burning pitch that would not be quenched night or day and that its smoke was to ascend forever. From generation to generation it shall lie waste; no one shall pass through it forever and ever (Isa. 34:9, 10). Edom was destroyed, but it is not still burning.The forever lasted until its destruction was complete. Throughout Scripture it is clear that forever has its limits. The Old Testament says that a slave could serve his master forever (Ex. 21:6), that the child Samuel was to abide in the tabernacle forever (1 Sam. 1:22), and that Jonah thought he would be in the belly of the great fish forever (Jonah 2:6). The New Testament uses this term in a similar way: Paul, for example, counseled Philemon to receive Onesimus forever (Philemon 15). In all these instances forever means as long as the person lives. Psalm 92:7 says that the wicked will be destroyed forever. And prophesying of the great final conflagration, Malachi said, The day is coming, burning like an oven, and all the proud, yes, all who do wickedly will be stubble. And the day which is coming shall burn them up, says the Lord of hosts, that will leave them neither root nor branch (Mal. 4:1). Once the wicked—Satan, evil angels, and impenitent people—are all destroyed by fire, both root and branch, there will be no further use for death or hades (see chapter 25 of this book). These also God will eternally destroy (Rev. 20:14). So the Bible makes it very clear that the punishment, not the punishing, is everlasting—is the second death. From this punishment there is no resurrection; its effects are eternal. Archbishop William Temple was right when he asserted, One thing we can say with confidence: Everlasting torment is to be ruled out. If men had not imported the Greek and unbiblical notion of the natural indestructibility of the individual soul, and then read the New Testament with that already in their minds, they would have drawn from it [the New Testament] a belief, not in everlasting torment, but in annihilation. It is the fire that is called aeonian [everlasting], not the life cast into it. The full penalty of Gods law having been executed, the demands of justice are satisfied. Now heaven and earth proclaim the righteousness of the Lord. source: sdanet.org/atissue/books/27/27-26.htm
Posted on: Fri, 19 Sep 2014 10:07:27 +0000
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