Paul writes of this plan of the ages in Eph. 3:8-11.
"Unto me, who am less than the least of all saints, is this grace given,
that I should preach among the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ; and
make all to see what is the fellowship of the mystery, which from the
beginning of the world has been hid in God, who created all things by Jesus
Christ: to the intent that now unto the principalities and powers in heavenly
places might be known by the Church the manifold wisdom of God, according to
the eternal purpose which He purposed in Christ Jesus our Lord." The word
translated "eternal" in the phrase "eternal purpose" is
the Greek word AIONON which means "ages." Young's Literal
Translation reads, "And to cause all to see what is the fellowship of the
secret that has been hid FROM THE AGES in God, who the all things did create
by Jesus Christ, that there might be made known now to the principalities and
authorities in the heavenly places, through the assembly, the manifold wisdom
of God, according to A PURPOSE OF THE AGES, which He made in Christ Jesus our
Lord." The Diaglott renders verse 11 thus, "According to A PLAN OF
THE AGES, which He formed for the Anointed Jesus our Lord," and Rotherham
says, "According to A PLAN OF THE AGES which He made in the anointed
Jesus our Lord. "
It will be a wonderful day for you, dear one, when first
your soul becomes enthralled with the revelation that God, before ever the
world began or ever the ages were formed, looked forth from His temple of
wisdom and omnipotence to chart with resolute care the course and purpose of
every age. Your heart will throb as you read the opening proclamation of
Scripture, "In the beginning - GOD! " In the beginning of
what? Not in the beginning of God, certainly, but in the beginning of His
creation of all things, in the beginning of time, in the beginning of the
orderly procession of the divinely destined ages. In the beginning stands God,
omnipotent and omniscient, creating, sustaining and guiding all things and all
people and all the ages of time according to the purpose of His own will. No
purpose ordained by God from the beginning can possibly go astray or be
hindered by the efforts of devil or man. Oh, for the hour when all creation
will grasp the beautiful message, "From Him everything comes, by Him
everything exists, and in Him everything ends!" (Rom. 11:36).
As men with the aid of God's Word have gazed into the vista
of the future, it seems to have missed their understanding that God says very
little in His Word about eternity, while devoting many hundreds of passages to
His will and works wrought through THE AGES. "God, who at sundry times
and in divers manners spoke in time past unto the fathers by the
prophets, has in these last days spoken unto us by His Son, whom He has
appointed heir of all things, by whom also He made the worlds"
(Heb. 1:1-2). What tremendous statements we have here! God has spoken to us
through His Son - literally, "spoke to us in Son," or, God
spoke to us in One who has the character that He is a SON, revealing the realm
and relationship of sonship to God. This Son is heir of all things and,
blessed be God! we are joint heirs with Him. "By whom also He made the
worlds. Many people believe this refers to the creative act - "In the
beginning God created the heavens and the earth." Actually, it does not
refer to that at all. The word here for "worlds" is AIONAS. It means
ages- "... by whom He made the ages." This goes beyond His
being the Creator of matter and its arrangement into multiplied billions of
stars, suns, and planets with their atmospheres and inhabitants. This lends
purpose to everything. He is the heir who GIVES THE PROGRAM FOR THE FUTURE! He
framed the ages, He ordained the end from the beginning; not only did He
create everything, He did it for a purpose, and "known unto God are all
His works from the beginning of the world" (Acts 15:18). Notice - the
Amplified Bible says, "But in the last of these days He has spoken to us
in the person of a Son, Whom He appointed Heir and lawful Owner of all things,
also by and through Whom He created the worlds and the reaches of space and
the AGES OF TIME - that is, He made, produced, built, operated and arranged
them in order! " "Through faith we understand that the worlds were
framed by the word of God." (Heb. 11:3), but it should read, "the
ages were planned by the word of God."
God made, planned, and determined the destiny of all the
ages by Jesus Christ. The Lord Jesus Christ is the Creator of this universe,
and time and space, and there is purpose to it all. Abroad today is the
idiotic notion that the universe is running at breakneck speed through time
and space like a car that has lost the driver. The interesting thing is that
when a car loses the driver there is a wreck, but this universe, even
according to the scientists, has been running millions of years, and it has
been doing pretty well, by the way. The sun comes up at a certain time every
morning; it is very precise. The moon stays in a predictable orbit. As one of
the men who works on the moon modules says, all they have to do is aim, and
the moon will be there when the module gets there. This is not a mad universe
in which you and I live. It has purpose, and the Lord Jesus Christ is the One
who gives it purpose. HE is the architect and sovereign Lord of the ages. He
FORMED THE AGES and appointed what should be done in each of them. I must,
therefore, with utmost force impress upon all who read these lines that, if we
are to comprehend God's great plan for the ages, we must raise our eyes far
above the engulfing muck and sucking quicksand of Babylonish Church tradition
handed down to us by the mother of harlots and abominations of the earth to
keep God's people in bondage to eternal hopelessness. God has a plan of the
ages! It was conceived by the omnipotent and omniscient Christ of God, the
Creator and Redeemer of the world. Its successful conclusion is as sure and
unfailing as God Himself is sure and unfailing. God never "flits"
from one thing to another. He does not begin one work and then tiring of it,
drop it and start another. He does not create what He cannot control. He is
not the proverbial mad scientist who creates an UNCONTROLLABLE monster. The
prophet Isaiah gives us the words of God wherein God declares, "I am God,
and there is none else; I am God, and there is none like Me, declaring the end
from the beginning, and from ancient times the things that are not yet done,
saying, My counsel shall stand, and I will do all my pleasure" (Isa.
46:9-10). God's purpose is so unalterable, so fixed, so certain that He could
declare from the very beginning just what the end would be, and that end will
come to pass in just exactly that way.
For many years now multitudes of preachers and
people in the Churches would have us believe that God has been in this great
work of the ages for the short period of about 6,000 years. They tell us that
in this day God is about to become so disgusted with the whole mess that He is
going to close it down, take a few saints away to some far off heaven
somewhere, and give up on the rest of the creation, the work of His love. What
a WEAK God some folk have and worship! They worship a God who CHANGES, one who
in the beginning did start out to bring about a glorious end, but somewhere
along the line lost control of the situation and has now thrown up His hands
in despair and decided to destroy the whole thing and be satisfied with a
little handful for Himself for all eternity. What great pity I feel for such
people and for the god they serve! For this is going to put their god in the
unenviable position of being filled with regret throughout all eternity
because He was not able to carry out His purpose, and He will have to always
remember that over in the hell He created is the vast majority of His creation
suffering the tortures of the damned for ever and ever. What a prospect for
God and His creation! If God knew in the beginning that it would turn out like
this and included eternal damnation in His creative plans, then why did He
create the world in the first place? Better to have forgotten the whole
creation in the beginning! And if God DID NOT know this from the beginning,
THEN HE IS NOT GOD.
"AION"
- AN AGE
This brings us to the thought I want to share in this
chapter. Let us consider the wonderful Kingdom parable Jesus told of the sheep
and the goats. "When the Son of man shall come in His glory, and all the
holy angels with Him, then shall He sit upon the throne of His glory: and
before Him shall be gathered all nations: and He shall separate them one from
another, as a shepherd divideth his sheep from the goats: and He shall set the
sheep on His right hand, but the goats on the left. Then shall the King say
unto them on His right hand, Come, blessed of My Father, inherit
the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world: for I was
hungry, and you gave Me meat: I was thirsty, and you gave Me drink: I was a
stranger, and you took Me in: naked, and you clothed Me: I was sick, and you
visited Me: I was in prison, and you came unto Me. Then shall the righteous
answer Him, saying, Lord, when did we see You hungry, and fed You? or thirsty,
and gave You drink? When did we see You a stranger, and take You in? or naked,
and clothe You? Or when did we see You sick, or in prison, and come unto You?
And the King shall answer and say unto them, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch
as you have done it unto the least of one of these MY BROTHERS, you have done
it unto Me. Then shall He say also unto them on the left hand, Depart from Me,
you cursed, into EVERLASTING FIRE prepared for the devil and his angels: for I
was hungry, and you gave Me no meat ... then shall they also answer Him,
saying, Lord, when did we see You hungry, or thirsty, or a stranger, or naked,
or sick, or in prison, and did not minister unto You? Then shall He answer
them, saying, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as you did it not unto one of
the least of these, you did it not unto Me. And these shall go away into
EVERLASTING PUNISHMENT: but the righteous into LIFE ETERNAL" (Mat.
25:31-46).
There are many precious and important truths contained in
this parable, but we must restrain ourselves from pursuing them at this time
in order to deal briefly with two points. First, it is important to note that
this separation of the sheep from the goats was brought about, not on the
basis of whether one had accepted Jesus Christ as his personal saviour, but
solely on the basis of WORKS. Everything depended entirely upon what the sheep
or goats had DONE or had NOT DONE. There was nothing of faith or a spiritual
experience connected with this separation. The sheep were set on God's right
hand because of the fact that they had done something - given meat and drink
to the LORD'S BRETHREN, clothed them, visited them, and comforted them. All
these things the Lord said they had DONE TO HIM. But the sheep confessed that
they had never seen Him, so how could they have done these things to the Lord?
He answered, "Inasmuch as you have done it to the least of THESE MY
BRETHREN, you have done it unto Me." All of this is a kind of ministry
unto the Lord Himself and it brought all these people into a separation unto
blessings of the right hand of God! This had nothing whatever to do with how
the sheep treated the Jews, or the orphans in foreign lands, or the destitute
masses or the poor drunk in the gutter. None of those are the Lord's brethren!
Paul identifies the Lord's brethren in Rom. 8:29, "For whom He did
foreknow, He also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of His Son,
that He might be the firstborn among many brethren." The Lord's
brethren are the sons of God, the members of His body, of His flesh, of His
bone, of His spirit and nature. The sheep had responded in a positive way to
these brethren in their time of testing and preparation during their sojourn
in the flesh, and now there is rich reward!
This meant an entrance into a kingdom prepared for them from
the foundation of the world. This kingdom was not to be some far-off land of
ivory palaces, golden streets, beautiful mansions, white nightgowns, wings and
harps, where there is nothing to do and all eternity to do it in. THIS IS A
KINGDOM. And because it is a kingdom it denotes rulership and advancement of
all kinds. It indicates the bringing of a great many people into a higher
realm in the Spirit than they have ever known before. It means WORK and
RESPONSIBILITY and a place of ministry and authority to bless.
But the people who had never done all these things mentioned
by the Lord were separated unto the left hand of God! They received no
kingdom. There were no rewards for work done or attainments reached. Rather,
they were set on the dark side of God, they were put under a kingdom and under
authority and they were placed in a process of fiery judgment to receive
correction. There is much subtle truth in these words of Jesus: "These
shall go away into everlasting punishment." The word punishment is from
the Greek KOLASIS which means simply that - punishment. But it comes from the
root KOLAZO which sheds precious light upon the nature of the punishment.
KOLAZO, according to Strong's Concordance, bears only two shades of meaning,
namely, "to curtail" or "to chastise." To
"curtail" means to restrain as a person is restrained in ail or a
child is restrained when he is "grounded" for a week because of some
disobedience. "Chastise" has one simple meaning according to
Webster's New World Dictionary: to punish in order to correct, usually
by beating. It should be clear to any thoughtful mind that the subject here is
not meaningless, sadistic, unending torture, but PURPOSEFUL CORRECTION.
While the King James version states that these goats go into
everlasting fire and everlasting punishment and the sheep enter
into life eternal, that is not quite the meaning of the Greek. The
Greek word here translated everlasting and eternal is AIONIOS and AIONIOS is
the adjective form of the Greek noun AION. Some have arrogantly
contended that the punishment must be everlasting because the same word is
used of the life of God - eternal life - and if the punishment is not
eternal then the life cannot be eternal. But that is an argument put forth by
the ignorant, the result of the shallow reasoning of men who reach hasty
conclusions not founded on the facts. "If the punishment ends then God's
life must end, if the life is eternal then the punishment must be
eternal," we are told!
In late years there has been much controversy over the
meaning of the little Greek word AION. Certain deceivers, to further their
unscrupulous ends and uphold their blasphemous and Romanish doctrine of
eternal damnation, have maintained, contrary to and in spite of all revealed
facts, that it means eternal. And our King James version renders it,
together with the adjective AIONIOS as "age, course, eternal, for ever,
evermore, for ever and ever, everlasting, world, beginning of the world, world
began, world without end." What a horrible mixture!
But we need not remain in darkness, for fortunately the Word
of God tells us precisely what this Greek word means. Too few have taken the
time or energy to consider the real meaning of AION. It is the word from which
we get our English word eon. Eon, according to Webster, means
"a long period of TIME." Many attempts have been made to prove that
eons are eternal. But this is more than a grave error, it is the height of
stupidity, for the divine Author of the blessed Bible has not Himself used
them in that way. AION nowhere means eternal! Its simple meaning is an age.
In its plural form it means ages. This fact can be unquestionably and
incontrovertibly demonstrated from numerous New Testament passages. A glance
at any Greek concordance proves that the noun AION, or AGE, is not the synonym
of eternity. A study of each case would make a library; so, leaving this task
to the reader, we must content ourselves with adducing a few specimens to
demonstrate the fact. It is usage that determines meanings - THEIR usage, not
ours; the meanings that the holy prophets and apostles gave to their words
rather than those that our English translators may try to give. Let me
illustrate.
The term forever (and its equivalents, eternal and
everlasting) often occurs when it cannot possibly mean unending. In the story
of Jonah one is surprised to hear him say while in the belly of the fish,
"I went down to the bottoms of the mountains; the earth with her bars was
about me for ever" (Jon. 2:6). But he was in the fish only three
days and three nights! When a Hebrew slave loved his master and did not wish
to go free at the end of the seventh year, we read, "... His master shall
bore his ear through with an awl; and he shall serve him for ever"
(Ex. 21:6). Of course, that couldn't be longer than his life span. Again, when
Solomon built the temple unto the Lord, he began his prayer of dedication with
the statement, "I have surely built You a house to dwell in, a settled
place for You to abide in for ever" (I Kgs. 8:13). And the Lord
answered Solomon, "I have heard your prayer and supplication that you
have made before Me: I have hallowed this house, which you have built, to put
My name there for ever" (I Kgs. 9:3). But Solomon's temple lasted for
only about 400 years! And it was never in God's mind to dwell there for
ever!
Here is something that ought to be clear to any intelligent,
honest man. A word that is used to mean in one case three days and nights, in
another case to mean a man's lifetime, and in still another case to mean a
period of about four centuries, surely does not mean unending or eternal, no
matter what English word is used to translate it. USAGE DETERMINES MEANING.
Another illustration is the Aaronic priesthood. According to the King James
version, Aaron and his sons were anointed as priests for ever. It says,
"Their anointing shall surely be an everlasting priesthood throughout
their generations" (Ex. 40:15). Yet we read in Heb. 7:11-18 that the
Aaronic priesthood is CHANGED to that of Melchizedek. "Now if perfection
had been attainable by the Levitical priesthood, for under it the people were
given the Law, why was it further necessary that there should arise another
and different kind of Priest, one after the order of Melchizedek, rather than
one appointed after the order of Aaron? For when there is a CHANGE IN THE
PRIESTHOOD, there is of necessity an alteration of the law concerning the
priesthood as well. For it is obvious that our Lord sprang from the tribe of
Judah, and Moses mentioned nothing about priests in connection with that
tribe. So, a previous physical regulation and command is CANCELLED because of
its weakness and ineffectiveness and uselessness" (Amplified Bible).
Amazing, isn't it, that the priesthood which was ordained for ever has
been CANCELLED! There would be no contradiction if the statement in Exodus
were translated as it should be, "to the age throughout their
generations." That is, throughout their generations AS LONG AS THAT AGE
LASTED. In the Septuagint, the Greek translation of the Hebrew Scriptures
which Jesus and His disciples used, the Greek word AION was the word used for
the Hebrew OLAM. According to Hebrew and Greek usage, therefore, these words
mean a period of time, a period of unknown length, the duration of which is
determined by the fact or condition or person to which the term is applied.
Furthermore, Lev. 24:8 states that the covenant given to
Israel was an "everlasting covenant." Yet, it was conditional
and based on Israel's obedience (Ex. 19:5-6). And the inspired writer of the
book of Hebrews declares, "For if that first covenant had been faultless,
then should no place have been sought for the second. For finding fault with
them, He says, Behold, the days come, says the Lord, when I will make a NEW
COVENANT with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah... in that He
says, A new covenant, He has made the first old. Now that which decays and
waxes old is ready to VANISH AWAY" (Heb. 8:7 8, 13). Ah, did you notice?
The everlasting covenant has been DONE AWAY! What a wonder, that! We
are told that the "earth abides forever" (Eccl. 1:4), but
Jesus said, "Heaven and earth shall pass away.. (Mat. 24:35).
The Lord announced through the prophet Isaiah, "Upon
the land of My people shall come up thorns and briers; yea upon all the houses
of joy in the joyous city: for the palace shall be forsaken; the populous city
shall be deserted; the hill and the watch-tower shall be dens for ever;
a joy of wild asses, a pasture for flocks; UNTIL the Spirit be poured upon us
from on high, and the WILDERNESS BECOME a fruitful field, and the fruitful
field be counted for a forest" (Isa. 32:13-15). Verse 15 limits the use
of the word in verse 14, for the desolations of the land are "for
ever" only UNTIL the Spirit is poured out from on high bringing glorious
RESTORATION!
As regards animal sacrifices, dietary laws, ceremonial
observances and sabbaths, each was to be "observed as a statute for
ever" (Ex. 31:16-17; II Chron. 2:4; Lev. 16:31). But the New
Testament clearly shows that these were, one and all, but "carnal
ordinances imposed UNTIL the time of reformation" (Heb. 9:10). It is
clear - if "for ever" really meant ETERNAL - we would still
be offering sheep, bullocks, and goats as sacrifices to God! But - more
startling still - the idea of endlessness does not adhere even to the reign of
Christ. Heb. 1:8 says, "But unto the Son He says, Your throne, O God, is for
ever and ever..." Now turning to another Scripture bearing on the
same subject, we obtain additional light on this subject. "Then comes the
end, when He shall have delivered up the kingdom to God, even the Father; when
He shall have put down all rule and all authority and power. For He must reign
TILL He has put all enemies under His feet. And when all things shall be
subdued unto Him, THEN SHALL THE SON ALSO HIMSELF BE SUBJECT UNTO HIM that put
all things under Him, that God may be all in all" (I Cor. 15:24-25,28).
The Kingdom of the Son will have a conclusion. In some remote time the Son
delivers up the Kingdom to the Father, the Kingdom continues no longer in the
rule of Sonship, but in the rule of Fatherhood, that God may be known no
longer in and through the Son and the Sons, but transcendentally as ALL IN
ALL!
Dear reader, it is high time to stop acting the fool. It is
high time to cease from exalting ourselves and our ignorant imaginings above
the knowledge of God. It is high time to bow in humble submission to His Word
and cease our own blasphemous and ignorant pratings. It is high time for a lot
of people to curb their wagging tongues and do some listening for a change, if
perchance they might at length learn something worth talking about. The Hebrew
word OLAM and its Greek equivalent, AION, mean a limited time, an age, and
their plural means ages. No one who is sane and reasonable can maintain
otherwise. To do so is to contradict all known facts and to contradict God's
own Word. That is precisely what all the "eternal damnation" people
are guilty of. God be merciful to them!
Let us look at how the word AION is used in a number of
passages. About 37 times in the New Testament it is rendered
"world," twice as "worlds," twice as "ages," and
once as "course." Every place where the word "eternal"
appears, with but one exception, it is a translation of this word AION or its
adjective form AIONIOS. Twice it is rendered "evermore." Ever place
where the word "everlasting" appears, but one, it is this same word
or its adjective form. With but thirteen exceptions, every place where the
word "ever" appears it is the same word or its adjective form. And
aside from all this confusion, the word also appears in the plural, and in a
number of confusing combinations, such as "the aion of the aion,"
"the aion of the aions," and "the aions of the aions,"
etc.
Some of the passages where AION is found will give us added
information concerning it. In Eph. 2:7 we find, "in the ages (aions) to
come." In Col. 1:26 we find, "the mystery which has been hid from
ages (aions). " In Eph. 2:2 we find "you walked, according to the
course aion of this world." In Heb. 1:2 we find, "by whom also He
made the worlds (aions)." In Heb. 11:3 we find, "the worlds (aions)
were formed by the Word of God." In about fifteen instances, such as Mat.
12:32, 1 Cor. 1:20, etc., we find it rendered "this world (aion). "
Twice we find "this present world (aion). " In Gal. 1:4 we find,
"deliver us from this present evil world (aion)." In Eph. 6:12 we
find, "the rulers of the darkness of this world (aion)." In 11 Cor.
4:4 we find, "the god of this world (aion)." In I Cor. 2:6 we find,
"the wisdom of this world (aion)." In Lk. 16:8 we find, "the
children of this world (aion)." In Mk. 4:19 we find, "the cares of
this world (aion)." How much more understandable it would be if the
translators had used the word age instead of world!
In Mk. 10:30 we find that there is not only this present
aion, which is evil, but also "the world (aion) to come." In Lk.
20:35 we find, "but they that shall be accounted worthy to obtain that
world (aion), and the resurrection from the dead, neither marry nor are given
in marriage." In Heb. 6:5 we find, "and have tasted the powers of
the world (aion) to come." And in Lk. 1:70, Jn. 9:32, etc., we find that
the aion had a beginning: "since the world (aion) began."
And now in reviewing the Scriptures we have just quoted we
note that this aion is something which has a king; it has princes; it is in
darkness; it had a beginning; it has an ending; it is evil; it has wisdom; it
has children who marry; it has cares. The aions we find were made by Christ,
simply through His spoken Word, and we also find in Col. 1:26 that the mystery
of Christ in us, the hope of glory, has been hidden from these aions.
Now, if AION means ETERNAL, consider how ridiculous the Word
of God would be! The Holy Spirit would be found saying, "the mystery
which has been hid from eternities;" "the mystery of Christ which in
other eternities was not made known;" "in the eternities to
come;" "You walked according to the eternity of this world;"
"by whom also He made the eternities;" "the rulers of the
darkness of this eternity;" "now once in the end of the eternities
has He appeared;" "the harvest is the end of the eternity;"
"since eternity began;" "in the eternities to come," etc.
etc. Let the scholars whose business it is delve into the many intricacies of
expression, and worry over the many grammatical combinations. Suffice it to
say here that there have been "aions" in the past, there is this
present "aion," and there are "aions" to come. And these
all combined make up TIME, encompassing the whole of the progressive plan and
program of God for the development of His creation.
Any thinking person should clearly see that if
you translate the word AION which means an age by the word eternal,
which has nothing to do with time, you immediately get the wrong idea. The
same thing applies when the word AION is translated by the word world.
It is incorrect and brings nothing but confusion. That is why so many
Christians have been worrying about "the end of the world" when they
should have been understanding God's special dealing here at "the end of
the age." There is a great deal of difference between the expression,
"He shall be tormented day and night for ever and ever," and the
expression, "He shall be tormented day and night unto the ages of the
ages." For ever and ever has no end. The ages of the ages do have an end,
and their end will see every knee bowing and every tongue confessing that
Jesus Christ is the Lord to the glory of God the Father. (Phil. 2:10;
Rom. 14:10-11). The first expression forbodes complete hopelessness for
billions and makes the faith of God of none effect. The second
expression, which is completely correct, not only offers hope but expresses
the ultimate fulfillment of the purpose which was purposed in Christ Jesus before
the world began or before the ages were framed.
THE
AGES OF THE AGES
The best way to arrive at the true meaning of a word is to
study carefully the way it has been used. If we are to study a Greek word, we
must go to the Greek text and not to a translation, nor to a definition which
has been derived from an interpretative translation. If, in the original text,
the word appears in different forms, surely these forms must have some special
significance. A singular form cannot have the same meaning as the plural.
Since both forms are used they should be distinguished when they are
translated. Yet in certain places the singular form is translated by exactly
the same words as the plural form and thereby the true import of the words is
hidden. For example, compare the following passages: Heb. 1:8 Your throne, O
God, is forever and ever (Gr: for the aion of the aion); Rev. 1:6 To Him be
glory ... for ever and ever (Gr: for the aions of the aions); Eph. 3:21 Unto
all generations for ever and ever (Gr: for the aion of the aions). In I Cor.
10:11 we have the expression, "The ends of the aions." In Heb. 9:26
we have "The end of the aions." How can a period that is definitely
said to come to an end be endless? How can a group of such periods,
each said to come to an end, be forever?
I am aware that some people will oppose us on the grounds
that the Greeks of today use the phrase "the aions of the aions"
meaning eternal, everlasting. A Greek gentleman told me several years ago that
"the ages of the ages" is how they express eternity in Greek, and
that when the book of Revelation says "and the smoke of their torment
ascends up to the ages of the ages" (Rev. 14:11) it means FOREVER. Ah,
that sounds convincing, conclusive, final and unanswerable, does it not? But
precious friend of mine, in studying Bible language we are studying ANCIENT
GREEK, not MODERN. The Greek language in two thousand years has changed to
such an extent that the ancient tongue is altogether unintelligible to a
modern Greek. The fact is, for over a thousand years, up till the year A.D.
1453, Greek was almost unknown or forgotten in most of Europe. Even in Italy,
which formerly had been dominated by Greek, it became almost unknown. Ancient
Greek has been a dead language for 1500 years! Anyone who knows anything at
all will at once see the utter ridiculousness of this form of argument.
Ancient and modern Greek are as different as day and night. As well might we
teach our children the English of 2,000 years ago, and then expect them to be
proficient in modern English, as to try to apply modern meanings to ancient
Greek. The older the English, the more unintelligible it becomes. The spelling
changes, word meanings change, sentence structure changes, until finally one
is hopelessly lost in a morass of indecipherable hieroglyphics. Even in the
four centuries since the translation of the King James Bible, what changes
have taken placer "Thee" and "thou" have been replaced by
the more familiar "you" and are no longer used except in classical
literature and religion. "Let" meant to "restrain or
prevent" in King James' day; now the word means exactly the opposite, to
"permit or allow"! So with Greek. Ancient Greek is a dead language,
while modern Greek is a living language, with about as much similarity as
there is between German and English.
It was the false doctrines of the apostate Greek Orthodox
Church that caused the meaning eternal to be placed upon the modern
Greek phrase "the ages of the ages." And don't think for one moment,
dear friend, that religion doesn't influence language! The English word
"hell" once meant "a dark hidden place" but Church dogma
has through the years caused the word to take on an altogether different
connotation. Word meanings do change! And religious dogma has effected
many such changes!
So usage is the fundamental key to unlocking the
meanings of ancient Greek words. That the expression "the ages of the
ages" cannot mean an endless succession of ages, or eternity, is clearly
revealed by comparing Rev. 11:15 with I Cor. 15:24-28. In Rev. 11:15 our Lord
is said, in the Greek text, to reign "for the ages of the ages" but
in I Cor. 15 His reign is said to end. He does not reign "for ever and
ever" though He does reign "for the ages of the ages." As the
Son, God reigns unto the ages of the ages through a process of subjecting,
subduing all things unto Himself. When that work is completed and there is
nothing more in all God's vast universe to subdue and reconcile unto Himself,
God reigns no longer as the Son, but as Father He shall finally and eternally
be ALL IN ALL.
Endlessness is expressed in the Scriptures by the simple
phrase "no end" (Lk. 1:33; Dan. 7:14; Isa. 9:7). The thought of
permanence is also expressed in Heb. 7:16, "the power of an endless
(or indissoluble) life," and in I Pet. 1:4, "an inheritance incorruptible,
and undefiled, and that fades not away." Now had the Holy Spirit
wished to indicate true unendingness or true eternity as the time issue in the
punishment and suffering of the lost, He could have used the word that He used
in Rom. 1:20 to describe God's "eternal power and Godhead, "
literally God's "perpetual" or "imperceptable" power and
Godhead, one being unable to see to the end of it! You see, had the Holy
Spirit wanted to convey unendingness in reference to the punishment of the
enemies of God, He could have used words that plainly denoted that, rather
than the words "to the age...... to the ages," "to the age of
the ages "to the ages of the ages, " etc., all which plainly denote
SPANS OF TIME.
"The same shall drink of the wine of the wrath of God,
which is poured out without mixture into the cup of His indignation; and he
shall be tormented with fire and brimstone in the presence of the holy angels,
and in the presence of the Lamb: and the smoke of their torment ascends up for
ever and ever (to the ages of the ages): and they have no rest DAY NOR NIGHT,
who worship the beast..." (Rev. 14:10-11). Notice, dear reader, that
these are tormented DAY AND NIGHT unto the ages of the ages and have no rest
DAY NOR NIGHT. The very terms day and night and for ever and ever
prove beyond question that we are still dealing with the realm of time. The
expression for ever and ever is misleading and throws us into confusion, for,
while on one hand eternity is indicated, on the other hand time is indicated
by the use of the words day and night. There is no day nor night in
eternity! Both are creatures of time. There is no way of knowing how long a
time this will be, but since it unquestionably deals with day and night and
ages, it does therefore belong to time and no endeavor must be made to equate
it with eternity. These words are solemn and awful, and we have no desire but
to acknowledge both the wicked deeds and the dreadful and fearful doom of
those who are so justly condemned. I have no desire to spend even one day
under the terrible hand of God's severity! But to refer to these words as
bespeaking eternal, endless, hopeless, and merciless torture is to invite the
fearful curse of those who "add to the words of this book" (Rev.
22:18).
Once we understand that AION and all the compounds of that
word denote TIME, how clear everything becomes! And how ridiculous the
ignorant pratings of men! In an effort to harmonize the Scriptures with the
false doctrines of the apostate Church, the translators rendered "the
ages of the ages" as "for ever and ever." This one little
mistake once and for all exposes their folly. Even in English we can see that
"for ever" cannot be endless if "and ever" may be
added to it. Eternity cannot be added to! Only time may be compounded.
Eternity is absolute timelessness. Eternity is without either beginning or
end. There cannot be more than one eternity. You cannot add a second eternity
on to a first eternity. Forever in English means "for eternity;
always; perpetually; endlessly." Now if "for ever" is
"eternity" how can you add "and ever," attaching
ANOTHER ETERNITY to an already existing eternity? That isn't even correct
English grammar! Ah - but ages are time and time, beloved, can be added
to! When the Greek speaks of "the ages of the ages" it is speaking
of AGGREGATED PERIODS OF TIME - not eternity! And you cannot get eternity by
compounding all the time periods of the past and the future, for time began
and time ends. The ages and all the time and times combined do not
equal eternity. There simply is no such thing as "the endless ages of
eternity" as the preachers love to say, for the phrase is a complete
contradiction of itself. No one who is sane and reasonable can maintain
otherwise. To do so is to contradict all known facts and to contradict God's
own Word.
No other book that was ever written can be compared to the
Bible, which is the Word of God. I am a believer in the verbal inspiration of
the Scriptures, and I am not a believer in the folly of uninformed and
unenlightened men who by ignorance of the facts and misinformation try with
puny human reasoning to tear it apart. There are a great many people who
forget their scholarship, however, if ever they had any, and contend for the
King James version even when it is manifestly wrong. One thing I should like
to say in passing is, that while the Bible is inspired in its origin, you have
to be exceedingly careful of two things: FIRST, THAT YOU HAVE THE ORIGINAL
MANUSCRIPT; AND THE SECOND, THAT YOU HAVE A GOOD TRANSLATION. Original
manuscripts are inspired, but translations are not. To hear some people talk
you would think that the good old King James Bible was the one Paul preached
from!
It is interesting to note that the word "Easter"
appears one time in the King James version in Acts 12:4. "And when he had
apprehended him, he put him in prison, and delivered him to four quaternions
of soldiers to keep him; intending after Easter to bring him forth to
the people." Here Easter is translated from the Greek PASCHA which
appears twenty-eight other places in the New Testament, and in all of those
instances is translated "Passover." The Greek PASCHA comes from the
Hebrew PASACH which means to pass, to leap, or skip over. We see from this
that the English word "Passover" is the correct meaning of the
original. How then did the translators of the King James version come up with
Easter? Easter, according to Webster's New World Dictionary, is from "Eastre,"
the ancient Anglo Saxon GODDESS OF THE DAWN - her festival being in the spring
of the year. And "Eastre" is the Anglo Saxon form of the Babylonian
goddess "Ishtar" the pagan Queen of Heaven! Hundreds of years after
Christ the Romish Church, as a compromise with the pagan converts, adopted the
pagan rites and customs associated with the worship of Ishtar into the Church
as a celebration of the resurrection of Christ - and called that celebration
EASTER! Naturally, Easter is celebrated at approximately the same time as
ancient Israel celebrated their Passover. But the point is - because of deeply
entrenched apostate religious practice, the translators of the King James
Bible mis-translated the Scripture according to CHURCH TRADITION instead of
TRUTH! We must never forget that the King James version was translated under
the auspices of a STATE CHURCH, which Church was even at that time
persecuting, torturing and martyring humble followers of Jesus who dared to
resist and denounce its apostasy and shame.
It lets in light on the attitude of the translators of King
James' Bible to know, as stated in the Bible helps of Bagster's edition, that
King James instructed the men who gave us our Authorized Version, "To
sanction no innovation that would disturb the orthodoxy or peace of the
Church." It is said that, "The translators were careful in the main
to respect the rules laid down by the king." What a vast difference it
would have made in our thinking today had these translators followed
consistently and accurately the Hebrew and Greek texts, instead of conforming
to the heresies of the mother of harlots! Especially where
"eternity" THE AGE OF THE AGES and the "ages" are
concerned!
Thus, the translators were at the disadvantage
of never being able to say or write anything that conflicted with the accepted
belief of the While the Scriptures speak of an age, and the ages, and the ages
of nominal Church, its leaders or the ruling element of the nation. In support
of this I would give you a quotation from page seven of the Emphatic Diaglott
as follows, concerning the King James version: according to Dr. Gell, it was
wrested and partial, and only adapted to one sect; but he imputes this, not to
the translators, but to those who employed them, for even some of the
translators complained that they could not follow their own judgment in the
matter, but were restrained by reasons of State." Little wonder, then,
that we have eternal damnation taught in the King James Bible!
(For
more on the King James Version and 'aion', see link below)
THE
AGE OF THE AGES
While the Scriptures speak of an age, and the ages, and the
ages of the ages, - one age proceeding from, or out of, a previous age until
all the ages have run their courses - it also points to that glorious climatic
age of all ages. We read the phrase, "Your throne, O God, is for ever and
ever" (Heb. 1:8). These words "for ever and ever" come from the
Greek which literally reads TO THE AGE OF THE AGES. This is very familiar
terminology in the Scripture.
Few men have been caught away by the spirit of
inspiration as was the wise king Solomon when he penned the beautiful Song of
Solomon. God dropped one thousand and five songs down into the heart of
Solomon, but of these, only five comprising the Song of Solomon, have been
preserved and have found a place in Holy Scripture. Inspiration named it
"The Song of Songs," that is, the one song which was above and
beyond all the songs that have ever come from human heart and human lips. Just
as the "Song of Songs" was chief above them all, just as the
"Holy of holies" was the Holiest place of all, just as the
"heaven of the heavens" is the highest heaven of all, just as
the "King of kings" is the greatest King of all, so all
through the Scriptures, though obscured by many translators, we have this
remarkable phrase TO THE AGE OF THE AGES. It points to that age which shall be
the most glorious of all, and which finds its type in the year of Jubilee.
This is the Holy Spirit's way of expressing the superlative, and so far as
God's plan of the ages is concerned this AGE OF THE AGES is THE AGE PAR
EXCELLENCE of them all. A simple illustration of this is our expression,
"a day of days," meaning a day that comes out of previous days,
which crowns them, and embodies not only what they contained, but the full
fruition of all that was elementary in them. Eternity does not emerge full
grown in man's consciousness until this wonderful age is ended. This AGE OF
THE AGES is that glorious climax to His purpose and process of the ages,
wherein He states, "Behold, I make ALL things new" (Rev. 21:5). And
when He says, "ALL," it is self-evident that there is nothing
remaining in the universe which shall not be made new, else all is not all.
"For He must reign until He has put ALL enemies under His feet. The last
enemy that shall be destroyed is death" (I Cor. 15:25-26). When the last
enemy is under His feet, destroyed, and there is no more death in any creature
anywhere in all God's great universe, then shall God be all in all! The
Amplified gives, "Be everything to everyone." Time comes to an end
when the ages end and eternity, with God "all in all," becomes a
conscious reality.
"AIONIOS"
- THE LIFE OF THE AGES
I have pointed out previously that the word for
"everlasting" as used of punishment and "everlasting" as
used with life is often the same word in the Greek - AIONIOS. Some sincere and
well meaning people assert that if AIONIOS does not mean eternal, that is, if
the punishment is not eternal, then the life is not eternal. If the "aionios
punishment" ends, then the "aionios life" of God must end, say
they! That sounds like a reasonable argument, but when one searches beneath
the surface he discovers that it merely reveals the ignorance of those who
labor the point. Let us see!
The noun AION nowhere means eternal. Its simple meaning is
an age. In its plural form it means ages. We have unquestionably
and incontrovertibly demonstrated this fact from numerous New Testament
passages. Now once we understand that AIONIOS is the adjective form of
the noun AION, a simple little sixth-grade grammar lesson should once
and for all establish the exact meaning of AIONIOS.
A noun is a word that tells what you are talking about. A
noun is a word that names something, a person, place, thing, quality, etc.
Boy, water, tree, age and truth are all nouns. An adjective is a word that is
used with a noun to describe it. It is a word that tells you what kind,
what color, which one, etc. If you wanted to tell me about the hat a woman
was wearing you would describe the hat in some way. You might say that it was
a large hat, an atrocious hat, or a red hat. These are
adjectives, words that describe what kind, what color of hat. When you add one
or more of these "describing words" or "adjectives" to
hat, you give a clearer picture of what the hat is like. Some words are both
nouns and adjectives, that is, the same word can be used both ways. Sometimes
the adjective form of the word is identical to the noun form, while at other
times the spelling is slightly different. Look at these sentences: "I
would like to visit France." "I am learning the French
language." France is a proper noun, but the adjective form of the same
word is spelled differently - French. But in both cases they indicate the same
setting. Anyone with even an elementary knowledge of grammar (English or
Greek) knows that the meaning of a noun and the meaning of the same word in
its adjective form MUST CORRESPOND! It cannot have one meaning as a noun and
exactly opposite meaning as an adjective!
Let me illustrate. If we say "John is in college,"
the word college is a noun. But if we say, "John has sixteen college
credits," college is an adjective, modifying the word credits - telling
what kind of credits. Now we all know what a college is - an institution of
higher education that grants degrees - so we understand what kind of
institution John is attending in the first sentence. Since we know the meaning
of college, when we come to the second sentence we have no difficulty
understanding what kind of credits John has - college credits - credits gained
through study in an institution of higher education granting degrees! No one
in his right mind is going to read the second statement and conclude that John
has just finished kindergarten, or that he has a diploma showing that he
finished sixteen lessons in leathercraft at the YMCA, or that he has $16.00
worth of credit at a department store! College as a noun and college as an
adjective cannot have altogether different meanings. They mean the same in
both cases!
Ah, brethren, let's be fair with the basic rules of English
grammar and interpretation, and Greek, too, for they both follow the same
basic rules. No one can say that AIONIOS means eternal without breaking
the basic rules of English or Greek. The adjective AIONIOS which is directly
derived from the noun AION occurs seventy times in the New Testament. It is an
axiom of grammar that derivatives cannot have a greater force than the parent
word. When we have an adjective derived from a noun, the meaning of the
adjective is dependent upon the meaning of the noun. A daily paper is
one that comes every day. A monthly bill is due for payment every
month, not once a year. A yearly automobile license is good
for one year, not for ever.
Thus the adjective AIONIOS, a derivative of AION, carries
within itself its own solution; for AIONIOS is simply what belongs or relates
to the AIONS - the ages - hence it cannot carry a force or express a duration
greater than that of the ages of which it speaks. If therefore these
ages are limited periods, some of which are already past, while others are yet
to come, the word AIONIOS cannot mean infinity!
And yet men who should know better tell us that
the Greek noun AION means an age, or ages, which is TIME, and then proceed to
ridiculously explain that the adjective form of the same word means exactly
the opposite - unending, everlasting, ETERNAL! A child of ten should be able
to understand that that is not so. The adjective AIONIOS modifies two nouns in
Matt. 25:46 and numerous other passages: punishment and life. "And these
shall go away into everlasting punishment: but the righteous into life
eternal." It tells what kind of punishment and what kind of
life Jesus is talking about. It is ages-lasting punishment and ages-lasting
life, or better stated THE LIFE OF THE AGES. Now I can hear someone
protesting, "But isn't the life we have received from God ETERNAL
LIFE?" Certainly God's life is eternal life. But we have received that
life injected into TIME, so that the inworking of that life through the
processings of God is experienced in relation to TIME rather that ETERNITY.
Let me explain. Anything that is absolutely eternal is not only unending, but
is also UNCHANGEABLE. Anything that changes in any way is not eternal, for in
the change some characteristic is left behind and a new one acquired. In every
change something ends and something else begins, at least in form. That which
dwells in an eternal state knows NO CHANGE. Change is possible only in that
which is limited, imperfect, or not fully developed. The Lord declares of
Himself, "I am the Lord, I CHANGE NOT" (Mal. 3:6), and the inspired
apostle says of Him, with Whom there is no VARIABLENESS, neither shadow of
turning" (James 1:17). God is never surprised. God has not learned
anything this week, nor last year, nor in the last several trillion years. If
God learned one thing today, it would destroy Him. He would no longer be the
omniscient One who knows the end from the beginning, for known unto Him are
all His works from the creation of the world. God does not experiment. God
does not become stronger, mightier, or increase Himself in any way. God is the
omnipotent and omniscient one. He CHANGES NOT. He eternally is all that He is
without an decrease or increase or fluctuation whatsoever. Therefore He is the
ETERNAL GOD! It means more than unending, it means unchangeable, and therefore
unending! But we, in our spiritual life, are STILL BEING CHANGED! "And
all of us... are constantly BEING TRANSFIGURED (changed) into His very own
image in ever increasing splendor and from one degree of glory to
another" (II Cor. 3:18, Amplified). Therefore the life we have received
is not truly eternal yet, it is the LIFE OF THE AGES, God's life
injected into time to be processed and matured into that unchangeableness
which He Himself is!
TIME
VS. ETERNITY
It is a great and blessed fact that God is the eternal God.
Transition, adjustments, change - these words seem to be constantly with us,
until we fain would grasp for something that seems to be stable, solid,
enduring. Much of the inner drive for change is simple evidence that man is
not satisfied, has not found his completeness in Christ, for "beloved NOW
are we the children of God, and it does not yet appear WHAT WE SHALL BE: but
we know that when HE shall appear, we SHALL (then) BE LIKE HIM for we shall
see HIM AS HE IS" (I Jn. 3:2). Here is stability - immutability - the
quality of His nature remains the same, HE IS THE ETERNAL! And this is the
nature of which we would be a partaker, the fullness of which we find in
Christ, and through union with Him with which we shall be changed until
we become changeless in the absoluteness of that which He is. He who is
eternal cannot be influenced, affected, moved, changed, altered, damaged or
destroyed in any way. He cannot grow tired or old. The character of God is
eternal, changeless, unaffected. The love, joy, peace, righteousness and power
of God do not rise and fall, rise and fall, rise and fall. Matters not what
happens or what men or devils say or do, the love of God, the purpose of God,
and the power of God are steadfast, unmoved, unquenched, unaffected, without
fluctuation. The eternal existence of God is certain for He is the source of
all life. Death cannot touch Him for He is not dependent upon the sustaining
power of another, He is Jehovah, the SELF-EXISTENT ONE.
A concept we must immediately grasp in order to understand
God's plan of the ages is that time is a created phenomena consisting
of past, present, and future just as man is created phenomena having youth,
middle age, and old age. No, you cannot smell, touch, or feel time, but it is
there, ever-present, always marching into the future. Time was created; it had
a beginning, it shall have an end. It is only one thing among countless other
things that are part of the entire created universe. It is as much a
"species" of creation as, for example, rocks, elephants, trees, and
water are species of creation. Before the creation of the universe, there was
no time; at the end of the ages when the present material universe is
dissolved and replaced by a new, spiritual universe, time shall cease to be.
It will be swallowed up into eternity just as all death will be swallowed up
into victory, and there shall be no more death. Time - composed of
milliseconds, seconds, minutes, hours, days, weeks, months, years, decades,
centuries, milleniums, ages was created in the beginning, and will be
dissolved at the end of the ages.
A proper understanding of time as a created phenomena having
beginning and ending is an absolute prerequisite to a proper understanding of
eternity. Time is relative only to the physical universe and the purposes of
God therein. Let me ask - If there were no such thing as the planet earth,
would there be days? No! If earth didn't have a satellite called the moon,
would there be months? No! If both earth and moon didn't have a thing called
the sun around which to orbit, would there be years? No! If there were no
stars, no suns, no planets, would there be time? No! Time is "duration
set forth by measures;" the ticking of a clock, the beating of a pulse,
the burning of a candle, the falling of sand through a certain aperture, -
these, and a thousand similar regular movements, may serve as measures, more
or less exact, of time. Time, then, because it is a created phenomena, can be
studied to some extent just as any other part of the creation of God can be
studied. We know how it functions by its effects in passing: decay, corrosion,
erosion, deterioration, or progression, growth, development, maturity.
The late Dr. Einstein discovered, at least theoretically,
that time and space are interdependent, inseparably related, and form a
four-dimensional continuum (length, height, depth, and duration). That is to
say, there is no space without time, and no time without space. Space cannot
be traversed without the passage of time; without the passage of time, there
is no traversing of space. That is why in His post-resurrection, spiritual
body, Jesus was able immediately to transcend and traverse the space-time
continuum with the speed of thought. By Christ's power, space and time cohere
and consist. Without His binding power, space and time would become
nonexistent. Also, since we know from the Scriptures that space is created, we
can then know that time is created, too. We can also understand that both time
and space (as we presently know them) will end together at the conclusion of
the ages.
I am compelled to state that the Bible says very little by
way of a definition of eternity because the Bible is essentially a book of
time and for time. It was written for man who lives in a temporal state and
who is not yet a totally eternal being. Only as we enter that state of
being called eternity... only as HE who IS ETERNITY becomes "All in
All" in us... only as we are spiritually metamorphosized into our eternal
condition... only as eternity becomes an absolute reality to us... only then
will formerly temporal beings such as we now are truly comprehend and
understand eternity and things of an eternal nature. This marvelous work has
now begun within our spirit as our spirit has been quickened by His Spirit. I
stated that the Bible is relatively silent about what eternity is; that is not
to say that human teachings and theology haven't taught us a great deal about
eternity, but, alas! much of it over the past centuries has come from the
carnal minds of Babylonish theologians and not from the mind of the Eternal
One via the Holy Spirit.
ETERNITY IS A STATE OF ABSOLUTE TIMELESSNESS,
not of unending time. Eternity is a STATE OF BEING, resident in the very
nature and person of God in which such concepts as past, present, future,
before, after, change, transition, growth, decay, etc. do not exist. It is
wrong to assert that, when time ends, eternity will begin, because eternity
has no beginning. Neither did it end when time began, as so many charts
indicate. Therefore it is very important that we make a clear distinction
between ages, which belong to time, and eternity, which is timeless. It is
more important still that we, in our study of the Bible, search out diligently
those passages which refer to time and those which refer to eternity. Do you
have it yet? Do you see? Time is not part of eternity; eternity is not
composed of segments of time. Eternity is not time standing still; it is
simply not time at all. Eternity doesn't go on and on and on, ad infinitum.
Eternity doesn't go anywhere, nor does it do anything. Eternity simply IS.
Eternity is part of the very nature and person of God. Eternity transcends
beyond our knowing anything having to do with time. It is not time at all. It
is just a glorious experience of BEING! Eternity simply IS, just as God simply
IS. Jesus said, "Before Abraham was, I AM" (Jn. 8:58) - not
"Before Abraham was, I WAS." There are not past or future tenses in
eternity. There is only one eternal NOW.
THE
GOD OF THE AGES
Now the eternal God has injected Himself into time. The
Bible rarely speaks of God as eternal; both the Hebrew and Greek Scriptures
reveal Him as the GOD OF THE AGES - time. "In the beginning God
created..." Since that wonderful dawn God has been the God of His
creation, the God of heaven and earth, the God of the ages, the God of
history, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, the God of Israel, and the God
of our salvation. God is said to be living "for the ages of the
ages" not because God must die when the ages end, but in contrast to
multitudes of His creatures whose days upon earth are limited to
"threescore and ten years." Generation after generation, through the
rise and fall of empires, and the shifting sands of history, God remains.
The great revelation of the Scriptures is that this universe
is governed by a throne and that throne is not in Moscow, it's not in London,
it's not in Rome, and it's not in Washington - it's in heaven, the eternal
dimension. Time is being governed by eternity, creatures are being governed by
the Creator. There is a whole order of cosmic government that those of us who
have had our eyes opened, our spirits quickened by His Spirit, raised up and
made to sit together with Him in heavenly places, have beheld. And the first
thing we saw was that ultimate reality sits upon a throne and governs
mountains, governs hills, governs streams, governs insects, governs animals,
governs things, governs man, governs time, governs history, governs creation,
and governs the whole vast, unbounded universe!
God in Christ became man as well as God. God as man has
tenses to His being: the yesterday of the past, the today of the present, the
tomorrow of the future. This is not the eternal God, but the God who
has dispensed of His eternity into time. "Jesus Christ the same -
yesterday, today, and to the ages" (Heb. 13:8, literal). "And the
four beasts had each of them six wings about him; and they were full of eyes
within: and they rest not day and night, saying, Holy, holy, holy, Lord
God Almighty, which was, and is, and is to come"
(Rev. 4:8). Day and night do not exist in eternity - they fill up the whole of
time. HE is praised and extolled both DAY AND NIGHT, this God who WAS, and IS,
and IS TO COME, the God of the ages, the Architect of history, the Lord of
time, the King of the universe, the Most High who "...lives for the ages,
whose dominion is an age during dominion, and His kingdom is from generation
to generation: and all the inhabitants - of the earth are reputed as nothing:
and He does according to His will in the army of heaven, and among the
inhabitants of the earth: and none can stay His hand, or say unto Him, What
doest Thou?" (Dan. 4:34-35, literal & KJV).
Oh, take me not back through the long ages to a Christ that
walked the shores of Galilee, to a Christ that was! He is! He lives! He is
here! In my today! I can never again be alone, never grope in the dark
for a hand, never be forsaken, never lack in the hour of need, never fail in
His ongoing purposes, never need a Saviour, a Redeemer, a Sanctifier, a Guide,
a Master, a Friend, a Husband, a Father. I have Him, He who was everything in
the yesterday of the past, and who will be everything in the tomorrow of the
future, is mine today; and at each conscious moment of my existence - here,
and in all ages, praise His wonderful name! Not a far-off, untouchable God,
"inhabiting eternity," as the King James version erroneously states,
but a God made nigh, INHABITING THE AGES, involved in His creation, working
tirelessly and unceasingly and unfailingly until His wonderful plan is brought
to a successful conclusion and HE becomes gloriously ALL IN ALL!
"Crown Him the Lord of Years - The Potentate of Time,
Creator of the rolling spheres, Ineffably sublime.
All hail, Redeemer, hail! For You have died for me;
Your praise shall never, never fail As long as Time shall be!
FROM TIME TO ETERNITY
This phenomena called time was created by God for
man. Why? Time is the womb from which God is birthing a people like
unto Himself. We get the germ, the beginning and foretaste of eternity in
time, but this is only the seed of eternal life. This womb of time is provided
to aid man in his development, to assist him in preparation for a new, totally
spiritual existence beyond time, beyond the last age, when the umbilical cord
is cut, in a state of existence called eternity. Man, as he is dealt with by
God, is passing from a gross, largely material consciousness, into a glorious
spiritual existence. Time serves only as an instrument to help man, to give
him time and experience to develop into that new state of being. In time there
is change - in eternity there is no change. All change and development must
take place in time.
Thank God! we are being changed! But that means that the
life of God within is still in a limited, imperfect, underdeveloped state.
That life as to our condition and state of being is limited, imperfect, and in
some measure immature. God has dispensed that life into us in time, that
through a process of time with its experiences the spiritual life may be
perfected and matured, brought to the fullness of that which HE HIMSELF IS.
When the process is completed and we are like Him fully and see Him as He
is, there will BE NO MORE CHANGE. We will then truly know what ETERNAL
LIFE is! But as long as the life within is passing through the process of
change, growth, and development, it is not viewed as eternal, unchangeable
life, but as the LIFE OF THE AGES, life undergoing the dealings of God in
time.
The eternal security of the believer is known only by
the overcomers who have fully and forever conquered every vestige of the
world, the flesh, and the devil, being conformed into the image of the Son. Of
these triumphant ones it is written, "To him that OVERCOMES will I give
to eat of the TREE OF LIFE," and again, "He that OVERCOMES... I will
NOT BLOT HIS NAME OUT of the Book of Life" (Rev. 2:7; 3:5). The inference
is clear ... until this "overcomer" state is attained, it is
possible to have one's name blotted out of the Book of Life! That does
not mean that the name cannot be written there again, any more than it could
be said that it was impossible for it to be written there in the first
instance. But it does indicate that the life possessed by a Christian who is
not fully an overcomer is not by God's definition ETERNAL LIFE, for if it were
absolutely eternal it could not be lost! Little wonder, then, that our Lord
says to the Church at Smyrna, "Be faithful unto death, and I
will give you a CROWN OF LIFE" (Rev. 2:10). it is my deep conviction that
He speaks not of the death that takes this old body to the cemetery, but the
death that comes by the INWORKING OF HIS CROSS until all that pertains to the
realm of carnality has been completely and forever dealt with. Then, and only
then, are we CROWNED WITH LIFE, His life reigning within without interference
or possibility of defeat.
The life we now have is a progressing, growing, conquering
life - the LIFE OF THE AGES. It is life that has come by the quickening of our
spirit by His Spirit, giving a new beginning, and the potential to become, in
due time, all He is. But I am sure my readers, with myself, must confess that
there is a great deal of progress still to be made, considerable growth to be
experienced, much transformation to be wrought before we stand in Him in the
fullness of that life that needs no change, no further development, no
additional experience, no more growth, no fuller stature, no added triumph, no
increase of wisdom and knowledge - that state of being as unchangeable as He
is unchangeable, as ETERNAL AS HE IS ETERNAL! Only faintly now do our eyes
behold the splendor of that eternal realm which ties before us, but if
we approach softly with reverence and godly fear, not disrespectfully and
thoughtlessly as nosey children prying into some sacred thing, then the Lord
of glory will meet us and will be a Father unto us and we shall be the Sons of
God in whom the Father shall unfold the fullness of His life, mind, will and
glory. Thus shall we come into that same image and be sharers with the
Christ in the glory He had with the Father BEFORE TIME WAS - ETERNAL GLORY! I
think I know why some become so enraged when we tell them that we do not now
possess the absolutely eternal life. Is it not because they would rather
ignore this life of the ages, somehow projecting themselves into that
life which is eternal, claiming "by faith" the finished product,
while by-passing the tedious processing? Ah, dear ones, it doesn't work that
way! God has graciously given unto us life aionios - the life of the
ages - and how I thank God that my present state of being is NOT ETERNAL!
There is MORE! I would follow on to know Him in all fullness. And it
will take "the ages," my friend, to unfold it all. As long as there
is need for growth, change, and advancement, there is need for time. But
redemption as a completed plan has a unique relationship to time. Until
redemption is complete its work will proceed in time, but the finished work of
redemption stands at time's end. Thank God! There is an END - then eternity,
God all in all!
As God's plan of the ages has progressed there has been a
level of life, a spiritual vitality, for each age. Each age has been
different. Men in antediluvian times knew God in a certain way and received
life of a particular order. Israel, under the law, and the ministry of the
prophets, entered into another degree of spiritual life. Perhaps I can give
you a simple illustration in this way. There is a difference between
"fetus" life and "baby" life and "child" life.
There is a difference between "youthful" life and
"middle-age" life and "old-age" life. Can we not see by
this that there is a continuing development of God's life in us, until HIS
FULLNESS is attained, and there shall be a continuing development of His life
in the whole human family in the ages to come until God becomes all in all.
God is cultivating within His Sons an eternal
nature. The thoughts of God's people are becoming boundless and eternal, no
longer controlled and motivated purely by carnal memories of the past, by
present events, or by dim hopes for an endless future in "mansions over
the hill-top". The fledgling spirits of God's Sons are fast growing up
into the limitless expanses of God's own eternal, spiritual nature. Yes, the
whole man is becoming a new, eternal creation, no longer limited by the
space-time continuum. God's maturing Sons see the reality of a state of being
called eternity, and their hearts strain and leap upward toward that
"place" in God!
AGES-LASTING
CORRECTION
We miss so much vital truth by our careless scanning of the
Bible, and by clinging tenaciously to the time-worn traditions of the
religious systems, mistaking them for the holy truths of God. It should be
clear that if the "eternal life" of Mat. 25:41 is really the
"life of the ages", then the "eternal punishment" is
likewise an age-lasting correction. The Diaglott says, "Depart from Me,
you cursed ones, into that aionian fire... and these shall go away into a
cutting-off age lasting." The Bible in Modern English by Farrar Fenton
reads, "And these He will dismiss into a LONG CORRECTION."
Rotherham's New Testament says, "These shall go away into age-abiding
correction." Young's Literal translation renders, "And these shall
go away to punishment age-during."
The word punishment is from the Greek KOLASIS which means
simply that - punishment. But it comes from the root KOLAZO which reveals the
true nature of the punishment. KOLAZO according to Strong's Concordance, means
"to curtail" or "to chastise". The word means "a
pruning" according to Liddell and Scott's Greek English Lexicon. it is so
used all through the Greek language. That punishment of which the Christ spoke
was the very thing that helped me to see the glorious HOPE for all who are
unbelievers or rebellious against God - because the word punishment there
means chastisement or pruning. I saw in a moment that it was not the
destruction of the man; it was the correcting of the man. it was not the
destruction of the tree; it was the cutting back, and the pruning, that it
might bring forth fruit. Some rightly reason that KOLASIS cannot mean
corrective punishment or pruning if it is everlasting.
But everlasting is itself wrong - who ever heard of EVERLASTING CORRECTION?
It is age-lasting punishment, age-abiding correction, age-during pruning.
There are those who did not enter into His life in ages
past, there are those who do not enter into His life in this present age, and
there shall be those who will not enter into His life in the age to come. But
in the world where God is the King you can count on it - every man will
finally have to face up to his waywardness, and being thoroughly disciplined,
broken, and purged of self-will, until he is prepared to respond to the love
of Christ, to advance from the realm of punishment into the blessing of HIS
LIFE and victory. If you do not punish a criminal for his improvement, for
what do you punish him? There are just two right reasons - to protect society
and to restore the criminal to society improved by the punishment. The "aionian"
punishment which will come to every sinner who goes to hell will be a
punishment that will break his stubborn, rebellious spirit and bring him back
to God!
It is most regrettable that many Bible translators have been
careless in their translation of words that concern the ages. The common
thought seems to have been that any age following this present age must be
identical with eternity, which, of course, is gross error, and we get
ourselves into all manner of confusion by thinking that such is the case. For
instance, according to the King James version Jesus, speaking of the blasphemy
against the Holy Spirit, is clearly quoted as saying, "He that blasphemes
the Holy Ghost has never forgiveness" (Mk. 3:29). Because of this
faulty rendering we have concocted the fallacious notion of an unpardonable
sin. But the Emphatic Diaglott translates the passage correctly thus:
"Whoever may blaspheme the Holy Spirit has no forgiveness to the age, but
is exposed to aionian (age-lasting) judgment." Likewise also the passage
in Mat. 12:32...... Whosoever speaks against the Holy Ghost, it shall not be
forgiven him, neither in this world, neither in the world to
come." The word world here, as the margin of your Bible will
probably indicate, is translated from the Greek word AION, which means age or
a period of time. See also Young's Concordance. Hence the translation should
be, "It shall not be forgiven him, neither in this age nor in the coming
age" (Diaglott). Jesus was born in the age of law. Therefore, when He
spoke of this age, He was speaking of the age of law, the age to
come being the Church age in which we now live.
God's precious people, saturated and literally
"oozing" with the false doctrines of the harlot Church systems have
long viewed God's judgments as a vindictive action prompted by a motive for
revenge and supported by a tumultuous wrath that must be pacified. NOT SO!
Such is a gross caricature of our God! His mercy and grace are super-abundant,
His mercy endures to all ages, and though He finds it necessary to chasten,
His wisdom and righteousness produce a just and pure chastisement conditioned
to correct the situation, and bring forth a creature prepared to respond to
the delivering and redeeming power of God. ALL OF GOD'S JUDGMENTS ARE
CORRECTIVE IN NATURE, conceived in His wisdom, motivated by His love,
administered by His power, and used to work out the divine purpose, into our
good, and unto His praise!
This does not deny that "the wrath of God is revealed
from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men" (Rom.
1:18). There is no doubt whatever as to the fact that the Bible clearly
teaches wrath - not only in this age but in that which is to come and in dim
and distant ages beyond that. But it is a just wrath; the judgment is
everywhere said to be ACCORDING TO OUR WORKS (Ps. 62:12; Rom. 2:6; Rev.
20:12-13). The punishment will fit the offense, and it is for a purpose. If we
teach that it is endless we will have to tear the Bible all to pieces.
Those who are hard and impenitent of heart treasure up for
themselves wrath in the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment
of God who will render to every man according to his works. If you don't
believe it, ask the antediluvians, ask Korah and his followers, ask the
inhabitants of Sodom and Gomorrah, ask the Jews who passed through the
holocaust, and ask all the rest of men who have lived and died trampling under
foot the righteousness and mercy of the Lord. To them that are rebellious and
obey not the truth but obey unrighteousness shall be wrath, indignation,
tribulation and anguish upon every soul. All that the Scriptures actually
teach about the wrath of God will surely come to pass. The wrath of God is an
awful thing and it is not my purpose to minimize it in the least. I do
rejoice, however, in the knowledge that it will accomplish its work until all
men are broken before God and call upon Him for mercy full and abundant.
Thank God - He has a plan! And it will work. You can count
on it. Grace has intervened. Love will conquer. The wisdom of God will be
vindicated. God will actually WIN! Hallelujah! Isn't THAT good news! The devil
will have none left to possess. The grave will claim not one victim. Death
will hold no more power over any creature anywhere in all God's vast universe,
for death shall be DESTROYED. Sin and rebellion shall raise their ugly heads
no more, for God will be all in all. YOU CAN COUNT ON IT! THAT IS GOD'S PLAN!
J. Preston Eby
Saviour of The World Directory
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