a-EO-ns

This week’s EO-Visie contains an article in which 13 questions about heaven and hell are asked and answered. I hope to return to some of those answers later. Today I will limit myself to question & answer 13.

13. Some groups talk about ‘aions.’ What are they? These groups do not believe that hell is eternal. They like to wrestle with the rediscovered meaning of the Hebrew and Greek source texts to support this view, but then make a mess of it. And above all, the Bible has to fit into their elaborate dispensational system, so the interpretation of Bible passages is more or less fixed in advance. The Greek word ‘aion’ plays a key role in this. Aion does not mean eternity, but an age or bounded period of time. So ‘eternal punishment and eternal life’ last only temporarily. Until God may be All in all and everything and everyone is reconciled to God, including Satan and the demons! They are ultimately and forcibly reconciled to God, because there cannot be some little corner of the universe where God remains excluded. And that is another problem: evil is trivialized. The fall into sin and the suffering throughout history are then nothing more than a necessary dark backdrop willed by God. Against this backdrop, God’s love and grace can shine all the more brightly. God is thus the author, director, and producer of the entire world drama and therefore responsible for everything. Man merely plays a role in that drama and therefore bears no responsibility at all. And that is precisely the opposite of what God’s Word shows: “Adam, where are you?”

Strangely enough, the writers themselves do not answer the question of what ‘aions’ are. They let “the groups” who speak about aions provide the answer.

“Aion does not mean eternity, but an age or bounded period of time.”

Completely correct. The writers make no attempt to contradict this statement and thereby tacitly admit that we are dealing here with a FACT. Apparently, they do not realize that this hard fact is the death blow to the doctrine of endless punishment in hell.

“These groups do not believe that hell is eternal.”

Neither the word ‘hell’ nor the word ‘eternal’ is kosher from a biblical standpoint. Behind the word ‘hell’ lies the original word Gehenna, which is a geographical designation for the Valley of Hinnom, Jerusalem’s garbage dump. The hell that people have made of it over the centuries (> a place where the ungodly are tormented without end after they die) is an invention, a demonic myth. The second myth is that eternal refers to an endless eternity. That is simply not so. Aionios is the adjectival form of aion. It refers to one or more ‘eons.’

“They like to wrestle with the rediscovered meaning of the Hebrew and Greek source texts to support this view, but then make a mess of it.”

Every first-year Greek student knows that ‘aion’ is connected with a world-age. That does not need to be “rediscovered,” because it is a well-known fact. It is Christian dogmatics that has obscured the meaning of aion by making “a mess” of contradictory translation terms. The word aion (which occurs hundreds of times in the Bible) has been concealed by rendering it with the temporal ‘age’ (correct), but also with the endless ‘eternity’ (incorrect). What, by contrast, do those who speak about aions do? They simply leave the biblical word ‘aion’ untranslated. Where Scripture speaks of aions, they simply echo Scripture. Or they use a consistent translation term (eon)…

Who is making a mess of ‘aions’ here?

“And above all, the Bible has to fit into their elaborate dispensational system, so the interpretation of Bible passages is more or less fixed in advance.”

That the ‘aions’ can be arranged in a logical sequence is self-evident to anyone who takes the ‘aions’ as they present themselves in Scripture. It speaks of “before the eons,” “the bygone eons,” “the current eon,” “the oncoming eons,” and “the consummation of the eons.” That is not a prejudice imposed on Bible study, but the result of Bible study.

“Until God may be All in all and everything and everyone is reconciled to God, including Satan and the demons! They are ultimately and forcibly reconciled to God…”

God forces no one. He does not need to force His way in. He opens hearts and gives faith. That is why He can and will become “All in all.”

As for conciliation: Paul writes that he was already conciliated to God while he was still an enemy (Romans 5:10).

“And that is another problem: evil is trivialized.”

Evil (pain, hardship, sickness, death, etc.) is certainly no trivial matter. But it is a creation of the Creator (Isaiah 45:7). The Bible does not trivialize evil, but it does put it into perspective. Evil makes the good visible.

“The fall into sin and the suffering throughout history are then nothing more than a necessary dark backdrop willed by God.”

Necessary, yes; willed by God, no. God did not want man to eat from the forbidden fruit and therefore prohibited it. But God, of course, knew “what our frame is” and that we would eat from the notorious tree. There was no escaping it. He also knew that precisely through this path the very best world would come about. The Bible assures us that everything unfolds “in accord with the counsel of His will” (Ephesians 1:11).

“Against this backdrop, God’s love and grace can shine all the more brightly.”

Correct, although the words “all the more brightly” would be better omitted here. For God’s grace can only stand out against the dark backdrop of sin. Where there is no sin, there can be no grace either (Romans 5:20).

“God is thus the author, director, and producer of the entire world drama and therefore responsible for everything.”

Exactly! Paul put it this way:

“out of Him and through Him and for Him is all: to Him be the glory for the eons!” (Romans 11:36).

“Man merely plays a role in that drama and therefore bears no responsibility at all.”

Because God is “the author, director, and producer of the entire world drama” and guarantees the happy ending, all the glory therefore belongs to Him! Very sobering for people who consider themselves too important merely to play a role in God’s masterpiece…

“And that is precisely the opposite of what God’s Word shows: ‘Adam, where are you?’”

Within ‘the drama,’ man is responsible (accountable). Certainly. But for ‘the drama,’ only “the author, director, and producer” is ‘responsible.’ The words “Adam, where are you?” perfectly illustrate the universal biblical principle that God seeks the lost “till he may be finding it” (Luke 15:4).

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