What Are We to Do with Texts That Speak of “Eternal Judgment”?

Isaiah 32:14 and 15 speaks of a judgment over Jerusalem “for ever” (Staten Translation). And in the same verse it is said: “until the Spirit be poured upon us from on high.” According to Jude 7, Sodom and Gomorrah undergo judgment as an example under “eternal fire.” Yet according to the prophet, in the future these cities will again be restored to their former glory (Ezekiel 16:55). There you have “an example of eternal fire”!

The important point is: “eternal” = eon/age. Both translation terms go back in the original text of the Bible to one word. In Hebrew that is ‘olam’ and in Greek ‘aion’. Eons in Scripture have both a beginning (“before the eons”) and an end (“the consummation of the eons”). Scripture is unfamiliar with “endless eternity.”

The adjectival form “eon-ian” (Gr. aionios) refers to “eon” or “aion” and therefore to a time with a beginning and an end. In 2 Timothy 1:9 we read the expression “before times eonian.” This shows that an “eonian time” is neither beginningless nor endless. Also note that “eonian” is not set over against “time.”

The eon-ian judgment is the judgment that relates to one or more eons (= ages). At the return of the Lord Jesus Christ, what dawns is not an endless eternity, but “the oncoming eons” (Eph. 2:7), in which He will reign. Not everyone, by any means, will experience these eons. Only when, at the end of Christ’s reign, death will be nullified, will all be vivified, and then GOD will become “All in all.”

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