Eternal Punishment

“There are babies a span long in hell.”

-John Calvin

“Few people, if they really had the authority, would condemn anyone – anyone – even their worst enemy , to a burning, scorching, tormenting, eternal hell. Yet, they expect God to do it!”

J. Preston Eby

“the wicked will gnaw their tongues for anguish and pain; they will curse God and look upwards. There the dogs of hell – pride, malice, revenge, rage, horror, despair, continually devour them.”

John Wesley, Sermon 15

“The bodies of the damned shall be crowded together in hell, like grapes in a wine-press, which press one another till they burst; every distinct sense and organ shall be assailed with its own appropriate and most exquisite sufferings.”

Jeremy Taylor – Church of England

“The pit is prepared, the fire is made ready, the furnace is now hot, ready to receive the wicked: the flames do now rage and glow. The God that holds you over the pit of hell, much in the same way as one holds a spider or some loathsome insect, abhors you and is dreadfully provoked…He will trample them beneath His feet with inexpressible fierceness; He will crush their blood out, and will make it fly, so that it will sprinkle His garment and stain all His raiment.”

Works, vii. 499. Jonathan Edwards

“Belief in a cruel God makes a cruel man.”

Thomas Paine

“God preordained, for his own glory and the display of His attributes of mercy and justice, a part of the human race, without any merit of their own, to eternal salvation, and another part, in just punishment of their sin, to eternal damnation.” John Calvin

“Does it make any sense that Jesus came “to set the captives free’ and “open the prison doors” only to have most people end-up after this life being tortured in an inescapable fire forever?”

Irenaeus (130-200AD), who wrote intimately of Polycarp (who was a close friend of the Apostle John) reveals through his writings an intimate belief in “an ultimate reconciliation of all things back to God.”

Clement of Alexandria (185AD – 254) wrote:

“The Lord is a propitiation not for our sins only, that is, of the faithful, but also for the whole world. Therefore He indeed saves all universally; but some as converted by punishments, others by voluntary submission, thus obtaining honor and dignity, that “to Him every knee will bow, of things in heaven, of things in earth, and things under the earth, that is to say angels, and men, and souls who departed this life before His coming into the world.”

ORIGEN (185-254 AD) wrote:

“He that despises the purification of the Word of God, the doctrine of the Gospel only keeps himself for dreadful and penal purifications afterwards; that so the fire of hell may purge him in torments whom neither apostolical doctrine nor gospel preaching has cleansed, according to that which is written of being “purified by fire.” But how long this purification which is wrought out by penal fire shall endure, or for how many periods or ages it shall torment sinners, He only knows to whom all judgment is committed by the Father.”

Luther “the Father of the Reformation” said in a letter written in 1522:

“God forbid that I should limit the time of acquiring faith to the present life. In the depth of the Divine mercy there may be opportunity to win it in the future.”

 

THE VOCABULARY OF THE GREEK TESTAMENT (edited by James Hope Moulton and George Milligan) might be helpful as it says, talking about the Greek word aionios:

“In general, the word depicts that of which the horizon is not in view . . .” (p.16). If the horizon of the extermination spoken of by Paul in 2 Thessalonians 1:9 is simply not in view, then we can see that what Paul says in 1 Corinthians 15:22 can truly occur. The same all who are dying in Adam, which includes some who incur eonian extermination, can indeed eventually be vivified in Christ. The Bible, in fact, does not speak of judgment and condemnation, death and destruction, hades and Gehenna, or any of these serious consequences of sin, as unending. It may refer to them as not having the end in view, but none of these fearful works of God can keep Him from achieving His will (1Tim.2:4); reconciling all through the blood of Christ’s cross (Col.1:20, and becoming All in all (1 Cor.15:28).

SCRIPTURE

“And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto me.” JOHN 12:32

Romans 5:18 says:

“Therefore as by the offence of one judgment came upon all men to condemnation; even so by the righteousness of one the free gift came upon all men unto justification of life.”

Hebrews 2:9 says, “But we see Jesus, who was made a little lower than the angels for the suffering of death, crowned with glory and honor; that he by the grace of God should taste death for every man.”

1^st Timothy 2:4, speaking of God, says:

“Who will have all men to be saved, and to come unto the knowledge of the truth.”

Titus 2:11 says

“For the grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men,

John 3:16-17 says:

“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world (through him) might be saved.

“The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.” 2^nd Peter 3:9

“For therefore we both labor and suffer reproach, because we trust in the living God, who is the Savior of all men, especially of those that believe.” 1^st Timothy 4:10

23 “But every man in his own order: Christ the first-fruits; afterward they that are Christ’s at his coming. 24 Then cometh 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.25 For he must reign, till he hath put all enemies under his feet. 26 The last enemy that shall be destroyed is death. 27 For he hath put all things under his feet. But when he saith all things are put under him, it is manifest that he is excepted, which did put all things under him. (LISTEN) 28 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.” 1^st Corinthians 15:23-28

Psalms 115:3

“But our God is in the heavens: he hath done whatsoever he hath pleased.”

Proverbs 19:21 which says

“There are many devices in a man’s heart; nevertheless the counsel of the LORD, that shall stand.”

Jesus said in Matthew 19:26

“with God all things are possible.”

Ephesians 1:11 (puts a sharp end on this point saying – speaking of Jesus it says),

“In whom also we have obtained an inheritance, being predestinated according to the purpose of him who worketh all things after the counsel of his own will.”

(That passage in and of itself seems to support the Calvinistic idea of irresistible grace – that God chooses, we do not, and those who are chosen “are,” and those who are not, “are not.”)

Let’s consider others:

Revelation 4:11 says

“Thou art worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honor and power: for thou hast created all things, and for thy pleasure they are and were created.

Daniel 4:35 adds

“And all the inhabitants of the earth [are] reputed as nothing: and he doeth 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?”

Psalms 24:1

“The earth [is] the LORD’S, and the fulness thereof; the world, and they that dwell therein.”

Proverbs 16:4 says something interesting, something that troubles many:

“The LORD hath made all things for himself: yea, even the wicked for the day of evil.”

And listen to Isaiah 45:5-9

“I am the LORD, and there is none else, there is no God beside me: I girded thee, though thou hast not known me: 6 That they may know from the rising of the sun, and from the west, that there is none beside me. I am the LORD, and there is none else. 7 I form the light, and create darkness: I make peace, and create evil: I the LORD do all these things. 8 Drop down, ye heavens, from above, and let the skies pour down righteousness: let the earth open, and let them bring forth salvation, and let righteousness spring up together; I the LORD have created it. 9 Woe unto him that striveth with his Maker! Let the potsherd strive with the potsherds of the earth. Shall the clay say to him that fashioneth it, What makest thou? or thy work, He hath no hands?

Echoing these sentiments Romans 9:21 says

“Hath not the potter power over the clay, of the same lump to make one vessel unto honor, and another unto dishonor?”

From these passages (and many, many more) we KNOW God does “whatever He pleases” . . . “that His counsels will stand” . . . that “with Him all things are possible” . . . “that we are predestined according to the purpose of Him who works all things after the counsel of His own will” . . . and “that He even created all things for His own pleasure” right? Romans 9:21

“For my thoughts [are] not your thoughts, neither [are] your ways my ways, saith the LORD.” Isaiah 55:8-11

Isaiah 45:9-11 where God says:

9 Remember the former things of old: for I am God, and there is none else; I am God, and there is none like me, 10 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: 11 Calling a ravenous bird from the east, the man that executeth my counsel from a far country: yea, I have spoken it, I will also bring it to pass; I have purposed it, I will also do it.

“And the sea gave up the dead which were in it; and death and hell delivered up the dead which were in them: and they were judged every man according to their works.”

Revelation 20:13

“And the books were opened (which is the Lambs Book of Life) and whomever name is not found written in the Lambs book of life would be cast into the lake of fire,” (which, scripture says, is the second death).

Revelation 14:10 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 ascendeth up for ever and ever: and they have no rest day nor night, who worship the beast and his image, and whosoever receiveth the mark of his name.10 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.”

“For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, saith the LORD, thoughts of peace, and not of evil, to give you an expected end.” Jeremiah 29:11

“Elect according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, through sanctification of the Spirit, unto obedience and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ: Grace unto you, and peace, be multiplied.” 1^st Peter 1:1-2

“Him (meaning Jesus) being delivered by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God, ye have taken, and by wicked hands have crucified and slain.” ACTS 2:23

GATHERING UP THE FRAGMENTS

“And when it was evening, his disciples came to him, saying, This is a desert place, and the time is now past; send the multitude away, that they may go into the villages, and buy themselves victuals. But Jesus said unto them, They need not depart; give ye them to eat. And they say unto him, We have here but five loaves, and two fishes. He said, ‘Bring them hither to me.’ And he commanded the multitude to sit down on the grass, and took the five loaves, and the two fishes, and looking up to heaven, he blessed, and brake, and gave the loaves to his disciples, and the disciples to the multitude. And they did all eat, and were filled: and they took up of the fragments that remained twelve baskets full. And they that had eaten were about five thousand men, beside women and children.” MATTHEW 14:15-21

In first Corinthians 13 Paul describes love to us. He says that God’s love is . . .

“long-suffering”

It is “kind”

It does “not envy”

It is “not boastful”

Nor “proud”

It “behaves itself”

And does not “seek its own interests”

It is not “easily provoked”

It does not “think evil”

It does not “rejoiceth in iniquity”

but “rejoices in the truth . . .”

And he concludes by saying:

God’s love “bears all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things.”

Got all of that?

We’ll we are not done.

Because he continues and says that God’s love “NEVER fails.”

Psalm 2:7-8 “I will declare the decree: the LORD hath said unto me, Thou art my Son; this day have I begotten thee. Ask of me, and I shall give thee the heathen for thine inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the earth for thy possession.”

Psalm 22:27-28 “All the ends of the world shall remember and turn unto the LORD: and all the kindreds of the nations shall worship before thee. For the kingdom is the LORD’S: and he is the governor among the nations.”

Psalm 24:1 “The earth is the LORD’S, and the fullness thereof; the world, and they that dwell therein.”

Psalm 65:2 “O thou that hearest prayer, unto thee shall all flesh come.”

Psalm 68:18 “Thou hast ascended on high, thou hast led captivity captive: thou hast received gifts for men; yea, for the rebellious also, that the LORD God might dwell among them.”

Psalm 89:11 “The heavens are thine, the earth also is thine: as for the world and the fullness thereof, thou hast founded them.”

Psalm 86:8-10 “Among the gods there is none like unto thee, O Lord; neither are there any works like unto thy works. All nations whom thou hast made shall come and worship before thee, O Lord; and shall glorify thy name. For thou art great, and doest wondrous things: thou art God alone.”

And of course, while not a Psalm, a great passage from the Old Covenant:

Isaiah 45:22-24 “Look unto me, and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth: for I am God, and there is none else. I have sworn by myself, the word is gone out of my mouth in righteousness, and shall not return, That unto me every knee shall bow, every tongue shall swear. Surely, shall one say, in the LORD have I righteousness and strength: even to him shall men come; and all that are incensed against him shall be ashamed.”

AGE AND LITERAL TRANSLATIONS

In “Young’s LITERAL translation” or “Weymouths New Testament” or “Rotherham’s Emphasized Bible” or the “Concordant New Testament” we have the translations all reading things about suffering being limited to an age.

For example, where the King James says in Matthew 25:46 –

“And these shall go away into everlasting punishment: but the righteous into life eternal.”

These other translations read:

“And these last will go away ‘into aeonian punishment,’ but the righteous ‘into aeonian life.'”

OR

“And these shall go away into the Punishment of the Ages, but the righteous into the Life of the Ages.”

“And these shall go away to punishment age-during, but the righteous to life age-during.”

Why the difference?

Did I just go out and find Bible translations what would support my views? And what it the deal with this focus on “age-abiding” or “punishment of the ages” VERSES eternal punishment, like it says in the King James? It all comes down to the Greek noun “Aion” and the adjective, “aionious.” In the King James, which takes this Greek word and translates it, “forever and ever,” other MORE literal translations of the Greek to the English would translate it, “unto the age.”

What is an age? It’s a period of time.

The noun aheeohn (aion) means age and it is the word we get eon from. It’s a specific period of time. It begins and it ends. What’s really intriguing is when we get to the adjective for AHEEOHN the translators actually assign the opposite meaning to the term and instead of saying it means “a period of time,” they say it means “without end, without beginning, without beginning or ending.”

Because the King James translators, instead of ever translating aionos and aionious in terms of the English word age (a period of time with a beginning and an end) they translate the terms 197 times using all of the following English words. For the noun aion the KJV used the English words

Ever (72 times)

World (40)

NEVER (7)

Evermore (2)

Course (1)

And for the adjective, they translated the Greek word aionious to

Eternal (42)

Everlasting (25)

World (3)

and Ever (1)

Only twice out of 197 times were these specific Greek words (aion and aionous) translated in accordance with correctly defined definition of age. I mean the exact same Greek word in one place of the King James is translated “eternal” and in another place it is translated “never,” and in another it is translated, “world.”

There are forty places in the King James where the Greek Word aion is translated world. The Greek word for world (as in the heavens and the earth) is commonly kosmos, not aion.

Aion means age.

By reading these literal translations we discover that the Bible, from the Greek, literally does not teach eternality of the lake of fire but “an age abiding” lake of fire.

“The smoke ascends up unto the ages of ages, (not forever and ever).”

Reading the Greek properly, we would read the following passages like this:

God has a “purpose of the ages” Ephesians 3:11

He is the King of the ages 1^st Timothy 1:17

He prepared the ages by His word Hebrews 11:3.

Why did the King James translators use words like eternal and everlasting in their descriptions of hell instead of word related to age or ages? Because by the time the King James was being translated, Augustine’s notions that people would burn forever and ever as a means to destroy the flesh was firmly established as the belief of the day and above all things the King James translators were told to uphold current doctrine in their translation process.

Now, stay with me. There are two very simple Greek words that would and could have cleared all of this up had they ever been used. “Aperantos” and “akatalutos.” Both of these Greek words clearly mean endless. For example, in 1^st Timothy 1:4, where Paul speaks of “endless genealogies” (aperantos) is the Greek word. And where Hebrews 7:16 speaks of the power of an “endless life” the word is (akatalutos). “ENDLESS.” The word immortal (athanatos) and immortality (aptharsia) also indicate never-endingness but . . .

(LISTEN) none of these clearly defined terms which denote eternal and endless are EVER assigned to hell, damnation, or punishment for sin in the manuscripts.

Additionally, there are two simple and prevalent adverbs in the New Testament which would have made the argument decisive regarding punishment being eternal – aei (which means “always”) and pantote (which means “evermore”) but AGAIN neither of them are ever used to describe damnation, hell, or punishment for sin.

You want something really interesting? The super strong phrase “to the uttermost” is used only once and does it describe hell? NO. The punishment in the lake of fire? Nope.

It describes God’s ability at saving us.

Listen to the singular use of the term in Hebrews 7:25

“Wherefore he is able also to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by him, seeing he ever liveth to make intercession for them.”

Jude 25 says “the glory of Christ shall last “to ALL the ages . . .” Had this been applied only once to punishment the argument would be over. But it’s not.

The Greek phrase “for perpetuity” could have also been used to describe the Lake of Fire punishment – but it is only used to describe God and ultimate sanctification.

LISTEN – no Greek word that is ever truly used to describe forever, forevermore, evermore, always, endless, to the uttermost, etc. is EVER connected to punishment . . . but the terms that are related to age (to a beginning and an end) are.

In Luke 15:4 Jesus said:

“What man of you, having an hundred sheep, if he lose one of them, doth not leave the ninety and nine in the wilderness, and go after that which is lost, until he find it? 5 And when he hath found it, he layeth it on his shoulders, rejoicing. 6 And when he cometh home, he calleth together his friends and neighbors, saying unto them, Rejoice with me; for I have found my sheep which was lost. 7 I say unto you, that likewise joy shall be in heaven over one sinner that repenteth, more than over ninety and nine just persons, which need no repentance.”

I would strongly suggest that this parable is not only speaking to the House of Israel and them being the lost sheep and/or the church and those who backslide but also to the whole of humankind. Why wouldn’t it? If He paid for all their sin why wouldn’t He care for the whereabouts of all He has so loved? Maybe at this point another word study will convince you.

There are several English words (used in the King James) that have especially been ascribed to the wicked of this world. They include the “lost,” those who “perish,” and those who will be “destroyed.” For example in Luke 13:3 Jesus says (KJV)

“ . . . except ye repent, ye shall all likewise “perish.”

Most Christians read destroyed here and suggest the word means in the afterlife fires of hell (or the Lake of Fire) people will be destroyed (and if they are really out for blood they will add, “but never consumed.”) Is this what Jesus meant?

Paul wrote in 2^nd Corinthians 4:3

“But if our gospel be hid, it is hid to them that are lost…”

Do you think this means lost forever? Again, most people would suggest that lost means lost forever – unless they receive the word here in this life. And then in James 4:12 we read:

”There is one lawgiver who is able to save and to destroy.”

Of course, the modern Christian mindset would take this English word and think it means “wiped out in hell or the Lake of Fire completely, right?” The words certainly sound permanent, don’t they – lost, perished and destroyed? Pastors and teachers (when they come upon passages that use these terms lost, perish and destroyed) teach that they refer to permanent after life punishment and that it is forever and cannot be reversed.

But did you know that all of these English words I just gave examples of – lost, perish, and destroy – all come from the same Greek word, apollumi. (apoolomee) Sometimes the translators would translate apoolomee to lost, sometimes to perish, sometimes to destroyed.”

Like aion, some translators have assigned meaning to this single Greek term that is not consistently applied (or frankly correct).

For example, in my Power-Bible software it suggests that apololamee means to “obliterate” which is to wipe out completely instead of decimate, which is to ruin in decrees. But obliterate is not the true meaning of the word apoolamahee. Suffer ruin or loss? Yes! Certainly but “total loss or destruction?” No way. We see this proven through other passages of scripture.

For example, in the parable of the Lost Sheep that Jesus tells, the Greek word for the lost sheep is “apoloomai.” Was the sheep lost forever in this story? No. Just temporarily. And in the story of the Prodigal Son the word is “apollomai,” too and in Luke 19:10, where Jesus says:

“For the Son of Man is come to seek and to save that which was lost,” the word is the same and it obviously doesn’t mean the Son of Man can to seek and save those who are totally destroyed or obliterated, does it?

So, while sheep, and prodigals, and people can certainly be lost, they can perish, they can even be destroyed, it does not mean such losses are total nor does it mean they will never be found. So it is with afterlife punishment. And get this – I am only speaking relative to that former age or world BEFORE Christ had the victory over all things! Before fulfillment! So today, and ever since He came as promised and took His pure and holy Bride, we have entered into an age of fulfillment where all of these things have been completely fulfilled and we now live in an age where the punishments are over for all and the only thing that remains are afterlife rewards. But this is for another day.