Major1
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It is always exciting having individuals saying how "simple" the mysteries of the God of Glory are.
Can you tell us what is before aionios?
“In hope of aionios life, which God, that cannot lie, promised before aionios began.”
Universalists believe that no one will be punished or destroyed eternally, but rather that everyone will eventually be redeemed and live joyfully in God’s eternal Kingdom. Two of the most difficult texts for the Universalist view use the Greek word aionios. In all widely used English translations, aionios is translated as either “eternal” or “everlasting” in these two verses. It will be easy to see why, if this translation is correct, these verses are fatal to the Universalist position:
CSB Matthew 25:46 "And they will go away into eternal (aionios) punishment, but the righteous into eternal (aionios) life."
CSB 2 Thessalonians 1:9 These will pay the penalty of eternal (aionios) destruction from the Lord's presence and from His glorious strength
Universalists often respond by arguing that aionios does not mean eternal in these verses. They often argue for a meaing like “lasting for an age”.
I part 1 we looked at evidence from the 71 uses of aionios in the New Testament. I concluded that the evidence strongly supports aionios meaning “eternal” in the literal sense of “eternal” whenever it is looking forward in time.
In part 2 I examined an argument which is commonly seen in popular Universalist writings but which some Universalists avoid. This argument basically says that since the adjective aionios is derived from the noun aion and since aion means “an age”, then aionios must mean “lasting for an age.” I explained that this argument is doubly wrong. It commits the etymological fallacy of determining the meaning of a word from its roots rather than from its usage. Further, since aion as used in the New Testament most commonly refers to a future eternal age, even using their wrong methodology, the most likely meaning for aionios when referring to things in the coming age would be “eternal”.
parresiazomai: Universalist Arguments Concerning Aionios in the Old Testament are Flawed (What does Aionios mean?, Part 3)
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