- Feb 18, 2002
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An Attempt at resolution FROM THE SCRIPTURES of the THREE mutually exclusive theories of what happens to the wicked :-
[For All who take TROUBLE to find resolution FROM THE Bible AND SEARCH FOR THE TRUTH only]
[note: based upon the LITERAL meanings of words in the Greek and Hebrew scriptures...use a Lexicon to prove from the original meanings!]
**** RESOLUTION by the BIBLE of the 3 mutually contradictotry doctrines of anihilation, eternal punishment, and salvation of the wicked **** :-
Our God will destroy all the lawless (Psa.145:20);
Those who do not obey the gospel will incur the justice of eonian (or age-lasting) ruin (2 Thess.1:9);
Those who will not hear the Prophet whom Moses foretold shall be destroyed from among the people (Deut. 18:19) (Acts 3:23);
It is impossible to renew those mentioned in Heb.6 and 10 to repentance; that there is a sin unto death (1 John 5:16);
Those represented by the goats go away into eonian (or age-lasting) correction but
God will reconcile all to Himself through the cross of His beloved Son (Col.1:20);
God wills (not desires) all men to be saved and to come to the appreciation (acknowledgment) of the truth (1 Tim.24; 2 Tim.1:25);
He is the Saviour of all men especially of those that believe (1 Tim.4:10);
As in Adam all are dying, so in Christ shall all be made alive (1 Cor.15:22)
..... an expression which means more than resurrection for it involves a part in the resurrection of life, not judgment (John 5:29);
The free gift came upon all men unto justification of life (Rom.5:18);
God has locked all in unbelief that He might have mercy upon all (Rom.11:32);
All is of Him and through Him and for Him (Rom.11:36).
The Greek word 'aionous' means literally 'age-lasting' in Greek ,not as rendered 'everlasting' in "everlasting" ruin (2 Thess.1:9)
There was a time before the ages (2 Tim.1:9)
The ages have an end (Heb.9:26).
Since the ages are confined within finite bounds, that which is eonian or age-lasting, cannot be eternal!!
Thus the eonian ruin of those who do not obey the gospel is confined to the eons or ages.
what could hinder God saving them after the eons? -as He has declared that He will do.
Those who believe now receive salvation with eonian or age-lasting glory.
Those who are not saved until after the eons or ages do not participate in eonian or age-lasting ('everlasting') glory.
Thus God is the Saviour of all men and especially of those that believe.
Once we see that what is called "ever" lasting is limited to the "eons" or ages and is not endless, the way is clear to believe ALL the passages of the BIBLE
That destruction does not necessitate annihilation is evident both from the way this word is used in other passages (the lost....destroyed....sheep of the house of Israel to whom the Lord was sent, for example)
and the fact that those who have been destroyed will all stand before the great white throne! There could be no resurrection if they had been annihilated!
An examination of the original Hebrew will show that the passage "they shall be as though they had not been" (Obadiah 1:16) is mistranslated.... The verb is the same in both parts of the sentence. It should read "they shall be as though they shall not be."
This, instead of suggesting annihilation, refutes the idea altogether.
[Besides the reference is not to mankind as a whole, but only to the nations in the day of the Lord.]
In that same day the proud and lawless shall be burned up, leaving neither root nor branch (Mal.4:1).... But even these must be included in "the `dead" who stand before God at the great white throne (Rev.20: 12).
While we may reject as unscriptural the orthodox intermediate state and "hell", why should we go to the equally unscriptural extreme of annihilation, which we must admit, precludes the fulfillment of God's great oath that every knee shall bow to Him (Rom.14:11)? Now the lake of fire is explained to us as being death.
What scriptural grounds is there for believing that it is not death at all but annihilation?
As resurrection was a possibility with the first death so it is with the second.
This is put beyond question by the fact that at the consummation, when the Son hands over the kingdom to God the Father..... long after death has been cast into the lake of fire, when there is no death but the second death this is the death which is abolished by means of vivification a resurrection of life!
All are made alive at that time, fulfilling the grand promise that, as in Adam all are dying, so in Christ all shall be made alive!
If, at the consummation there is nothing but life, the apparent difficulty of limiting the "everlasting" life of the believer vanishes, he has life as long as there is any such thing as death, and when there is nothing but life.....what else can he have?
So that eonian or age-abiding life, for all practical purposes, amounts to "everlasting" life.
But the destruction (or restraint!) lasts only for the eons or ages, because, in the consummation there will be no death and no sin or restraint, for so perfectly will the Son have subdued all to God that He will hand the kingdom over to God as Father and God will become All in all.
Not All in a few, as orthodoxy teaches, or All in many,
but All in all.
May God's grace help you to consider this BIBLICAL truth for it's own worth through the spirit of truth.
[For All who take TROUBLE to find resolution FROM THE Bible AND SEARCH FOR THE TRUTH only]
[note: based upon the LITERAL meanings of words in the Greek and Hebrew scriptures...use a Lexicon to prove from the original meanings!]
**** RESOLUTION by the BIBLE of the 3 mutually contradictotry doctrines of anihilation, eternal punishment, and salvation of the wicked **** :-
Our God will destroy all the lawless (Psa.145:20);
Those who do not obey the gospel will incur the justice of eonian (or age-lasting) ruin (2 Thess.1:9);
Those who will not hear the Prophet whom Moses foretold shall be destroyed from among the people (Deut. 18:19) (Acts 3:23);
It is impossible to renew those mentioned in Heb.6 and 10 to repentance; that there is a sin unto death (1 John 5:16);
Those represented by the goats go away into eonian (or age-lasting) correction but
God will reconcile all to Himself through the cross of His beloved Son (Col.1:20);
God wills (not desires) all men to be saved and to come to the appreciation (acknowledgment) of the truth (1 Tim.24; 2 Tim.1:25);
He is the Saviour of all men especially of those that believe (1 Tim.4:10);
As in Adam all are dying, so in Christ shall all be made alive (1 Cor.15:22)
..... an expression which means more than resurrection for it involves a part in the resurrection of life, not judgment (John 5:29);
The free gift came upon all men unto justification of life (Rom.5:18);
God has locked all in unbelief that He might have mercy upon all (Rom.11:32);
All is of Him and through Him and for Him (Rom.11:36).
The Greek word 'aionous' means literally 'age-lasting' in Greek ,not as rendered 'everlasting' in "everlasting" ruin (2 Thess.1:9)
There was a time before the ages (2 Tim.1:9)
The ages have an end (Heb.9:26).
Since the ages are confined within finite bounds, that which is eonian or age-lasting, cannot be eternal!!
Thus the eonian ruin of those who do not obey the gospel is confined to the eons or ages.
what could hinder God saving them after the eons? -as He has declared that He will do.
Those who believe now receive salvation with eonian or age-lasting glory.
Those who are not saved until after the eons or ages do not participate in eonian or age-lasting ('everlasting') glory.
Thus God is the Saviour of all men and especially of those that believe.
Once we see that what is called "ever" lasting is limited to the "eons" or ages and is not endless, the way is clear to believe ALL the passages of the BIBLE
That destruction does not necessitate annihilation is evident both from the way this word is used in other passages (the lost....destroyed....sheep of the house of Israel to whom the Lord was sent, for example)
and the fact that those who have been destroyed will all stand before the great white throne! There could be no resurrection if they had been annihilated!
An examination of the original Hebrew will show that the passage "they shall be as though they had not been" (Obadiah 1:16) is mistranslated.... The verb is the same in both parts of the sentence. It should read "they shall be as though they shall not be."
This, instead of suggesting annihilation, refutes the idea altogether.
[Besides the reference is not to mankind as a whole, but only to the nations in the day of the Lord.]
In that same day the proud and lawless shall be burned up, leaving neither root nor branch (Mal.4:1).... But even these must be included in "the `dead" who stand before God at the great white throne (Rev.20: 12).
While we may reject as unscriptural the orthodox intermediate state and "hell", why should we go to the equally unscriptural extreme of annihilation, which we must admit, precludes the fulfillment of God's great oath that every knee shall bow to Him (Rom.14:11)? Now the lake of fire is explained to us as being death.
What scriptural grounds is there for believing that it is not death at all but annihilation?
As resurrection was a possibility with the first death so it is with the second.
This is put beyond question by the fact that at the consummation, when the Son hands over the kingdom to God the Father..... long after death has been cast into the lake of fire, when there is no death but the second death this is the death which is abolished by means of vivification a resurrection of life!
All are made alive at that time, fulfilling the grand promise that, as in Adam all are dying, so in Christ all shall be made alive!
If, at the consummation there is nothing but life, the apparent difficulty of limiting the "everlasting" life of the believer vanishes, he has life as long as there is any such thing as death, and when there is nothing but life.....what else can he have?
So that eonian or age-abiding life, for all practical purposes, amounts to "everlasting" life.
But the destruction (or restraint!) lasts only for the eons or ages, because, in the consummation there will be no death and no sin or restraint, for so perfectly will the Son have subdued all to God that He will hand the kingdom over to God as Father and God will become All in all.
Not All in a few, as orthodoxy teaches, or All in many,
but All in all.
May God's grace help you to consider this BIBLICAL truth for it's own worth through the spirit of truth.
