Pepper77
By grace through faith
- Aug 1, 2014
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The Greek term used for the period of time mentioned by Christ in the pasage quoted, means: 'an age of punishment', (αἰώνιος aiōnios : i.e. ages long), often translated into English as everlasting or eternal, but more likely meaning here 'for as long as necessary', which of course could even also turn out to be eternally.
However Christ never used the term 'αἰώνιος / aiōnios' when he spoke to the crowds. Jesus spoke almost entirely in Aramaic, so 'αἰώνιος / aiōnios' is a Greek transalation of what He originally said in Aramaic, and that translation is again translated from Greek into English, so you and I can understand it in our own language. Something may have gotten lost along the way, in this two fold translation process.
However I think it is safe to assume that Jesus intended his hearers to understand that he was implying a long time rather than the blink of an eye, and God, (unlike Satan), does not punish without purpose, God's purpose being to encourage repentance and restoration, rather than destruction for revenge or for his personal pleasure. Bear in mind though that 'a long time' is a meaningless concept in an eternal environment, such as heaven or hell, so the term Jesus actually used in Aramaic may have been a metaphorical rather than a literal description of the actual interval involved.
Be that as it may Jesus was clearly intending us and his hearers to want to be included in the 'eternal life' queue rather than the 'eternal punishment' one, so we all know what we need to do about that, don't we.
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Thank you for that explanation, I’ll do some study on that. For years I believed in eternal conscious punishment, never really studying it. The last ten years I have studied it and believe that the evidence in scripture is for a judgment of the lost, and punishment based upon their works, but a punishment with an end. But I really see nothing in scripture that indicates a chance of repentance and salvation for the lost after death. I think it’s in my finite mind a beautiful thought, but I see no evidence. It seems all the evidence points to the opposite. Do you have any other scriptures pointing to that possibility?
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