At the beginning of Chapter 5 in "The Really Good News About God" I mention preachers who ask their congregations, "Where will you spend eternity?"- a question designed to prepare the audience for a "fake news" promotion.
If those preachers understood that Jesus died for the sins of the world (1 John 2 : 2),
that God is the Saviour of the world (1 Timothy 4 : 10),
that Jesus came to save the world (John 3 : 17) and
that God no longer holds people's sins against them (2 Corinthians 5 : 19),
then they would not ask such a silly question.
They should all just know the answer: we'll all be together with God.
Eternal life is a given for everyone because of what Jesus achieved on the cross.
An interesting way of saying this is : If you are a descendant of Adam, then you have eternal life.
Really?
Yes, 1 Corinthians 15 : 22 says, "For as in Adam all die, so in Christ all will be made alive."
(Beware of people, including some translators, who change the order of the words in this verse to support their claim that not all who die because of Adam will be made alive because of Christ.)
I like using the CEV version of this verse, because it makes the order of the words harder to change, "Adam brought death to all of us, and Christ will bring life to all of us."
For many people this will not happen until the conclusion of the ages.
They will live their life on this planet giving God no consideration at all, will die, will remain asleep until the resurrection at the end of the realm of time, when, among other things, death is abolished and only life remains - eternal life with God.
Now, about this fake news or fake sales promotion.
Preachers who are trying to sell "eternal life" are trying to promote something to people they already have.
"You need to confess your sins, you need to repent, you need to be baptised, you need to join our church, you need to ... and you will be saved, get eternal life," is a frequent line of approach.
But the fact is: we don't need to do anything now to get eternal life - it's a done deal, for all descendants of Adam.
So what justification is there for preachers to offer eternal life to people?
Unfortunately, poor translation of our English Bibles.
Most of our popular translations of the New Testament mention eternal life 42 times which gives preachers the Biblical backing for asking their question.
However in all of those 42 occasions, the underlying Greek word is aionian, which means "belonging to/during the eon or age", not "eternal". **
For example, look at 2 Peter 1 : 11 from two popular translations (ESV and NIV) and two literal translations (YLT and CLV).
- For in this way there will be richly provided for you an entrance into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. (ESV)
- and you will receive a rich welcome into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. (NIV)
- for so, richly shall be superadded to you the entrance into the age-during reign of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. (YLT)
- For thus will be richly supplied to you the entrance into the eonian kingdom of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. (CLV)
Given that Jesus is going to hand over His kingdom to the Father at the end of the ages (1 Cor 15 : 24), it is impossible for His kingdom to be eternal, just age-during or eonian, showing how obvious is the translation error in our popular translations.
So the offer really being made is for eonian life, life during the ages, life in the kingdom of Christ, life in the Body of Christ during the remaining eons, and not having to wait till the end of the ages when all will receive eternal life.
So what about those verses that say you have to be a believer to have eternal life?
Correctly translated, they are saying you have to be a believer to be in the Body of Christ, to have life and rule with Christ through the coming ages.
And what a blessing that will be!
Blessings, Barry
** To read more about this wrongly translated word, go to our webpage at www.ibtechservices.com.au, enter Main Website, click on The Bible image, click Bible Background, click on Translations, and read about Nouns and Their Adjectives.
We often hear the expression "he/she has fallen from grace" when referring to a follower of Jesus who has become lukewarm or antagonistic towards their previous Christian faith or lifestyle.
Even Paul accuses the Christians in Galatia who have reverted to following the law as their means of remaining in right-standing before God as having fallen from grace (Gal 5 : 4)
Since grace is God's gift, his undeserved favour toward us, and completely under his control, how can we fall from it? No matter what we do God doesn't withdraw his love or grace. It is determined, guaranteed, by his character.
So what can possibly be meant by the expression "fallen from grace"?
Because it is an action taken by the once-believer, and not an action taken by God, it can only mean that people in that position no longer appreciate God's grace and, of course, have foregone all the benefits that God's grace showers on us.
So, can we fall from grace?
Most definitely YES.
We can turn our backs on what God has provided for us through the death and resurrection of Jesus, as the Galatians did, and miss out on the blessings of living in union with Christ during the ages, the realm of time.
And this would be a great shame to have tasted these blessings and then let them go.
(I don't really understand how people manage to live in this corrupt world with all its dangers and heartaches without a relationship with God.)
But does this mean such a person is eternally lost?
Most definitely NO.
God eventually abolishes death and becomes All in all at the completion of the ages. (1 Cor 15 : 20 - 28)
So although people might miss out on eonian life (age-during life), life exists for all after death is abolished.
And how does this eventuate?
Not sure, but I offer some suggestions in Chapter 5 of "The Really Good News About God".
Blessings, Barry
2 Thessalonians 1 : 6 - 10
Background .....
Paul wrote this letter to the Thessalonian saints about the middle of the first century AD, either in the year 50 or 51, only a short time after he had written his previous letter to them.
These saints were clearly under great stress due to "religious" persecution from non-Christian Jews (verse 4 and Acts 17) and were being encouraged by the promise of relief and a just end-result (verse 6).
The tricky verses .....
Here is the NIV translation of these verses, amended to reflect a more literal rendering of the underlying Greek text.
God is just: He will pay back trouble to those who trouble you and give relief to you who are troubled, and to us as well.
This will happen when the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven with his powerful messengers in blazing fire.
He will punish those who do not know God and do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus.
They will be punished with age-lasting ruin and shut out from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of his might on the day he comes to be glorified in his holy people and to be marvelled at among all those who have believed.
This includes you, because you believed our testimony to you.
Explanation of amendments .....
Messengers (verse 7).
The Greek word here is 'aggelos' and is most often transliterated as 'angel' rather than translated as 'messenger' or 'agent.' Not using 'angel' is wise as sometimes the messenger or agent is not a celestial courier, but a human one (for example, John the Baptist). In the case here, the text does not reveal what type of messenger is meant.
Age-lasting ruin (verse 9).
The Greek word here is 'aionion.' It is the adjectival form of the noun 'aion.' Aion is 'age' or 'eon' in English, an unspecified period of time which has a beginning and an end, so 'aionion' must be related to an 'age' or 'eon' in some way. It should never be translated as 'eternal' as 'eternity' is the timeless realm, having no beginning or end. Unfortunately, most popular, volume-selling English Bibles translate 'aionion' as 'eternal' in order to give strength to the theological position of their translators and publishers, and of their potential church market.
My Comments .....
The events discussed in these verses had great relevance to the Thessalonian saints, and of course, to all other saints of that era who were being persecuted by the Jews.
The relief promised would have been in their lifetime or would have been of little comfort to them. Indeed Jesus confirmed this timeline to his disciples when he said, "Truly I tell you, some who are standing here will not taste death before they see the Son of Man coming in his kingdom [or sovereignty]." [ Matthew 16 : 28 ]
It wasn't suggested that the relief would come when they died and left this planet and moved into the peaceful presence of God; it would come when the Jesus-empowered agents came and took away their enemies in blazing fire.
This fits the destruction of Jerusalem and the Jewish centre of religion by fire in AD70 by the Romans, who were Jesus' agents of the fiery judgement that had been predicted by Jesus and several OT prophets. Indeed Jesus warns the Jewish leaders about this fiery future judgement quite often, using the fire of Gehenna as his illustration.
So, although many in mainstream Christianity see this passage as dealing with yet future events, I don't agree. Persecuted Thessalonian saints of the first century would hardly be comforted by promises to Christians living thousands of years later.
The punishment administered to the Jews would be their ruin or destruction as God's chosen people through whom the nations would be brought to God, and would last until the end of the next age. Jesus had earlier confirmed this when he said to their chief priests and elders, " ..... the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a people who will produce its fruit." [Matthew 21 : 43]
Consequently, the Jews will not enjoy God's presence or his powerful rule in the kingdom age. Anyone reading Matthew's Gospel can't miss the constant references to the kingdom in many of Jesus' parables and his repeated warnings that Israel would miss out on the kingdom age if they refused to change their ways. The parable of the weeds in Matthew 13 is probably one of the best known.
(Nevertheless, Israel will be all saved after this age, as Paul reveals in Romans 11 : 25 - 26.)
So, although many in mainstream Christianity see this passage as forecasting the eternal, future destruction of all unbelievers of all ages at the end of time, I don't agree. The age-lasting fate of Jewish persecutors of first century followers of Jesus is the focus here.
Please do not hesitate to offer any of the C's to this post - comment, clarification, correction, criticism, challenge, cross-examination - as the discovery of truth is the name of the game for me.
Blessings, Barry
