‘For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him (Jesus), and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through the blood of his cross.’ (Col 1: 19, 20).
When we study the scriptures on the final destiny of unbelievers, we meet an apparent contradiction.
Some scriptures seem to say that all the human race will be saved. Consider the following:
Other scriptures appear to teach that unbelievers will suffer eternal torment.
How can we reconcile this apparent contradiction in the scriptures? How can both teachings be correct?
We will begin by considering the scriptures that lead us to believe that all will eventually be saved. No scripture standing alone is conclusive on this point, but the evidence of several when put together is extremely strong.
Revelation 5: 13 reads, ‘And every created thing that is in heaven and on the earth and under the earth and on the sea, and all things in them, I heard saying, “To Him who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb, be blessing and honour and glory and dominion and power for ever and ever.”’ Every created being is heard praising God. This could hardly happen while 90 per cent of the human race was permanently lost and suffering agonising torment!
1 Corinthians 15: 22-24 strongly states universal salvation: ‘For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ all shall be made alive. But each in his own order: Christ the first fruits, after that those who are Christ’s at His coming, then comes the end, when He delivers up the kingdom to the God and Father, when He has abolished all rule and all authority and power.’ Traditionalists tend to interpret this as ‘All who are in Christ will be made alive’; but that is not what the book says. Paul here simply states that all die in Adam, and in Christ all will be made alive, though not at the same time or all in this age. Salvation is not for all in this life, but in progressive ages and stages.
We find further evidence of this in 1 Peter 3: 19-20. We read that ‘Christ in the spirit went and made proclamation to the spirits in prison, who once were disobedient, when the patience of God kept waiting in the days of Noah, ...’ These rather difficult verses are clarified a little further on in chapter 4 verse 6: ‘For the gospel has for this purpose been preached even to those who are dead, that though they are judged in the flesh as men, they may live in the spirit according to God.’ Peter is not here referring to the righteous saints of old; he is speaking of those before the flood of whom God said that ‘every intent of the thoughts of their hearts was only evil continually’ (Gen 6: 5). We see even these eventually becoming alive in the spirit.
Colossians chapter 1 verses 16, 19 and 20 carry a lot of weight. ‘For by him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things were created by him and for him. ... For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him, and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through his blood, shed on the cross.’ These verses clearly state that God created all things through Jesus, and reconciled all things to himself through Jesus. They even imply that spirits which are now evil will eventually be reconciled to God.
Another scripture helps establish the case for the salvation of all: 1 Tim 4: 10 says, ‘...God, who is the Saviour of all men, especially of believers’. This verse implies that God saves all, but saves believers in some special sense. For believers, as I see it, there is salvation from sin, sickness and many other evils in this life, and salvation from the coming judgement. For unbelievers salvation is not till later.
One more scripture among many others is worth quoting: ‘For from Him and through Him and to Him are all things’ (Rom 11: 36). Must we add to this “except 90 or maybe 99 per cent of the human race, the crown and glory of His creation, which He made in His own image to rule the universe, who are destined for perpetual torment in hell”?
We will now consider the Bible’s teaching on eternal damnation. The Bible speaks of “eternal fire”, “eternal punishment”, “eternal destruction” and “eternal judgement”. Everyone who believes in the inspiration of Scripture must take these statements seriously. Yet no one who believes in and experiences a God of love can feel comfortable with the idea of billions of their fellow creatures of the human race suffering perpetual torture with no hope of any end. Does the Bible really state without doubt that they will?
The doctrine of eternal punishment rests on the meaning of the two Greek words: the noun aiwn (aion) and its adjective aiwnioV (aionios).
In most English bible translations we meet the phrases for ever and for ever and ever. The Greek word in both cases is aion.
Aiwn (aion) is the Greek equivalent of the Hebrew word olam Both these words mean an age or long period of time, or world. This is clear from the context in which they are used in the OT and NT. Detailed study of this is beyond the scope of this article, but anyone with a Strong’s Concordance or computerised Bible can verify this without too much difficulty.
The English word eon (meaning an age) comes directly from the Greek word aion. Interestingly, the English word ever probably comes from the Latin word aevum (as in mediaeval), also meaning an age!
Jude 13 speaks about men ‘... for whom black darkness has been reserved for ever’. In Greek this is eiV aiwna (eis aiona), which literally means for the age.
Revelation 14: 10, 11 speaks of those who ‘will be tormented with fire and sulphur in the presence of the holy angels and in the presence of the Lamb. And the smoke of their torment goes up for ever and ever ...’. Here the Greek is eiV aiwna aiwnwn (eis aionas aionon) meaning literally for ages of ages. The language of this passage comes from Isaiah 34:9, 10: ‘Edom’s streams will be turned into pitch, her dust into burning sulphur; her land will become blazing pitch! It will not be quenched night and day; its smoke will rise for ever.’ Clearly the land of Edom is not still burning today. We cannot take the Hebrew le-olam to mean literally for ever. This confirms that we cannot take the Greek equivalent to mean literally for ever and ever. Similar language is used of the destruction of Babylon in Rev 19: 3.
The popular Louis Segond French Bible translates this phrase as aux siècles des siècles meaning for centuries of centuries. Spanish and Latin Bibles have similar translations.
In most English Bibles we find the words eternal and everlasting. Here the Greek word is aiwnioV (aionios). This is the adjective from the noun aiwn (aion), . There is a corresponding, if obscure, English adjective aeonian.
Does this word aionios definitely mean eternal? Or might it mean age-lasting as we would expect from its derivation? Adjectives normally have meanings corresponding to the nouns from which they are derived. Monthly means relating to a month. Yearly means relating to a year. Millennial means relating to a millennium. We would therefore expect aionios to mean relating to an age or age-lasting.
The adjective aionios is used 70 times in the New Testament. Of these, 42 are in combination with the word zoe meaning life. The other 28 occurrences are with over 20 different nouns. Some of these nouns are fire, punishment, sin, tabernacles, God, destruction, glory, salvation, judgement, redemption, Spirit (or spirit), inheritance, covenant, kingdom and gospel.
Three New Testament passages establish beyond doubt that even if aionios may sometimes means eternal, there are times when it definitely does not.
In Romans chapter 16 verse 25 we read of the mystery kept secret to aionios times. Here aionios clearly cannot mean eternal. It must mean age-lasting. The NIV and the NASB translate it for long ages past. In both 2 Timothy 1: 9 and Titus 1: 2 we find the phrase before aionios times. Obviously no one would try to translate this as before eternal times. The NIV renders these both as before the beginning of time.
Someone will quickly point to Matthew chapter 25 verse 46: ‘Then they will go away to eternal punishment, but the righteous to eternal life.’ We have eternal punishment and eternal life in the same verse. Surely then, either punishment and life are both eternal or neither are.
That argument has a fallacy. To say that something is here for years, doesn’t mean it isn’t also here for centuries. To say that something is age-lasting is not to say that it isn’t also everlasting. Ages are included in eternity.
We should also note that in Matthew 25 Jesus is speaking of the judgement of the nations. Can nations as nations have eternal life? Will there be English, French, Russian and Chinese enclaves in heaven?
However let’s look a bit deeper. What does the word eternal mean? The dictionary probably says lasting for ever. But what does for ever mean? God created time and space. Hebrews chapter 1 verse 2 says, ‘in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed heir of all things, and through whom he made the ages (aions)’. The Greek word aion and the Hebrew word olam can both mean either age or world. They predate modern science in seeing that time and space are related!
Both time and space had a beginning, maybe at the big bang. They will also have an end, maybe when the universe collapses in on itself. God himself is outside space and outside time. He made them both. If time ceases to be, will eternity have any meaning?
Eternal life is a state of life we may enter now, rather than something we are going to receive after we die. Let us be sure we have entered it.
What about the well-known story in Luke chapter 16 of the rich man and Lazarus and ‘the great chasm fixed’ between them after they died? Most people never look in any detail at this passage, and just assume that Jesus was talking about individual salvation, and destiny after death. Let’s take a closer look.
The context of this passage is set a few verses earlier: ‘The Pharisees, who loved money, heard all this and were sneering at Jesus.’ Jesus was speaking to the spiritually privileged people of his day. The rich man, who was dressed in purple and lived in luxury, was a picture of them. The poor beggar, Lazarus, at his gate clothed in rags with dogs licking his wounds pictures the spiritual outsider. Dogs are unclean animals.
Both of them die, and we find Lazarus not in heaven, but in Abraham’s bosom. How could an ignorant heathen like Lazarus end up in Abraham’s bosom, while a son of Abraham was in torment? The rich man continually addressed Abraham as father, but Abraham never called him my son. This story was shocking and offensive to its original hearers.
Let us now consider the chasm. The Greek of verse 26 reads ‘And in all these things ... there is a great chasm fixed...’, not ‘besides all these things ...’ (as in most translations), which is almost the opposite. The chasm lay in the differences between the two men. There was a spiritual chasm between them. Sometimes you speak to people who are strongly grounded in scripture, and have had every spiritual opportunity, and yet cannot receive any real spiritual truth or understanding. Nothing can pass from you to them, or them to you. There is a great chasm fixed between you.
There has been a chasm between the Jew and the Gentile for most of the last 2000 years. The church has bitterly persecuted the Jews, and the Jews have hated what they thought was the Christian faith. Almost nothing has passed across the chasm between them. Like the rich man, the Jews have spent much of that time in torment.
Whatever the nature of this chasm, the fact that it was fixed then, does not necessarily mean that it will always be fixed. If God can move mountains, he can also fill chasms.
Many Jews, both in the land of Israel and in the diaspora, are now returning to the true bosom of Abraham, and believing in their Messiah. Many members of the churches, in spite of thinking they are Abraham’s children, have a great chasm fixed between themselves and God.
The Bible contains strong evidence that we existed as spirits with God before we entered our human bodies. The book of Ecclesiastes makes a clear pronouncement: ‘the dust returns to the ground it came from, and the spirit returns to God who gave it’ (Ecc 12: 7) The word return cannot mean anything other than to go back to where you have come from. If we existed as spirits with God before entering this world, then eternal torment and separation from God after leaving this world become an absurdity. How could a loving and wise God send spirits to this world with a high probability that they would never return to him, but instead spend eternity in indescribable pain and suffering?
I have discussed this topic in more detail in a separate writing entitled Pre-Existence.
Hasn’t the church always taught eternal judgement? Don’t nearly all Christians agree on it? The answer is no. There were early church fathers who believed in universal salvation. Of these Origen is probably the best known.
In the last 400 years Bible translations have nearly all followed the traditional view of eternal punishment. No doubt this has had a strong influence on popular belief. Even so there have been people who have disagreed.
Any way the church is not always right! The majority of people who call themselves Christians believe the Pope is head of the church, and everything that goes with that! At times in church history almost the whole hierarchy has been utterly corrupt both in doctrine and in life. It should never surprise us to find the majority in error. We must learn to seek God for ourselves, and, if necessary, follow him alone.
The church has had an interest in teaching eternal judgement. Unable to attract people by showing the love, joy, peace and forgiveness offered freely in Christ, the church has depended on threats of future torment to keep its grip on its members Eternal judgement has been the party line. All verses that contradict it have been ignored or twisted to mean something different from their obvious meaning. We are so accustomed to the lie, that we find it difficult to accept the truth.
The New Testament undoubtedly speaks of punishment for those who reject Jesus Christ. Jesus and the apostles taught this as a certainty. God cannot accept unrepentant sinners. He would not be just and holy if he could. We must now consider the nature of what awaits the unbeliever.
In Matthew 18: 8, 9 Jesus speaks of aionios fire and a Gehenna of fire. We find the same imagery in the lake of fire in the book of Revelation. Fire destroys, but it does not destroy everything. Paul told the Corinthians (1 Cor 3: 12-15) that it was possible to build with gold, silver and precious stones, or with wood, hay and straw. The fire would test each man’s work. Clearly wood, hay and straw will be destroyed; gold, silver and precious stones will not. The great contrast is between the flesh and the spirit. What is born of the flesh is flesh; what is born of the spirit is spirit. The flesh is cheap and temporary; the spirit is precious and permanent. In 5: 5 Paul goes on to speak of delivering someone to Satan for the destruction of his flesh, that his spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus. This accords with 1 Peter 4: 6: ‘...though they are judged in the flesh as men, they may live in the spirit according to God.’
Fire is a cleansing agent. It accompanied the law-giving on Sinai. Throughout the scriptures it is symbolic of the presence of God. Our God is a consuming fire (Heb 12: 29). It specially signifies the sanctifying Holy Spirit. Brimstone or sulphur that accompanies fire was also regarded as a purifying agent in ancient times. In Greek it is theion, the neuter singular of the adjective theios meaning divine. It is obviously related to God.
In Mat 25: 46 Jesus speaks of aionios punishment. There are two words for punishment in Greek. kolasiV (kolasis), the word used here, carries a definite sense of correction and comes from a root originally meaning to prune. We prune trees in the hope of getting more fruit - not in retributive fury!
In 2 Thes 1: 9 we read of aionios destruction. Paul uses the same word here as he uses in 1 Cor 5: 5 for the destruction of the flesh. Two verses earlier he refers to the Lord Jesus being revealed in flaming fire. When we compare scripture we can see that this verse is correctly translated ‘destruction (coming) from the presence of the Lord’, as in some translations, not ‘destruction away from the presence of the Lord’, as in others. The presence of Jesus is death to the flesh, but life to the spirit.
We must now revisit Revelation 14: 10, 11: ‘(they) will be tormented with fire and sulphur in the presence of the holy angels and in the presence of the Lamb. And the smoke of their torment goes up for ever and ever ...’. Can anyone imagine Jesus supervising the ceaseless and unending torture of vast numbers of the human race? The most hardened inquisition tormenter could hardly do such a thing. However Jesus would happily supervise the purifying and purging of all who need it. This would be totally consistent with the character of the one who gave his own life in agony to save all.
Lastly we must review the phrase aionios judgement in Heb 6: 2. It is called an elementary, foundational teaching. The root meaning of judgement is separation. Again the flesh must be separated from the spirit. It is a process that we should experience in this life. We should judge ourselves, if we do not want to be judged, and we must put to death the deeds of the flesh that we may walk in the spirit. If we are not willing for judgement now, it must come later.