No Tense Like the Present
It’s no coincidence that the Bible was recorded in Koine Greek.
It was the trade language of the civilized world at that time, just like English is today. The Greek is also unique in its ability to convey meaning through verbal aspect. One of the best examples of that is found in the apostle Paul’s first letter to the church of God which [was] at Corinth. He said:
“…the word of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.” [1Cor. 1:18] [my emphasis]
[ἀπόλλυμι (â-pô’-lū-mee): to destroy {an inanimate object}, to kill {by taking a life}, cause to lose {especially a life}; to die or perish. Violence and strife is often the associative meaning related to this word.] Strong’s Definition; G/K NUMBER: 660
This sentence is packed with meaning.
It suggests caution, certainty and encouragement all at the same time. Even taken out of context, it stands alone in its ability to describe some harsh realities we can observe today. But the implications are greater than we might imagine.
Because if I think the good news about Jesus having proven that the dead can be raised is hogwash, then it isn’t just my destiny that’s on the table.
If I’m perishing, it’s happening now. The words “perishing” and “being saved” are both recorded as Present Passive Tense Participles defining them as a continuous activities happening in real time.
Think about it.
If my [pagan] hope is to merely not exist after death, then, after I’m brought back to life to be judged by my works before the great white throne, I’ll get my wish. After all, by definition, perishing is a process which must have a conclusion. [Rev. 21:8]
On the other hand, if I’m “being saved,” I’m reaping the fruits of sanctification every day. Those of us who float in that boat probably don’t have words to express the unfathomable value of it.
But what could be more miserable than an ongoing awareness of my demise?
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You are assuming that the people who are perishing as a process will one day perish forever, and that their will to do so will prevail over God’s will to bring them to a saving knowledge of the truth, which is what 1 Tim 2:4 tells us. People try to tell me that this verse really says that God “desires” for all men to be saved, but they are only taking the subordinate part of the meaning of the word θέλει, a word which actually denotes an objective choosing of the will which is motivated by a strong subjective desire. But even if we ignore that and it is granted that the word should be translated as “desires”, there are a lot of places where God says that He will accomplish all that He desires also.
The many passages in the bible that deal with judgement and punishment always seem to get interpreted in the strongest sense possible and are used as a filter to justify the modification and limitation of passages which plainly state God’s plan to save all men . It doesn’t seem to occur to people to do things the other way around and take the “universalist” passages as the baseline and interpret the passages on judgement and punishment within that framework. I have a hard time not seeing universal salvation being taught in Isaiah 45:22. The context of that passage is salvation, not judgement. Most of the time people just read the verses in Romans 14:11 and Philippians 2:10-11 and form a mental picture of God’s “enemies” having their arms twisted behind their backs or otherwise being forced to confess that they were wrong about Jesus and deserve punishment. They don’t bother to read the passage in Isaiah 45 that Paul is quoting from. The end of verses 20 and 21, along with verse 22 make it clear that the context is focused on salvation, not judgement. Verse 22 makes it clear that it is universal in scope (all the ends of the earth) as does the repetition of the word “every” in relation to knees bowing and tongues confessing. And what is the content of the confession that is made in verse 24? “Surely in the Lord I have righteousness and strength. To Him men shall come, and all shall be ashamed who are incensed against Him.”. That doesn’t sound like a grudging confession made by an unsaved “enemy”. Maybe a former enemy, though. When it is said that all who are incensed against the Lord will be ashamed, the speaker is talking from experience. Until we come to a place of repentance, all of us are guilty of relying on our own strength and our own righteousness, and when these are shown to come up short, shame is the result. But this verse doesn’t say that the shame is going to last forever.
Which brings up another thing, the way the Hebrew word olam, and the family of Greek words based on the root word aion are mistranslated as “forever” and “eternal” in our bibles. This is one way that people justify explaining away the many passages which plainly the salvation of all. The word olam denotes a period of time whose end is unknown, and even a quick glance at its usage in the old testament shows that it doesn’t mean forever. The Greek phrase “forever and ever” in the new testament is one of the more egregious examples of mistranslating. It is αἰῶνας τῶν αἰώνων in Greek, and both αἰῶνας and αἰώνων are plural in form, so it should literally read “forevers and evers”. Except for the fact that there is no copulative “and” anywhere to be found in the Greek. The word τῶν is a definite article and the ων ending on αἰώνων makes this a genetive construct. There is no adding a plurality of αἰῶνας one after another to convey the idea of “forever”. The αἰῶνας are a subset of τῶν αἰώνων. There are several words which unequivocally get across the meaning of “eternal”, “unending” or “forever” in Greek, but those words are never used in connection with judgement or punishment in the bible. The meaning of the “aion” words will vary in relation to that which they are used in relation to. Even when used to describe “life” as in ζωὴν αἰώνιον, it does not refer to “eternal” life as our bibles read. It refers to life in the age to come, an age which is not going to last forever, since it is called “the millennium”. The Jews call it the olam-ha-ba, the age to come. The Hebrew word olam is just as plastic in meaning as aion in Greek. Just because ζωὴν αἰώνιον is not referring to “eternal” life, this does not mean that there is no guarantee of life after the millennium. What it means is that the phrase ζωὴν αἰώνιον does not include what comes afterward in its scope. At the end of the millennium, the last enemy will be destroyed and all that will be left is life. The dimension of time will no longer exist, so at that point life will be eternal. It is interesting that all of the words that actually convey the idea of “unending” or “forever” in Greek all begin with the negative particle “α” like ἀπέραντος, ἀμάραντος, etc. People will argue that “aion” words are used to describe God (1 Tim 1:17, Heb. 9:14) so the word must mean “eternal”. In these cases, they are right, but only because “aion” words DERIVE their meaning from that which they are used in relation to, and there are places in the scripture which make it clear that God is eternal. If I say “Abraham Lincoln was a great man” to someone in a conversation with someone and then later on I tell them about a great pastrami sandwich on rye I had the other day, does the word “great” mean the same thing in both cases? The “aion” of some forms of bacteria is a few hours, the aion of some insects a few days, for dogs it might be 10-20 years, and a man between 80 – 90 years or so, the aion of God is obvious.
Along with mis-translating “aion” words as “forever” and “eternal”, Hebrews 9:27-28 gets trotted out to supposedly prove that a person’s fate is sealed when they die, but that is not what this passage is about. In all Greek texts of Hebrew 9:27 there is a definite article – tois – between the words that are translated as “unto” and “men”. There is a specific group of men in view here, and judging from the context, this is referring to the high priests, who once a year died a symbolic death as representatives for all of the people when they entered the Holy of Holies on the Day of Atonement, BEARING THE SINS OF MANY (the nation of Israel) per Exodus 28:29-30. The whole chapter’s context is a comparison between the ministries of the high priests and that of Jesus. After the high priest died this symbolic death, it is his ministry that is judged in the last half of Hebrews 9:27. Verse 28 begins with a comparative term – οὕτως. There are a lot more points of comparison between the role of the high priest on the Day of Atonement and Jesus’ fulfillment of that prophetic type than there are if we see the phrase “τοῖς ἀνθρώποις” as denoting all of mankind. #1 – Do all men bear the sins of many? No, but this was one of the jobs of the high priests. #2 – Are all men “sacrificed? No, but the high priests were, in a symbolic sense. There was actually a doubling up of this symbolism, because although the high priests “died” as a representative of the people, the blood of the goat that had been sacrificed was offered in his stead. #3 – The mention of people eagerly waiting for a “second appearing” is a reference to the fact that the high priest actually appeared coming out of the Holy of Holies TWICE on the Day of Atonement. The first time after sprinkling the blood of a bull to atone for himself and his household (Lev 16:6-14), and the second time after sprinkling the blood of the goat that atoned for the whole nation. That is what the “second appearing” in Hebrews 9:28 is referring to and the HEBREW recipients of that letter would have recognized this right away, since the people would do this every year. If the high priest’s ministry was flawed, he could die in the Holy of Holies, like Nadab and Abihu in Lev 10. If something like that happened to the high priest on the day of atonement, there would be no atonement made. That is why the people eagerly waited for the high priest to come back out “a second time”. Correctly applying Hebrews 9:27 to the high priests also eliminates the need to make a lot of “exceptions” for all of the people in the bible who died and were raised back to life only to die a second time, like the Shunamite’s son in 2 Kings 4:35, or Lazarus in John 11:44 along with many other examples.
When I clicked on the words “which must have a conclusion” in the article above that are in green, I read towards the end of that post titled “His limits of retribution” where you wrote on the importance of not adding to or taking away from God’s word. This is part and parcel of the commandment to not take the Lord’s Name in vain. That command is not about using swear words, it is about not misrepresenting God and His nature, something we all do to one extent or another (James 3:2). What we believe about how God will deal with His “enemies” is a big part of that commandment. Most Christians don’t know how much study, prayer and reflection is required to separate fact from assumption in this regard. They also probably don’t know the wide range of meaning for the words olam and aion. Or that in Hebrews 9:27, the King James bible actually both adds to and takes away from the word of God. It “takes away” the definite article τοῖς in the first part of the verse and in the second half it “adds” a definite article when there is none in the Greek. For those that are interested, http://www.tentmaker.org has a lot of eye-opening material available in their “scholar’s corner”. Some of the books are quite long, but are for the most part understandable for those who aren’t scholars. There are also several other websites with information on how God plans to save all mankind by bringing them to faith in Jesus Christ, either in this age or the one to come.
Thanks Chris! Maybe I am making that assumption about the finality of perishing based on the Greek definitions. But then, I’ve learned that some definitions in the lexicons follow the same biased patterns demonstrated in the translations, perhaps being added to or modified over the centuries to fit the purposes of whatever form of popular doctrine seems to fill the pews the best? Lol! Please fill me in. I also could respond somewhat more logically if I had what you’re claiming to be a little more insight into the word θέλω and its morphology as well? 🙂
All doesn’t always mean all. It often means some of all types, as the meaning here. God will save some from every tribe nation and tongue who where chosen in Him before the foundation of the world. Jesus said few will find the way. In Noah’s day, eight out of the entire population were saved. Your looooong convoluted diatribe looks impressive, but is void of spiritual understanding.
I don’t have the intelligence to fully understand what is being conveyed here. I just know that my heart tells me Jesus Christ is my savior.