The Prophetic Telegraph - No.106
AN EVERLASTING PROBLEM
Over the years we have
written several articles about the meaning of words like "for ever
and ever," and we have read many different articles from the pens
of others on the same theme. Each of us has in his own way tried to wrestle
with the fact that we have no confidence in The English translations, knowing
that "Conscious Everlasting Torment” is an affront to the Divine
Nature. However, there has always been a niggle at the back of my mind over the
translation. No matter how hard I have tried to justify translating the Greek
word AION as something other than 'ever', it has always left that slight
feeling at the back of my mind that I might have been twisting things for the
sake of "correct theology". Let me say right now that I maintain the
theology of Ultimate Reconciliation without a shadow of doubt. There has never
been any doubt in my mind for nearly thirty years, that the Lord will
eventually reach out to all mankind from all ages of time, and draw them to
Himself. Those who respond to Him gladly and willingly will find few problems.
but those whose hearts are obdurate, and wickedness seems to be ingrained into
their natures, will find many problems with Divine Grace, and all those in this
latter category will suffer inner torment as they become more enlightened. Yes,
there is indeed a real "hell" in that sense, but to say that it will
last "for ever and ever" is utter nonsense, and what is worse, an
affront to God Himself.
Back now to this
"everlasting problem." It's only of more recent times that the whole
matter has been simply resolved, so simply that's its almost laughable to think
back to the strenuous efforts of earlier times. In this brief paper I should
like to reveal the answer to this knotty problem. I now believe that it doesn't
matter whether 'for ever and ever' means just that. In fact let's start off by
believing that the men who used the expression believed in such perpetuity, not
theologically, but figuratively, in the usage of language. We might say that
its a "gross exaggeration." (And I wrote extensively about that in
P.T.54)
In English today we
frequently use gross exaggeration, and nobody takes us literally.
"I've
had one hell of a day," says the husband returning from work.
"Dad,
that dinosaur was simply ginormous," says his son over supper.
"I'm
tired. Helen spent simply ages on the phone this afternoon," says his wife.
"We're
simply light years apart in our thinking," says the daughter, referring to the
boyfriend she's just jilted.
"l'll
not believe that in a million years," says Aunt Gwen about some news item on the
radio.
Ah yes, you might say,
that's how we think today, and nobody takes us seriously. It's just the way we
talk, for the sake of effect, to ram the point home with more force. "But,"
I hear you say, "you can't use that sort of argument on the Bible.
When God speaks, He's serious. He means just what He says. You can't intimate
that the Lord used such hyperbole. If He did, then how could we distinguish
between when He was speaking the truth, and when He was exaggerating for
effect? No, I don't think we can make a parallel between Biblical speech and
modern hyperbole. The words of God have to be taken literally and
seriously."
On the surface this sounds
like good logic. And if I didn't have proof to the contrary, then I would be
accpting their argument. But strangely enough the Bible is as full of hyperbole
as modern life, and what is more it flows from the Divine Lips as well as from
the lips of mankind!
When I wrote the article on
"Gross
Exaggeration" I gave numerous examples of this, and I would encourage my readers to
look at it again. But in this paper I want to concentrate on one Figure of
Speech to the exclusion of the rest. It may come as a surprise to see examples
of the way the Lord speaks. We are concerned with the subject of ETERNITY,
the "forever and evers" of the Bible, and what they
mean. And so it will be best to look at a similar figure in the Old Testament,
and relate it to our present problem.
In Genesis
"I will multiply your
seed as the stars of heaven, and as the sand on the seashore."
But in Genesis 16:13 the
Lord said,
"I will multiply your
seed as the sand of the seashore, which cannot be numbered".
The Lord knew, and surely
Abraham knew, that nobody could count the grains of sand on the seashore.
Anyone who has taken a handful and tried counting will soon be throwing it down
in disgust. The problem is too great. So are we to take the word of the Lord
seriously? Literally? Of course not! Was God lying to Abraham? If you require
that every word spoken by God is LITERALLY true, then you must pronounce Him to
be a liar. A very serious charge, which I'm sure nobody would make who has the
slightest degree of godly fear in their hearts.
What then is the
alternative? To assume that ONE DAY in the far distant future the seed of
Abraham will be so numerous as to be uncountable? Would that satisfy the
literalist? In fact the Scriptures won't allow that construction as will now be
shown. In Deuteronomy
"You are this day as the
stars of heaven for multitude."
Were they? I suppose
someone will come forward and argue that since they didn't possess telescopes
in those days, they could only count the naked-eye stars, not knowing just how
vast the stellar heavens were. If that's the case, then
Let's take a look at Judges
7:12. It's not the Lord speaking this time, but the chronicler. However, the
language is similar in kind.
"The Midianites and the
Amalekites and all the children of the East lay along the valley like locusts
for multitude, and their camels were without number, as the sand of the
seashore for multitude."
Isn't it clear that the
figure of speech is used whenever an UNCOUNTABLE NUMBER is in mind? And if
that's true, then we must always understand what the speaker means whenever the
figure is used, whether it be man or the Lord Himself. Two more examples will
suffice. The Psalmist (139:17-18) says,
"How precious are Your
thoughts to me! How great is their sum! If I could count them, they are MORE IN
NUMBER than the sand of the seashore"'
(That seems to be taking it
a step further, rather like the boy who combines gigantic with enormous to make
ginormous!) But in Jeremiah 15:8 the Lord speaks about the distress of His
people in this wise -
"Their widows are
increased to me ABOVE the sand of the seas."
It's an example of what
might be called the "upgrading of the figure of speech"
when the normal figure is so constantly used that it begins to lose its force
in conversation.
These examples were all in
the context of QUANTITY, but the same figure has been used in the Bible in
respect of TIME. In Exodus 20:5 the Lord says,
"I am a jealous God, visiting
the iniquity of the fathers upon the children to the third and fourth
generation of those who hate me."
But in Deut.7:9 God says,
"The Lord your God keeps
covenant and mercy with those who love Him and keep His commandments to a
THOUSAND GENERATIONS."
Here then is the contrast.
Iniquity is only allowed to persist in evil families as for as the fourth
generation at the most, but merciful blessings are promised to a thousand
generations of those who love God. The message is clear enough. God's love is
so rich, so full, so abounding to His creatures that He employs this hyperbole
to express it. Those who persist in taking things literally should by now try
to measure out the time, by adopting say 40 years to a generation, and then
saying that God will keep His covenant for 40,000 years. But that is not the
way to interpret God's words, and the examples given above are adequate
testimony to that fact.
In Hebrew one meets the
expression L'OLAM VA-ED, which could be translated into modern idiom by "forever and
a day."
It is the precursor of the Greek "unto the ages of the
ages",
i.e. "for ever arid ever" in the A.V.. Bibles. David says in Psalm
145:1,
"I will bless Your name
FOR EVER AND EVER."
In the next Psalm he speaks
about singing praises to God "while I have my being." In other words "for ever and
ever" is
hyperbole. In Isaiah 34:10 the Lord speaks about the day of His vengeance, and
the land that shall be made like smoking pitch, the smoke of which shall not be
put out day or night "for ever." This is the origin of all the New Testament
expressions, from which the literalists have built their traditions about "Conscious
Eternal Punishment." Those who now understand the force of
the hyperbolic figure will readily see that the expression suggests force and
vigour, of dire punishment to the wicked, but to say that it will last for ever
is as unacceptable as the 40,000 years of God's mercy mentioned above. If the
sand of the seashore can represent a few thousand, or even a million people,
then "for ever and ever" can represent a most
painful time of re-assessment, re-appraisal, repentance and inner torment, but
its duration will last only as long as is needed to do its salutary work of re-creation
for God's glory.
Now that I've seen the
force of this Biblical Hyperbole, and how it applies to QUANTITY and TIME,
there's no further need for argument about the meaning of "unto the ages
of the ages". Let it be translated "for ever" if you wish, but
to say that it MEANS THAT IN PRACTICE is an utter absurdity.