Doctoral dissertation on Aion

[steve]

We need neither the word aionios nor aidios to describe a life that never ends. We have that in the phrases "shall not perish" and "shall never die" in various passages in John, as well as in the word "immortal" in Paul's writings. Our confidence in the perpetual nature of the future life of the believer does not depend on any verse containing aionios or aidios.

[Homer]

steve7150 wrote:

Yes but Paul calls believers "immortal" at the resurrection, so i think it's a moot point.

Steve(Gregg wrote)

We need neither the word aionios nor aidios to describe a life that never ends. We have that in the phrases "shall not perish" and "shall never die" in various passages in John, as well as in the word "immortal" in Paul's writings.

Thanks to both of you for inspiring me to research the scriptures regarding how the writers used such words as "immortal". "perish", "shall not perish", "shall never die", etc., and how they relate to such words as the Greek aion, aionios, and English words such as eternal, forever, everlasting, etc.

It seems to me that the most certain way to know what any particular word meant is to determine in the context what the person who used the word(s) meant when he used it. Lexicons can not determine this in many cases as words often have a range of meaning.

I have selected a number of interesting scriptures which follow with my comments following each.

All scripture citations New King James Version (NKJV)

Luke 10:25
25. And behold, a certain lawyer stood up and tested Him, saying, “Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal (aionios) life?”

How can we believe Luke did not mean eternal here? It is not credible to believe the man was inquiring about some nebulous "age" or "lasting" life.


Luke 20:33-37
33. Therefore, in the resurrection, whose wife does she become? For all seven had her as wife.”
34. Jesus answered and said to them, “The sons of this age (aion) marry and are given in marriage. 35. But those who are counted worthy to attain that age (aion), and the resurrection from the dead, neither marry nor are given in marriage; 36. nor can they die anymore, for they are equal to the angels and are sons of God, being sons of the resurrection.

Here we see that those in the age (aion) to come who are worthy become immortal and thus have eternal life. This life is conditioned on being worthy.

John 3:16
16. For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting (aionios) life.

And here we find that aionios (everlasting) life is contrasted with perishing.

John 6:47-51, 54
47. Most assuredly, I say to you, he who believes in Me has everlasting (aionios) life. 48. I am the bread of life. 49 Your fathers ate the manna in the wilderness, and are dead. 50. This is the bread which comes down from heaven, that one may eat of it and not die. 51. I am the living bread which came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever (aion); and the bread that I shall give is My flesh, which I shall give for the life of the world.”

54. Whoever eats My flesh and drinks My blood has eternal (aionios) life, and I will raise him up at the last day.

In this passage we see both aion and aionios used of that future life where we will never die.

John 10:27-28
27. My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me. 28. And I give them eternal (aionios) life, and they shall never perish; neither shall anyone snatch them out of My hand.

Here we see eternal life contrasted with perishing, the second death, obviously, for we will all die physical death unless Jesus returns first. The statement is pointless if none suffer the second death.

John 11:26
26. And whoever lives and believes in Me shall never die. Do you believe this?”

Again immortality is promised to those who believe in Jesus, a pointless statement if Universalism is true.

Romans 2:5-8
5. But in accordance with your hardness and your impenitent heart you are treasuring up for yourself wrath in the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God, 6. who “will render to each one according to his deeds”: 7. eternal (aionios) life to those who by patient continuance in doing good seek for glory, honor, and immortality;

Here we find that those who seek immortality will receive it. Aionios life is immortal life.

Romans 6:23
23. For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal (aionios) life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

And here the second death is the antithesis of aionios life.

Galatians 6:8
8. For he who sows to his flesh will of the flesh reap corruption, but he who sows to the Spirit will of the Spirit reap everlasting (aionios) life.

And here we see that the lost reap corruption (what happens to dead bodies), or the opposite of everlasting (aionios) life.

Aion and aionios obviously are used in the scriptures with the meaning of eternal, everlasting, and forever.

[steve]

I don't see that these verses use aionios as a synonym for "endless." It is true that immortality is one of the features of the aionios life, as no one has denied. I am of the view (along with many who hold the traditionalist view, by the way, like G. Campbell Morgan) that aionios probably means "of the [Messianic] age." This is exactly what the rich, young ruler (and every pious Jew) would be seeking to know about. Life "of the age" lasts forever, as many of the passages show, but that is not its only feature of that life worth mentioning,

[Homer]

Steve,

You wrote:

It is true that immortality is one of the features of the aionios life, as no one has denied. I am of the view (along with many who hold the traditionalist view, by the way, like G. Campbell Morgan) that aionios probably means "of the [Messianic] age." This is exactly what the rich, young ruler (and every pious Jew) would be seeking to know about. Life "of the age" lasts forever, as many of the passages show, but that is not its only feature of that life worth mentioning,

Fair enough. This seems a bit like discussing what is meant by "old man" when describing a person. Does it refer to his mental condition, physical condition, age in years, attitude, or what? And this goes to my point in my previous post. What the biblical writers meant to say is decisive.

Here the point (contrast) is about everlasting life as opposed to perishing:

John 3:16
16. For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting (aionios) life.

And again the contrast is between everlating (aionios) life, live forever (aion), and death:

John 6:47-51, 54
47. Most assuredly, I say to you, he who believes in Me has everlasting (aionios) life. 48. I am the bread of life. 49 Your fathers ate the manna in the wilderness, and are dead. 50. This is the bread which comes down from heaven, that one may eat of it and not die. 51. I am the living bread which came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever (aion); and the bread that I shall give is My flesh, which I shall give for the life of the world.”

And again the contrast is between eternal (aionios) life and perishing:

John 10:27-28
27. My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me. 28. And I give them eternal (aionios) life, and they shall never perish; neither shall anyone snatch them out of My hand.

And again:

Romans 6:23
23. For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal (aionios) life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

And again:

Galatians 6:8
8. For he who sows to his flesh will of the flesh reap corruption, but he who sows to the Spirit will of the Spirit reap everlasting (aionios) life.

It is the biblical writers in their use of the word and what they associate it with that must determine the meaning in the particular context. In these passages the focus is on eternal life as opposed to death, not some other feature of Messiah's reign such as peace, happiness, etc., etc. If I say "John is an old man, but his wife is only thirty", you would immediately recognize I was speaking of John's chronological age and not his attitude or other characteristc.

[steve]

It is very difficult for any of us to realize how much our assumptions influence our instincts and our interpretations.

You see, I don't see any evidence in the passages cited that entering life, as opposed to "perishing", means that the life is or is not endless. The word for "perishing" (as has been pointed out here previously) is the same Greek word for being "lost" in other passages. It apparently does not have to refer to a final state, since the "lost" (perished) sheep, coin and son (Luke 15) were all later recovered.

When one assumes that Jesus' and the apostles' message is primarily about postmortem, everlasting destinies (as our culture has tended to make the central issue in "religion"), we naturally will interpret passages in that light, whether there is good reason to do so or not. I believe that most references to people experiencing loss, ruin, destruction, corruption, etc. in scripture are referring to the near-term consequences of ungodly living, while leaving the postmortem consequences to the imagination.

Likewise, with references to "life of the age," there may be implications and subtexts of the next life after this one (e.g., after death or after the resurrection), but I believe that the message, in most cases, is concerned with coming to Christ now, and experiencing "life more abundantly" (John 10:10) in the kingdom of God—immediately, but continuing into the eternal future. The latter emphasis is ours, I think, not so much that of the New Testament.

This is not to say that postmortem, or eternal, destinies were far from Christ's or the apostles' minds—especially when they were contemplating physical death (e.g., 2 Tim.4:6-8). However, the bulk of the New Testament teaching is about living in Christ, and following Him "in newness of life" (Rom.6:4). I can't prove this to the satisfaction of those who still think that Christianity is mostly about securing a ticket for the next life, but I am persuaded that it is so. Therefore, the verses you cite carry a different connotation to my mind.

[steve7150]

It may be possible that aionios life when referencing the "righteous" can mean "life with God" as opposed to a measurement of time. Yes all the unsaved perish, yet on judgment day they all (including Sodom) are raised to judgment. Judgment (krisis or krino) seems like a word allowing God to impose appropriate sentences to the guilty based on justice and mercy the two most important aspects of God's law (Matt 23.23). Simply vaporizing everyone or simply sentencing everyone to eternal fire or darkness doesn't reconcile to justice and mercy.
In fact some of the definitions of justice or judgment seem to allow for rehabilitation and reconciliation, which after all is God's will.

[Singalphile]

I don't want to get too OT but...

On the show (TNP, early Feb 2010), I think I understood Steve (you, if you're reading this ) to refer to this current life as the testing/proving ground and the final judgement (when our Lord returns) as our "graduation". Normally, the real purpose and goal of all of the testing starts after the graduation.

So I guess that we will be doing something even more glorifying and important to God after our "graduation".

... but, yes, God is teaching us now and that should be our focus. It is apparently not important to understand what "eternity" will be like. (Or maybe it's important that we don't understand.)

[steve]

There is a balance between our awareness of ultimate goals and the present responsibilities that bring those goals nearer. A student in college has a goal—namely to graduate. This goal is always in the back of the mind, even when concentrating on present studies. When the student becomes weary of study, he might ask, "Why do I even spend my time doing this?"—which question is answered by appeal to the future beyond graduation. Similarly, a mother has a goal that her baby will someday grow into an adult and make her proud, but right now there are diapers to change. Most of the time, we must concern ourselves with present responsibilities, and allow the future to take care of itself. In most things of significance, there is a vision that drives present activity.

We have entered into a life that is forever. The fact that it is forever has great impact on our present activities, since it will have ramifications for us even when this life is over. This is very helpful for us to know. But the part of that life that is right before us is the practical concern of the moment, and is the main subject of the textbook for the course—just as the biology textbook talks about biology, not about how much money biologists will make in their profession after graduation.

We have been informed that we are in a course of study from which our successful graduation is all-important. The responsibilities of the moment, however, are the focus of our instruction. What we do today impacts what we will hear said about us at graduation day, but the focus of each day is upon the duties before us that day. When the trials of this life become difficult, and we are tempted to say, "Why am I even doing this?" we glance again at the goal and the reward in the future. Then we put our attention back where it belongs, on the task before us. It is this task, I believe, and not the next life, that is the main subject of the Bible. This may explain why the biblical authors not only gave no description of heaven or hell that can be taken literally, but why they hardly ever alluded to the subjects at all (never in the Old Testament, and seldom in the New).

[backwoodsman]

For those interested in reading it online: http://www.ebookdb.org/item/12429/

For those for whom a 300+ page doctoral dissertation is a little too much reading, Dr. Keizer wrote a 19-page condensation of it as a magazine article, which can be downloaded here:

http://www.philosophia-reformata.org/content/archive

You'll have to type 'keizer' into the search box above the Author column, and hit Enter. Then click on the green download button for the article, "'Eternity' revisited."

Of most interest for our purposes is §1c, on the word's use in the Septuagint, starting on page 4 of the PDF.

[steve]

Dan,

Thank you fopr posting that! I am sure it will be very helpful. In my book on hell, I am currently writing a chapter on aionios. This is very timely.