I made a selection of Face Book Reels / You tube “shorts” because this article may be too long for most people. If You find a reel that you want to know more about, you can find that section in the printed material below the videos for a fuller explanation. I read the full article on the last video which is quite long (for those who prefer listening).
Here are the reels, as they appear now on my You Tube Channel, “The End is Not Nigh”:
The following is the article which enlarges upon all of the above concepts:
Although this is a long post, it is probably the most important thing I have ever felt called to write. It is the work of some thousands of hours of study following biblical dreams which have changed my life into the liberty of Christ and healing. I pray for this liberty in Jesus’ ekklesia and that the reader / viewer will follow Him into this liberty and health too.
Have you ever wondered why Christian revivals barely last a generation before they calcify into legalism?
And why, among those who believe that Jesus heals today, we see repeated struggles and failure of healing? It may be, just may be, that many people have been praying to the wrong person due to a Bible translation error. Or perhaps they have accidentally maligned the One true God for the same reason. I hear it all over the institutional church. Blessing and cursing are coming out of the mouth, and this ought not be so.
Cursing counters blessing. Unbelief unseats our prayers.
But why unbelief when we have the Bible in our own languages?
I posit that we are greatly overdue in finishing the 16th Century Reformation. As we address our need for ecclesial reformation, we will begin to see there is much need for more. We will see that many of us have maligned the character of God, albeit unwittingly. I thank our heavenly Father for His patience, mercy and forgiveness which we are called to extend to all who offend us in any way. In so forgiving, we too, are forgiven our tresspasses.
But how have we mistaken God’s character? What have we said of Him that is not true. It centres in the matter of His justice. It’s a foundational understading according to Hebrews 6:1.
One mistranslated Word has skewed the Gospel.
The crux of my song is simple. It is this:
The mishandling of one word repeated throughout the entire Bible has caused a very distorted gospel to not only be preached to the world, but to entrench itself there as a worldly institution. That, in itself is bad enough. But when I see many of my past students, who have passed through Christian schooling, and they have no more dominion in the earth than their peers, maybe less, I grieve at the outcome of institutionalisation of what should be a family.
I see sick, fearful and beaten believers everywhere. There is plenty of evidence of people walking as if under a curse, but few know Eden’s dominion restored. And all because, historically, one word was taken as gospel when it was not part of the Jesus’ “good news” at all.
One word can skew a person’s path into darkness.
Further, I now see the horrific error that “Christians” are voicing, repeating and creating in the world as they predict antichrists, raptures and a physical temple. God forgive all of us who have spread this untruth.
I understand that these skewed doctrines have caused faith in demonic purposes so that a large proportion of the institutional church is batting for the other side, while heralding the very world-wide disasters that they try to fight and speak against. This I will explain later in this post.
Paul warns of this in Galatians 1:8,
“But even if we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel to you than what we have preached to you, let him be accursed.”
And he explains why in Chapter 3:
“For as many as are of the works of the law are under the curse; for it is written, ‘Cursed is everyone who does not continue in all things which are written in the book of the law, to do them.’ But that no one is justified by the law in the sight of God is evident, for “the just shall live by faith.” Galatians 3:10,11
It is the lack of faith among the ekklēsia that is our problem. Yet it isn’t difficult to have faith because it comes from hearing God’s Word. The problem is – do we have the clear Word for faith?
Jesus assures us that faith can move obstacles in our lives. But the disciples, having exercised this faith, had a difficulty at a time when they were seeking to be greater than each other.[1] Jesus addressed their failure to heal in Matthew 17:20:
“So, Jesus said to them, ‘Because of your unbelief (little faith); for assuredly, I say to you, if you have faith as a mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, move from here to there,’ and it will move; and nothing will be impossible for you.’”
According to Jesus, it is clearly the unbelief that caused the demon to resist the eviction. [2]
And regarding “faith”, we see this in Hebrews 11:6 that “without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him.”
“Without faith it is impossible to please God. For anyone who approaches Him must believe that He exists and that He rewards those who earnestly seek Him.”
And in Romans 14:23, regarding what one eats,
“But he who doubts is condemned if he eats, because he does not eat from faith; for whatever is not from faith is sin.”
I posit that faith itself is not a difficult thing to achieve. It is not an emotion, but a position one takes.
It was the faith of the disciples that was lacking when they failed to deliver the epileptic boy. At the time they were more focussed on which of their group would be the greatest in Jesus’ coming Kingdom.
We cannot read the Gospels (good news!) without seeing that it was always faith that was in operation when someone received healing. It didn’t seem to matter if it was bodily healing or deliverance from unclean spirits. Faith was the currency of exchange.
The post-modern church is often quick to teach that faith comes from hearing the Word of God. And this is true. We live by faith – not as many preach – that we have to live in failure now, saying, “Just suck it up, because one day you’ll die and get a reward in heaven.”
No, indeed! To “live” by faith, means not living in death’s vale. A true follower of Christ lives from heaven’s realm already, having passed from death to life. These are the ones with power over sin, sickness and death. These are the ones who reign in this life.
But it must be by faith. and as we have already said, it is a position to take, not an emotion to feel. the position can only be taken when we come into understanding the truth of Who God in Christ is, and what His intention is for us. His intention is to remove all that is against us. Such things as pride, falseness, greed etc need to be given up and a truly repentant heart adopted. We need to repent of our old nature and ask Jesus to give us His absolutely new Life won by defeating the devil on the cross. It is in His resurrection that we can rise to this victorious new LIfe of Christ. We get our spirit regenerated in Him. This is a faith position of choice, not feelings. and it is a position that we are called to live out of. It holds power over sin, sickness and death for us. It means we can live out of the spiritually perfect realm.
We read of this purpose of God in Deuteronomy 8:3, which Jesus used to overcome the devil during his temptation. In the original verse, the context is Moses telling the children of Israel that after their 40 years of testing it was time to enter the Promised Land. They are to remember how God fed them in the wilderness with miraculous bread that they didn’t have to sow or bake as wheat. This miracle was to show them that humans are to live primarily on God’s Word, more even than physical bread. This 40 years was one generation, a new generation, which was also mirrored in Jesus New Testament prophecy of Christ’s return heralding the victory of the new generation. This is our inheritance since we were born after the 70AD victory of Christ over religio-political natural forces:
“He gave you manna to eat, which neither you nor your fathers had known, so that you might understand that man does not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of the LORD.”
And Jesus is the Word of God. We live in Him victoriously from the spiritual realm of heaven while our feet are on the earth. Our words create. And godly life is created when we are in agreement with God’s Word.
But now we see many people thinking that repetition of a verse or passage will bring faith. And to some degree this is true. Neuro-genesis teaches that one doesn’t need to be a believer in any particular religion or person to get neurological change of belief (faith) for something. One can just drill the new concept by repetition vocally, using a number of your senses, i.e., reading, saying, hearing.
However, the God kind of faith the Bible speaks about is relational. That is why prayer is a part of it – not vain repetitions, like half a dozen “Our Fathers”, but meaningful listening to, obeying and following and worshipping God in Christ.
And this is where the Word of Faith movement has made a serious doctrinal error. It has adopted a religious position and not a faith one. It has erred on two main counts. But let’s look at what the movement has right in the first place so we can be clear on what reform is needed ecclesially.
It is right to say the following:
- It is right to say that it is God’s will to heal His children.
- It is right to say that in allowing the scourging of Jesus Christ at the Roman whipping post prior to the crucifixion has paid for the healing of humanity.
- It is right, therefore, to say that salvation includes bodily healing.
- It is right to say that faith is in operation when someone is healed in Jesus’ Name.
- It is right to say that people don’t earn their healing by good behaviour, paying money to priests or pastors, or any other human effort. Although, according to a number of scriptures including James 5:16, repentance is necessary, especially to keep one’s healing.
- It is right to say that the physical and mental healing of persons is available to everyone on earth. God is no respecter of persons.
- It is right to say that Jesus paid absolutely for the health of every person on earth if they wish to receive Him.
- While it is right to say that healing is available to those “in Christ”, it is also true that people meet and experience Christ when a believer prays for an unbeliever and he / she is healed.
So far, so good.
Yet there’s a difficulty and it is this: faith comes from hearing the Word of God. My question is, however, “Which god?” Are you reading God’s actual Word and intention. Or has some religious entity changed translation to suit past political purposes?
Faith in God for healing through the vicarious sacrifice of Jesus Christ would necessitate a consistent character in God of mercy and justice. It would also rely on God in Christ, as expressed in His Word as being a “truth teller”.
- Does your god act justly?
- Does your New Testament translation tell the truth?
Some of our past Bible translations mean that an unbeliever who reads the New Testament or hearing it taught, can answer, “No,” to both of the above questions.
If mistranslation persists, then readers are misreading, not only God’s word, but His character. In other words, like the Israelites of Elijah’s day, people think they have faith in God, but they’ve got the wrong lord – a Molech kind of God, aka a liar and a destroyer. One who burns children alive:
We see this in the words of Jeremiah, where three times God chastises the ancient people for their following Molech:
“They have built the high places of Topheth in the Valley of Hinnom so they could burn their sons and daughters in the fire—something I never commanded, nor did it even enter My mind.” Jeremiah 7:31
“They have built high places to Baal on which to burn their children in the fire as offerings to Baal—something I never commanded or mentioned, nor did it even enter My mind.” Jeremiah 19:5
“They have built the high places of Baal in the Valley of Ben-Hinnom to make their sons and daughters pass through the fire to Molech—something I never commanded them, nor had it ever entered My mind, that they should commit such an abomination and cause Judah to sin.” Jeremiah 32:35
There are more scriptures about this abomination.[3]
Like the ancient apostates, in their preaching of “judgment”, it isn’t fatherly and corrective; rather, it is vindictive with a “one size fits all” post-mortem punishment of eternal conscious torment.
This gospel of fear may have appeared to work in cultures through past centuries where coercion and political alliance and control led down to some of the religious horrors of medieval times. But today’s society won’t buy into an unjust God, especially when they read of differing punishments for differing levels of sin in the New Testament. The need for justice is built into the human psyche. We generally all want justice, and cry for it.
This is basic Christianity 101. Yes, it’s about eschatology and judgment – Hebrews 6:1 and 2. It’s foundational. Eschatology must be foundational since it is a major theme of the New Testament. To deny that Jesus promised to return “shortly” to finish the Day of Atonement – and did so, is to deny His truthfulness – again – we have the wrong god. The New Testament consistently teaches the immediacy of the approaching judgment of apostate Jerusalem and the end of “soul sleep”, with the “setting up of post-mortem” judgment thrones for appropriate consequences for what has been done in this life, Daniel 7:9.
Paul’s comment to the Thessalonians, “We will not all sleep,” indicated the nearness of the end of soul sleep. The judgment thrones Daniel had seen in a prophetic vision were about to be set up. Judgment was going to be very real, very physical and would involve the collapse of religio-poitical Jerusalem, the false high priests (there was more than one under Rome). And all this prior to the salvation which Paul had predicted for those who endured to the tumultuous end of the Old Covenant Age. Often Peter and Paul were not talking about the wrath of God just in the post-mortem sphere. Often they spoke of impending wrath on Christ rejecters, “this perverse generation” as John the Baptist had warned the Pharisees. See Acts 2:40 and Matthew 3:10.
But our churches have a mistaken god, just like the Baal worshippers unwittingly had in Elijah’s day. They think that by preaching hell-fire, they will draw people to Christ. But Jesus only ever spoke of rubbish tip fire to religio-poitical Jews, He never mentioned “eternal conscious torment” when He spoke of either punishment or “gnashing teeth.”
When people fail to understand that the frequently used Greek word, “aion” has been mistranslated as “eternal” and add “conscious torment” for all outside of Christ, they may claim to follow Jesus Christ, but they believe a false gospel, which then will fail to bring “all things” under Jesus’ feet. It only brings in fearful people to create more fear while they struggle to get faith and health. The default of a non-gospel will always be human effort and legalism.
False gospel, false faith.
Eschatology is a subject that people think is difficult. It need not be if we understand the Hebraisms involved in the apocalyptic language of Bible times. Once it is explained, and we repent of all those convoluted charts and diagrams of raptures, sacrificing heifers and a future physical temple, we can then see the simple gospel that follows the order of ancient Jewish festivals. You can’t have your tabernacle relationship fully in the Lord until the Day of Atonement return is fully realised. So, unless we get it right, no “revival” in the Holy Spirit will last beyond a generation. You cannot deny Christ / His Holy Spirit’s Words in the Bible and walk in faith. It will always lapse into carnality, or legalism.
In waiting for what is already accomplished, we remain in Old Covenant mode, not faith in Christ.
This, I suggest, is why the Word of Faith teaching causes people to strive and struggle. Especially those congregants have been misled into incorrect eschatological views. They have some success and some failure. It’s to some degree, human faith, as practised in the New Age philosophy, not faith in God in Christ, whatever is said to the contrary.
I am not suggesting in any way that the original teachers were deliberately misleading people. But the dispensational view that causes so many people to take their focus off serving one’s neighbour and into a habit of “world watching” and playing “spot the antichrist”, talk of eternal conscious torment, engendering fear, while moaning about and voicing the wicked state of the world – these will generally attract others of like mind to condemn the world rather than to show the kindness of God and His intention of restoration.
The judgements that we think and vocalise, thinking we are following Christ, are only going to make us sick ourselves. When we repent of these judgments and seek to know the God who is love, we will easily find Him. That’s His promise. He does not change. His discipline is always restorative.
There are two extremes of institutional churchianity today. One one extreme is the traditonal model whose adherants are ageing and small in number, and on the other end of the spectrum we see the mega churches and wanna-be mega churches in concert type of “services” that entertain as they mirror the world in their business model. These latter ones have plenty of people and also, often a wide exit door. In nearly all of the churches I have seen there is a faith that cannot be sustained beyond human effort in many cases. People, especially those in subordinate leadership, soon burn out. The literal burning god they preach is like the one disproven by Elijah. They have a faith in the one who intends to ultimately burn children. Those ancient Israelites thought they were worshipping the one true God, but had followed the wrong one through bad leaders. That is just what our politically biased translations have done to us.
So, let’s deal with the mistranslation, because the mistranslation of one word has affected two basic gospel concepts mentioned in Hebrews 6: 1 and 2. And these concepts affect salvation, life and health. Maybe you know these verses as they are used in sermons to urge people to move away from “baby food” and grow up into Christ. They are listed under “elementary principles of Christ” in verse 1.
The problem is, these verses concern that touchy subject of eschatology. And few people realise that a clear understanding of the one and only eschatology is basic to understanding God’s plan of salvation. The two confused concepts are “the end of the age” as an adjective and the noun it qualifies is “judgment”. These are commonly translated as “eternal judgment”.
“Therefore, leaving the discussion of the elementary principles of Christ, let us go on to perfection, not laying again the foundation of repentance from dead works and of faith toward God, of the doctrine of baptisms, of laying on of hands, of resurrection of the dead, and of eternal judgment. 3 And this we will do if God permits.”
The reader may automatically think this passage is talking about hell because it uses the phrase “eternal judgment”. But now let’s look at that in Young’s literal Translation and see where there’s been a mistranslation above in the orginal the Greek meaning:
“Wherefore, having left the word of the beginning of the Christ, unto the perfection we may advance, not again a foundation laying of reformation from dead works, and of faith on God, of the teaching of baptisms, of laying on also of hands, of rising again also of the dead, and of judgment age-during,
3 and this we will do, if God may permit.”[4]
The mistranslation is of the word αἰωνίου (aioniou). The literal sense of this word is “age-during”. So, the judgment that is referred to is the end of the Old Covenant judgment of those who “were Christ’s own, but received Him not” John 1:11. In other words, those Israelites who rejected Christ. It was an earthly judgment.
And this mis-rendering of αἰων in its various declensions is all over our New Testaments, falsely preaching a hell in the wrong places and failing to inform of God’s purpose in judgment accurately.
These two wrong concepts malign the character of our heavenly Father as vindictive rather than corrective.
They create the impression that God is grossly unjust and cannot keep his own word to bring Christ’s High Priestly Day of Atonement return when He said He would – and that was “shortly”, “within the span of one generation”. Jesus also said that some standing in His presence back in His earthly ministry would not see death until He came in His Kingdom. That’s what Jesus, Himself said. And because the church teaches to the contrary, twisting the Word of God, many have not been able to come to faith in Christ. They see the truth in the Bible and hear it denied by the institutional church. This, also, is the reason many have left institutional churches. What I hear so many out-of-church Christians say, is that they have abandoned Churchianity because of the business model and legalism. It is a natural default when we deny that the Day of Atonement has been fulfilled. We have a half-finished job in place of fulfilled law. So we are left with the demonic impulse to fill up our lives with law for ourselves. Thus, we have the false gospel.
That is what we must discern. Not to judge people. We don’t judge the mistaken preachers who are only repeating what they have been taught. We forgive and learn to read aright.
But sadly, many of us accepted these two lies. I regret that this has greatly affected our gospel ministry and the health of many believers, including the health of many ministers’ family members. We are not to judge people in this matter. But we are to judge whether a Word brought, supposedly from God is correct. There have been political and cultural (Greco-Roman political) interests in the past that have swayed the translator into mistranslation. So it is time to return to Jesus Christ, the Way, the Truth and the Life.
It is time to come out of institutionalised religion and return to the liberty of Christ.
I’ll now detail how the one mistranslation, has led to two stumbling blocks and a false gospel.
But before I do, I need to stress that I am not saying there is no post-mortem punishment. What I am saying, is that a careful reading of the New Testament in its varying contexts, without reference to what the “church” has taught one, we can see that a great earthly punishment was imminent for ancient apostate Israel 40 years after the ascension.
That is what the whole book of Revelation is about. It tells in the symbolism that Jesus dictates in Revelation 1:1, that the great seal placed by Daniel, was about to be opened in the 3 ½ year war ending the Old Covenant temple system, its city, Jerusalem and the nation who had rejected Jesus Christ. It would herald the presentation of the Kingdom to the Father and what Jesus had called, “the age to come” (our continuing age).
Further, that the abundant life and power of believers that Jesus spoke of was to be in this age to come, after the Old Covenant sacrificial system and its adherents were wiped out. It was to be the greater spiritual realm from which the physical reality would flow in God’s will. In other words, after 70AD and continuing into our time. He was not referring to post-mortem “time”, because time is part of the earthly creation. There is no “time” in the heavenly realm. When we operate from the heavenly realm, spiritually (Ephesians 2:6), we also operate beyond time and space in Christ, being His body on earth now. This is where the miraculous flows from.
But armed with the two falsehoods of
- punishment after death being eternal torment with demons and
- some kind of end of the world events
the church has believed a set of lies so distorting, to prevent an understanding of the true character of God. Unless we know His mercy in corrective post-mortem punishment and that “the end” of religiosity has come and gone in 70AD, we call God a liar. Without knowing who God really is, how can He find faith on earth among people who claim to be His, but worship some other image?
So – let’s see how the ekklēsia of Christ degenerated into a state-run religious institution, so we can come out of her. She was later called the church. This is a non-biblical rendering of the Word ekklēsia and was not really what Jesus was talking about at all in Matthew 16:18. He meant an assembly of His own to manage things for the community on His behalf. Ekklēsia is not a religious term in its original meaning that Jesus used.
The following is an historic outline only, to give a general idea of where things ran off the narrow and simple rails of truth. Whenever that happens, we end up with complicated religious efforts to please God out of our old nature. That’s backwards-facing; going nowhere except into Old Covenant practices – yes, even in so-called charismatic circles with separate clergy, tithes and special days, altars and altar calls etc.
The use of physical altars tells a lie about the true nature of the body of Christ. It denies the temple of God inside human/s. It is an Old Covenant practice. They need to be given over to firewood to keep poor people warm on a winter’s night. Or given up as a table to feed the hungry. The only sacred things, places and spaces on the planet now are believing human beings carrying the Glory of God to a needy world.
Up until the 300s AD the ekklēsia grew despite persecution. It was apart from the state. REcent archaeological discoveries have given us a far greater picture of just how culturally varied in composition, activiy and knowledge these original ekklesial groups were. They had no sacred physical places. The ekklesia was independent and comprised spiritual entities and personally powerful, courageous and sharing. It was not a church in the sense of the church today. The people were grouped socially, met over meals and shared life together in many different forms and places. Some followers of Jesus were called “one who belongs to the party of the anointed”. The Greek word for anointed was Christos. It was because the Roman world knew that Jewish kings had the peculiarity of being “anointed”, that this name christianos meant these people were a political threat. Christianos was a political rather than a religious word for the Romans. They didn’t use the word Christian themselves in the way we do today. That they appeared to put Christ above the emperor was the problem. Rome had no idea of the spiritual kingdom these folk were a part of. The Roman state worshipped mere men as gods, so the growing ekklēsia stood separate from the state.
Often, according to recent archaelogical findings, these groups following the “anointed” did not necessarily call themselves by the same group name. Their practices and lifestyles varied greatly.
Even before the state took control of what subsequently became “the church”, some early believing leaders gave way to practices of unbelief. Often it was with good intentions, like Ignatius. Fearful of people not following Jesus, he interposed bishopric obedience. It was a simple failure to trust God’s Holy Spirit. A little leaven like this soon leavens the lump into control and coercion. Hence Christianity can degenerate into a religious set of observances like any other religious effort to please God by what we do, kind acts and mystical practices.
Once leaders had this kind of earthly power it didn’t take long for dark forces to bring a twist to the Word of God.
Up until the time of Augustine, who lived from 354 to 430AD, Christians taught that the Hebraic imagery used by Jesus and the Old Covenant prophets, i.e., “torment” of “extreme thirst” as in the judgment, was a pruning where God would take vengeance for those victimised. This is because fire is used biblically as a metaphor for cleansing. It was not seen, by the early ekklēsia to be literal burning of His children for whom His mercy is enduring, but vengeance on their old sin nature. Often it was a metaphor for earthly judgments such as war. And of course, some people, as in today’s society, wanted to cling to their old nature, despite God’s warnings. The Bible is full of warnings against this backwards trend. If we want to cling to our own efforts at self-righteousness (what the Bible calls filth), when God offers us a bath. But He won’t force us. Fee-will under His sovereignty is the essence of love. Without it, He would be a domestic abuser; which He definitely is not.
Please don’t quote me any Old Testament examples and say God is cruel unless you have thoroughly ready every page in context and come to an understanding of
- the elements of Hebrew imagery and their literary techniques,
- the extent and effect on the world of wickedness of the ancient tribes in Canaan
- and the purposes of God. When you can detail these things to me,
then will I dialogue about cruelty, divine justice and restoration of all people.
So, back to post-mortem “punishment”, which includes those who died in ancient Canaan.
This temporary post-mortem punishment was the teaching during the time of the very early ecclesia, when the circulating gospels and epistles were being read in their original Greek because it was the language of the day for most people.
But now, with so much teaching online, we can learn where the error was taken on in history by the Roman Church (and the denominations that arose from her). It had become tied to the political entity in its structures – something so unbiblical that it is described, (like natural, apostate Jerusalem that killed the prophets and then Christ) as a beast bearing a harlot in the book of Revelation. That’s why God calls us out of institutionalism with its Old Covenant type altars and clergy-laity separation, repeated extra-biblical creeds and practices, and into loving and meaningful relationships. We are no longer under the shadow and law. That is backwards-facing and powerless now.
It is no co-incidence that where folk have been taught this lie, that depression is not uncommon among its offspring. The mental paradigm of threat lies deep in one’s subconscious.
To see the error, we need to explain the grammar, so bear with me during this post as I try to make it plain.
Augustine, then, was the church leader who, while admitting himself to be a very poor Greek scholar, made an erroneous change in contextual grammar dealing with the Bible translation into Latin. He introduced the concept of the word we translate today as “eternal” in relation to punishment following the final judgment.
But by the time he did this, the “church” had already moved into institutional mode as we will see when we look at the time between the resurrection and Augustine. This was not how Jesus spoke of the discipleship work of His ekklēsia. What He builds is something contrary to institutionalism.
It is not our place to judge Augustine for this error, as we are to forgive everyone who may have caused us to misunderstand or who has harmed us in any way. We forgive because we too, are forgiven. Often harm can be done unintentionally. And the Lord Himself can make things right again for us.
The root of this original adjective is aion. The correct understanding is that this word has no inherent duration of time in itself but its duration is taken from the noun it qualifies.
The word which we read in our English Bibles is expressed originally as “aiōnion “, “aiōniou”, “aiōnious “, “aiōnios”, “aiōnia “, “aiōnian” from the root, “aion”. The different endings denote the declension of adjective / noun. None of these give any indication of duration. It is used in the New Testament and also in the Greek of the Septuagint (LXX)[2] Old Testament. In the LXX the word which it is translated from Hebrew to Greek is originally “olam”.
Augustine admitted his own Greek grammar was weak, but still he allowed the Greco-roman mythological ideas of post-mortem cruelty to over-ride the truth in his translations.
”Augustine raised the argument that since aionios in Mt. 25:46 referred to both life and punishment, it had to carry the same duration in both cases. However, he failed to consider that the duration of aionios is determined by the subject to which it refers. For example, in the Septuagint (LXX), when aionios referred to the duration of Jonah’s entrapment in the fish, it was limited to three days. To a slave, aionios referred to his life span. To the Aaronic priesthood, it referred to the generation preceding the Melchizedek priesthood of Christ; i.e., age-during. To Solomon’s temple, it referred to 400 years. To God it encompasses and transcends time altogether.
Thus, the word cannot have a set value. It is a relative term and its duration depends upon that with which it is associated. It is similar to what “tall” is to height. The size of a tall building can be 300 feet, a tall man six feet, and a tall dog three feet.”
Further, the “eternal life” is not limited to mean what we have been led to believe. The abundant life Jesus spoke of was the life gifted by God in Christ at the cost of the cross – starting in the age of the New Creation. It isn’t just something in the Post-mortem state. Life in Christ begins with the person’s new creation; they have passed from death to life and therefore this life will continue, not “start” in the post-mortem existence.
Regarding even the 16th Century reforms, it is clear, when we read the many writings of Luther, that the influence of his former Augustinian Roman Catholic order and his mentor, von Staupitz, was strongly in line with Augustinian error. But we shouldn’t judge Luther. He did a wonderful task for us – restoring the truth of salvation by faith. But that reformation closed itself off in “the Book of Concord”, a text wholly unnecessary in its extra-biblical views, with a focus on the fallen human condition as opposed to the power and authority of the new creation.
Another important point I note: When one looks in a concordance such as Strong’s regarding “aion” and its declensions, one cannot find this indefinite quality because parsing and analysis are not given for these various uses in context. While this is disappointing for non-Greek scholars, it is not surprising. Grammatical context is not the role of a concordance even though the various parts of speech are indicated, tenses shown etc.; it is not a Greek grammar text book.
No concordance is the inspired word of God, either. Most are subject to men who have sat under the influence of early Roman Catholic institutional influence which has been passed down to many denominations to this day. While a concordance is a valuable text, it has its limitations. The contextual nature of the grammars of these ancient languages is one such limitation.
The word which Bible translators have rendered as “eternal” in English and in the Old Testament, “olam” is similar in its lack of specificity of time. The classic example of this is in Jonah where we are clearly told in 1:17 (or 2:1) in the LXX, that Jonah was in the belly of the whale. When we look at the Septuagint regarding Jonah, the word reads that he was eternally (olam) in the belly of the big fish. Yet it is stated, particularly by Jesus, as three days. But in the Hebraic imagery in poetry of Jonah’s own recount, told from an awful personal experience, we see the word “olam” used in the original and rendered “aion” in the Greek LXX. It has been translated as “forever”. It must have felt like it! But that’s what humans do in poetry – exaggerate to make a point.
We may use this kind of language today, exaggerating time to get people to hurry up, “C’mon, hurry up. You’re taking forever and you’ll miss the bus.”
Nevertheless, this word “olam” could be rendered equally well as “eternally” if the translators were consistent in assuming the word eternal is inherent in the word “olam” – which, we will see, it clearly is not. And the original Hebrew scholars of the LXX knew this about “olam” and rendered it as “aion” to express Jonah’s hyperbole accurately; in the context Jonah felt like he was in there an age. Since this phrase in Jonah has been Jonah’s personal, yet finite experience of vivid typology, we see it is prophesying the 3 days of death in the grave prior to the resurrection. We know the punishment was once and for all “finished” as our Lord Himself declared. We know this is a prophetic type because Jesus says this Himself in Matthew 12:40 where Jesus is quoting the LXX verbatim.
Neither the “type” of Jonah, nor the anti-type who is Jesus Christ fulfilling the law for the word, were punished eternally. If sinners are in dreadful torment forever, then why was Jesus’ punishment taken for all humanity of finite duration?
Moreover, how are the passages about varying degrees of appropriate punishment, such as the lesser for Sodom and Gomorrah, reconciled with our traditional view of everlasting fire? Eternal and everlasting are English terms indicating an absolute which do not admit comparison. They cannot, in the original, be applied to every use.
The diligent reader will adopt the Berean attitude and search for complete and consistent meaning across all Scriptures before concluding the meaning.
If Jonah had been eternally in the belly of the whale or Jesus in the tomb forever, then there would have been no resurrection for humanity and no hope for Nineveh. The prophecies for Egypt and Assyria as finally coming together with Israel would also not come to pass. The Lord says He will strike to heal these nations which depict the “ethnos” as one with Israel. Isaiah 19:16- 25.
This “striking to heal” is a repeated theme throughout the prophets. Mercy and love will always triumph; every knee will bow in worship. Finally. All will be under Christ’s feet. My prayer is that Christ’s believers will understand their dominion role “in Him” in the earth, stop being religious and get on with helping their neighbours to health and well-being.
Babylon, that we should be fleeing from is not the world, but the religious church. As a New Testament metaphor (of OT type), it depicts all that is to be fled from. Babylon is about human effort and must fall. Flesh must burn; but this is a metaphor of the more painful correction of unrepentant hearts. None of these nations are the literal states, rather they depict spiritual states or situations. The old Adam sin nature and the last Adam perfect Christ are the greater realities being dealt with. Jesus is victor over sin and death, for the world, not against it.
And now for the important correction the Lord has shown me which could arrest the worldwide disasters that dispensationalists believe for and voice. My prayer is that the reader desires God’s will and not the will of the enemy of humanity.
God’s will is for the ekklēsia of Christ to manifest in such a way as to fill the earth with His light. Jesus left us that task – to bring all things under His feet. We can only do that when we live out of the Holy Spirit which is knitted to our new creation spirit as one.
Please don’t tell me the path is narrow and few find it. That kind of consolation limits all the truth that Jesus said about the Kingdom of God. Yes, it is true that He is the only Way, Truth and Life and we enter through Him alone- narrowly. But the “few” of Matthew 7:13-14 were those who went through the Great Tribulation to survive into “aion zoe” which means “Life-age enduring”. They were the Christians whom Jesus left at the ascension so that they would continue to gather disciples during the 40 years of testing. This was prior to the “many” in Israel who refused His entry and tried to enter through the wide gate. Consequently they went to the destruction of 66-70AD.
After that, vengeance on all the blood of the prophets from Abel till then was served. The Old Covenant Age was thereby closed. And now the little ekklēsia began what Jesus had called, “the age to come”. In that “age” we see the mustard seed has grown into such a size as to fill the earth with the ekklēsia. The Kingdom of God is described in this way – growing ever larger to accommodate many.
But of course, the false can exist among the true believers. When we understand God’s purpose is to live as His people as the new temple and thereby, miraculously bring everything under His feet, then we will know peace, health and provision to share with the world. Light will have come.
When we come into this transformation of the mind He asks of us (Romans 12:1-2), we have His faith and power to do the greater works than He did during His earthly ministry. The works are greater on a number of ways because….
- There are so many believers now, physically and spiritually moving across the whole earth.
- We can pray for people across the globe and our words in Christ have repentance with healing power and miracle power.
- We live longer (generally) in our ministry than the short 3 and ½ years given to our Lord’s ministry.
- And He said we would do greater works now – and so we do (John 14:12).
How we do these greater works, stopping the rain when needed, bringing the rain when needed, healing the sick, provision of more food etc., is by our creative words:
“The tongue has the power of life and death, and those who love it will eat its fruit.” – Proverbs 18:21
“Have faith in God,” Jesus said to them. “Truly I tell you that if anyone says to this mountain, ‘Be lifted up and thrown into the sea,’ and has no doubt in his heart but believes that it will happen, it will be done for him. Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours.… Mark 11:22-24.
But let him ask in faith, with no doubting, for he who doubts is like a wave of the sea driven and tossed by the wind. For let not that man suppose that he will receive anything from the Lord – James 1:6-7 (NKJV).
“Instead, speaking the truth in love, we will grow to become in every respect the mature body of him who is the head, that is, Christ.” – Ephesians 4:15
Many believers know these verses and the power of their words. What is missing, though, is a consistency of blessing. And so we hear words are also being creative in the very negative way about the false concept of “end times”. “The end of the age” that Jesus spoke of – the “frightening end times that the “Christians” are fighting and fearing – those times have gone in 70AD.
Hear now what I have personally heard repeatedly from the Lord since 2017: WE ARE NOT LIVING IN THE END TIMES.
The times we are living in, however, give us great opportunity for good, for reformation and dissemination of the truth of God’s Word.
It is a time, not unlike the 16th Century Reformation, but now, it will be with an acknowledgement that reformation should have gone on as we will now go on to maturity in the power of Christ to bring all things under His feet. The earth will see the manifestation of the sons of God.
But what is this “lie” of the enemy that so many have fed unwittingly fed on? It is the lie of expecting a physical rule of Christ from physical Jerusalem.
It is a lie, because “the end” the Bible speaks of most commonly is not the end of the world with a set of events (raptures, new physical temples, revisited red heifer sacrifices etc) and an antichrist to be feared. All these things are materialisation of apocalyptic literature which prophesied events that happened in 70AD.
And because many have largely been ignorant of those events of 70AD and the close of the Old Covenant practices, they have followed the teaching of John Nelson Darby and others. So many lies of strife in the world have been spoken into being by well meaning people. Again, we discern behaviours and make no judgment of people. We pray for understanding for all because Christ’s body is in the world as He is, not to condemn, but to save, which means to heal and restore. John 3:17
All the while dsipensationalism ignores the greater spiritual realm the Bible offers us in Revelation, Isaiah etc., pointing to world events, year after year, century after century. They say, “See, the Bible is true.” But that “truth” is a satanic materialistic twist. It is the outcome / work of human words, picked up by evil entities and ending in more global problems that have been “declared” with huge volumes of “dis-information” and fear. None of this is going to end in a “rapture” despite constant name calling of antichrists through past decades.
The only hope for the world is to repent of repeating this dreadful misinterpretation of scripture and head in the opposite direction. Speak life over the planet, over governments, over science and industry. Speak the truth that “no more delay” in 70AD that was prophesied has happened and that we now walk in power. Agree with the Word that satan has already been crushed under our feet as Paul promised two millennia ago – to happen shortly, back then.
The fall of the ekklēsia into state controlled religiosity, centuries ago, had satanic effects leading to centuries of darkness – from which the world never fully recovered. It cannot recover until there is deep ekklesial reformation. We can see this reformation emerging in several strands across the globe; but until we see that each strand is all part of the same tapestry, the ekklesial repentance is slower than it should be.
Now is our time. Time to humble ourselves and repent.
Then we will not go through the “Great Tribulation” that some “Christians” are threatening people with – and calling it evangelism! You don’t need to endure great tribulation unless you are speaking trouble over yourself and your little world. It may seem right. But it is largely self-serving and antichrist.
The Day of the Lord (Atonement Day of return) has been and now is already here for our liberty in Christ; to carry on His miraculous healing work in the final anti-type of Tabernacles. That would not be possible without the completion of the Day of Atonement. The festivals of ancient Israel give us the order of the reality found in Christ. Tabernacles never came before the wonderful Say of Atonement. We cannot have our habitation now unless Jesus has returned already to judge those whom He and John the Baptist said He would. God is a God of correct order and justice who longs to dwell with humans. Tabernacles (abiding “in Him”) with the enemy of the Accuser being crushed under our feet, and Peace reigning, is now. Romans 16:20
That great set of events happened in the 40 years after the ascension of Jesus Christ, just as He promised. Peace is now a very real possibility. So the repeated “left behind” events are also a wicked fiction, however innocently they have been promulgated. Thankfully, God forgives us all for these harmful messages.
The rapture Paul spoke of is, for those of the first century, a past event. It will be a rapture for us too, as well as it was for his original Thessalonians. Believers will be lifted up out of their mortal bodies at the point of the demise of that mortal body, in no wise preceding the millions who had been under soul sleep until 70AD and the close of the Atonement return from heaven in judgment.
Let’s make sure we are reading the texts correctly so that faith is in the One true God who neither lies, nor fails to keep His Word. Shortly means just that. Shortly.
God bless you as you prayerfully consider these things – and prayerfully, welcome to the Great Ekklesial Reformation!
For a good summary of this issue visit a site I appreciate: https://waynefair.substack.com/p/does-the-bible-really-teach-eternal
Recommended – https://www.simplechurchjournal.com/
[1] Matthew 18:1-4; Mark 9:33-36; Luke 9:46-47
[2] This is thought to be one of those scribal interpolations because it lacks the Greek alpha-numeric continuity. Prayer, of course, would make a difference in that prayer is our ongoing relationship with the Father, from, and in whom faith comes. It may be that Jesus was saying in Mark 9:29, that a dedicated life / faith is needed to evict this spirit. The two best manuscripts: the Codex Sianaiticus and Codex Vaticanus do not include verse 21, in Matthew 17, which is suspected of being an interpolation of Mark 9:29 – it reads just “by prayer” in the Nestle-Aland – no mention of fasting. Jesus was saying by prayer – but not fasting. This is thought to be because Jesus said the disciples would not fast until the bridegroom was no longer with them. This would seem to verify the inconsistency as a scribal interpolation.
[3] 2 Kings 23:10
He (Josiah) also desecrated Topheth in the Valley of Ben-hinnom so that no one could sacrifice his son or daughter in the fire to Molech.
Jeremiah 19:6 So behold, the days are coming, declares the LORD, when this place will no longer be called Topheth or the Valley of Ben-hinnom, but the Valley of Slaughter.
Jeremiah 19:11-13 and you are to proclaim to them that this is what the LORD of Hosts says: I will shatter this nation and this city, like one shatters a potter’s jar that can never again be repaired. They will bury the dead in Topheth until there is no more room to bury them. / This is what I will do to this place and to its residents, declares the LORD. I will make this city like Topheth. / The houses of Jerusalem and the houses of the kings of Judah will be defiled like that place, Topheth—all the houses on whose rooftops they burned incense to all the host of heaven and poured out drink offerings to other gods.”
2 Chronicles 28:3 Moreover, Ahaz burned incense in the Valley of Ben-hinnom and sacrificed his sons in the fire, according to the abominations of the nations that the LORD had driven out before the Israelites.
2 Chronicles 33:6 He sacrificed his sons in the fire in the Valley of Ben-hinnom. He practiced sorcery, divination, and witchcraft, and consulted mediums and spiritists. He did great evil in the sight of the LORD, provoking Him to anger.
Ezekiel 23:37-39 For they have committed adultery, and blood is on their hands. They have committed adultery with their idols. They have even sacrificed their children, whom they bore to Me, in the fire as food for their idols. / They have also done this to Me: On that very same day, they defiled My sanctuary and profaned My Sabbaths. / On the very day they slaughtered their children for their idols, they entered My sanctuary to profane it. Yes, they did this inside My house.
Leviticus 18:21 You must not give any of your children to be sacrificed to Molech, for you must not profane the name of your God. I am the LORD.
Leviticus 20:2-5 “Tell the Israelites, ‘Any Israelite or foreigner living in Israel who gives any of his children to Molech must be put to death. The people of the land are to stone him. / And I will set My face against that man and cut him off from his people, because by giving his offspring to Molech, he has defiled My sanctuary and profaned My holy name. / And if the people of the land ever hide their eyes and fail to put to death the man who gives one of his children to Molech, …
Psalm 106:37-38 They sacrificed their sons and their daughters to demons. / They shed innocent blood—the blood of their sons and daughters, whom they sacrificed to the idols of Canaan, and the land was polluted with blood.
Also 2 Kings 23:10 “He also desecrated Topheth in the Valley of Ben-hinnom so that no one could sacrifice his son or daughter in the fire to Molech.”
[4] See my website post https://divine-dreaming.com/2025/04/18/atonement-fulfilled-is-rest-and-healing/
God’s allowance here, when seen in context of the entire letter’s purpose, may well mean if the judgment doesn’t happen beforehand, we can go on to maturity. They were expecting the fulfilment of the Day of Atonement soon, but did not know the timing beyond one generation from the cross and resurrection.
