September 1

THE ETERNAL PURPOSE / PART 13

EXAMPLES OF OLAM, AION, AND AIONIOS TRANSLATED CORRECTLY

-Matthew 18:8 ( King James Version ) states, … Wherefore if your hand or your foot offend you, cut them off, and cast them from you: it is better for you to enter into life halt or maimed, rather than having two hands or two feet to be cast into everlasting fire …

-The first and most important thing to take note of in this passage of scripture is: That Jesus is using metaphoric ( figurative ) language to describe what the punishment ( correction ) and the consuming fire of God is like. These words are not to be taken to heart in a literal sense, but in a metaphoric sense. For if they are meant to be taken literally, then we must at once begin to pluck out our eyes and cut off our hands and feet, so as to not end up in everlasting fire. Now that that point has been made, let us once again refer to a more accurate translation concerning these verses of scripture.

-Matthew 18:8,9 ( The New Testament In Modern Speech ) states, … If your hand or your foot is causing you to fall into sin, cut it off and away with it. It is better for you to enter into Life crippled in hand or foot than to remain in possession of two sound hands or feet but be thrown into the fire of the Ages. And if your eye is causing you to fall into sin, tear it out and away with it; it is better for you to enter into Life with only one eye, than to remain in possession of two eyes but be thrown into the Gehenna of fire …

-Notice that the word “everlasting”, when referring to fire, is correctly and properly translated as … of the ages … rather than “everlasting” or “eternal”, which it should not be translated as, for it comes from the Greek word “aionios”, which means: of the ages, or belonging to the ages of time. Jesus is here describing the consuming fire of God by pointing to the literal valley of “Gehenna”, in which the fire did consume the refuse which was cast into it. But the point at hand is this: The fire that is spoken of is “aionios” ( of the ages ), not eternal, which shows us that this fire does indeed have a CORRECTIVE PURPOSE, and is not endless. This is the same fire spoken of in the words … “Holy Ghost and fire”.

-THANK GOD FOR THE FIRE OF THE AGES!-