Time & Judgment
“Shall we sin more?”
The fact that the New Testament (NT) is so ‘long’ proves that there is more to God’s judgment in His plan to save the world through His Son. If there was ‘no hope after death’, then the NT should have only about a phrase or two like this, “Believe and you will live but if you don’t believe, you will burn endlessly.”
The good news is ‘there is no such phrase found in the Bible’.
The ‘danger’ of knowing the Truth is this:
“What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound?” (Romans 6:1)
The answer lies in the ‘next verse’:
“Certainly not!…” (Romans 6:2)
Love is always abused by ‘evil’. That is why when mentioned about the Truth of the Gospel (that Christ saves ‘all’), evil in us immediately responds thus:
1. If that’s the case, I want to ‘sin more’.
(An attitude problem contradicting Romans 6:1 – 2)
2. If God is like that, I don’t want to be a Christian.
(An attitude problem indicating an absence of Love due to the presence of jealousy – jealous that everyone will enter heaven eventually – Love in them is absent since Love is not jealous (envious) – 1 Corinthians 13:4; or it ‘proves’ that they have ‘cold love’. The Bible writes that the Love of many has grown cold
– Matthew 24:12).
Their common loveless justification (a reasoning that Christ would never utter nor support):
“One is jealous because he never ‘enjoyed’ those sins but those who ‘enjoyed’ such will also be given a chance to return to heaven
‘much later’ – they call it ‘unfair’ – But the part they do not ‘see’ is that these unrepentant sinners do not get the same initial blessing nor inheritance in the kingdom of God (1 Corinthians 6:9 – 10) in the coming age. Also, it is not easy to be ‘saved’ on the other side from hell. One may need to pay heavily for the sins for a long period of time according to their wrongs; Indeed, “God is not mocked, what a man sows he will reap!” (Galatians 6:7). This is what it means in both verses above when it warns, “Do not be deceived!”.”
The warning of deception is for both the people who will ‘abuse’ the Truth (Love) of God to do more sin thinking that they will not be punished at all and also for those who think God will torture eternally without having any purpose for His chastisements.
God is Just giving Him the right to punishbut is also Love giving Him the right to forgive. Justness in God demands punishment but Love in God demands that the punishment meted out to have an ‘end’.
The Bible actually teaches the ‘opposite’ to what is commonly preached in His name from the pulpits of churches. Plenty of phrases in the Bible talk and hint on limited – time judgment and the ultimate Triumph of God to save the world. With respect to men (our focus), we can see that it is written:
“Therefore, as through one man’s offense judgment came to ‘all’ men (not ‘some men’), resulting in condemnation, even so through One Man’s righteous Act the free gift came to ‘all’ men (the same ‘all’ men quoted earlier – not ‘some men or believers only’), resulting in justification of life.” (Romans 5:18)
Note that the same all men condemned in the ‘first part of the verse’ is the same all men that will be justified through Christ as recorded in the ‘second part of the same verse’ above in (Romans 5:18) – This is what correct ‘context’ really means.
God’s wisdom reveals His hidden things giving clear, correct and consistent interpretation of Scripture. As Scripture asks:
“Who is like a wise man?
And who knows the interpretation of a thing?
A man’s wisdom makes his face shine,
And the sternness of his face is changed.”
(Ecclesiastes 8:1)
Scripture answers the question (Who is a wise man?) by indicating that the wise would be someone who (because he knows God’s interpretation), it would make his face ‘shine’ and his ‘sternness’ removed. With regards to ‘judgment’, the answer should make one’s face ‘shine’ and one’s ‘sternness’ removed. Will ‘purposeless torture in eternal fire’ (interpretation 1) or ‘chastisement for betterment in age-during fire’ (interpretation 2) for the wicked result in one’s face to ‘shine’ and his ‘sternness’ removed? This is why interpretation 1 and its translation of the Bible (idiomatic translation) is wrong and interpretation 2 and its translation of the Bible (literal translation) is correct and ‘wise’.
Before accusing me of ‘taking the verse out of context’ when I related the ‘being wise – face shines – sternness removed’ with ‘judgment’, read just four verses down and you will find this ‘context of judgment’ with regards to being ‘wise’ in the same chapter (absolute context – not ‘out of context’) :
“…And a wise man’s heart discerns both time and judgment,”
(Ecclesiastes 8:5)
This is the interesting part:
We can see that the Word of God gave us a clue first that a ‘wise interpretation’ would make a person’s face ‘shine and its sternness removed’ and then it also states a few verses later that a ‘wise’ man would be able to discern ‘time’ with respect to ‘judgment’.
Indeed, time is not timelessness. Time (indicates measurability – implying limit) cannot mean ‘eternal’ or ‘endless duration’ for the latter is ‘timelessness’. Eternity is commonly held as timelessness because it has no notion of ‘time’ (limit in it).
Similarly, judgment has two sentences – reward or punishment. The reward is for the righteous while the punishment (chastisement for betterment) is for the wicked.
Do take note that Lord Jesus in the gospels (especially in
Matthew 25:46) used the Greek word ‘kolasin’ (transliterated – meaning ‘pruning’ – used in botany too for pruning of plants for its ‘betterment’).
Note also that Lord Jesus did not use the real Greek word for ‘torture’ which is ‘timoria’ (and its derivations) to describe the punishment of God for the wicked. Guess which contemporaries of Christ taught ‘eternal punishment’ of the wicked using the correct Greek words differing from our Blessed Saviour? The Pharisees.
Josephus (an almost contemporary Jew during the time of Christ) himself records in his writing (in Greek) the usage of those words back then in time. Josephus uses the phrase ‘kolasin aionion’ when describing the concept of punishment held by Christians agreeing perfectly ‘word for word’ with the Greek phrase found in the Bible in Matthew 25:46. However, when describing the Pharisees’ doctrine of punishment for the wicked, Josephus uses ‘their equivalent Greek term’ (which consists of entirely different words than that of Christ), namely, ‘aidios timoria’.
Simply put, to recap:
aidios = eternal (timelessness)
timoria = torture (purposeless punishment – ‘no betterment’)
aionion = age-during (limited ‘time’)
kolasin = pruning (chastisement punishment for ‘betterment’)
Can you see how you have been deceived by translators who in English translate both phrases (aidios timoria and kolasin aionion)
as ‘eternal punishment’ in Josephus’ English translations?
The fact is simple:
The Pharisees taught aidios timoria = eternal torture.
Lord Jesus taught kolasin aionion = age-during chastisement.
The very fact that our Blessed Lord did not use the ‘same’ term employed beforehand by the Pharisees to teach His notion of punishment for the wicked clearly shows that He rejected the Pharisaic doctrine of ‘eternal torture’. Had Christ intended to teach the ‘same’ concept of ‘eternal punishment’ with the Jewish Pharisees, then it is only logical that He would have used the ‘same’ terms as the prevalent ‘aidios timoria’ so that the people would be able to identify the ‘same doctrine’ with regards to the ‘end’ of the wicked using an already ‘accepted term’ in the society. The very fact that Christ didn’t employ such terms clearly indicates that He taught a more rational, reasonable, and logical concept of temporal punishment for the betterment of the person on whom it’s inflicted.
No wonder Christ never got impressed by the Pharisaic mission mentality of “warning the world of a God who will burn you eternally in fire if you don’t accept Him” as recorded in Matthew 23:15. All these Pharisees who converted their proselytes to being ‘twice the sons of hell’ would have “mocked” Christ as leading “the masses” to eternal hell because Lord Jesus taught that He will save the World!
Coming back to ‘time and judgment’, we see that ‘rewards and punishments’ (Judgment) are ‘limited to the age to come’ (time)
as Matthew 25:46 states (when literally & correctly translated):
“And the wicked shall go into age-during correction while the righteous into age-during life” (Matthew 25:46)
What happens after the ‘age to come’?
Christ has saved ‘all men’ (1 Timothy 4:10) highlighting His work for man has finished. Immortality through Christ awaits all men as the Gospel records in the verse below:
“But is now made manifest by the appearing of our Saviour Jesus Christ, who hath abolished death, and hath brought life and immortality to light through the gospel” (2 Timothy 1:10)
Note that “immortality” (in Greek meaning ‘incorruptible, immortal’ – transliterated = aphtharsian) only comes after “death has been abolished” (correlate with 1 Corinthians 15:54 – 55 of which the conclusion {note the word “end” in verse 24} was stated earlier as God becoming ‘all in all’ [verse 28]). The ‘end’ of men (note the word ‘end’ in 1 Timothy 4:10 happens when death has been abolished for men ‘after the punishment in the age to come’) resulting in all men being saved in 1 Timothy 4:10. Similarly, the ‘end’ for the rest of the world happens in 1 Corinthians 15:24 when all opposing “powers” are made subject through the punishment lasting for “ages” (Revelation 20:10) in the Lake of fire resulting in the world being saved (1 John 4:14), creation being set free (Romans 8:21), all reconciled (Colossians 1:20), fulfilling the restoration (apocatastasis) of all things spoken to all His holy prophets from the age (Acts 3:21), all achieved through His Grace and kindness which He will show in the coming ages (Ephesians 2:7) – God’s plan of the ages. God is the Genius who has pre-framed the ages (time period) to bring about the salvation of the whole world. We need ‘faith’ to understand this creating & framing of the ages (Hebrews 1:2 & 11:3 respectively).
Back to the question somewhere at the beginning of this chapter:
“Who is like a wise man?
And who knows the interpretation of a thing?…”
(Ecclesiastes 8:1)
Scripture answers it thus:
“Evil men understand not judgment, And those seeking Jehovah understand all.” (Proverbs 28:5)
It doesn’t get any clearer than this. Note that the “masses” in the world don’t understand “judgment” simply because they are “evil” (proven by their negative response to an all saving God: ‘jealous of others entering heaven’ {calling it unfair – the elder brother syndrome} to ‘if hell is not eternal, then I want to sin more!’).
But those truly seeking God (Jehovah), will understand ‘all’ (not some things only – especially regarding judgment – talking about context here). Who seeks Jehovah (God = Jesus)? Those who truly ‘Love’ Him as Jesus Himself said:
“If you love Me, you will keep My commandments.” (John 14:15)
Lack of ‘knowledge’ (rejecting it on the false basis that facts, logic, and reason – come from the devil! – these are actually traits of truth) causes believers (‘My people’) to be ‘destroyed’:
“My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge”. (Hosea 4:6)
They reject ‘wise men… etc’ sent by God and even ‘kill’ some of them thinking they are ‘offering God a service’. Plenty of eternal hell believers have murdered “masses” in the name of God but almost no “universalist Christian” has ever committed murder simply because there is no “theological reason” to do so here.
Indeed the verse says:
“Because of this, lo, I send to you prophets, and wise men, and scribes, and of them ye will kill and crucify, and of them ye will scourge in your synagogues, and will pursue from city to city”.
(Matthew 23:34)
Remember, this is the doctrine belonging to kings of heaven.
(such as king David etc…)
Indeed, it is written:
“It is the glory of God to conceal a matter, and it is the glory of kings to search it out!.” (Proverbs 25:2)
