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Previous Challenge Entry (Level 3 - Advanced)
Topic: Eternal (06/06/24)
Eternity in Hebrew

This is a true story.

I was lecturing at the USQ, Hervey Bay. It was a small campus, so when we were told that one of our students had committed suicide, it was a dreadful shock. We knew all our students. This girl – lets call her Lily – was from a Christian family that attended a local church faithfully. She was doing well in her studies. The only shadow we were aware of in her life was that her back-slidden father could be difficult and embarrassing. None of us knew she was contemplating suicide. I sobbed my way home, and just kept on sobbing. I was a mess, visualising that beautiful young girl in hell. (Back then I thought all suicides led to hell. I had a lot to learn about not judging, and trusting God to understand the state of people’s hearts.) Finaly, I faced the fact that something was very, very wrong and got seriously into Bible study.

The first thing I discovered was that ‘hell’ is used to translate many different words in the Bible, with different meanings.

Then I looked up ‘eternal’ just to be sure – I thought I knew what it meant.

Ha, ha.

‘Olam’ is a difficult word to translate from Hebrew. It is often translated ‘eternal’ and can indeed mean what it means in English – time without end. But not always. It is better translated ‘long duration’, or ‘antiquity’, or futurity’. The noun ‘olam’ is derived from the verb ‘alam’ which means hidden, concealed, UNKNOWN time. So while it can mean time without end it can also mean finite time. It can also have other meanings. Eg it can mean “Until the end of the age”, or “Until the job is fully done”, or “To the horizon point”.

Similarly in New Testament Greek, we find words such as aidios translated as ‘eternal’. But as Jude 1:6 tells us this does NOT mean time without end.

Jude 1:6 NKJV and the angels who did not keep their proper domain, but left their own abode, He has reserved in everlasting chains under darkness for the judgement of the great day;

This clearly states that the everlasting chains are only on for a finite time.

Are these the same angels who will be released in the Great Tribulation? (Rev 9:13-15) Maybe – maybe not. But even if they are not, Jude is clear. There will come a time when the chains are removed, even if only so that they can stand before God for judgement. So in both Biblical Hebrew AND Biblical Greek “everlasting” does NOT have to mean time without end.

So even if Lily did only rise from the dead on Judgement day in order to be condemned, she would NOT suffer in hell for time without end. The worst that could happen to her is that she would be totally destroyed in the fires of hell – that she would CEASE TO EXIST.

The God Who is LOVE does not torture people forever.

We are taught that hell is the absence of God. But nothing can exist without God, He upholds everything!!! Everything!!!

Heb 1:1-3 NKJV

God, who at various times and in various ways spoke in time past to the fathers by the prophets,

has in these last days spoken to us by His Son, whom He has appointed heir of all things, through whom also He made the worlds;

who being the brightness of His glory and the express image of His person, and upholding all things by the word of His power, when He had by Himself purged our sins, sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high,

So God, speaking through Yeshua (Jesus) with words that cannot be reduced in power, is upholding all things.

People do not suffer forever in hell. They may suffer in hell according to the ancient Hebrew meaning of the word – until the job is fully done. In other words the flames will not stop until the condemned one is fully destroyed and has ceased to exist.

We would not condemn anyone to a never-ending torment. Do we really think that the love of God is weaker than ours?

God forgive us for ever thinking that. Satan wants us to think that. Our believing that makes his work easier – he can tell us how cruel God is. If we understand the true meaning of ‘eternal’ in Hebrew and Greek, we render Satan powerless in that situation.

God’s love is perfect.
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Member Comments
Member
Date
Evelyn Alexander
06/13/24
Wonderful word study on the topic, and how you built your perspective. "Coincidentally" I have recently begun contemplating Hell too, and been leaning toward a similar conclusion. You did a good job of presenting a different perspective which I appreciate. Good food for thought and personal study too.
Philippa Geaney
06/14/24
Very interesting entry. It’s stimulating and wonderfully thought provoking.
And I’ve never thought along those lines.
I admire the study and depth of thought you’ve put towards the meaning of eternal.
In the end I’m clueless concerning the absolute meaning of the word, but you’ve laid a clear and merciful argument.
In the end we can thank God that He knows.