There is a whole section on this website dedicated to “Time and Eternity”. Various aspects are discussed in detail in different articles. There you will find justifications, Bible texts and clear statements that are important as background knowledge for this article.

This article is less concerned with the justification from the basic text and context than with the consequences of the doctrine for the thinking of many people.

Can we question eternity?

This article is about how this concept has taken on a “life of its own” in Christian thought. The term “eternity” became something like the main characteristic of divinity. Eternal life and eternal punishment are standard concepts of many beliefsystems. Life and punishment are to be “eternal”, which is intended to emphasize the seriousness of the matter. However, the Hebrew “olam” and the Greek “aion”, which are often translated as eternity, do not have the meaning of endlessness. Few people are bothered by this. Eternity was woven into the Christian self-understanding.

Endlessness was first invented, then built into the self-understanding and then declared to be the supposed basis. That is a circular argument and not a justification. However, this circular argument goes even further. God is “eternal”, so everything that is declared to be “eternal” belongs to the realm of God. And conversely, one must not question eternity, because by doing so one “questions God himself, denies his eternal life and also disregards an endless punishment that is necessary to maintain God’s justice”. Many people argue along similar lines as soon as the term “eternity” as “eternal” is questioned. It makes no difference whether the Bible is used to show that it was only selectively translated as “eternity” and “eternal”, namely only where it traditionally “fits”. People frequently insist that everything should remain as it has always been, and questioning something of this magnitude calls for immediate resistance.

The emergence of confusion

There are several angles from which “eternity” is traditionally viewed. These are points of view that begin where the term makes the most sense for the proponents.

1. Eternity of hell. A vengeful god is at the center. The seriousness of belief and non-belief. Preferred by hell lovers.
2. Eternal life. The focus is on people and what they “gain” when they believe.
3. God is eternal. The image of God is central, which is linked to the term “eternal”.

Every proponent considers this information to be conclusive. However, the fact that the meaning “endlessness” is first interpreted into the Greek “aion”, resulting in a circular argument, often goes unnoticed. The meaning of “endlessness” is assumed as a starting point.

What is needed, however, is the question of whether the words translated here as “eternity” actually have this meaning in the Bible. What is the actual meaning of the Hebrew “olam” or the Greek “aion”? Did the Hebrews and the people of the New Testament era know concepts such as endlessness? Was that part of their world? Or was this meaning added later?

Everyone today is familiar with the concept of endlessness. It may not be possible to imagine something like “eternity”, but as an abstract concept it is common knowledge. The words translated as “eternity” in the Bible were not translated consistently. When this becomes clear, you can start to think about it. Sometimes it is translated as eternity, sometimes as age or something else. This is perhaps due to the context or the tradition. Those who read the New Testament directly are not aware of these contradictions. For today’s readers, “eternity” is in the Bible. But: Wherever the original word was translated differently, it remained hidden in the translation, hiding it from the readers eye. This led to false assumptions about the scope of this term.

This is what we need to rediscover here.

Confusion from the translations

If you look up the meaning of the word in lexicons, you will often find contradictory explanations for the word “olam”, as well as for the word “aion”. The same words should be correctly translated as age in one place, but correctly translated as eternity or something else in other places. Who decides this? One time it is about time, another time about timelessness. One time as limited, another time as unlimited. It’s as if a word like “water” describes both wet and dry, and everyone in the group nodded in agreement. Contradictions are believed and solidified in traditions. The self-evidence and acceptance of such contradictions seem disturbing to me.

A few examples:

• The disciples asked Jesus about the end of the age (end of this eternity, Mt 24:3)
• Jesus promised the disciples in the coming age (in the coming eternity) the life of this age (eternal life, Mark 10:30)
• God is not limited to the eternities because he was already active before the eternities. (Ages, 1Cor 2:7)
• Paul mentions the end of the eternities (end of the ages, 1 Corinthians 10:11).

The word is translated differently here as in other Bible passages. The reason is that the meaning of “endlessness” cannot be applied here. That’s why it was translated differently. At the same time, the inexperienced reader is not aware that the same word is used here and there. However, if you read the same word everywhere without thinking, you cannot come to the same conclusions. Traditional interpretations characterize the translations, even if it contradicts all logic.

Understanding eternity

I doubt whether anyone can understand eternity in the sense of endlessness. How do you explain the concept of a week to a short-living mayfly? We will experience a similar situation with regard to an alleged endlessness.

How do you explain the concept of a week to a short-living mayfly?

However, the idea of eternity is so hammered into our heads and into our Christian self-image that it is very difficult to imagine anything else. This is the premise of the doctrine of hell. The doctrine of hell not only conjures up hell, but also declares it to be “eternal”, namely endless. According to this doctrine, unbelievers end up in an eternal hell, while believers receive eternal life.

This idea alone is a contradiction in terms. For the unbelievers also receive eternal life, but are tormented by God for eternity. Only the faithful end up “in heaven” and receive “eternal life” there. Strangely enough, eternal life is not a difference, but an agreement between heaven and hell and those who live there. In other words: According to the doctrine of hell, all receive eternal life and some enjoy it more than others. There is the well-known saying, presumably from Mark Twain: “Go to heaven for the climate, go to hell for the company”.

With the threat of eternal hell and the promise of eternal life, it doesn’t matter whether eternal means endless. These ideas are too strongly anchored in the beliefs of many people. It’s hard to imagine anything else. However, there are positives and negatives to note:

1. If hell is not eternal, does that mean that salvation is possible for all people?
   This is a positive statement that should definitely be followed up.
2. If eternal life is not endless, will I die again?
   This is a negative statement that should also be investigated.

People keep asking me what eternal life is like now. One is dismayed to hear that eternity is not endless, because – one thinks – will the promised life suddenly be cut off after all?

How can we respond to this?

Unfortunately, there are no quick answers. This is not because the Bible is difficult, but because we have been brainwashed. These are ideas that have now taken root in the mind and must first be deconstructed in the light of the Bible (that’s what I’m doing here) and then rediscovered (we’ll get there). A new vision requires a “detoxification procedure”, often a “recovery phase” and then a “new structure” again, but with better ideas. People have become so accustomed to the old view that many take it for granted, even when it is demonstrably declared invalid. It can even trigger fears because people supposedly lose something (“endless life”) that has often been promised for decades. I get that.

But this is how you can counter this:

1. Detoxification procedure
   The linking of the words “olam” and “aion” with the idea of an endless eternity was flawed. People began to interpret “eternity” everywhere, although nowhere was it about endlessness. What was unknown to the Bible writers and listeners at the time suddenly had to apply to us. We have to let go of this part. The Bible writers were concerned with ages, namely periods of time with a certain character. The focus was not on endlessness, but on embossing. It was never about endlessness. It was not about quantity, but about quality. The expression was about “being there” in a new age (cf. Mark 10:30). The promise of “eternal life” was not a promise of endlessness, but of sharing in the life and quality and blessing of this future. In the New Testament, “eternal life” is the “life of the eon to come”.
2. New discovery
   If eternal life is not endless, how long does it last? I understand this question, because it comes logically from the dismantling of eternity, as I mentioned above. However, sobriety dictates that the words “olam” and “aion” never had the meaning of eternity. So we are not losing anything that is in the Bible, but we are losing a misinterpretation. But by refuting the misinterpretation, you don’t lose something that was never the point. We’ll have to look elsewhere to see what happens next. The talk of eternal life was the promise of being there in the age to come (possibly plural). And once these ages come to an end. What happens after that? Yes, it goes on. Two things are said: 1. death is dismissed as the last enemy (1 Corinthians 15:26). Life and immortality will then be the result (2 Timothy 1:10). The final goal that is then mentioned is that God will be “all in all” (1 Corinthians 15:28). Then the ages will have ended and the purpose of the ages will have been completed in Christ Jesus (Eph 3:11), but after that God is everything in us and everything in everyone else. This seems to be the starting signal for the time after that.

The point about eternities is this: the Bible does not outline endless eternities, but ages. These are the longest periods of time mentioned in the Bible. They have a beginning and a still hidden end. However, this does not make them endless. They will all end one day.

Paul writes that God has already done things before the eons. The eons will also come to an end one day. It therefore appears that the eons, the supposed “eternities”, are embedded in an even larger time structure, perhaps even in an eternity. The eons themselves have nothing to do with eternity, but with time. The times, however, only form the framework for world history. Something greater than this is something else, perhaps even an endless eternity. So no eternity was “taken away” here, but a misleading classification was resolved, while indications of an actually greater time were given.

The Gospel of Luke says, for example:

“and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and there will be no end to his kingdom.”
Luke 1:33

This sentence can be linguistically interpreted as two components of the same statement. However, we can also see that Christ does not reign endlessly but “aeonically” in order to then hand over the kingdom to his God and Father (1 Corinthians 15:27). Only then will God be all in all (1 Corinthians 15:28). Just as the reign of Christ ends, the kingdom will continue to exist: “There will be no end to his kingdom.”

Then the revelation is also complete for us. God will be all in all and the Bible does not say what happens afterwards. That’s why you have to leave it open.