Is there eternal damnation? The short answer is no. A longer answer, of course, requires justifications. But the basic observation should be that there is no such term as “eternal damnation” anywhere in the Bible. So you don’t have to “refute” any Bible passages, because there are no Bible passages to do so.

The Bible nowhere mentions an “eternal damnation”.

The Bible does not speak of “eternal damnation” in any single place. The expression thereby exposes itself as foreign thought that was smuggled into the Bible. Of course, everyone is allowed to believe in eternal damnation, but you cannot claim the support from the Bible for your opinion.

As a rule, the argument goes like this: There is eternal damnation because … Then follow various biblical passages that do not speak of eternal damnation, but are interpreted that way. Thus, one chooses biblical passages that are bent to one’s own doctrinal opinion.

Example “Eternal punishment

Matthew 25:46 states the following:

“

And these shall go into everlasting punishment, but the righteous into life eternal.

.”
Slaughterer 2000

This passage is repeatedly mentioned in the same breath as eternal damnation. However, a translation close to the basic text already sheds much light on this passage:

“Thus these will go into the Aeonian punishment, but the righteous into the Aeonian life.”
Concordant New Testament (KNT)

Eternal is not endless

If you compare the two translations, there are striking differences. Instead of “eternal”, namely “endless”, here it is about “aeonian”. Jesus’ speech in Matthew 24 and 25 is the answer to the disciples’ question “Tell us, when will this be, and what is the sign of Your presence and of the end of the eon?” (Mt 24:3 CNT). The disciples stood in an expectation that the present age would be replaced by a new age, by a new eon. Jesus had promised them eonian life for this coming eon:

“Then Peter began to ask Him, “Behold, we have forsaken all and followed Thee: What will our portion be? Jesus answered him, Verily I say unto you […] and in the eon to come eonian life.”
Mark 10:28-30 KNT

The disciples receive “in the coming eon eonian life”. They are not granted an endless life, but a life for the duration of the coming eon. What comes after that is not a subject of the statement. Jesus is not talking about a fictitious eternity, but very specifically about the fulfillment of certain promises. It was about the Kingdom of Heaven, which had now “come near”. The dawn of this realm marks a transition from this time (this eon) to the next time (coming eon).

The coming aeon is something other than a fictitious endless eternity that was projected into such passages much later. What is aeonic concerns this coming messianic age. In the Gospels, Jesus often speaks of the coming (Messianic) Kingdom. This involves a contrast between this age and the age to come, between this age and the age to come, between this aeon and the aeon to come (e.g., Mt 12:32; Lk 20:34-35).

Eternal is not endless. It’s not about a quantity, it’s about a quality. The point is for the disciples to be there then in this new time. What Jesus tells was logical for His listeners. It was what they knew from the Tenach, the Old Testament, as the outlook. It was the kingdom promised by the prophets. Nobody knew anything about an endless eternity yet. Read more in the series of articles “What is eternity?”.

An “eternal punishment” is therefore not an “endless punishment”, but a punishment in connection with this coming eon. For two chapters Jesus explains how the transition from this eon to the next eon takes place. There are nations (that is what the context is about) that bring an aeonian punishment upon themselves.

Eternal punishment for some nations

A next point is the expression “eternal punishment”. Who does this affect? Well, Jesus speaks in the context of whole nations (Mt 25:32ff. See also the post “Sheep and Goats”). This is neither about a final judgment nor about an eternal damnation of individual people, nor about whether one believes in Jesus. All this is not mentioned with a word.

The “eternal punishment” is a punishment that plays a role in the coming aeon, in this coming age (and only then). This is not torture, but punishment. The Greek kolasis is a punishment with the purpose of recovery and correction. It is unlikely that this would be a bed of roses, but certainly this is not an endless condemnation. The word otherwise appears only in the First Epistle of John:

“Fear is not in love, but perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment.”
1Joh 4,18

Neither here nor in the Gospel of Matthew can an “eternal damnation” be read out. There are no other occurrences of the word in the New Testament. The verb kolazo is still found in 2Pet 2:4, where it refers to those being punished being kept until judgment. This does not mean finality, but a temporary situation. It is not a court, but the custody until the court. Likewise, no “eternal damnation can be found back” in Acts 4:21. Depending on the manuscript, there is a final occurrence in 1Pet 2:20, but even there there is no indication that God “eternally condemns” people.

Bible translations and “damnation

For an interested Bible reader, it is essential to understand that not everything one thinks of the Bible is testified to in the Bible. Those who have a healthy foundation of faith in mind must distinguish between the two. Some things are actually in Scripture, while others are only projected into it. Among the thoughts smuggled in are terms like “hell,” “free will,” “eternal damnation,” and the like. They are really nowhere. However, I refer to the basic text when making this statement. These things are not mentioned there.

In translations, on the other hand, such terms can be found, but they are by no means translated uniformly. The best way to see this is to compare a few Bible translations (click on the link):

• “Damnation” in three German translations
  Elberfelder: 4x
  Slaughter 2000: 2x
  Luther 2017: 16x

In these three translations one does find “damnation”, but in other translations nowhere at all. However, the compound expression “eternal damnation” does not exist in any place. That’s a pipe dream.

The differences between the translations are considerable. From this it is immediately apparent that translators are by no means in agreement as to where and when such a translation is appropriate. Damnation is read into it sometimes here or sometimes there. Furthermore, the lack of agreement shows that different words are repeatedly used to translate the same terms from the basic text, or different Greek words are translated as damnation. Therefore, today we hear something very different from the first listeners of Jesus or the apostles. Here one must consistently ask why “damnation” is used at every point and not another word?

Luther 2017 most often translates as damnation:

• Mt 7,13 gr. apoleia (to come to ruin, to waste. See also here)
• Mt 23,33 gr. geenna (Gehenna. See also here).
• Lk 23:40 gr. krima (judgment, sentence, the result of judging).
• Rom 3:8 gr. krima (judgment, sentence, the result of judging).
• Rom 5:16 gr. krima (judgment, sentence, the result of judging).
• Rom 5:18 gr. krima (judgment, sentence, the result of judging).
• Rom 8:1 gr. katakrima (condemnation, as a sentence, the result of judging).
• 2Cor 3,9 gr. katakrisis (condemnation. Figure of speech “ministry of condemnation”)
• Phil 1:28 gr. apoleia (perishing, ruin, waste. See also here).
• Phil 3:19 gr. apoleia (perishing, ruin, waste. See also here).
• 1Tim 6,9 gr. apoleia (to come to ruin, to waste. See also here)
• 2Pet 3,7 gr. apoleia (perishing, ruin, waste. See also here).
• 2Pet 3,16 gr. apoleia (perishing, ruin, waste. See also here).
• Rev 17:8 gr. apoleia (perishing, ruin, waste. See also here).
• Rev 17,11 gr. apoleia (perishing, ruin, waste. See also here).
• (Sir 41:10 Apocrypha, not considered).

Two things are striking: First, one sees here quite clearly the arbitrariness of the translation. Secondly, the word apoleia is used most often, for half of the references.

apoleia

The root word is related to the word for “to lose, to perish” (often translated as “toget lost”) and consists of the two parts of speech, apo and olumi, which etymologically can be understood as “to dissolve completely”. When this word occurs, a downfall is described here on earth, which then possibly ends with death. However, the term does not describe anything beyond death. Those who own a Concordant New Testament can conveniently look up all this information in the keyword concordance at the end of the Bible edition. There you will find all the terms, sorted by the Greek words.

Disentangling the confusion

Eternal damnation is nowhere mentioned in the Bible. The word damnation was exposed as an arbitrary translation. If such a term vanishes into thin air, we would do well not to use it again. Instead, the focus is on the terms that are actually mentioned. Finally, nothing is taken away, but only a conceptualization is recognized as wrong. This is, so to speak, the precondition for coming closer to the Bible. We may untangle the confusion and come to a better understanding.