II. Christ’s Meaning of “Eternal” Fire, Punishment, Damnation

Christ thrice speaks of the doom of the wicked as being, or involving, something “eternal.” His three important warning statements are:CFF1 288.3

(1) Mark 3:29—“He that shall blaspheme against the Holy Ghost .. is in danger of eternal damnation ^{22) Some manuscripts read “eternal sin.”} [aioniou kriseos, “eternal judgment”].”CFF1 288.4

(2) Matthew 25:46—“These shall go away into everlasting punishment [kolasin aionion] but the righteous into life eternal [zoen aionion].” (Cf. Paul, 2 Thessalonians 1:9)CFF1 288.5

(3) Matthew 25:41—“Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire [to pur to aionion], prepared for the devil and his angels.”CFF1 288.6

In the first instance there is a distinct and consummating act, coupled with endless duration of result—the sentence being everlasting in its consequences. It is the sin that throughout the ages remains unpardoned. ^{33) See R. F. Weymouth, New Testament to Modern Speech (3rd ed.), Mark 3:29, n. 10.} In the second, the “punishment” and the suffering are not identical—the punishment is likewise eternal in its effects whereas the suffering ends in utter abolition, or cessation, of being. And in the third, the fire is called “everlasting” because its results are everlasting. It is not simply a fire, but “the fire”—the one “prepared for the devil and his angels” (Matthew 25:41). It ends in destruction and ashes.CFF1 288.7

Picture 1: Conflict Between Christ and Satan:
The Conflict of the Ages Has Been Between Satan, the Rebel and Source of Evil, and Christ, the Creator and Redeemer, Judge and Coming King.
Page 289CFF1 289

1. MEANING DETERMINED BY NOUN TO WHICH ATTACHED

In each of these passages the Greek word for “everlasting,” or “eternal,” is the adjective aionios—derived from the noun aion, an “age” or “era”—the word itself leaving the time limit of the age undefined. The late Bishop H. C. G. Moule, of Durham, in his Outline of Christian Doctrine, soundly declared that the term of duration expressed by aionios must always be sought in the noun to which it is attached, not in the modifying aionios itself. Therefore, to determine its true meaning we must carefully trace its usage in Scripture, and seek out the noun it modifies.CFF1 289.1

God, and things divine, are incontestably endless—thus involving the full and unrestricted meaning. But earthly things will not last beyond the earth in its present age or form. Thus the aionion Mosaic statutes and the aionion Aaronic priesthood belonged to a passing dispensation—and ceased. The adjective aionios there obviously stood for a limited time only “age long”—the noun it modified determining the term of duration.CFF1 290.1

On the contrary, “life eternal” (zoen aionion), for the righteous, is used more than forty times. That life will be unending. But in contrast, the runaway slave, Onesimus (Philemon 1:15), who was to serve his master “for ever” (likewise aionion), was to serve only as long as he lived. Clearly the substantive, or noun, determines the meaning.CFF1 290.2

2. DIVINE ACTIONS OR ACTIVITIES MAY BE TERMINABLE

Christ clearly taught that divine conditions or Persons abide unendingly, whereas divine actions or activities may be terminable, for example, punishment (Matthew 25:46); judgment (Hebrews 6:2); sin (Mark 3:29); destruction (2 Thessalonians 1:9); salvation (Hebrews 5:9); redemption and fire (Matthew 18:8; Matthew 25:41; Jude 1:7). These expressions obviously do not mean endless punishing, judging, sinning, destroying, saving, redeeming. Endless salvation is not endless saving, but represents a completed work of grace.CFF1 290.3

The fire that destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah was not endless in its process, but was completely endless in its results. The “unquenchable fire” that “burns up” the chaff, will not keep that chaff forever burning. Again we see that the noun to which the modifying aionios is attached, automatically determines the unlimited or the limited meaning—such as “eternal inheritance” (Hebrews 9:15), or “everlasting [eternal] gospel” (Revelation 14:6).CFF1 290.4

Thus in Matthew 25:46 the living state of the righteous is endless, and the death—punishment state, or condition, of the wicked, produced by the process of destruction, is a death state as endless as the contrasting life state is endless. But the process is not eternal, only the result. We must therefore concur with Bishop Moule and other recognized scholars that the noun to which aionios is attached is the determinative factor. In one case it is terminable; in another it is interminable.CFF1 290.5