Neglected Kerygma of Christ -- Lecture 7

[Rebbe]

THE NEGLECTED KERYGMA OF CHRIST
a series of lecture essays on the biblical concept of a universal salvation in Christ

LECTURE SEVEN

Copyright © BRI/IMCF 2020 All Rights Reserved Worldwide by Les Aron Gosling, Messianic Lecturer (BRI/IMCF)

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According to recent analysis there exist a number of Christians today, who – in one form or another – are leading hapless lives without purpose and direction, existing each day accidentally, and discovering that (try as they may) old habits of sameness cannot be eradicated and overcome. They believe life is futile and without meaning. Many of these folk are the way they are due to the religious theology of life they have adopted (or have had reinforced by family and friends and associates of similar persuasions). My wife and I are sometimes asked why it is that after 40 years of ministry we can still enthuse others (and each other) with a sense of real confident purpose and drive. My answer has always been (and it will remain) because of the AUTHENTIC LIFE-EMPOWERING AND SPIRITUALLY ELEVATING AND ENRICHING GOSPEL OF YESHUA THE MESSIAH.

Knowing (not just believing) that GOD IS LOVE goes a very long way to creating within our psyche a confident recognition of personal POWER enabling us to draw upon a SUPER-POWER that can keep us all growing stronger into God's high expectations of His children. Indeed, people are realising that our IMCF ministry possesses a unique message of HOPE and LOVE driving us with creative ability to REACH OUT to others, to REACH OUT to God, and to daily REACH OUT with inspiration for the vision and goal of a new us and a new you!

It is the GOSPEL that is the power [Greek, dunamis) of God unto SALVATION (Rom 1.16). It is the dynamic dunamis of God – the energetic dynamite of God's SPIRIT. But ONLY IF you have the true authenticating Gospel. There are false, lying gospels being taught – and they have been in the hands of the Dark Lord's emissaries for almost 2000 years. Indeed, the belief contents of the FALSE GOSPEL are identical to those of pagan belief systems stemming from ancient times – and based, not on salvation BUT ON THE LACK OF IT. Because the church early threw the Jewish baby out with the Jewish bathwater – priests turning their backs on the Jewish thoughtform that brought into existence through the Ruach HaKodesh the present sacred Hebrew texts we call the Old and New Testaments (both misnomers) – the church necessarily rejected the PLAN, PURPOSE, DESIGN and AGENDA of our Creative God. They dismantled the cosmic INTENTION of God the Father and even unceremoniously replaced the Messiah's image with that of the heathen god Zeus. The jettisoning of the biblical teaching about “Firstfruits” created the delusion that only NOW can anyone have salvation – and one has to claim it for themselves otherwise they will be eternally LOST. It's unmitigated rubbish!

It's a destructive “gospel” – without ANY WORTHWHILE “GOOD NEWS.” Yet God wants us all to experience an exciting life with a wonderful ending to our story – with human pride behind us, genuine love surrounding us, and a rich, fulfilling hope ahead of us. We can have ALL of this (and more) if we possess the RIGHT GOSPEL.

SO WHAT'S THE GRACIOUS GOOD NEWS ABOUT?
To begin with in today's lecture I wish to recap some of the road we have thus far travelled together in our pursuit to acknowledge the GRACIOUS “Great News” foundations of the authentic Gospel of Christ. I wish to briefly recap our past six lectures before I share what the greatest authority on the ancient Greek language has to share with any and all who believe erroneously that the English terms “everlasting,” “forever,” and “eternal” are actually specified by the Greek words aion (a noun), aionian (an adjective) and aionias (also an adjective). After all is said and done, there appears to be a certain measure of erroneous collective “group think” when it comes to this aberration in understanding the ancient Greek language. Those who vehemently oppose any concept of “universal salvation in Christ” (or even otherwise) are dogmatic in their assertions that there is no time limit pertaining to aion, aionian and aionias. There exist Greek-English lexicons and specific expository dictionaries that promote the view that these Greeks words specify a sense of eternity and therefore justify the notion of endless fiery torment and misery for the unsaved.

Indeed, since circa 1972 I have had to battle with, contend against, and disengage from those who would ascertain that God has purposed to destroy – either by total eradication or by maliciously tormenting in endless despair and wretchedness His “opposition” for all eternity – with the unending fires of Gehenna hell and the equally disturbing act of being cruelly devoured (again, for all eternity) by immortal worms. To be sure, I find it immensely difficult to grasp how immortal worms (or any other sort of worm) could feast upon an immortal spirit or soul without diminishing it in any way (even over a period of time!). Whatever the case, they perceive God's “opposition” as consisting of those sort of individuals who are not at all interested in choosing Christ and serving God by keeping His commandments. It's not just Christians who believe in such nonsense, but Noachides and would-be-if-they-could-be Jews claiming a belief in Yeshua – as they wear proudly Sinai's mantle – and adopting the appellation “Messianic.”

CHRIST CAME TO SAVE HUMANKIND
It is my view – a view, incidentally, that is shared by an astonishingly growing number of Christian adherents who relate and communicate a common grasp of the biblical revelation in this matter of the Salvific will of Israel's God Yehovah – that Christ's commission from His Father God was entirely to save the world, to rescue humanity, to deliver all human beings from the Dark Lord and the curse of death through personal sin and transgression. 

Indeed in Jn 3.17 we read, “For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.” And again, the same priestly apostle John wrote: “God sent his Son to be the Saviour of the world” (1 Jn 4.14).

Here we find a prominent appraisal of Christ's commission. Our Lord Yeshua was sent here to planet Earth by God the Father in order to SAVE humankind. This is just how important the Spirit of God makes the issue of Christ's salvation and saving Grace. But the plain Word of God in respect of God's salvation (and therefore God's SALVIFIC WILL) is largely ignored by most Christians. 

In effect, God the Father has said to His Son: “Go and save the world.” The overwhelming majority of Christians read these texts and respond, “What a pity Christ failed as He could only save a few. God is really the Saviour of only a small minority.” The sub-text, of course, is really “The devil has done his job much better! He plays better games, has brighter choices to beguile people, and creates the best music.”

Frankly, I cannot help but think that Christians would fare better if they read the WORD of God and BELIEVED what God has written. Instead of educated believers growing in the WORD of God's Grace, being educated by the HOLY SPIRIT, we find (alas!) unbelieving believers. I blame Augustine (bishop of Hippo 395-430 CE and called a “Saint” by one great church and her immediate children) largely for this terrible state of affairs. For, if I may be permitted to paraphrase the supersessionist Augustine, it was his dogmatic assertion concerning the John 3.16 text that when the apostle wrote,  “'world' he meaneth 'church.'”

Well, actually not. When God's Spirit speaketh of “world” he intendeth... “world.”

We are conditioned to read John 3.16,17 in this manner.

“For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son that whosoever believes in him should not perish but have everlasting life. For God sent not his son into the world to condemn the church but that the church through him might be saved.”

I must say this: When I was deputised into ministry with the world's largest international missionary radio outreach many years ago, it was part of my duty to personally visit various churches in Australia and to communicate the Gospel and raise finance for courageous evangelists who were out in the field working with people who had become Christian converts after hearing about Christ through the means of radio – oftentimes messages boomed into nations (from the mighty radio towers in the Seychelles) which were politically closed to any missionary activity.

In my many meetings with ministers of mostly Protestant denominations and churches I discovered that they held to very personal and private beliefs in an ultimate universal salvation in Christ – but they admitted their congregations knew nothing about such Grace. I would ask pointedly why this was the case. Their response was invariably: “Well, they would run amok! Grace would turn into lasciviousness – license to do evil.” In effect, they could not trust their own people!

But over the years I have been confronted by a grossly ignorant Christian public who know absolutely NOTHING about Grace – and God's Gracious Salvific will. Sadly, very few Christians ever take the time to ponder what Grace (Gk charis) actually infers and implies.

Usually these same “believers” have been indoctrinated into the belief that the Bible speaks of everlasting, eternal doom for sinners who reject Christ. They regularly claim their Greek-English lexicons and dictionaries agree with such teachings for these English expressions are based on the Greek words aion and aionios.

Yes, I have spent considerable time and effort in these past lectures on this subject to pull the proverbial plug on this nonsense, but resistance persists. And, I must insist in telling it as it is – that persistent impedance is rotten and carnal to its core.

QUESTION: why would one of the most respected academics claim that the Greek terms just mentioned proclaim that unequivocal everlastingness is the case when speaking of these Greek expressions if it were not the case? Usually, when they refer to this particular academic they are speaking of an English biblical scholar and Plymouth Brethren theologian W. E.Vine. He penned the very popular Expository Dictionary of New Testament Words. In this volume he expresses sentiments that argue for timelessness as in the expressions aion and aionios. BUT is he correct? I'll get to Vine soon. But first I want to share some thoughts I have about a man called F.D. Maurice.

WHY F.D. MAURICE IS SO IMPORTANT
During the 19th century many Christian theologians were intrigued by current academic insights relative to the biblical teaching concerning universal salvation. However, this spiritual revolution didn't last long. The nineteenth century death-knell for the teaching of universal salvation in Christ was sounded in 1853 when the voice of John Frederick Denison Maurice (1805-1872), an outstanding English Anglican theologian, was silenced when he was forced to vacate the coveted Chair of Theology in King's College, University of London. His crime?

Apart from his being one of the founding fathers of Christian Socialism, he upset the established “orthodox” church by urging his Fellows to seriously investigate the actual meaning of certain Greek terms including ainios [eonian] which he claimed (when it was translated into the English equivalent rendering) could not be understood as meaning, or intending, “eternal” or “everlasting.” The suffocating atmosphere of intense hostility in the church of the time (have things really changed that much?) was such that the “divines” could not tolerate a simple, honest and straightforward examination of koine Greek!

And, this is all the more astounding when we realise that while Maurice declared that “everlasting punishment” in the Greek of the NT meant literally (and only) “an age,” HE HIMSELF FIRMLY BELIEVED THAT CONDITIONAL IMMORTALITY WAS “THE VERDICT OF THE BIBLE ON THE FUTURE LIFE” (Horton Davies, Worship & Theology in England: From Newman to Martineau, 1850-1900, Princeton University Press, 1962, 198, 291).

Persecuted and hounded by former colleagues, Alfred Lord Tennyson the famous Poet Laureate (during Queen Victoria's reign) extended to Maurice the sincere right hand of fellowship. He was one of the few to do so. In his January 1854 poetic tribute “To the Rev. F.D. Maurice” Tennyson penned these words:

“Come, when no graver cares employ,
Godfather, come and see your boy:
Your presence will be sun in winter,
Making the little one leap for joy.

“For, being of that honest few,
Who give the Fiend himself his due,
Should eighty-thousand college-councils
Thunder 'Anathema,' friend, at you;

“Should all our churchmen foam in spite
At you, so careful of the right,
Yet one lay-hearth would give you welcome
(Take it and come) to the Isle of Wight;

“Where, far from noise and smoke of town,
I watch the twilight falling brown
All round a careless-order'd garden
Close to the ridge of a noble down.

“You'll have no scandal while you dine,
But honest talk and wholesome wine,
And only hear the magpie gossip
Garrulous under a roof of pine:

“For groves of pine on either hand,
To break the blast of winter, stand;
And further on, the hoary Channel
Tumbles a billow on chalk and sand;

“Where, if below the milky steep
Some ship of battle slowly creep,
And on thro' zones of light and shadow
Glimmer away to the lonely deep,

“We might discuss the Northern sin
Which made a selfish war begin;
Dispute the claims, arrange the chances;
Emperor, Ottoman, which shall win:
Or whether war's avenging rod
Shall lash all Europe into blood;
Till you should turn to dearer matters,
Dear to the man that is dear to God;

“How best to help the slender store,
How mend the dwellings, of the poor;
How gain in life, as life advances,
Valour and charity more and more.

“Come, Maurice, come: the lawn as yet
Is hoar with rime, or spongy-wet;
But when the wreath of March has blossom'd,
Crocus, anemone, violet,

“Or later, pay one visit here,
For those are few we hold as dear;
Nor pay but one, but come for many,
Many and many a happy year.”

MODERN EXPERTS CONFUSED ON KOINE GREEK
Some Greek experts like to claim, like W.E. Vine, that aionios can be open-ended. Other scholars stake their credibility on the belief that the Greek word means nothing more than an “age.” Others admit they just don't know. But no less an authority than the noted evangelist, preacher and author Dr G. Campbell Morgan is on record as stating emphatically: “Let me say to Bible students that we must be very careful how we use the word 'eternity.' We have fallen into great error in our constant usage of that word. There is no word in the whole Book of God corresponding with our [modern concept of] eternal...” We'll return to Morgan a little later.

In the meantime, consider:

Dr F.W. Farrar: “It may be worthwhile... to point out once more to less educated readers that aion, aionios, and their Hebrew equivalents in all combinations are repeatedly used of things which have come to an end. Even Augustine admits (what, indeed, no one can deny), that in Scripture aion and aionios must in many instances mean 'having an end,' and St Gregory of Nyssa, who at least knew Greek, uses aionios as the epithet for 'an interval'.”

Farrar, who authored books on the life of Yeshua and Paul and gave us a Greek Grammar, was well versed in the original biblical tongues. He also made these comments: “The pages of theologians in all ages show a startling prevalence of such terms as 'everlasting death, everlasting damnation, everlasting torments, everlasting vengeance, everlasting fire' - not one of which has Scriptural authority.”

Dr Edwin Abbott in his Cambridge Sermons writes, “And as for ourselves, though occasionally mentioning in language general and metaphorical, states of eonian life and eonian chastisement awaiting us after death, the Holy Scriptures give no detailed information as to either condition” (see page 25).

In An Exegetical Commentary on the Gospel of Matthew, celebrated Greek scholar Dr Alford Plumer states: “It is often pointed out that 'eternal' (aionios) in 'eternal punishment' must have the same meaning as in 'eternal life.' No doubt, but that does not give us the right to say that 'eternal' in both cases means 'endless'” (pp. 351,352).

Why did Plumer take such a position? Why, for the simple fact – overlooked by most modern expositor's of the Word of Life – that the words aion and aionian are the Greek equivalent of the Hebrew ol'm which NEVER EVER meant “endless.” Ol'm invariably and always intended the thought (or concept) of “an age.” Nothing more, nothing less. OUR CONCEPT OF “ETERNITY” IS NOT THE CONCEPT CONVEYED IN JEWISH THOUGHTFORM. The Jewish people in the days of Yeshua thought of ages rolling one upon another in succession. They never once considered that an “age” (ol'm) did not have a beginning or an ending! The ages in Jewish thoughtform were “framed” much as a picture frame that hangs on the wall. The unknown author of Hebrews referred to the thinking of his day when he penned “the ages were framed by the Word of God”  (Heb 11.3). They were framed – they had a beginning and they will have an end. As surprising as this may at first sound!

The biblical eschatologist, Sir Robert Anderson, agreed: “The NT unfolds an economy of times and seasons; many ages head up in the one great age, within which the manifold purpose of God, in relation to earth, shall be fulfilled. Here, these words eon, age are applicable, and are used.”

And so also the eminent archaeologist and biblicist, Dr Edward Plumptre: “I fail to find [in the Hebrew and Greek Scriptures]... any instance in which the idea of time duration is unlimited.”

Because it was written by Jews and expressed in Jewish thoughtform “the Bible has no expression for endlessness. All the Biblical terms imply or denote long periods” (German Lutheran theologian Professor Hermann Oldhausen). In agreement with Oldhausen, another authority readily admits: “The Hebrew was destitute of any single word to express endless duration. The pure idea of eternity is not found in any of the ancient languages” (Professor Knappe of Halle). “The conception of absolute endlessness as etymological of olam or eon would clearly have prevented plurals” (Professor Taylor Lewis). He adds, that “ever” from the German ewig was “originally a noun denoting age, just like the Greek, Latin and Hebrew words corresponding to it.”

Not all advocates of eternal hellfire theology are as straightforward and honest as Jeremy Taylor. He reluctantly admits “though the [Gehenna] fire is everlasting, not all that enters it is everlasting... The word everlasting signifies only to the end of its period” (Jeremy Taylors' Works, Vol. 3., 43).

Even Sir Isaac Watts insists, “There is not one place in Scripture which occurs to me, where the word death necessarily signifies a certain miserable immortality of the soul.”

Of course, he was absolutely correct. God has no plan to torment our immortal souls or spirits for eternity! What most Christians saturated with pagan Greek thoughtform fail to realise is that “Hellfire” in the first century existed for PURIFICATION purposes, and was remedial, not punitive. God would not be just if He did not love us. But God IS love. That love is unconditional, a fact often overlooked by zealots of the Hellfire and Brimstone Club.

Dr W.H. Griffith Thomas, commenting on the text of Hebrews 11.3: “the word rendered 'worlds' is 'ages' and refers not so much to the material creation as to the world regarded from the standpoint of time... The last mentioned [age, aion] is the name used here, and it seems to refer to what may be called time-worlds, the idea being that of various ages or dispensations being planned by God with reference to a goal toward which all are moving” (The Christian).

Eruditely, Thomas notes, “As mankind's connection with Adam involved him in certain death, through sin, so his relation to Christ insures to him life without fail. The double headship of mankind in Adam and Christ show the significance of the work of redemption for the entire race” (notes on Romans 5.18-19).

Dr Max Muller, commenting on the Latin word aeternum, from which we get our modern term 'eternity,' articulates: “It originally signified life or time, but has given rise to a number of words expressing eternity – the very opposite of life and time.” He then adds that the Greek aionon, later aion, became “the name of time, age, and [the] derivative [of the Latin aevum], aeviternus, or aeternus, was made to express eternity.” Further, as recognised by Muller and other scholars, it was not until the 5th century CE that theologians projected ol'm and eon into the holy Scripture as an expression of “endlessness”” (Alexander Thomson, Whence Eternity? 1935).

Dr G. Campbell Morgan, mentioned earlier in this lecture, and commenting on Matthew 25.31-46 said this: “We must be careful not to read into this section of prophecy things which it does not contain; for while it has been interpreted as though it were a description of the final judgment... These shall go away into age-abiding punishment; but the righteous into age-abiding life – the terms are coequal in value, and whatever one means the other means. Only remember that here Christ is not dealing with the subject of the soul's destiny either in heaven or hell. They are terms that have to do wholly with the setting up of the kingdom here in this world” (Studies of the Four Gospels).

In his The Corinthian Letters of Paul the highly respected Dr Morgan rightly takes exception to the Protestant notion of the Messiah as the “second Adam” and notes “[1 Cor 15.22] The word Adam is used here in the sense of headship of a race, the one from whom the race springs. But God's second Man was the last Adam. If we say second Adam, we presuppose the possibility of a third Adam, another from whom a race shall spring. There will be none such. It is 'first Adam' and 'last Adam.' What does relationship with Him mean? In the program of God ALL ARE TO BE MADE ALIVE IN CHRIST” (191 emphasis mine).

Astonishingly, despite what he had penned and what he saw plainly written in the Word of God, George Campbell Morgan refused to believe that all people would ultimately be saved. But he was an honest scholar when it came to an appropriate translation of the biblical revelation.

MORE HEALTHY CRITICISM OF THE KJV
Well, we seem to be on a roll so let's not stop here. American theologian and first President of Dallas Theological Seminary Dr Lewis S. Chafer warned Christians: “The word,” speaking of world “which in common usage has a limited meaning, is used by the translators [of the KJV] as the one English rendering for at least four widely differing ideas in the original [texts]. So that if the truth contained in this important body of Scripture is to be understood, the student must not only know the various meanings which are expressed by the one word, but also be able to determine to correct use of it in the many passages in which it occurs. Therefore, the KJV has placed the simple truth they contain beyond the average reader of the Bible. The English word 'world,' as used in the New Testament, may mean a distinct period of time, commonly known as an age (as its original is a few times [in the KJV] translated), or it may refer to the things created: the earth, its inhabitants, or their institution. The ages are often referred to in Scripture, and the study of the exact conditions and purposes of each of them are not fanciful; but it is rather the only adequate foundation for any true knowledge of the Bible.”

ENTER [THE] VINE'S BITTER FRUIT
The contents of the popular Expository Dictionary of New Testament Words by W.E. Vine rejects the accumulated wealth of Greek scholarship pertaining to the correct translation into English of aion (noun) and aionios (adjective), lending itself to the rendering “eternal.” Vine also claims that the Greek can mean, depending on its context, “non-eternal.” Those who would depend on a proper translation of Greek words into English, for their studies into a deeper appreciation of the biblical revelation, based on the faulty scholarship of Vine, are in danger of being poisoned by its fruit.

One glaring example of faulty scholarship pertaining to Vine is located in Philemon 15 where we have the one place in the Messianic Scriptures (the so-called NT) where there is an absence of the noun. The KJV has “for ever” and dozens of other Bible translations and versions follow suit. Vine would place emphasis on “eternal” or “eternity.” But Philemon could hardly receive his runaway slave back as an eternal payment. Clearly, this was not what Paul had in mind! What Rav Shaul said, was simply: “For perhaps therefore is he separated for a short time, that you may be collecting him as an eonian repayment.”

Philemon was getting his slave back – but for all eternity? What a travesty of interpretation! Philemon's slave was returning for the duration of his life, or until Philemon released him from further servitude.

So now we arrive at the juncture where we ought to read (and heed) what the greatest Greek scholar in Christianity Marvin Vincent – Professor of Greek New Testament exegesis and criticism at Union Theological Seminary (NY) – has to share with us all concerning the Greek words aion and aionios. We most certainly need his input to argue against the futile nonsense and demonic folly that masquerades today as truth and right knowledge and appropriate spiritual understanding.

This we shall accomplish in our following lecture.

THIS CONCLUDES THE CURRENT LECTURE