2434.-The Word "Everlasting."

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Mountain View, California · Mar 25, 1908

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 34, No. 13.

2434.—The Word "Everlasting."

How can you harmonize your position and such passages of Scripture as Matt. 25:46 and Gen. 17:7, 19?

The word "everlasting" in Gen. 17:7, 19 comes from the Hebrew word olam, the literal meaning of which is to conceal, that which is hidden, times hidden. It may refer to a long time, it may refer to one lifetime, and is used of lifetime, and it may refer to eternity. The very nature of the thing to which it is applied must determine the length of time that is indicated by the term. Matt. 25:46 comes from the Greek word aion. It means age, and is used of eternity, forever, everlasting. Our position on the punishment is that it is everlasting punishment; not everlasting punishing, but everlasting punishment; that is, a punishment complete, declared in 2 Thess. 1:7-9 to be "everlasting destruction" from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of His power; a punishment which will never be repeated, which shall be forever. The covenant with Abraham that his seed should inherit the earth was an everlasting covenant, and was fulfilled or completed thru Christ, including in its wonderful scope the forgiveness, justification, and salvation of mankind.