If you think defining eternal and forever (G aionios or eis tous aionas ton aionon) in certain contexts as age-lasting negates the contexts that imply that God abides forever, you may be mistaken.

God has not confined Himself to a one-word, one-phrase definition. Scripture uses many other adjectives to describe God’s nature: He is immortal, unfading, permanent, incorruptible, indestructible and imperishable (Ro 1:23; 2:7; 1Co 9:25; 15:42, 51-54; Heb 7:15-16; 1Pt 1:3-4; 5:4; 1Ti 1:17; 6:16; 2Ti 1:10).

As well, our hope of immortality does not reside in the words aion, aionios or the phrase eis tous aionas ton aionon, but in God’s very nature (unfailing love and unlimited power) and His promises.

Aionios is only one of many adjectives that refer to God. We must not twistingly mistranslate “aion,” “aionios” and “eis tous aionas ton aionon” as eternal where that is Biblically and clearly not justified.

Context is critical to accurate interpretation.

Pastor Peter Hiett offers us a reasonable and Biblically sound interpretation of these terms that is worthy of serious consideration by all Bible students:

“It seems abundantly clear that ‘aion’ is a simple noun and should be translated ‘age’ in English. ‘Aionios’ is an adjective and in English there is no adjective that corresponds to the English noun ‘age’. If there were, I suppose it would be something like ‘ageness,’ and it would mean something like ‘pertaining to an age’ or ‘of the age.’ I think this is exactly what ‘aionios’ means and I think linguists would agree. It means ‘of the age.’ But that leaves us with a question: ‘Of what age?’ In Scripture there appears to [be] a fundamental distinction between ‘this age (or these ages)’ and ‘the age to come,’ God’s age. So fundamentally, something ‘aionios,’ is something of God’s age.

“Because we are children of the ‘Enlightenment’ we have been trained to think that all ‘ages’ are just the same, that time keeps moving in a line without end and without beginning. But this is not the way the ancients thought, and, ironically, it is no longer the way physicists think. It’s clear that there was a beginning to time and may very well be an end. It’s also clear that time (as well as space) is relative–it’s doesn’t stay the same but changes in relation to the speed of light, and God is Light.

“Well there are many texts that indicate that ‘I Am that the I am’ is not subject to time but is in fact the creator of time. In the age to come, all will be filled with God, and time will not be experienced in that ‘age’ as it is now. In Greek, Rev. 10:6 makes it clear that ‘time (chronos—linear time) will be no more.’ This age, beyond, outside of, before and after (all prepositions fail here) time is ‘aionios,’ eternal. The ‘time’ (here our words fail us) beyond our ages is eternal—’of God’s age.’

“So aionios life is life, not simply subject to our experience of time. It is life that doesn’t end, because in a very real sense it is the end . . . and the beginning. Of course, I’m assuming what I think the Bible is assuming, and that is that the ‘age’ to which ‘aionios’ refers is God’s age. Technically, perhaps aionios could refer to another age, but in Scripture it seems to refer to God’s age. . .

“So when Scripture, like Matt. 25, refers to aionios fire and aionios life all in the same story. I think it’s referring to two things that are of God’s age. I actually think it’s referring to one thing that’s experienced in two different ways. Scripture makes it clear that Jesus IS the Life, and God IS a consuming fire, and God is Love. I think that means that the fire is Life and Love, and they are all eternal.

“Fire only burns what opposes it—Shadrach, Meshack, and Abednego are not burned by the fire. The bush is not burned by the fire. Jesus appears as a man on fire in the Revelation and in places like Daniel, etc. We are the temple of God, and the temple is filled with fire in the Old Testament. In the New Testament, the disciples are filled with the Spirit, and tongues of fire rest upon them.

“When Jesus describes the judgment of  the sheep and the goats he’s standing in front of the temple three days before he’s offered as our passover lamb (which could be taken from the sheep or the goats). He is our burnt offering (which was a sheep) and our sin offering (which was usually a goat or seven goats). One is a gift to God, like a good work. And one atones for sin—the sin offering.

Both sheep and goats go into the same fire. That fire comes from the mouth of God (it ignites the altar in the temple in the OT). God even says, ‘Is not my word like fire.’ All of us will be baptized with fire, said Jesus. The Fire burns away what is opposed to it and reveals what is consistent with it. At the cross, where we are joined with our passover lamb, our old man (our flesh and sin nature) is destroyed and our new man (Christ in us, Eternal life in us) is revealed.

“Do you see? Both sheep and goats are going into ‘theion’ (translated ‘sulfur’ or ‘divinity’) they are being offered to God. God is the Fire and the Life, and He is ‘eternal.’ The Fire, Life and Love of God do not change; we change. When we are in opposition to God’s furious grace, it burns us—it burns our pride. When we surrender to God’s furious grace, it fills us like the disciples on Pentecost, the new and living temple—that is the very dwelling place of the eternal consuming fire, who is our God and absolute Love.

“This is why Paul says that, when we’re kind to an enemy, we heap burning coals on his head. Kindness is a fire. If you’ve ever judged someone [or] belittled someone [who] is then kind to you, you know how it burns. It burns your ego. It burns the illusion that you have made yourself in the image of God—it burns your pride. No flesh will boast in the presence of God. It’s burned up by the presence of God.

“According to Zechariah, around the eternal city (New Jerusalem), there will be a wall of fire. I believe this is the fire of Gehenna—the valley that surrounds two sides of Jerusalem now. To enter the city is to enter the ‘Holy Place.’ It is to pass through the place where the fire burns away our ego and purifies our souls; it’s to pass the altar and go into the Holy of Holies. In Zechariah, the fire not only surrounds the city, it is also ‘the glory’ in her midst, and it is Yahweh, the Lord (Zech. 2:5). The fire burns pride, at the edge of the city, but [it] is experienced as Glory inside. The Fire is Grace, eternal life, the glory of God, and it (He) is eternal.

The fire is also the judgment of God: What is not love (not visiting the sick and in prison) will be destroyed; the product of the lie, the flesh, the children of the devil—our sin nature, will be destroyed. AND ‘Love in us’ (visiting the sick and in prison) will be revealed; the fruit of the spirit, the new man, Christ in us, ‘the works that have been wrought in God’ (John 3:21).

“When I come to Christ now, I come to God’s judgment. I confess my ‘not love’ and receive ‘love.’ I don’t need to fear judgment if I constantly agree with judgment, confessing my sins and thanking God for his mercy in me.

“One day the whole earth will be filled with the glory of God and that includes every person—but that’s the other side of the judgment, that’s the age to come. Yet by faith, the age to come is at work in me. Eternal life is already in me. The Life of the age to come. The Love, that is God.”

Peter says the appendix in the back of The History of Time and the Genesis of You^(a) might be best at explaining this view of fire and aionios.”

^(a) Hiett, Peter. The History of Time and the Genesis of You. n.p. Relentless Love Publishing, 2015.

Hiett quote source: Personal email to author. October 5, 2017

Another thought provoking analysis is Gary Amirault’s article: www.tentmaker.org/tracts/DoesForeverS.html