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Date Posted: 06:16:53 09/03/14 Wed
FROM THE DOCUMENTS OF RODGER TUTT #35
REVELATION 20:10
A frequently asked question regarding Revelation 20:10
"How can there only be one age after the millennium when the devil, at the end of the thousand years, is to be tormented unto ages of ages?"
Response by James Coram.
"The problem here is a loose usage of terms. The thousand years of the saint's reign does not constitute the entirety of the coming epochal eon or duration. The two do not end at the same time.
The period of time covered by the word eon depends upon the context. The expression "for the eon" does not necessarily include the entirety of the eon intended. While some seem to think that it must include the whole of a given eon, on the contrary, when an action occurs in an eon, it usually refers only to the rest of it. Our Lord spoke to the barren fig tree, "No longer, by any means, may fruit be coming from you for the eon." Did He forbid fruit from the deluge to His coming? The tree was not even planted until a thousand years after the flood, and it did produce fruit in this eon, but was to do so no longer (Matt. 21:19; Mark 11:14; John 13:8; 1Cor. 8:13).
So also in the plural. "For the eons" does not denote the whole of them. Christ shall reign over the house of Jacob "for the eons," yet only two of them will be left when the kingdom commences (Luke 1:33).
The same is true of the phrase "for the eons of the eons." We read that the saints will be reigning for the eons of the eons (Rev. 22:5). But some of these saints will not be alive at the commencement of the millennial eon. We cannot delay this eon after the advent of the Messiah. Yet Daniel and the dead circumcision saints are not raised until seventy-five days later. Part of the eon will be past when they commence to reign with Him the thousand years (Rev. 20:6).
The same usage is found with reference to the torment of the Adversary. Although the wild beast and the false prophet have been in the lake of fire a thousand years before him (Rev. 19:20), only one phrase is used for both: "the eons of the eons (Rev. 20:10). At that juncture, how much of that eon still remains, we do not know. But no matter how little, so it was that our Lord and His apostles spoke, and we should follow His example. This usage in Rev. 20:10 of the word eon does not affect its meaning. The limitations are in the context, not in the word.
If you look in the Concordant Version of Rev 20:7 please look at the vertical line in front of "finished." "And whenever the thousand years should be finished, Satan will be loosed out of his jail." You could say: whenever the thousand years should be finishing . . . ." So Satan is cast into the lake of fire when the thousand years is finishing and through the new earth eon thus comprising the eons of the eons.
"And the Adversary who is deceiving them was cast into the lake of fire and sulphur, where the wild beast and where the false prophet are also. And they shall be tormented day and night for the eons of the eons." Revelation 20:10. Those who hold to the theory of "annihilation" contend that Satan is consumed in the lake of fire, ceasing to exist before the new earth begins. Yet the text is plain: he will be tormented during TWO eons; what remains of the "millennial" eon (which lasts a little over 1,000 years), and the final eon on the new earth. Likewise, we are told of those who "shall be reigning for the eons of the eons." Rev. 22:5. That they shall be reigning on the new earth is apparent- Rev. 21:24. Likewise, Satan will be alive (and in torment) during the final eon.
Mistranslating "eons of the eons" as "forever and ever" solves nothing; it only feeds the vile theory of eternal torment, while generating considerable confusion. As for those vessels of indignation who are cast into the lake of fire near the end of the millennial eon, for them that lake is the second death. Yet they are not annihilated; their part is in that lake during the final eon- Rev. 21:8. They are not described as "nonexistent", rather, they are described as being outside the holy city- Rev. 22:15. They will be dead until death is abolished at the consummation of the eons."
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