Bible Dictionary: Define For Ever, Definition of For Ever

How can we know anything about anything

To try to explain truth to him who loves it not is but to give him more plentiful material for misinterpretation. George Macdonald

Do we have to make a choice between science and the Bible?

NO!

That is NOT where the problem is, but that is what everyone seems to want to talk about.

Take science as an example. How can we know anything about the created material world around us?

How can we know anything from what we can see using natural sciences?

We all see the same things in the material world, but we don't come to the same answers.

Why is that?

How can we know anything about the Bible and what it teaches? Every person believes different things about the Bible and how it should be read.

Why is that?

Same scientific facts. Different answers.

Same Bible. Different answers.

Why is that?

The true question is this: How do we come to our answers that we get from what we can see through science or what we can read in the Bible?

How do we think about what we see using science or what we read in the Bible?

How do we analyze what we have seen and read?

How do we interpret what we have seen and read?

We use logic, but logic always has a foundation. Jesus talked about building on the Rock. That Rock is Jesus Christ. He is the true foundation. There are also the false foundations of the ungodly.

An example might help.

Question: Why do you believe in evolution?

Answer: Because my science teacher told me that evolution is scientific fact.

Question: Why do you believe your science teacher?

Answer: because he agrees with the textbook he assigned us to read.

Now, we have asked, "Why?" twice.

If we continued to ask, "Why?" we would come down to the foundation of this person's thoughts.

When we get down to the foundations, there are no more questions that can be answered. So where to the foundations come from?

There are three possibilities.

things that we make up, pulled from the air
demonic lies
divine revelation

Question: Why do you believe in creation?

Answer: Because God revealed this to me. He spoke to me through the Bible and gave me His faith so that I could believe Him.

See how quickly we got to the foundation. This is a belief that has a foundation that is solid and that cannot be moved.

In reality, the things that we make up, that are pulled from the air, are actually from demons and all the lies of demons spring from the prince of demons, Satan. So these are one and the same.

Divine revelation comes from the Almighty, Creator, God, Jesus Christ. So there are only two choices, but how do we know there are only two choices? Because God has revealed this truth to us.

The question then is how do we tell the difference between the revelation that comes from God and the lies of Satan?

The answer is that everyone who sincerely wants to do the will of God will know.

Jesus said, "If you really want to obey God, you will know if what I teach comes from God or from me"

The rejection of the revelation that comes from God is not an intellectual problem. It is a moral problem.

Jesus said, "Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and you shall find; knock, and it shall be opened to you: For everyone who asks receives; and he who seeks finds; and to him who knocks it shall be opened." *

Or what man is there of you, whom if his son ask bread, will he give him a stone? Or if he ask a fish, will he give him a serpent? If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more shall your Father which is in heaven give good things to those who ask him? Matthew 7:7-11 *

You can lead a horse to water, but you can't make him drink. You can set the truth before someone, but you can't make anyone believe those things that they don't want to submit to. They have to want to obey God.

How frequently it is brought to our attention that nothing good can be done if the will is wrong! Reason alone fails to justify itself. Richard M. Weaver

Jesus said, "You will know the truth, and the truth will set you free" (John 8:32)

"If we are not prepared to buy the truth at the cost of our own humbling we shall not receive it"

Lies appear to have no price upon them. They seem cheap and they abound everywhere. But for the truth there is always an obvious price to pay.

"[God] has set a day when He will judge all the world's people with fairness. And He has chosen the man Jesus to do the judging for Him. God has given proof of this to all of us by raising Jesus from death" (Acts 17:31).

"There is a judge for the one who rejects Me [Jesus] and does not accept My words; that very word which I spoke will condemn him at the last day" (John 12:48)

That also stands for every person who speaks the utterances of Jesus. When we hear them, we hear Jesus Christ, and we either accept or reject. Every person who follows Jesus Christ is commanded to only speak His utterances and not their own.

"When we love others, we know that we belong to the truth, and we feel at ease in the presence of God" (1 John 3:19)

Ravi Zacharias did two open forums in a university. On the second night, one man told him that he had brought two Atheists in the night before who said that the arguments presented were so strong that they could not contend with them, but they were going to remain Atheists because that is what they prefer to be true.

In another case of just listening to an unbeliever and drawing out his reasoning, the unbeliever finally came to his foundations.

They turned out to be assumptions that were pulled from the air. When asked why he believed his basic assumption, the unbeliever looked startled and blurted out, "I guess I'm making the whole thing up." It was quite a revelation to him since he hadn't even known that he had any assumptions. However, he decided to remain an Atheist because he didn't want God to rule over him.

Clearly, the words Ever, Forever, and Forever and Ever, and in some cases, World, should be translated as Eon, Age, or of the Age when the translation is from aion, olam, alam, or ad. In addition, there are some other words, such as evermore, that generally do not mean eternal or eternally.

The adjective, aionios, should be translated as eonian or pertaining to the age.

God created time, and organized time into ages or eons, but God is both the God of the ages and the God of eternity. Eternity is not constrained by time.

Some variations are the eon of the eon, the eon of the eons, and the eons of the eons.

Strong’s Concordance gave the following meaning for Aion. 1) for ever, an unbroken age, perpetuity of time, eternity 2) the worlds, universe 3) period of time, age. That is quite a range of definitions. At first glance, it seems that there must be a mistake, and further investigation shows us that this is indeed a mistake. The word means Eon or Age. There are so many verses where the interpretation of eternity makes no sense that it cannot be eternity. Age, or Eon always makes sense. There is no context by which it does not make sense.

The claim of some is that, if the word is used to describe God’s kingdom, power, and glory and God’s life, then it must mean eternity, perpetuity of time and never ending. The reasoning, were it stated in clear terms, would say that God cannot be the God of the ages and still be the God of eternity. That is false, just as it is false to say that God cannot be my God and God of the Universe and God of the church. Man’s reasoning is naturally flawed. If I tell you that my car will last a week and a tank of gas in the car lasts a week, are both of these claims true? Yes, they are both true. The fact that the car lasts a week and more does not make it less than true that my car lasts a week. So, the logic is flawed, human reasoning is not the means by which God reveals His word, and there are reasons that people promote false doctrine.

3842 παντοτε pantote pan’-tot-eh
at all times, always, perpetual or perpetually

1336 διηνεκης dienekes dee-ay-nek-es’
continuously, continuous

New Testament Adjective
166 αιωνιος aionios ahee-o’-nee-os
Eonian or of the Age

Old Testament
05769 םלוע ‘owlam o-lawm’ or םלע ‘olam o-lawm’
Eon or Age

05865 םוליע ‘eylowm ay-lome’ from owlam

05957 םלע ‘alam (Aramaic) aw-lam’
The root word from which olam/owlam is taken is the Aramaic word, alam or awlam.

05703 דע ‘ad ad
Best translated as age or eon.

01755 רוד dowr dore or (shortened) רד dor dore
period, generation, habitation, dwelling

There are some variations in the New Testament:

This is a similar structure to other such terms used in Scripture: "song of songs," meaning the greatest song, "vanity of vanities," meaning the most vain of the vanities, "servant of servants," meaning the most lowly servant, "holy of the holies," meaning most holy, "God of gods," the God above all gods, "Lord of lords," meaning the Lord above all lords, "prince of princes," meaning the prince above all princes, "Hebrew of Hebrews," meaning a Hebrew above all Hebrews. So, the eon of the eons could refer to the greatest of all eons.

There is another similar structure in Scripture: a week of weeks, although not mentioned as such, Leviticus 23:6 says: "You shall count fifty days to the day after the seventh Sabbath." In that sense, this could be an age of ages or an eon of eons.

This is a similar structure to one other such term used in Scripture: "holies of the holies," meaning both the holy place and the holy of holies. In the same way, the eons of the eons could be the sum total of all the eons.

1336 διηνεκης dienekes dee-ay-nek-es’
neuter of a compound of 1223 and a derivative of an alternate of 5342; ; adj
AV-continually + 1519 2, for ever + 1519 2; 4
1) continuously, continuous

Bible Dictionary: Define For Ever, Definition of For Ever

How can we know anything about anything

For Ever

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