Originally Posted by
Athos
(posted by jlsnbe Nov 10. I said I'd get back to him. This can be moved to Christianity if desired.)
Matthew 25:41 “Then he will say to those on his left, ‘Depart from me, you who are cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels.42For I was hungry and you gave me nothing to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me nothing to drink,43I was a stranger and you did not invite me in, I needed clothes and you did not clothe me, I was sick and in prison and you did not look after me.’
44 “They also will answer, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or needing clothes or sick or in prison, and did not help you?’
45 “He will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for me.’
46 “Then they will go away to eternal punishment, but the righteous to eternal life.”
The topic is “Unbelievers are condemned to eternal punishment in hell”. This is the belief of a small group of fundamentalist Christians. As promised, here is my statement in opposition to this belief.
It is absurd on its face. The Jesus who said Love Your Enemy would hardly condemn those enemies he loved to eternal punishment in hell. Other sayings of Jesus supporting the erroneous belief are shown to be misunderstandings of one or more of the necessary conditions or mistranslations. I won't go over them again because they have been done to death in previous posts.
Matthew 25. The relevant portion is “Then they will go away to eternal punishment, the righteous to eternal life”. The context can be read in the post above. Jesus is clearly not addressing unbelievers. In fact, he is addressing those who are believers but have failed to carry out those things (works) required of believers.
The Greek word aionios is used in this verse to signify everlasting and is also used in this verse to signify an age – a period of time. The correct reading is “And these will go away to an age (a period of time) of punishment, and the righteous to eternal life.” Also, and importantly, the Greek word kolasis used in this verse means “corrective punishment” - not eternal punishment.
Why the two different uses of the same word? The word aionios has two meanings – eternal and an age (a limited period of time). The mistranslated verse first appears in the 5th century in Jerome's Latin Vulgate. The mistranslation has been copied ever since in the KJV and other Bibles.
For those interested, see Young's Concordance, et al.