Matthew 25:46 says that
those who don’t go to eternal life go to eternal punishment.
But some
early Christians said that God would eventually release everyone from Hell. In
The Apocalypse of Peter, Jesus is reported as saying, “My Father will give unto
them all the life, the glory, and the kingdom that passeth not away, . . . 'It
is because of them that have believed in me that I am come. It is also because
of them that have believed in me, that, at their word, I shall have pity on
men.”
The idea
that God will eventually grant everyone eternal life makes better sense of the
fact that Hell is called a “punishment.” The purpose of punishment is
restoration. God doesn’t punish us simply to keep on punishing us. He punishes
us to teach us, to bring us to repentance.
But what
about that word “eternal”?
In most
cases the Greek word that we translate as eternal means exactly that, something
that will never end. Another translation is everlasting. But the same word is
used in Luke 16:9: “I tell you, use worldly wealth to gain
friends for yourselves, so that when it is gone, you will be welcomed into
eternal dwellings.”
Jesus says
this in the context of telling the Parable of the Shrewd Manager. A plain
reading seems to be that we should use money not for ourselves but to do others
favors so that when we, in turn, need help, others will remember what they did
for us and take us in.
But I don’t
expect anyone’s dwelling in this world to last forever. The person I helped
financially last week doesn’t have an eternal house that he can welcome me
into. So, the sense of the word seems to be simply “ongoing.” If you help
people with the use of your resources, they will also help you on an ongoing
basis.
Eternal
means ongoing. It goes on, not that it can’t end. In the same way, eternal life
will go on. It’s ongoing. God is eternal and so, will go on being. But not
everything that continues to go on will need to do so forever. Perhaps, in
God’s mercy, Hell is one ongoing punishment that won’t last forever.
This idea of
the temporary nature of Hell might be part of the reason some Christians believe in
Purgatory, a temporary punishment before entering eternal life. The two
doctrines are not the same, but they are similar in the temporary form of
punishment for the sake of restoration.
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