HE MAKES THE EONS

 

To have assurance of understanding it is not only necessary to be presented with truth, but also to have objection removed.  Therefore, we desire to present some of the things one is faced with when they believe that God is going to be all in all.

 

It has been said that if punishment, or rather, chastenting has an end then our "eternal life" has to have an end also.  The thing which we believe that will solve many problems is to clearly apprehend Hebrews 1:2, where we read that "He makes the eons."  To have misunderstanding concerning the eons is like making the frame of a house all out of proportion.  Our conclusions in the end will never come out right no matter how much of the rest we have correct.

 

"He makes the eons".  What did God make when He made the eons?  It has been most commonly accepted that God means here that he made the worlds.  This cannot be true, for He uses a different word here than in John 1:10 where it says, "and the world came into being through Him."  Neither can we accept this word eon to mean that he created the heavens and the earth in Genesis 1 for it is here connected with salvation also...eonian life.  What is the thought?

 

The fact that God makes the eons reveals to us that there was a time when there were NO eons.  This is further verified for us by 2Tim.1:9 which speaks about God's purpose "before times eonian," which we know can not be true of the word "eternity" for it can have "no before."  Time is always associated with the word eon.  We are told of the beginning and of the consummation of the eons" 1Cor.1:10.

 

If God made the eons (notice the plural) we may ask, "How many are there?"  In Gal.1:4 we read about "this present wicked eon."  Starting from here we find some after and some eons before.  Ephesians 2:7 speaks of the display of the "oncoming eons."  There is a plural number  of them in the future.  In Col.1:26 we have the secret which has been concealed from the eons, yet now manifest.  Again the number is plural and refers to the past.  Thus the smallest number we can have is five eons (2 past, 1 present, 2 future) which is what we find.  These five eons, each with a beginning and an ending make up what is known as "eonian times." or as it is sometimes put, "age times."  Just as God has made other periods of time such as day, seasons, etc. each with a beginning and ending, He has made the longest period of time called an "eon."

 

In Ephesians 3:11 we are told that God has a "purpose of the eons"...something He is working out, a goal in view and this is going to be reached through Christ Jesus.  (What a God it would be to have an "eternal purpose" which He would never be able to consummate). 

 

Eonian times have been described as a stage on which sin and salvation are seen.  Yet we must not regard sin on the stage as an unforseen disaster which thwarts God's desire.  He was fully aware of this before the disruption of the world.  Christ is "the Lamb foreknown before the disruption of the world."  Christ enters on the scene and is fully able to cope with all.  He did not have to suffer "forever" (which He would have had to do if that is the "price" of sins), but He had complete victory.  Neither let us limit the sacrifice of Calvary to those who believe, for ultimately it will affect all.  To those who believe now, God gives eonian life, which means life for the eons to come.  It is necessary that God gives us life as long as there is death.

 

At the end of the eons when death is abolished, what need is there to say we have life?  All will have it.  You need only to say you have life when there are those who do not have it.  Thus the statement is made that "if eternal punishment has an end then our eternal life has an end too."  This need not disturb you, for that is true, yet it does not mean that LIFE will end.  When the eons are consummated all will have it.  You only need an umbrella when it rains.

 

Another scripture which would verify these facts if it were not twisted is 1Tim.4:10, where we read about God being "the Saviour of all mankind, especially of believers."  We must not twist this to say that God merely wants to be the Saviour of all mankind.  He says HE IS the Saviour!  No one can be called a Saviour unless He saves.  If we were drowning and a man wanted to save us but we wouldn't let him, we could never call him our saviour.  A saviour has to save.  That he is the Saviour is further proved by the word "especially."  When we read in Gal.6:1 that we are to be working for the good of all, specially for the family of faith, we cannot conclude that we work for the good of just the family of faith and not the rest also. 

 

God is especially the Saviour of those who believe because they have salvation during the eons when the rest do not, but this does not exclude the rest who will be saved at the consummation of "eonian times."   All is to be headed up in the Christ.  Having discarded the Adversary and annulled his acts (1Jn.3:8) there is nothing left to hinder. 

 

We must expose our ideas to the penetrating light of God's Word.  By no means will man's acts go unpunished, but the Adversary would seek to rob God of glory by implying that He is never able to successfully accomplish His goal.  Truly we could use the word "everlasting" to describe the blot that would be put on His name if that were so.

 

D.W.V.