Aions

11-09-2025 - Posted by Geert-Jan
Originally posted on June 11, 2004 – by Andre Piet

In this week’s EO-Visie (Dutch Evangelical Broadcasting Magazine), there is an article in which 13 questions about heaven and hell are posed and answered. I hope to return to some of the answers at a later time.

Today I’ll limit myself to question & answer 13.

13. Some groups speak about ‘Aions’. What are those?
These groups do not believe that hell is eternal. They enjoy wrestling with the rediscovered meaning of the Hebrew and Greek source texts to support this view—but end up making a mess of it. And the Bible must, above all, fit into their developed dispensational system, so the interpretation of Bible texts is more or less predetermined.

In this context, the Greek word ‘aiōn’ plays a key role. Aiōn does not mean “eternity,” but rather an age or bounded period of time.

So then: “eternal punishment” and “eternal life” only last temporarily. Until God will be All in all, and all and everyone will be reconciled to God—including Satan and the demons! They will ultimately and inevitably be reconciled to God, because it cannot be that there would remain a single spot in the universe where God is excluded.

And here lies another major objection: evil is trivialized. The fall of man and the suffering in history are then nothing more than a necessary, God-willed dark backdrop—against which His love and grace may shine all the more brightly. God thus becomes the author, director, and producer of the entire world drama—and therefore responsible for everything. Man merely plays a role in the performance and bears no responsibility at all.

And that is precisely the opposite of what God’s Word shows:
“Adam, where are you?”

Strangely enough, the writers themselves give no answer to the question of what aions are. They let “the groups” who speak about aions give the answer instead:

“Aiōn does not mean eternity, but age or bounded time.”

Absolutely correct. The writers make no attempt to contradict this statement and thereby silently admit that we are dealing here with a FACT. Apparently, they do not realize that this hard linguistic reality is the death blow to the doctrine of endless hell punishment.

“These groups do not believe that hell is eternal.”

Neither the word hell, nor the word eternal, are kosher from a biblical standpoint.

Behind the word hell lies the Greek term Gehenna, which is a geographical reference to the Valley of Hinnom—the garbage dump outside Jerusalem. The “hell” that over the centuries has been made of it (a place where the ungodly are endlessly tormented after death) is a fabrication, a demonic myth.

The second myth is that eternal refers to an unending eternity. That is simply not the case. Eternal (Greek: aionios) is the adjectival form of aion—which means age or eon. It refers to one or more ages, not endless duration.

“They enjoy wrestling with the rediscovered meaning of the Hebrew and Greek source texts to support this view, but end up making a mess of it.”

Every first-year Greek student knows that aiōn refers to a world-age or time period. That doesn’t need to be “rediscovered”—it’s well known. It is Christian dogmatics that has covered up the meaning of aiōn by making a mess of it through contradictory translations.

The word aiōn (which occurs hundreds of times in Scripture) has been buried beneath inconsistent rendering: sometimes as the temporal “age” or “world” (correct), but at other times as the endless “eternity” (incorrect).

What do those do who speak about aions?

They simply leave the biblical word aiōn untranslated.
Where Scripture speaks of aiōns, they faithfully echo Scripture.
Or they use a single, consistent translation—such as “age.”

So then—who, really, is making a mess of the aiōns?

“And the Bible must above all fit into their developed dispensational system, so the interpretation of Bible texts is more or less predetermined.”

The fact that the aions can be placed in a logical sequence is self-evident for anyone who takes the aions as they appear in Scripture.

Scripture speaks of:
– “before the aions”
– “the past aions”
– “the present aion”
– “the coming aions”
– and “the consummation of the aions”

This is not a prejudice imposed on Bible study—
it is the result of Bible study.

“Until God will be All in all and all and everyone will be reconciled to God, including Satan and the demons! They will ultimately and forcibly be reconciled to God…”

God forces no one. He does not need to break in—He opens hearts and gives faith.
That is why He can and will be “All in all.”

As for reconciliation: Paul writes that he was already reconciled to God while still a hostile enemy (Romans 5:10).

“And that is another objection: evil is being trivialized.”

Evil (pain, hardship, sickness, death, etc.) is by no means a trivial matter. But it is a creation of the Creator (Isaiah 45:7). Scripture does not trivialize evil—but relativizes it. Evil sets the stage for good to become visible.

“The fall and the suffering in history are nothing more than a necessary and God-willed dark backdrop.”

Indeed: necessary, but not willed in the sense of desire. God did not want man to eat from the forbidden tree—and forbade it accordingly.
But God did know “what frame we are” and that we would eat from that notorious tree. There was no avoiding it. He also knew that precisely through this path, the very best possible world would be brought about. Scripture assures us that all unfolds “according to the counsel of His will” (Ephesians 1:11).

“So that God’s love and grace may shine all the more brightly.”

True—although the words “all the more brightly” may best be left out. For God’s grace can only be seen against the dark backdrop of sin. Where there is no sin, there can be no grace (Romans 5:20).

“God is thus the author, director, and producer of the entire world drama—and therefore responsible for everything.”

Exactly! As Paul put it: “Seeing that out of Him and through Him and for Him is all: to Him be the glory for the eons! Amen!”
– Romans 11:36 (CLNT)

“Man merely plays a role in the performance and bears no responsibility at all.”

Because God is “the author, director, and producer of the entire world drama” and guarantees the happy ending, to Him belongs all the glory! A sobering thought—for those who feel too important to merely play a role in God’s masterpiece…

“And that is precisely the opposite of what God’s Word shows: ‘Adam, where are you?’”

Within ’the drama’, man is indeed responsible (accountable). Absolutely. But for the drama, only the “author, director, and producer” is responsible. The words “Adam, where are you?” perfectly illustrate the universal biblical principle that God seeks the lost — “until He finds it” (Luke 15:4).

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