What Christ Teaches Concerning Future Retribution 59 but plain facts• and we may be sure that the reality will exceed, not fall short of, the figures employed, as in the case of the blessedness of the redeemed. The woes thus pronounced are more terrible than the thunders of Sinai, and the doom denounced more awful than that of Sodom $ but we should never forget that these terrible expressions fell from the lips of Eternal Love, and came from a heart overflowing with tender compassion’ for the souls of men. ^ 3 . W h a t d id c h r i s t t e a c h a s to t h e c o n t in u it y o f f u t u r e r e t r ib u t io n ? Is there any solid basis in His re corded words for the doctrine of eternal hope, or the shadow of a foundation for the idea that all men will be eventually saved? Much has been made of the fact that the Greek word “aionios” (used by our Lord in Matt. 18:8 and 25:41, 46, and translated “everlasting” in the Authorized, and “eter nal” in the Revised, Version) literally means “age-long” ; but an examination of the 25 places in which it is used in the New Testament reveals the fact that it is twice used of the Gospel, once of the Gospel covenant, once of the consolation brought to us by the Gospel, twice of God’s own Being, four times of the future of the wicked, and fifteen times of the present and future life of the believer. No one thinks of limiting its duration in the first four cases and in the last, why then do so in the other one? The dilemma becomes acute in considering the words of our Lord recorded in Matt. 25:46, where precisely the same word is used concerning the duration of the reward of the righteous and the retribution of the wicked, for only by violent perversion and distortion can the same word in the same sentence possess a different sig nification. Again, it is sometimes urged that, as salt has a purifying power, the words, “everyone shall be salted with fire,” in Mark 9:49, have this significance in the case of future punishment; but the context clearly shows that its preserving power is alluded to, for the passage speaks of the undying
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