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The Conditionalist Faith of Our Fathers, vol. 1 - Contents
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    CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR: Terms and Usages: “Aion” and “Aionios”

    I. Principles Governing the Meaning of Aion and Aionios

    1. DEFINITIONS AND USAGES

    According to Young, the noun aion (meaning “aeon” or “age”) occurs 128 times in the New Testament, in 102 passages—34 times in simple form, and 64 times in prepositional phrases and forms. The adjective aionios (belonging to an age) is used 67 times—42 times rendered “eternal”—and 25 times as “everlasting.” Even if aion meant “eternity”—which it does not—aionios could only mean “belonging to eternity,” not necessarily lasting through it. And in not one of the passages does the word itself mean endless. There are classical Greek words that do stand for endless, but such words are not used in the New Testament. That too is significant.CFF1 431.1

    In order to determine its length in any given instance, even relatively, the context and other passages where used must be considered, and especially the substantive to which it is attached. Therefore aionios does not, and cannot, always have the same meaning, for it is modified or even altered by the substantive that it modifies.CFF1 431.2

    Picture 1: Christ the Sole Creator and Restorer:
    Creator, Redeemer, Mediator, and Coming King, Christ Is the Sole Source and Bestower of Life Eternal for Mortal Man.
    Page 433
    CFF1 433

    2. SPECIFIC “AIONIOS” USAGES OUTLINED

    According to the Englishman’s Greek Concordance, in the 24 passages in the New Testament where aionios is rendered “everlasting” 14 are used with zoe-life—meaning life without an end. Of the remaining 10, two are used with “fire” (continuing unquenchable until that on which the fire feeds is consumed); once with “punishment” (permanent in effect); once with “habitations” (doubtless the new earth) without end; once with “destruction” (like punishment); once with “consolation” (unending for the saved); once with “power” (ascribed to God, and hence without limit); once with “covenant” (unending in results); once with “kingdom of our Lord” (hence unceasing); and once with “gospel,” or “power of God” (and thus limitless in duration—Romans 1:16). So AIONIOS always takes its meaning from the word to which it is attached.CFF1 433.1

    In the Authorized Version, in prepositional phrase form (with aion as the base), it appears some 68 times, and has been variously rendered: “since the world began” (Luke 1:70; Acts 3:21); “from the beginning of the world” (Ephesians 3:9); “for ever” (20 times); “ever” (Hebrews 7:24); “for evermore” (Hebrews 7:28); “for ever and ever” (20 times), et cetera.CFF1 433.2

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