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[Dean Peterman]

Dear friends,

I have been reading about this thing called Eonian Life but I have not yet understood what this means.  I understand the word eternal or living forever but I can't seem to grasp this concept of Eonian Life.  I have read some of the things Ray says about this but I still don't quite understand what this means.  I hope you can be patient with my ignorance.  What I am reading at Bible Truths is very different than anything I have heard before and it is not always easy to understand.  If someone really understands this concept please try to enlighten me. 

My lack of understanding is both ironic and frustrating because several months ago I thought I knew a lot. After 20 years of studying the Bible and theology I thought I had all the answers.  Now I feel like I am a total fool who has been put back into the first grade.  My entire understanding of the Bible was built on mistranslations of words such as hell.  However, I have to say that I am glad to know hell does not exist.  Although I don't know why it took me so long to figure this out.  It is amazing!  All of Christendom is built on several mistranslations of the Bilble.  This seems extraordinary to me.  I feel betrayed and deceived.  How could all of these so called scholars I have read over the years have missed the simple fact that hell is a mistranslation of the word Gehenna.  To make it worse, they then build an entire religion on it. 

Sincerely,

Dean

[indianabob]

New Friend Dean Peterman,

Since you are new, this question may be better addressed by a moderator, but I'll give it a try and you can seek better information from others.

Ionian life in its simple definition is 'life of the age'  in our situation today it is 'life of the age' to come next.  This supposes that God works in steps to carry out His holy plan for mankind and that is important to know because God isn't calling everyone now and most people cannot understand what God is doing in this age because they have not been given the ability.  People can read or hear the words of the Bible and the parables that Jesus taught and they just don't make sense.  So each individual leans to their own human understanding and we have confusion rather than clarity and truth.  God planned it this way to demonstrate that we need Him in everything we do.

Understanding God's plan is not natural and is an individual gift to each person being called.  The question we are exploring on Bible Truths is why God does it His way and how we can cooperate with God to obey His perfect law of love and how we can share what we have been given with others that God calls.

As you study the hundreds of pages on the Bible Truths web site it will become clearer to you and the mist of institutional church dogma will be cleared away.  The true story is relatively simple and easy to understand once the deception is removed, but you need a really large eraser to delete all the misinformation that we have absorbed over the years.  It also helps to have loving counselors to encourage you along the path to true understanding.

Warm regards and welcome to the forum.

Bob

[mari_et_pere]

Dean, welcome to the forum! You'll learn alot here so don't be dismayed. Bob said it well in his well put response. Things will become much clearer! I want to comment on something you said:

All of Christendom is built on several mistranslations of the Bilble.

The way I see it, all of Christendom WAS CHANGED based on several mistranslations of the Bible. The "church fathers" had it right, then it changed. Thankfully some precious few have held on to the original truth through the generations, and we here are some of them. 

Glad to see you've joined us. 

Matt

[Deborah-Leigh]

Hello Dean

I can empathise and rejoice in your coming out of the heresies, false teachings and deceptions of Mystery Babylon. We all encounter disappointment, shock and pain in this coming out I think but it does wear off as we begin to enjoy the truth that sets free and restores us. It takes time and is a healing process.

The teaching that best answers your enquiries I believe you will find at http://bible-truths.com/aeonion.htm

Just a small observation. You say :  I understand the word eternal or living forever...

Eternal has got nothing to do with time. Eternity is not a long period or a never ending period of time. Eternity is a mode of being. If you consider that God is deathless and is the same yesterday today and tomorrow...from everlasting to everlasting you are God Psalm 90 : 2 that mode of BEING is GOD, GODLY, and GODLINESS and that mode of being is eternal.

Ray said in one of his audios that Eternity is like a circle. He also said he may bring more light to this subject at his next Mobile conference. I hope he does as he is able to make the most complex issues straight and simple!

Peace be to you.

Arcturus

[hillsbororiver]

  All of Christendom is built on several mistranslations of the Bilble.  This seems extraordinary to me.  I feel betrayed and deceived.  How could all of these so called scholars I have read over the years have missed the simple fact that hell is a mistranslation of the word Gehenna.  To make it worse, they then build an entire religion on it. 

Hello Dean,

First off just think of the Tower of Babel and how God sent confusion to the planners, engineers, artisans, craftsmen and laborers who were building this monument to man's own wisdom and power.

Gen 11:9  Therefore is the name of it called Babel; because the LORD did there confound the language of all the earth: and from thence did the LORD scatter them abroad upon the face of all the earth.

Can you see this as a type/shadow of all the different denominations we presently have?

2Th 2:11  And for this cause God shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie:

Only a very few are blessed with understanding in this age, it is all of God, no one can take any credit whatsoever for the knowledge they have been granted. Why some and not others? Only God can answer that.

Bob gave a very good explaination as the Lord does His work in "seasons" a time appointed for all things in this glorious plan of salvation for all, the firstfuits early and the big "fall harvest" later. In this present age (all of our natural lives since the Resurrection) He is preparing His elect to be Kings/ Priests to the multitudes who will be refined into Sons & Daughters of God in the next age.

Rom 8:19  For the earnest expectation of the creature waiteth for the manifestation of the sons of God.
 
Rom 8:20  For the creature was made subject to vanity, not willingly, but by reason of him who hath subjected the same in hope,

Rom 8:21  Because the creature itself also shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God.
 
Rom 8:22  For we know that the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now.
 
Rom 8:23  And not only they, but ourselves also, which have the firstfruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body.

All the world knows within themselves that something is missing, there is a void within that most seek to fill with "things of this earth" not heavenly things, not spiritual things. The void they feel but do not recognize or understand is the desire God has put within all men to be sanctified and refined into Sons of God, in the next age the elect will be with Christ do His work.
Even the prophets of old anxiously awaited this age to come!

1Pe 1:10  Of which salvation the prophets have inquired and searched diligently, who prophesied of the grace that should come unto you:
 
1Pe 1:11  Searching what, or what manner of time the Spirit of Christ which was in them did signify, when it testified beforehand the sufferings of Christ and the glory that should follow.
 
1Pe 1:12  Unto whom it was revealed, that not unto themselves, but unto us they did minister the things, which are now reported unto you by them that have preached the gospel unto you with the Holy Ghost sent down from heaven; which things the angels desire to look into.

His Peace and Wisdom to you,

Joe

[hillsbororiver]

Good answers Matt & Arcturus, you guys posted as I was writing yet another long winded response! 

His Peace to you,

Joe

[Extol]

My lack of understanding is both ironic and frustrating because several months ago I thought I knew a lot. After 20 years of studying the Bible and theology I thought I had all the answers.  Now I feel like I am a total fool who has been put back into the first grade. 


Dean

Welcome, Dean. I think this is a great step for you spiritually, and what's more, a necessary step. We have to let go of all the things we were taught if we want to see the spiritual truths of God. I grew up in church and read the Bible a lot, especially the Old Testament. I thought I was pretty hot stuff when I was a teenager because I could name a bunch of obscure biblical kings and judges that even most adult Christians couldn't. Ha ha! What vanity! Of course, I could not see a spiritual application to ANYTHING; it was all physical to me. It was only when I realized that I knew nothing that God began to really open my eyes. This happened just a few months ago, and I felt like a "total fool" for thinking I knew so much before, when I really didn't know anything. There are still many things I have to learn, but God has been showing me things that I never would have seen had I continued reading the Scriptures with my carnal mind.

[Kat]

Hi Dean,

You have some really good replies already 

I will add a bit to what has been said.  
This physical life that we have now, is just a shadow of real life to come in the spirit.  When we die, we are dead and in the grave, our only hope is the resurrection from the dead.

Acts 24:15  And I have hope toward God, which they themselves also allow, that there shall be a resurrection of the dead, both of the just and unjust.

John 17:3  And this is eternal (eonian) life, that they know you the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent.

In this present age the whole world is decieved, God has kept the truth a mystery to the vast majority of mankind.

Mar 4:11  And He said to them, To you it is given to know the mystery of the kingdom of God. But to those outside, all these things are given in parables
v. 2  so that seeing they may see, and not perceive; and hearing they may hear, and not understand;

This age now is for mankind to have a experience of good and evil. To gain the knowledge of this life and to realize how totally depraved mankind can be.

Ecc 1:13 I applied my heart to inquiring and exploring by wisdom concerning all that is done under the heavens:it is an experience of evil Elohim has given to the sons of humanity to humble them by it. (CLV)

There are a very few that God is choosing to be separate, for a special work.  These He is revealing His truth to, these are His chosen elect.

2Co 6:17  Therefore come out from among them and be separated, says the Lord, and do not touch the unclean thing. And I will receive you
v. 18  and I will be a Father to you, and you shall be My sons and daughters, says the Lord Almighty.

For these few that God is indwelling and has opened their eyes, He is preparing these, to reign with Christ when He returns to rule the earth.

Rev 20:6  Blessed and holy is the one who shares in the first resurrection! Over such the second death has no power, but they will be priests of God and of Christ, and they will reign with him for a thousand years.

2Tim 2:11  The saying is trustworthy, for: If we have died with Him, we will also live with Him;
v. 12  if we endure, we will also reign with Him; if we deny Him, He also will deny us;

This is the greatest honor any human being could ever hope to have, but we have done anything to deserve it or earn it, quite the opposite.

1Co 1:26  For you see your calling, brothers, that not many wise men according to the flesh are called, not many mighty, not many noble.
v. 27  But God has chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise; and God has chosen the weak things of the world to confound the things which are mighty;
v. 28  and God has chosen the base things of the world, and things which are despised, and things which are not, in order to bring to nothing things that are;
v. 29  so that no flesh should glory in His presence.
v. 30  But of Him you are in Christ Jesus, who of God is made to us wisdom and righteousness and sanctification and redemption;
v. 31  so that, according as it is written, "He who glories, let him glory in the Lord."

All this now is so when Christ returns He will bring all of humanity to salvation, though it will be in the Lake of fire, which is judgment.

1Tim 2:4  who will have all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth.

1Cor 3:15  If anyone's work shall be burned up, he shall suffer loss. But he shall be saved, yet so as by fire.

2Peter 3:7  But by the same word the heavens and earth that now exist are stored up for fire, being kept until the day of judgment and destruction of the ungodly.

The new heaven and new earth will be set up on earth at Christ's return and all the world will be judged and learn righteousness.

Isa 26:9  My soul yearns for you in the night; my spirit within me earnestly seeks you. For when your judgments are in the earth, the inhabitants of the world learn righteousness.

Col 1:17  He is before all things, and in Him all things hold together.
v. 18  He is the head of the body, the church; He is the beginning, the first-born from the dead, that in everything he might be pre-eminent.
v. 19  For in Him all the fulness of God was pleased to dwell,
v. 20  and through Him to reconcile to Himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood of His cross.

mercy, peace, and love
Kat