Claire, once again your faith and trust in an English tranlsations of the Bible fails you. The words (both the hebrew word "Olam" in Daniel and the Greek word "aionios" in Mathhew) translated "everlasting" do not mean eternity. It means "of the ages". The ages are the component of creation we know as time. Time does not exist in eternity. Thre is not time in eternity. Time is part of creation and will cease to exist. When all things are brought into submissin under Christ time will cease to exist and God will become all in all. (I Corinthians 15:28). That "all" includes every single human being, believer and unbelievers. There is no such thing as eternal torment or fire. Yes there will be torment for unbelievers in the age or ages to come, but those ages are finite and will end also.
The mistranslation of the word aionios was perpetrated by those in the Church who clung to the pagan concept of "Hell" and damnation to scare people into submission to the Church. God does nothing without good intention and a good result. The Lake of Fire has a purpose and God's purposes are always for our good.
If God is truly going to wipe away all our tears and there will be no sorrow or pain, then it is impossible that anyone will suffer or burn for "eternity". How could you not have at least some inkling of sorrow or pain, knowing that many are suffering for eternity?
If you claim you can be absent of sorrow or pain, knowing most of humanity is suffering eternally, then you are as Sadistic as the God you portray.
Again, you are shown definitive, clear Scripture that says the fire (and those suffering in it) is everlasting, yet you choose to deny it.
You simply do not believe the Word of God, and must perform lingual gymnastics to support your false, self-serving beliefs rendered by twisting God’s Word.
Are you even fluent in Biblical Hebrew (not possible, as today’s “Hebrew” is only a couple hundred years old & differs from Biblical Hebrew) or Koine Greek, Todd??
Can you have complete conversations in those languages, or write an original essay in them?
I speak, understand, read & write four different languages fluently (English, French, Spanish & Japanese). 2 of them (French & Japanese) are native tongues I have spoken since birth, as my father is a native of France, and my mother is a native of Japan.
English I learned beginning in Kindergarten (growing up in American public school system) and have used more than any other.
Spanish is one I learned beginning at age 9, when my parents divorced & my father got remarried to a woman from Mexico.
You know what I have learned from being multi-lingual? That no matter how different languages are from each other, they ALL still convey the exact same thoughts, feelings, attitudes, meaning, intelligence, data/information, knowledge & messages that can be accurately AND THOROUGHLY translated into any other language by someone who is
100% FLUENT in BOTH respective languages: the one it is being translated FROM....AND the one it is being translated INTO.
**FLUENCY is vital in translating languages accurately, and is something people who are fluent in only one language often overlook or do not comprehend the necessity & importance of. ....just because a person studies, say, German, in high school and/or college for several years & can roughly speak conversational German, that does NOT mean they are FLUENT in German, even though they are technically a German “scholar”.
Fluency is when you can fully & quickly speak, read, write & understand a language WITHOUT having to re-translate the words into a native language, or one you understand better.
And frankly, unless you speak/use the language frequently with others, you WILL eventually LOSE fluency in that language. This is simply fact.**
In other words, there isn’t a language that contains “more” information or different, more extensive ideas than another....it’s ultimately all the same data being exchanged/communicated.
My point is this:
You are NOT going to gain any “new” or “more accurate” information by reading—for example—the New Testament in Koine Greek than you would reading the same NT in English from the King James Holy Bible, which is a direct translation of the NT from Greek to English.
(I cannot say the same about modern Bible versions, because those are NOT merely translations, but completely different base manuscripts & therefore, different books entirely)
If you are a native or fluent English speaker, you will ALWAYS accurately understand MORE of the English translation of the NT/Textus Receptus (from the KJB) than you EVER will trying to learn the foreign Greek.....ESPECIALLY as you get older, because foreign languages just become more challenging to master as you get older.
People who are NOT 100% FLUENT in both English and Greek should NOT listen to people (like Todd or others) and especially not ANY unsaved people, who claim that the words are rendered more accurately in the “original” Greek, because they themselves are not fluent in Greek and are almost ALWAYS deceived or trying to deceive you.
I know several saved people who are from (or their parents are from) Greece & speak native Greek and English that say the KJB New Testament IS a perfect, wholly accurate translation of the original Greek Textus Receptus/NT.
It ALL comes down to TRUSTING the Word of God, and if you trust in Jesus Christ, Who literally IS the Word of God manifest in flesh, then you can trust that God (Who created all the different languages) preserved His Word in English just as inerrantly as He did in the Greek.
Just make sure it is the King James Holy Bible...the CORRECT and only true English translation.
