Answering Twelve Challenges to Universalism

[St. SteVen]

It certainly means condemnation for those who are outside of Christ, sadly.

Like those who have never heard?

 

[Jack]

1 Corinthians 15:22-24 NIV
For as in Adam all die, so in Christ all will be made alive.
23 But each in turn: Christ, the firstfruits; then, when he comes, those who belong to him.
24 Then the end will come, when he hands over the kingdom to God the Father
after he has destroyed all dominion, authority and power.

Then why did Jesus warn you of Hell Fire? Are you trying to lead people to Hell?

 

[TahitiRun]

Aionios. Which can mean either age-long, or eternal. (in English)
The age of restoration will only require one age because it will reach completion.
After that one age can follow the next for all eternity.

Strong's Concordance
aiónios: agelong, eternal
Original Word: αἰώνιος, ία, ιον
Part of Speech: Adjective
Transliteration: aiónios
Phonetic Spelling: (ahee-o'-nee-os)
Definition: agelong, eternal
Usage: age-long, and therefore: practically eternal, unending; partaking of the character of that which lasts for an age, as contrasted with that which is brief and fleeting.

HELPS Word-studies
Cognate: 166 aiṓnios (an adjective, derived from 165 /aiṓn ("an age, having a particular character and quality") – properly, "age-like" ("like-an-age"), i.e. an "age-characteristic" (the quality describing a particular age); (figuratively) the unique quality (reality) of God's life at work in the believer, i.e. as the Lord manifests His self-existent life (as it is in His sinless abode of heaven). "Eternal (166 /aiṓnios) life operates simultaneously outside of time, inside of time, and beyond time – i.e. what gives time its everlasting meaning for the believer through faith, yet is also time-independent. See 165 (aiōn).

[166 (aiṓnios) does not focus on the future per se, but rather on the quality of the age (165 /aiṓn) it relates to. Thus believers live in "eternal (166 /aiṓnios) life" right now, experiencing this quality of God's life now as a present possession. (Note the Gk present tense of having eternal life in Jn 3:36, 5:24, 6:47; cf. Ro 6:23.)]

NAS Exhaustive Concordance
Word Origin
from aión
Definition
agelong, eternal
NASB Translation
eternal (66), eternity (1), forever (1).

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Conceptually, I think the idea of αιωνιον is being outside of time itself. It's a Hellenistic concept. It's companion idea in Judaism, olam, suggests it's something beyond the horizon, an area unseen. The age of restoration, I believe takes place at death, when we move into the timeless age through separation or division.

The soul (the entirety of the person) is divided at death. The body with it's fleshly nature returns to the earth, it's home, while the breath of life, sometimes called spirit, return's to it's eternal home, to God who gave it. The parable you gave gives this idea in it's lead up, here:

Mat 25:32 and all the nations will be gathered together before Him, and He will separate them from one another, as the shepherd separates the sheep from the goats.

This is universal. For the elect the transition happens subjectively in this world, for the rest it happens in death, in the world to come. But the separation/division does happen for all. Elect or otherwise.