(2) Whi/ is the fire called eternal ?— In Mt 25"-«« the adjective oWnos is used with reference to ' the fire,' ' punislnnent,' and 'the life,' and no satisfying reason has been given for saying that, as regards the first two, it means ' time limited,' and, as regard.s the last, ' time unlimited.' If Christ's purpose had been to call attention to the duration of each, then ' endlessness ' is the idea emphasized. But, except where tliis word or its Hebrew equi- valent is applied to objects that, for the nonce, are invested with a quasi-etemitv (Lv 3", Gn 17" 49""), it takes us into a sphere of being to which tirne measurements are inapplicable, and in whicli objects are presented in their relation to some eternal aspect of the Divine nature. Thus eternal life does not mean natural life prolonged to in- finity ; such a life might be lived without any ex- perience of the eternal life, which signifies life in fellowship with, or that partakes in, the eternal life of God. God's relation to believers is .such that between them and Him there is a community of life. Eternal fire, on the otiier hand, figuratively expresses the truth that, God'.s nature being what it is, there must be, under any economy over which He presides, a provision for the adequate punishment of sin. The eternal fire is such a pro- vision, and, being eternal, it can be no mere tem- porary contrivance for tiding over an emergency, but must be the retributive aspect of the Divine holiness. God is, was, and ever shall be a consum- ing fire in relation to sin unrepented of ; this is His unchanging and unchangeable attitude. Some of tlie OT saints were all their lifetime subject to bondage through fear of death, for to them Sheol (Is 38) was a place where all life in fellowshi)) with God was lost. But suppose that their worst fears had been realized, it would still have been true that they liad had a passing experience of the life eternal. And similarly if, after ages of suffering, the wicked were to cease to be, it would, none the less, be true of them that they had been cast into the eternal fire. In Sodom, (fomorrali, Edom, etc., we have examples of what is Tjicaiit liy 'sufiering the doom of eternal fire' ; but this doi's nut mean that ever since the lire destinytMl the citii's their inhabitants have been enduring its pains. Eternal fire may or may not mean everlasting suffering in it (see artt. Eternal Punishment and Retribu- tion).
LiTBRATBRE.— Origen, de Prineip. ii. x. 4-8, c. Cels. iv. 13, v. IB ; Lactantius, Inst. vii. 21, 26 ; Augustine, Ae Cii>. bk. xxi., Ench. oxi.-cxiv., de Gent. Pelag. 10, 11 ; T. Burnet, Coneeming the State of Departed Souls, 1738 ; Matt. Horhery, Duration of
ETERNAL LIFE
ETERNAL LIFE
Future PuiiMment. 1744: ,1. A-ar Ueet. The Last Thiiim^; K. H. Charles, TAe B....A .cat Hilary of the
D<jctrine <ifa Futurn I. ■■ Eternal Saeiour
Judije ; H. Constable, 1' uishment ; J. Fyfe,
The Hereafter; ,T. \V. I,:. , i: . s.nA Mercy and
Judgment: Salmond, CVi. . i-- j linimrtalUy; H.N.
0\enhani, Catholic Eschatobyy : E- B. I'use.v, What is of Faith as to Eoertastiitg Punishment); Ed. White, Life in Christ. See also Literature at end of art. Ebtributios.
A. BiSSET.
ETERNAL LIFE. — Tliis phrase occurs more than forty times in the New Testament. In many pas- .sages it denotes primarily a present possession or actual experience of the Christian believer, while in others it clearly contemplates a blessed life to come, conceived as a promised inheritance. The Greek expressions are s"'"') aiuiviat, v oi'iinoi j-ui; (Jn 17', 1 Ti 6'=), i) fwrj V aiiii/ios (1 Jn 1-). The word 'life,' or 'the life' (fu^, ii fu^), without the quali- fying adjective 'eternal,' is often employed in the same general meaning.
There are passages in the Synoptic Gospels in which the phrase 'eternal life' is used synony- mously and interchangeably with ' the kingdom of God' (Mk 9«--", Mt 7"-='). The Ivingdom of heaven and the life eternal are very closely related in the teaching of Jesus. Compare also the sug- gestive language of Ilo 5" 'shall reign iu life through Jesus Christ.' But it is especially in the writings of St. John that we find 'eternal life' presented as a heavenly boon which may become the actual possession of believers in the present life. God Himself is the source of all life, and ' as tlie Father hath life in himself, even so gave he to the Son also to have life in himself ' ( Jn o-^). In the Word ' which became flesh and dwelt among us' there was a visible manifestation of the life eternal : ' In him was life ; and the life was the light of men' (l*) ; so that He Himself declares, ' I am the way, and the truth, and the life' (14*). In accord with these statements the very life of God is conceived as begotten in the believer by the Holy Spirit, so that he is ' born anew,' ' born from above' (S'-'). Thus begotten of God, the diildren of God become distinctly manifest, and God's 'seed abideth in them' (1 Jn 3»- "). That is, in these Divinely begotten children of God there abides the imperishable germ {(nripfia) of life from above, the eternal kind of life which the twice born possess in common with the Father and the Son. Hence it is that the believer ' hath eternal life ' as an actual possession (Jn 3^). He ' hath passed out of death into life ' ( Jn 5^, 1 Jn 3").