Is God Angry Forever?
Does "forever" always mean "forever" in scripture?
No. Case in point.
"And
you, even yourself,
Shall let go of your heritage which I gave you;
And I will cause you to serve your enemies
In the land which you do not know;
For you have kindled a fire in My anger which shall burn forever.” [Jer
17:4]
Wait. The scripture says "His Anger shall burn forever". How?
I am going to send for all the tribes of the north, says the Lord, even for King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon, my servant, and I will bring them against this land and its inhabitants, and against all these nations around; I will utterly destroy them, and make them an object of horror and of hissing, and an everlasting disgrace [Jer 25:9]
Israel would be an everlasting disgrace and utterly destroyed. Annihilated even :-)
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BUT Wait, what is this?
For the days are surely coming, says the Lord, when I will restore the fortunes of my people, Israel and Judah, says the Lord, and I will bring them back to the land that I gave to their ancestors and they shall take possession of it. [Jer 30:3]
What is going on here? So which is it?
Will they be an everlasting disgrace, utterly destroyed by his forever anger or, will Israel would literally come back from the dead, and return to the land to take possession.
Well they did begin to return in 538 BC.
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His Anger was not "forever". It was for an olam or aion.
The English bible usually translate those words as forever.
But to the Hebraic mind, olam does not mean the forever we know in the West. It is a TIME BASED Word as opposed to what we usually think of forever as a "non-time", or an ABSENCE of time based word.
That is key. Forever in the Bible NEVER MEANS ABSENCE OF TIME nor the unabatement of time and duration.
It means time of undetermined duration, that can continue unhindered or an opposing force stops it. Actually this is like Newton's first law. Perhaps Newton stole this from the Hebrews (just kidding).
Once again, it is time of undetermined duration, that can go on, age upon age, without stopping, UNLESS an opposing force stops it, OR it has completed its objective. And guess WHO has the power to bring an olam to an end? His Anger is not "forever". It is for a undetermined duration until He decides to restore and then it is no longer. Think about that.
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