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To one section the King says:
"Come, ye blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the
foundation of the world" (Matt. 25: 34).
To the other, the King says:
"Depart from Me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his
angels" (Matt. 25: 41).
The kindness shown to the Lord's brethren was not intentionally rendered to the Lord,
as the astonished inquiry of verses 37-40 will show, and the lack of kindness was not
intentionally withheld from the Lord, yet one group go "into everlasting life" which is
equated with the kingdom prepared for them from the foundation of the world, and the
other group go "into everlasting punishment" which is equated with "everlasting fire
prepared for the devil and his angels". Let us observe, the inheritance was actually
prepared for the one group, but the other enter a punishment not originally "prepared" for
them, but for the devil and his angels. If from these verses we are to gather that failure to
visit the brethren of the Lord in prison, merits everlasting punishment, and everlasting
fire in the sense of a traditional "Hell", then all argument is at an end. We stand appalled,
but helpless, before a power beyond our own, but whether we stand assured of its utter
and unquestioned righteousness, each one of us alone can answer. Before we leave these
unhappy nations to their awful lot would it not be well if we knew the word used by the
Lord for "punishment" here? There is the choice of at least four words:
Ekdikesis "the punishment of evildoers" (I Pet. 2: 14).
Epitimia "suffered . . . . . is this punishment" (II Cor. 2: 6).
Timoria "sorer punishment" (Heb. 10: 29).
These words are not found in Matt. 25: The word employed there is kolasis
"a pruning" (Dr. Bullinger's Lexicon). The one other occurrence of kolasis is in
I John 4: 18 "torment". Kolazomai is translated "punish" in Acts 4: 21 & II Pet. 2: 9.
The first meaning of kolazomai given in Liddell and Scott is "curtail, dock, prune", and
secondly to catigate, keep within bounds, correct, punish. Kolasis is used with dendron
"trees" in the sense of pruning. Turning to the usage of the word kolasis in the LXX we
read in Ezek. 18: 30:
"I will judge you O house of Israel, saith the Lord, each one according to his way: be
converted, and turn from all your ungodliness, and it shall not become to you the
punishment of iniquity."
Again in Ezek. 44: 12-14, The Levites, because of their departure and ministry of
idols, became "a punishment" of iniquity to the house of Israel, with the consequences
that these Levites could no longer draw near, nor approach the holy things, but they shall
bear their reproach (atimian "no honour" see usage in II Tim. 2: 20, 21) and take a
lower service. This is understandable, but to translate this word kolasis as equivalent to
everlasting torment in hell, is here impossible. Before attempting a conclusion of this
matter in Matt. 25:, let us get a little light by turning to Heb. 6: It will, we trust, be