And even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled only to those
who are perishing. In their case the god
of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelievers, to keep them from
seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God – 2 Corinthians 4:3-4
The Greek word transliterated “aion” appears frequently in
the New Testament, something like 128 times in 102 verses, according to Strong’s Concordance. For those playing along at home, aion has the Strong’s number of 165 or G165, G for Greek. It is derived from another word that means perpetually, incessantly or always. In the good old KJV, aion was most frequently translated as “ever” – as in the Lord’s
Prayer: And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil: For thine is
the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, for ever. Amen (Matthew 6:13 KJV). The second most popular translation in the
Authorized Version is “world”: And
whosoever speaketh a word against the Son of man, it shall be forgiven him: but
whosoever speaketh against the Holy Ghost, it shall not be forgiven him,
neither in this world, neither in
the world to come (Matthew 12:32 KJV). In my ESV and other modern versions, the phrase
reads: either in this age or in the
age to come, but the ESV uses "world" other places as in the verse at the top.
The basic definition is given as a) perpetuity of time, an
eternity, or forever; b) the cosmos or “worlds”; c) an age or an indefinite
period of time.
For those who are geeks
rather than Greeks, one might think in terms of Tolkien’s ages of Middle Earth
which vary in length of years but have marked beginning and endings usually involving
cataclysmic events such as the destruction of the One Ring.
Beyond
that, the idea of an age is somewhat similar to the useful German word
zeitgeist, the spirit of the times.
An age denotes the way of thinking,
perceiving, and understanding reality that dominates during a period of time.
On
www.bibletools.org,
I find a quote from Richard C. Trench that sums it nicely:
. . .
all that floating mass of thought, opinions, maxims, speculations, hopes,
impulses, aims and aspirations at any time current in the world, which is
impossible to seize and accurately define, but which constitutes a most real
and effective power, being our moral or immoral atmosphere which at every
moment of our lives we inhale, again inevitably exhale.
Our “world” is in large part the way in which we interact
with it. It is a little like an
operating system on a computer. One OS
may be more powerful in certain areas, another may be easier to use while another
may make some otherwise difficult tasks trivial. Each OS interacts and controls the same
physical machine, yet the user of a given system is more or less oblivious to
the underlying structure and functionality.
Apart from the horror that was Vista, most of us as computer
users are content with what our operating system gives us. The same seems to be true of most people in
the world. We are either happy with our
world, or we think we have no other option.
Would it not be sad to have Vista as our only choice? Many have thought for a long time that Bill
Gates was the devil. He’s not, or he
would have stopped after foisting such a demonic system on the masses.
But there is a devil, and he is the god of this aion, that is, of the system of
perceiving and interacting with the cosmos that blinds unbelievers and deceives
them into thinking that the gospel of Christ is a delusion, that nothing exists
except the seen. As long as we use the
devil’s OS, we are going to have a hard time getting to the truth. The very first step is to understand that … we look not to the things that are seen but
to the things that are unseen. For the
things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal
(2 Corinthians 4:18).
My wife has a desktop that came with Vista installed on it. She has been using it for several years while
I told her repeatedly to spend a buck and get Windows 7 (which she runs on her
laptop) or something else. Finally,
after the box had simply refused to boot for weeks, she let me install Ubuntu
as a demo. After she played with it a
little, she allowed me to install it on a partition alongside Vista. I am pretty sure, once she gets used to it,
she will become an open-source Linux fan-girl.
The old pagan world had us view ourselves as transient
creatures created for and driven by the whims of a myriad of capricious, petty
gods we might placate or enlist on our behalf with the appropriate sacrifice or
service. The modern, materialistic world
has us viewing ourselves as slightly enlightened animals driven by instincts,
trapped in a deterministic universe where we have no choice except to pretend
we have a choice and no escape except death.
Our purpose is merely to survive and propagate our genetic
material. (I’m sure a materialist would
object to “merely”, but there it is.)
The gospel teaches us something very different -- that our
purpose transcends the boundaries of our material existence on this planet,
that we are the children of God, adopted in Christ Jesus, our lives filled with
meaning and significance. We learn that
we are free to make good choices (and, by extension, bad ones), to live lives
of holiness and righteousness filled with peace and joy. We are more than our possessions and our
achievements. The marks that we make do
not depend on length of life, the number of patents we hold, or the number of
children we have. We will be rewarded in
eternity – a new age – based on our faithfulness and obedience.
A couple of years ago, I wrote about a child who was born
and lived for only a few hours. In the
view of this aion, his life was a
waste and should have been terminated in the womb, for the parents knew his condition
some weeks before his birth. Nevertheless,
I know his brief existence here was but a steppingstone, a poignant prelude to
his real life. During those few hours he
did his job of wounding hearts – and do not ever doubt that there is such a needful
calling, and a very high calling it is. Those
who can fulfill it are rare and wonderful.
The zeitgeist is
everywhere. The pressure to conform, to
fit into this world system, this aion,
is very powerful at times. Our jobs, our
friends, our families, the aches and pains in our physical bodies, the
television, the internet, shoot, sometimes even our churches all tell us: this is it.
Get it while you can.
But if I can just stop running, I might find out what is
behind me. Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life … And
all these blessings shall come upon you and overtake you, if you obey the voice
of the Lord your God. *
* Some
assembly language (also known as “revelation”) required. Thank God for His grace.
