The Conditionalist Faith of Our Fathers, vol. 1

III. Weymouth’s Devastating Charge of Manipulated Meanings

After more closely examining the full force of six of the strongest Greek terms, all signifying ultimate and total destruction, the significance of the classic charge of Greek authority Dr. Richard F. Weymouth—appearing at the close—will become apparent. But first let us probe into six of the strongest words: CFF1 491.3

(1) “APOLEIA“: UTTER LOSS OF EXISTENCE

As to the fate of the wicked, no other expression is more common or emphatic than apoleia—the sentence pronounced upon all who, having heard the summons to repentance and faith in Christ, have resisted in defiance. Christ said, “Broad is the way, that leadeth to destruction [apoleian]” (Matthew 7:13). And Paul speaks similarly of “vessels of wrath fitted to destruction [apoleian]” (Romans 9:22). This is the destruction forever of “body and soul”—utter and final ruin, which will never be reversed. It is the second death, from which there is no return. CFF1 491.4

No word in the Greek tongue is more significant of the utter loss of existence than apoleia. This various lexicons attest. Thus Peter, in rebuking the perfidy of Simon Magus, who sought to purchase the power of God with money, was met by Peter’s declaration, “Thy money perish [apoleian] with thee” (Acts 8:20)—literally, “Thy money go with thee to destruction.” Such will be the end of the wicked. CFF1 492.1

(2) “APOLLUMI“: DESTROY UTTERLY, KILL, SLAY

Alongside the Greek noun (apoleia) is the verb apollumi, used to signify the punishment God will inflict upon wicked men and demons. It is to destroy utterly, cause to perish, kill, slay, be undone. The fundamental thought is loss, ruin, perish, to come to an end. Apollumi is five times applied in Matthew to persons: When Herod attempted to take the life of the infant Jesus (Matthew 2:13); when the Pharisees plotted to deprive Jesus of life when He had grown to manhood (Matthew 12:14); when the lord of the vineyard decreed death to the unfaithful husbandman (Matthew 21:41); when the king punished with death the slaying of his servants (Matthew 22:7); when Christ solemnly declared that God can “destroy both soul and body in hell” (Matthew 10:28). (Cf. Mark 9:22;John 10:10.) CFF1 492.2

The same verb is used seven times in Luke: (a) To take away life from man (Luke 6:9; Luke 9:56); (b) the universal death produced by the Flood (Luke 17:27, 29); (c) the plots of the enemies of Christ against His life (Luke 19:47); (d) the decree of death to the unfaithful husbandmen (Luke 20:16); (e) the wicked spirits, meeting with Christ, filled with terror lest He should have come, before they anticipated, to destroy them (Luke 4:34). (Cf. 1 Corinthians 15:18; 2 Peter 3:6.) CFF1 492.3

In ten of these passages reference is to loss of existence here; in the other two it is loss of the eternal hereafter. For this second loss of life, the second and eternal coming death, Hell (Gehenna), has been provided. The lost will there suffer complete destruction. There the devils will also be visited with the loss of the existence to which they desperately cling. Such utter blotting out is a fearful thought to these fallen angels—an obliteration they know to be their inevitable doom. CFF1 493.1

(3) “APHANIZO“: DISAPPEAR, VANISH OUT OF EXISTENCE

Brief mention must be made of three other Greek terms relative to future punishment. The first is aphanizo. Thus Paul, warning Jewish hearers at Antioch, says, “Behold, ye despisers, and wonder, and perish [aphanizo]” (Acts 13:41)—meaning disappear, vanish utterly, to be heard of no more. This is the term used by James when speaking of the transitoriness of this present life (James 4:14), and also by Paul to describe the consummation of retribution, when the wicked rise from their graves to see what they have rejected, and marvel at their folly (Luke 13:27-29), and then, like a “vapour” that “vanisheth away [aphanizo],” pass out of existence, disappear (James 4:14). CFF1 493.2

(4) “PHTHEIRO“: DESTROY BY DEPRIVING OF EXISTENCE

Another is phtheiro—destroy, corrupt, defile, used to express future punishment, in two senses, to deprave and corrupt, and to destroy by depriving of existence. “If any man defile [phtheiro] the temple of God, him shall God destroy [phtheiro]”—the same Greek word (1 Corinthians 3:17). The first is the sinner’s guilty act; the second is God’s punishment hereafter by destruction. CFF1 493.3

(5) “DIAPHTHEIRO“: INTENSIFIED FORM OF DESTROY UTTERLY

In its composite form (diaphtheiro) this verb combines the same two senses and intensifies their force. It signifies, “to destroy utterly,” and “kill,” as well as lead astray and corrupt. In the Apocalypse it is used to describe the future punishment where John says that God will “destroy [diaphtheiro] them which destroy the earth” (Revelation 11:18)—the same verb in both cases. (See also 2 Peter 2:12.) CFF1 493.4

(6) “EXOLOTHREUO“: UTTER DESTRUCTION BY DEATH

Another Greek verb and noun for “destroy” and “destruction,” exolothreuo, and olethros, signify utter destruction by death. Thus, “Every soul, which will not hear that prophet, shall be destroyed [exolothreuo] from among the people” (Acts 3:23), and the wicked “shall be punished with everlasting destruction [olethros] from the presence of the Lord” (2 Thessalonians 1:9; 1 Thessalonians 5:3; 1 Timothy 6:9). CFF1 494.1

That is a cross section of the basic testimony of the Greek. Little wonder that the illustrious Dr. Weymouth, of Mill Hill, master of the Greek text of the New Testament, editor of The Resultant Greek Testament, and translator of The New Testament in Modern Speech, strikingly declared in an authorized published statement: CFF1 494.2

“My mind fails to conceive a grosser misinterpretation of language than when the five or six strongest words which the Greek tongue possesses, signifying ‘destroy,’ or ‘destruction,’ are explained to mean maintaining an everlasting but wretched existence. To translate black as white is nothing to this.” ⁶ CFF1 494.3