The Mystery of the Ages

This sermon had been taken from Your Heritage, and prepared into a PDF file by Clifton A. Emahiser’s Watchman Teaching Ministries with added critical notes.

by Bertrand L. Comparet

It is amazing how much there is in the Bible, which is not even known to the most devout Christians. It is concealed from them by the many mistranslations in the commonly used King James Bible. Because of these mistranslations, many false doctrines have developed among people who faithfully believe what they have read, not knowing that what they read is sometimes incorrect.

One of these errors which has misled many, is the mistranslation of the Greek word aion, meaning an age, as everlasting, eternal, etc. For example, we see many places where the King James Bible speaks of everlasting life and many others where it speaks of eternal life. Some fine, devout people have worked up elaborate doctrines about the supposed difference between everlasting life and eternal life.

Would it shock you to learn that the Bible makes no such distinction at all? The New Testament is where we find these references. Almost all of our English New Testaments are translated from ancient manuscripts, written in the Greek language. In Greek, aion, commonly called aeon in English, means an age, a period of time of long, but indefinite duration. The Greek word aionios, commonly called aeonian, in English means, to the age, to the end of the age.

If you will look it up in a good concordance every reference to everlasting life, you will find that in every case the word translated everlasting, is this Greek word aionios, meaning to the end of the age. Now also look up every reference to eternal life. You will see that in every case but one, this also is the same Greek word aionios. The translators simply got tired of using the same English word and thought it made a better literary style to sometimes use the word everlasting and sometimes the word eternal. Where do you now find the elaborate distinction between the two kinds of life? Surely not in the Bible, only in the mistranslations.

The Bible deals with time in terms of aeons, or ages, let’s find out more about them. The Bible tells us that the ages had a beginning, for it speaks of times before them. For example Hebrews 1:2 speaks of Yahshua, through whom Yahweh made the ages. Yes, I know that the King James Bible says made the worlds, but in the original Greek it says, made the ages. I Corinthians 2:7 speaks of a secret which Yahweh foreordained before the ages to our glory. II Timothy 1:9 speaks of the grace of Yahweh that was given us in Yahshua before the times of the ages.

However long an aeon or age may be, it also has an end. Matthew 24:3 tells of the disciples asking Yahshua, “Tell us, when shall these be; and what is the sign of Thy presence, and of the full end of the age?” In I Corinthians 10:11 Paul tells us the scriptures were written for our admonition, to whom the end of the ages did come.

The Bible speaks of ages in the plural, so there are several of them. How many? There must be at least six of them, we are living in one. In the past, there must have been two others, for in Colossians 1:26 it speaks of the secret that has been hidden from the ages. There must be at least two more in the future. Ephesians 2:7 tells us that Yahweh has raised us up and seated us together in the heavenly places, “that He might show, in the ages that are coming, the exceeding riches of His grace in kindness toward us in Yahshua.”

Past ages have been ended by terrific cataclysms or other occurrences, which definitely mark the beginning of a new age. Genesis 1:1 tells of the beginning of one age, with the creation of the earth. In the next verse, it tells of the wreckage of it in some catastrophe. No, the King James Bible doesn’t tell you this because it is mistranslated.

In the original Hebrew, Genesis 1:2 says that the earth became chaotic and empty, obviously as a result of some great cataclysm, Jeremiah 4:23-27 was a vision of this. In these verses Jeremiah said, “I beheld the earth, and lo! it was without form and void; and the heavens, and they had no light. I beheld the mountains, and lo! they trembled, and all the hills moved lightly. I beheld, and lo! the fruitful place was a wilderness, and all the cities thereof were broken down in the presence of Yahweh, and by His fierce anger. For thus hath Yahweh said, The whole land shall be desolate; yet will I not make a full end.”

In this first age lived the civilizations of which archaeologists now find some trace, many, many thousands of years older than Adam. The second age began with the restoration of order out of this chaos and the repopulation of the earth, from Genesis 1:3 onward. Probably Noah’s flood in Genesis chapters 6-8, marks the end of the second age. The resurrection of Yahshua marks the end of the third age. No greater dividing point can be found in all of history.

We are now living in the fourth age, this will end in the overthrow of the existing satanic world order and the return of Yahshua to rule for the millennium. We say that Ephesians 2:7 spoke of ages still to come. So that proves there are not less than six ages referred to in the Bible.

The Bible also speaks of something longer than just an age. In several places, such as Revelation 1:18, Hebrews 13:21, and II Timothy 4:18, it speaks of the ages of the ages, usually translated forever. Even this is not really eternal or endless. Revelation 11:15 says that Yahshua shall reign for aeons of the aeons. Yet I Corinthians 15:24-28Hebrews 9:26 speaks of the end of the ages. says that there comes a time when Yahshua gives up the kingdom to Yahweh the Father.

Are you beginning to wonder whether your life will finally end at the time when we run out of aeons? Have no fear of that! I Corinthians 15:22-26 tells us that Yahshua will reign until He has conquered all enemies, and that the last enemy to be abolished is death. From that time on, for those who are saved or redeemed by Yahshua, there is no death. It no longer matters whether there may be any reason to mark off a certain period of time as an age.

The life Yahshua then grants to His own will be truly endless. Hebrews 7:16 speaks of an indissoluble, or endless life. I Peter 1:4 says that by the resurrection of Yahshua, Yahweh has begotten us into an inheritance incorruptible, never decaying, which does not fade away. Life for the ages carries you up to the point where death is completely abolished and life does become eternal. Remember, don’t try to find a distinction between eternal life and everlasting life. They are the same thing, merely being different translations of the very same word, with the very same meaning. Don’t think of me as just an old meany that goes around puncturing your pet doctrines, I’m only trying to bring you truth as accurately as I can get it.

When we do run out of ages, that doesn’t mean the end of things, just the beginning of something on a much greater scale. We shall be living in that great kingdom of Yahweh of which Isaiah 9:7 says, “Of the increase of His government and peace there shall be no end.” Something which never comes to an end is truly eternal. Notice this, it does not say merely that of His government there shall be no end, it says the increase of His government there shall be no end.

There is room for all of your hopes and aspirations in such a plan as that. By the time you have learned one phase of it so well that it is becoming a bit old, there will be new and greater developments open to you. Truly an eternity of ever expanding greatness, it will forever challenge your greatest abilities and spur you on to finer achievements.

For quite a while to come, we will have the ages. Make the most of them, for they are the school, the training period for the true eternity. It is the eventual period without end, when we will be in Yahweh’s kingdom, doing His will and finding therein the highest possible happiness.

Critical note by Clifton A. Emahiser: Comparet often speaks of a future millennium which I contend is already past. The following are a couple of notes which I added to Comparet’s series of 14 lessons on the Book of Revelation:

[Transcriber’s Note: I must agree with Comparet, that there will be a select few chosen for the future administration of the Kingdom. But the so-called millennium (1000 years) spoken of in Revelation is already past. If it is not past, we will have to go through this satanic Babylonian system all over again, a second time. The Jewish ghettos were symbolic of the “bottomless pit” and Satan having been “loosed”, is in the process of “deceiving the nations” at this present time. ...]

[Transcriber’s Note: Again I would point out that the so-called millennium (1000 years) is past history. While Comparet did quite well connecting history with prophecy, he failed to recognize the period when the “souls” were “beheaded” who didn’t “worship the beast” at Revelation 20:4. The greatest beheading of “souls” who didn’t “worship the beast” came during the French Revolution with the use of the guillotine. It is a well known fact that the French Revolution was at the beginning of Communism. Even Napoleon served as an officer under the Communist party. Prior to this “beheading” at verse 4, you will notice that Satan was loosed at the end of verse 3. Thus, verses 3 and 4 are tied closely together. In other words, shortly after Satan was loosed, off came the heads. You’ll remember that when the Catholic “Church” put a so-called “heretic” to death, they liked to burn them at the stake to give them a head-start to hell. The binding and loosing of Satan, and the beheading of souls are past history. ...]

The following are a couple of notes by William Finck on a so-called millennium in Comparet’s Revelation series of 14 lessons:

Lesson #14, Note #13: Comparet here admits that the other races “actually have to be exterminated” upon the return of Christ, which is true, however, it leaves no room for Comparet’s statements elsewhere where he claims that after the “millennium” – at least 1000 years after the return of Christ and His rule – Gog and Magog will again be gathered to battle against Israel. How could they be, if they are already destroyed? Comparet is divided against himself on this issue, not realizing that the “millennium” has already transpired! W.R.F.

Lesson #14, Note #16: Here Comparet misunderstands Micah 4:5, again in order to support his view concerning a so-called future “millennium”, and what he fails to notice is that the “gods” of the heathen races are dead. Yahweh, being God, is the inventor of all things, including tongue-in-cheek irony. For as their gods are dead, so shall be the non-Adamic races at the end of this age! Note Isaiah 36:18-21, 37:12-19, 41:21-29, 42:17, etc. etc. And I must also ask, where has the heathen ever lived by the laws of Yahweh? ...  W.R.F.