Forever Doesn't Always Mean Eternal

                                                Forever Doesn't  Always Mean Eternal

In many cases in scripture, words such as "everlasting" or "forever" are limited in temporality. Read the following according to context. *All verses are ESV.*

Genesis 13:15 "For all the land that you see I will give to you and to your offspring forever."

Matthew 24:35 "Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away."

Revelation 21:1 "Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more."


NOTE: God's people have the land forever until heaven and earth passes away.




Isaiah 34:9-10 "And the streams of Edom shall be turned into pitch, and her soil into sulfur; her land shall become burning pitch. Night and day it shall not be quenched; its smoke shall go up forever. From generation to generation it shall lie waste; none shall pass through it forever and ever."


Revelation 20:10 "And the devil who had deceived them was thrown into the lake of fire and sulfur where the beast and the false prophet were, and they will be tormented day and night forever and ever."

NOTE: Notice the similarity in language-Night and Day. The events of Isaiah 34 regarding Edom are not occurring right now. Therefore, it is not forever. Likewise, Revelation 20:10 is a forever event. The same verses above apply: Matthew 24:35 and Revelation 21:1.




Exodus 12:24 "You shall observe this rite as a statute for you and for your sons forever."

Romans 6:14 "For sin will have no dominion over you, since you are NOT UNDER LAW but under grace."

Acts 13:39 "And by him everyone who believes is freed from everything from which you could not be freed by the law of Moses."

NOTE: The Jews were called to observe the Passover forever. However, they are no longer under the Law because of Jesus. See also Acts 15:1-24.




Exodus 27:21 "In the tent of meeting, outside the veil that is before the testimony, Aaron and his sons shall tend it from evening to morning before the Lord. It shall be a statute forever to be observed throughout their generations by the people of Israel."

Exodus 28:43 "And they shall be on Aaron and his sons when they go into the tent of meeting, or when they come near the altar to minister in the Holy Place, lest they bear guilt and die. This shall be a statute forever for him and for his offspring after him."

Exodus 40:15 "And you shall anoint them as you anointed their father, that they may serve me as priests. And their anointing shall admit them to a perpetual priesthood throughout their generations."

Hebrews 7:11-19 11 Now if perfection had been attainable through the Levitical priesthood (for under it the people received the law), what further need would there have been for another priest to arise after the order of Melchizedek, rather than one named after the order of Aaron? 12 For when there is a change in the priesthood, there is necessarily a change in the law as well. 13 For the one of whom these things are spoken belonged to another tribe, from which no one has ever served at the altar. 14 For it is evident that our Lord was descended from Judah, and in connection with that tribe Moses said nothing about priests. 15 This becomes even more evident when another priest arises in the likeness of Melchizedek, 16 who has become a priest, not on the basis of a legal requirement concerning bodily descent, but by the power of an indestructible life. 17 For it is witnessed of him, “You are a priest forever, after the order of Melchizedek.” 18 For on the one hand, a former commandment is set aside because of its weakness and uselessness 19 (for the law made nothing perfect); but on the other hand, a better hope is introduced, through which we draw near to God.

NOTE: First, under the Law of Moses, Aaron and his sons must keep the lamps burning forever . This includes their future generations as well. Second, this also applies to their priestly garments and their very Levitical priesthood, which we know was replaced by the Order of Melchizedek.






Jeremiah 30:12 "For thus says the Lord: Your hurt is incurable, and your wound is grievous."

Jeremiah 30:17 "For I will restore health to you, and your wounds I will heal, declares the Lord, because they have called you an outcast: 'It is Zion, for whom no one cares!'"

NOTE: God's people have an incurable disease until he can heal them himself.

Habakkuk 3:6 "He stood and measured the earth; he looked and shook the nations; then the eternal mountains were scattered; the everlasting hills sank low. His were the everlasting ways."

NOTE: The mountains/hills are considered eternal until they are scattered.






1 Kings 8:12-13 Then Solomon said, “The Lord has said that he would dwell in thick darkness. I have indeed built you an exalted house, a place for you to dwell in forever.”

1 Kings 8:27 “But will God indeed dwell on the earth? Behold, heaven and the highest heaven cannot contain you; how much less this house that I have built!

2 Kings 25:8-17 8 In the fifth month, on the seventh day of the month—that was the nineteenth year of King Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon—Nebuzaradan, the captain of the bodyguard, a servant of the king of Babylon, came to Jerusalem. 9 And he burned the house of the Lord and the king's house and all the houses of Jerusalem; every great house he burned down. 10 And all the army of the Chaldeans, who were with the captain of the guard, broke down the walls around Jerusalem. 11 And the rest of the people who were left in the city and the deserters who had deserted to the king of Babylon, together with the rest of the multitude, Nebuzaradan the captain of the guard carried into exile. 12 But the captain of the guard left some of the poorest of the land to be vinedressers and plowmen. 13 And the pillars of bronze that were in the house of the Lord, and the stands and the bronze sea that were in the house of the Lord, the Chaldeans broke in pieces and carried the bronze to Babylon. 14 And they took away the pots and the shovels and the snuffers and the dishes for incense and all the vessels of bronze used in the temple service, 15 the fire pans also and the bowls. What was of gold the captain of the guard took away as gold, and what was of silver, as silver. 16 As for the two pillars, the one sea, and the stands that Solomon had made for the house of the Lord, the bronze of all these vessels was beyond weight. 17 The height of the one pillar was eighteen cubits, and on it was a capital of bronze. The height of the capital was three cubits. A latticework and pomegranates, all of bronze, were all around the capital. And the second pillar had the same, with the latticework.

NOTE: God was dwelling inside the Temple forever until the Temple was destroyed.



Exodus 31:16 Therefore the people of Israel shall keep the Sabbath, observing the Sabbath throughout their generations, as a covenant forever.

Hebrews 4:8-9 "For if Joshua had given them rest, God would not have spoken of another day later on. So then, there remains a Sabbath rest for the people of God."

Colossians 2:14-17 "By canceling the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands, this he set aside, nailing it to the cross. He disarmed the rulers and authorities and put them to open shame, by triumphing over them in him. Therefore let no one pass judgment on you in questions of food and drink, or with regard to a festival or a new moon or a Sabbath. These are a shadow of the things to come, but the substance belongs to Christ."

NOTE: God's people were to observe the Sabbath throughout their generations forever UNTIL the 70 AD New Covenant Sabbath in Christ comes. The Old Covenant Sabbath was a fading shadow.





Ezekiel 46:13-15 “You shall provide a lamb a year old without blemish for a burnt offering to the Lord daily; morning by morning you shall provide it. And you shall provide a grain offering with it morning by morning, one sixth of an ephah, and one third of a hin of oil to moisten the flour, as a grain offering to the Lord. This is a perpetual statute. Thus the lamb and the meal offering and the oil shall be provided, morning by morning, for a regular burnt offering.


Hebrews 10:12 "But when Christ had offered for all time a single sacrifice for sins, he sat down at the right hand of God."


NOTE: The burnt offerings are a perpetual ordinance UNTIL Christ offers a single sacrifice.



Jonah 2:6 "At the roots of the mountains I went down to the land whose bars closed upon me forever; yet you brought up my life from the pit, O Lord my God."

Jonah 1:17 "And the Lord appointed a great fish to swallow up Jonah. And Jonah was in the belly of the fish three days and three nights."

NOTE: Jonah states that he will be in the big fish forever UNTIL he is released.





Isaiah 32:13-16 "For the soil of my people will be thorns and briars, for the joyous houses in the exultant city; for the palace will be forsaken, the populous city deserted; the hill and the watchtower will become dens forever, a joy of wild donkeys, a pasture of flocks; until the Spirit is poured upon us from on high, and the wilderness becomes a fruitful field, and the fruitful field is deemed a forest."

NOTE: The hill and watchtower will be a den UNTIL the Spirit is poured upon the land.



Philemon 1:15 "For this perhaps is why he was parted from you for a while, that you might have him back forever."

NOTE: Onesimus wasn't immortal. It was within the period of his lifetime.