Always is not ‘Forever’ 1 Thessalonians 4:17-18 “ 17  After that, we who are alive and remain will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so we will always be with the Lord . 18  Therefore encourage one another with these words.” - Berean Standard Bible Take note, this verse does NOT say “forever” be with the Lord. No, It says “always” be with the Lord! There’s a huge difference in meaning between the ever so frequent (albeit erroneous) “forever”, “everlasting”, or “eternal” in the Bible and the word “always”. The first three have their roots as “ eon ”, which is a period of time that lasts roughly for 1,000 years. See the Greek root noun “ aiōn ” ( #165 ). Also see the Greek adjectival “ aiṓnios ” ( #166 ), meaning age-during and for most part translated as either “eternal”, or “everlasting”, instead of “age-during”. Fact is any eon (age) has a gradual cut-off time, as different eons (ages) intermittently shifting into each other, NEVER to be everlasting, or eternal at all! Important also to see the adjectival ‘everlasting’ ( aiṓnios ) to be representing the quality of the particular current age ( aiōn ), having thus nothing to do with the future. Therefore, all the ‘everlastings’ in the Bible has to do with time! Even the Bible is temporary! Yes, you read correctly ( 1 Peter 1:25 ). In heaven there’s no manual needed! “ Always ” ( #3842 pantote –πάντοτε ), on the other hand represents a “never-stop” scenario. It depicts an uninterrupted reality, whether here on earth, or hereafter with the Lord. In the verse above Paul unequivocally states that they will uninterruptedly be in the Lord’s Presence, once caught up in the air at His coming. Jesus in His time on earth reminded His disciples of uninterruptedly having the poor around them, not Him. Matthew 26:11 “For the poor you always have with you, but not always do you have Me .” - Berean Literal Bible Please do yourself a favour (putting emphasis on the “ favour ” here) to see if you can find the word “ always ” (pantote - #3842) anywhere in the Bible, where the so- called ‘ everlasting hell ’ appears. Every time you will bump into the temporary ‘eonian’ brick wall. Needless to say, you won’t find any “always” at all! Besides “hell” only always refers to “ gehenna ” ( #1067 – geennan - γέενναν ) and this place of Divine corrective discipline has a cut-off time too! Now it becomes interesting, as Jesus Himself quenches the ‘fire’, or rather Fire , being His consuming Self ( Hebrews 12:29 ). Jesus quenches the Fire! 1 Corinthians 15:26 “The last enemy to be destroyed is death .” - Berean Standard Bible Gehenna is the second death! Revelation 21:8 ““But for the cowardly and unbelieving and abominable and murderers and immoral persons and sorcerers and idolaters and all liars , their part will be in the lake that burns with fire and brimstone, which is the second death .”” - NASB 1995