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If the Disciples did not ask Jesus when the world would end, then what did they ask Him? To discover the correct answer to our question, we need to examine several Greek words that are used in the New Testament.

The word "world" is derived from the Greek word "kosmos" one hundred and eighty-six times in the New Testament. It refers not only to the Earth itself, but also to the inhabitants of the Earth, and to the governments of the world. Furthermore, it can also sometimes refer to the actual Universe itself. It is easy to recognize that it is also from this same Greek word that we derive our English words cosmos, cosmopolitan, cosmology and similar words. This word "kosmos" is used in such verses as the following:

"He was in the world, and the world was made by him, and the world knew him not."


"For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life."


"Again, the devil taketh him up into an exceeding high mountain, and sheweth him all the kingdoms of the world, and the glory of them;"


"Ye are the light of the world. A city that is set on an hill cannot be hid."


"The field is the world; the good seed are the children of the kingdom; but the tares are the children of the wicked one;"


"Verily I say unto you, Wheresoever this gospel shall be preached in the whole world, there shall also this, that this woman hath done, be told for a memorial of her."


"And he said unto them, Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature."


"For what shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?"


"For then must he often have suffered since the foundation of the world . . ."


Taking into consideration the previous verses, there should be no doubt in your mind what the Greek word "kosmos" means. However, as it turns out, this is not the only word that has been translated as "world" in the New Testament. In all of the verses below, the word "world" is derived from the Greek word "aion":

"The enemy that sowed them is the devil; the harvest is the end of the world; and the reapers are the angels . . . So shall it be at the end of the world: the angels shall come forth, and sever the wicked from among the just,"


"And as he sat upon the mount of Olives, the disciples came unto him privately, saying, Tell us, when shall these things be? and what shall be the sign of thy coming, and of the end of the world?"


"Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world. Amen."


". . . world without end. Amen."


". . . but now once in the end of the world hath he appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself."


It is at this point in our discussion that we have to deal with what I can only describe as being either theological ignorance -- which I seriously doubt -- or else, even worse, as intentional deception and manipulation of the Scriptures by the scholarly translators of the King James Version of the Bible. According to Thayer's Greek English Lexicon, the primary meaning of the word "aion" is a period of time, or an age. The word "aion" can also refer to perpetuity of time and eternity. In all cases, it primarily concerns units of time. In fact, as you may have already figured out, it is from this Greek word that we likewise derive our English word "eon". We all know what an eon is. It is a very long period of time. This word is not primarily concerned with the physical planet, or with the inhabitants of the Earth, or with the governments of the world like "kosmos" is.

On a side note, there are a number of other Greek words which are translated as "age" in the New Testament. However, in all cases, each of these words relates to either human age, or to a specific period in one's life. Allow me to share them with you, along with how they are each used, as well as where they are found:

Greek

English Word/Phrase

Location

autos echo helikia	he is of age	John 9:21
dodeka etos	of the age of twelve years	Mark 5:42
echo helikia	he is of age	John 9:23
geras	old age	Luke 1:36
huperakmos	she pass the flower of her age	1 Cor. 7:36
para kairos	when she was past age	Heb. 11:11
polus hemera	was of a great age	Luke 2:36
teleios	of full age	Heb. 5:14
triakonta etos	thirty years of age	Luke 3:23

Another Greek word which is translated as "ages" -- note that it is plural -- is the word "genea". In this case, it refers primarily to a generation of people, or to successive members of a particular genealogy. It is plain to see that such words as "generation", "genealogy" and "genealogical" are in fact derived from this Greek word. Following are the verses where this word is used:

"Which in other ages was not made known unto the sons of men, as it is now revealed unto his holy apostles and prophets by the Spirit;"


"Unto him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus throughout all ages . . ."


However, our primary concern here is the Greek word "aion". If this word means an age or a period of time, then why did the English translators of the King James Bible choose to translate it as "world" in the previous verses, while they translated it properly as "ages" in the following verses?:

"That in the ages to come he might shew the exceeding riches of his grace in his kindness toward us through Christ Jesus."


"Even the mystery which hath been hid from ages and from generations, but now is made manifest to his saints:"


To reiterate a point I made in part four, if there is one thing of which I am convinced concerning the Bible, it is that there is continuity and unity throughout God's Word. As such, we cannot understand a certain word or phrase one way, and then at a later point change its meaning -- or translate it differently -- simply because we do not like what a verse is saying. If some passage we read does not agree with our personal theology, the problem is not with God's Word, it is obviously with our theology.

While I cannot prove this point in a conclusive manner, as I mention in the eight-part series entitled "Is the KJV Bible the Inerrant Word of God?", I have long suspected that the men who translated the 1611 King James Version of the Bible, purposely translated a number of verses in such a way, that those verses would agree with their personal theology, and with the doctrines of the Church of England.

Furthermore, I strongly suspect that this may very well be the case with all of the verses which I shared with you earlier, where they chose to translate "aion" as "world", instead of as "age". Just by simply examining some of those verses, we can see that there are problems with them when the word "world" is used. Allow me to demonstrate my point. Let us begin with the verse from the Gospel of Matthew:

"Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world. Amen."


Now, lest you misunderstand what Jesus is saying there, He is not referring to being with the Apostles to the physical ends or extremes of the Earth. The word "end" is derived from the Greek word "sunteleia". This word means completion, end or consummation. As you can hopefully see, Jesus is talking about something much more than just accompanying them as they travel around Israel, the Middle East, southern Europe, etc. Common sense dictates that the Apostles did not live to the end -- or consummation -- of the world. Thus, it makes no sense that Jesus would say this to them. On the other hand, if we properly translate the Greek "aion" as "age", just like in all of the other verses, then the verse makes perfect sense, because Jesus did accompany them in Spirit to the end -- or consummation -- of that particular age. Can you see how "age" works while "world" does not? Consider the verse again with the word "age" injected into it:

"Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the [age]. Amen."


Exactly which age is Jesus talking about? I'm convinced that it is the very same 490-year Prophetic Age that we discussed in part four. It is the Prophetic Age which was prophesied in Daniel's "Seventy Weeks" prophecy, which culminated with the destruction of Jerusalem and the Temple, and the Return of Jesus Christ. Let's take another look at the Epistle of the Apostle Paul to the Ephesian brethren. A minute ago I shared with you the first half of a verse. Paul concludes that same verse with this phrase:

". . . world without end. Amen."


Now wait a minute. Why would Paul write that, when we know that the Scriptures inform us that the world does come to an end? In fact, as we read in Peter's Epistle, the Earth burns up, and the Book of Revelation informs us that it eventually flees away. Consider these verses:

"But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night; in the which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat, the earth also and the works that are therein shall be burned up. Seeing then that all these things shall be dissolved, what manner of persons ought ye to be in all holy conversation and godliness, Looking for and hasting unto the coming of the day of God, wherein the heavens being on fire shall be dissolved, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat?"


"And I saw a great white throne, and him that sat on it, from whose face the earth and the heaven fled away; and there was found no place for them."


Once again, if we more correctly translate "aion" as "age", as it should be, instead of as "world", the verse makes a lot more sense, and its true meaning becomes clearer; particularly when we look at the entire verse, as we see here:

"Unto him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus throughout all ages [or generations], [age] without end. Amen."


What does Paul mean by "age without end"? In my mind, that can only mean one thing. Paul is obviously talking about a very, very long time. He seems to be referring to eternity, in my view. This becomes even more evident when we look at the previous verses as well, and realize that Paul is in fact talking about the eternal nature of God the Father, and the glory which is given unto Him, by the Church, which He Himself has established through Jesus Christ, as we see here:

"For this cause I bow my knees unto the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, Of whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named, That he would grant you, according to the riches of his glory, to be strengthened with might by his Spirit in the inner man; That Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith; that ye, being rooted and grounded in love, May be able to comprehend with all saints what is the breadth, and length, and depth, and height; And to know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge, that ye might be filled with all the fulness of God. Now unto him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that worketh in us, Unto him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus throughout all ages [generations], world [age] without end. Amen."


The problem with the word "aion" being incorrectly translated as "world" -- instead of as "age" -- becomes more apparent in the following verse, which I shared with you earlier:

". . . but now once in the end of the world hath he appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself."


What? Wait a minute! Has the Apostle Paul lost his marbles? Why is he using the word "now" -- meaning the First Century -- and then referring to it as "the end of the world", and then saying that Jesus appeared in order to sacrifice Himself for our sins? We are still here, the world is still here, and we all know full well that Jesus sacrificed Himself about two millennia ago, which was not the end of the world. As you can see, there is something seriously wrong with the translation. On the other hand, once again, if we properly translate the Greek word "aion" as "age", the verse makes perfect sense, as we see here:

". . . but now once in the end of the [age] hath he appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself."


With what I have shared with you thus far regarding this issue concerning the Greek word "aion", and its incorrect translation as "world" instead of as "age", I hope you are beginning to see the error which seems to have been made by the translators of the King James Version of the Bible, and in other versions of the Bible as well.

The question is this: If this was done intentionally -- as I suspect that it was -- then why did the translators do it? I believe that the answer lies in the fact that they discovered something in the Scriptures which they simply were not able to accept; because what they found totally contradicted their own theological perspective and understanding, as well as the doctrines of the Church of England. We begin to get a sense of what this was in the following verses, which I also shared with you earlier. To refresh your memory, in these verses, the word "world" is translated from the Greek word "aion":

"The enemy that sowed them is the devil; the harvest is the end of the world; and the reapers are the angels . . . So shall it be at the end of the world: the angels shall come forth, and sever the wicked from among the just,"


"And as he sat upon the mount of Olives, the disciples came unto him privately, saying, Tell us, when shall these things be? and what shall be the sign of thy coming, and of the end of the world?"


In contrast, if we properly translate "aion" as "age" so that we maintain the continuity of the Scriptures, and agree with the other verses where "aion" is correctly translated as "age" or as "ages", those same three verses read as follows:

"The enemy that sowed them is the devil; the harvest is the end of the [age]; and the reapers are the angels . . . So shall it be at the end of the [age]: the angels shall come forth, and sever the wicked from among the just,"


"And as he sat upon the mount of Olives, the disciples came unto him privately, saying, Tell us, when shall these things be? and what shall be the sign of thy coming, and of the end of the [age]?"


For the purposes of this discussion, it is that last verse that is found in Matthew's Gospel with which we should be the most concerned. By translating "aion" in this fashion, I am personally convinced that what the Apostles really asked Jesus was not what signs would precede the destruction of the Temple, His Return, and the end of the world, but rather what signs would signal the destruction of the Temple, His Return, and the end of the age. As I mentioned to you earlier, we are still here, and the world is still here. Therefore, it makes no sense that the Apostles would ask Jesus about events which were two thousand years in the far distant future.

Let me ask you a simple question. Are you really concerned about events that may occur in the year 4016? Does the year 4016 even ever cross your mind? I didn't think so. You will be dead and gone in a few decades, so you probably couldn't care less about what happens two millennia from now. You are more concerned with events which are happening right now, and perhaps in the coming decades. In like fashion, when the Lord told the Apostles that Herod's Temple would be utterly destroyed, they were obviously most concerned about their own immediate future, and not events which would occur long after they were dead. Thus, it makes perfect sense that they would ask "and of the end of the age", and not "and of the end of the world". Of course, in a real sense, what actually happened about four decades later was no doubt viewed by the Jews as the end of the world -- that is, their world -- but that is not what the Apostles asked Jesus according to the word "aion".

The main point we need to consider here is that everything which Jesus said in response to their questions in Matthew chapter twenty-four, as well as in the thirteenth chapter of the Gospel of Mark, and in the twenty-first chapter of the Gospel of Luke, concerned the end of the age, and not the actual end of the world as we know it. Everything; and that is precisely where the translators of the KJV Bible ran into trouble. I don't believe that they were able to handle what they discovered; that is, that Jesus actually promised to return at the end of that age around 70 to 73 AD. And so, the KJV translators manipulated their translation, and they covered up the truth by using "world" in some verses instead of the word "age" as they should have done. As a result, we now have millions of Christians who have been deceived in our present time, who have been fooled into believing in the "Jesus-is-coming-at-any-moment" mentality, also known as the Futurist mentality.

Jesus specifically warned us to not be deceived; and yet, we have in fact been deceived by modern preachers, theologians and Bible teachers. As I have already made clear, I in fact was also deceived by this very same lie for forty long years until in His great Mercy, the Lord began to open my eyes to the Scriptural truth. I hope that some of you experience the same thing by reading this series. Consider the following verses:

"And Jesus answered and said unto them, Take heed that no man deceive you."


"And Jesus answering them began to say, Take heed lest any man deceive you:"


"And he said, Take heed that ye be not deceived . . ."


Before delving into other matters, let us review some of the key points that we have established thus far in this series. I think it will help you to see how clear the truth is, if we group all of these various points together below:

1. Jesus said that He would return before the Apostles even had opportunity to preach in all of the cities of Israel. Thus, He had to return during the First Century.

2. Jesus promised to return and set up His Kingdom before all of the Apostles had died. Thus, He had to return during the First Century.

3. Jesus promised to return for the Apostles and take them with Him after He had prepared a place for them in Heaven. Thus, He had to return during the First Century while some of them were still alive.

4. The Romans -- who pierced Jesus' body -- would witness His Return. Thus again, Jesus had to return during the First Century while some of those Romans were still alive.

5. The Apostles were convinced by the Scriptures that they were living in the Last Days of that Prophetic Age, and they expected and anticipated that Christ would return soon. This point is very evident throughout many of their comments and writings.

6. Jesus would return to Earth after Jerusalem and the Temple had both been destroyed, which both Jesus and the Prophets confirmed.

7. The New Testament Scriptures repeatedly state "the day is at hand", "the Lord is at hand", "the time is at hand", and "the Kingdom of God is at hand", meaning during that same time frame, and not two thousand years in the future.

8. In every instance in the Gospels where the phrase "this generation" is spoken, it is referring to the generation of people who were alive during Jesus' lifetime, some of whom would still be alive at His Return during that same century.

9. In every instance in the New Testament where the word "shortly" is used, it is referring to a short amount of time; that is, in the very near future. This word is used specifically to refer to the events which are described in the Book of Revelation.

10. Through an Angelic Messenger, Jesus specifically told the Seven Churches which were located in Asia Minor at that time, "I come quickly". He repeated that same thing in the final chapter of the Book of Revelation. He would not tell those Churches "I come quickly", and then not come for two thousand years.

11. Jesus' Return during the First Century following the seven-year First Jewish-Roman War was precisely prophesied through Daniel's "Seventy Weeks" prophecy.

12. Contrary to popular belief, in the Gospels, the Lord's Disciples did not ask Him when the end of the world would be. They asked Him when the end of that particular age would be. That Prophetic Age of 490 years concluded with the destruction of Jerusalem and the Temple, and Jesus' Return sometime thereafter.

Aside from all of the information I have already shared with you, another reason why I am convinced that the Apostles were aware of Daniel's "Seventy Weeks" prophecy, looked forward to the end of that age, and specifically asked Jesus about the signs which would lead up to the end of that Prophetic Age, and not to the end of the world, is because of an incident which is recorded in the Gospel of Matthew. It only covers two verses, but it contains some very esoteric wisdom. Now that I have shared all of the previous information with you, I think you will spot the treasure in these two verses right away:

"Then came Peter to him, and said, Lord, how oft shall my brother sin against me, and I forgive him? till seven times? Jesus saith unto him, I say not unto thee, Until seven times: but, Until seventy times seven."


Why would Jesus choose to reply to Peter in that specific manner? I suspect that it is because the Lord already knew that Peter would fully understand what He was really saying. And what is that? Seventy times seven. Can it be any clearer than that? Four hundred and ninety years. It is my belief that Jesus was really telling Peter that he should forgive his brother his entire life, until the end of that Prophetic Age of 490 years, when Jesus would return. Amazing!

As I already explained, this is why I believe that some of the Apostles chose to use the phrase "last days" in their writings, and also quoted the very same phrase from the Prophet Joel. They perfectly understood that they had now entered the final years of Daniel's 490-year Prophetic Age. We find more proof of this fact in the following two verses:

"God, who at sundry times and in divers manners spake in time past unto the fathers by the prophets, Hath IN THESE LAST DAYS spoken unto us by his Son, whom he hath appointed heir of all things, by whom also he made the worlds;"


Please go to part six for the continuation of this series.

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