Tuesday, November 17, 2020

Matthew 12:32 and the Possibility of Some Sins being Forgiven "In the age to Come" (ἐν τῷ μέλλοντι)

Latter-day Saints (based on D&C 76:104-7) and other traditions hold that there will be, at least for some, posthumous (fatherly) punishment before they are fully forgiven. One text that hints at this doctrine is that of Matt 12:32:

 

And whosoever speaketh a word against the Son of man, it shall be forgiven him: but whosoever speaketh against the Holy Ghost, it shall not be forgiven him, neither in this world, neither in the world to come.

 

The phrase "in the world/age to come" (ἐν τῷ μέλλοντι) hints that there are some sins, excluding the blasphemy of the Holy Spirit (cf. Luke 12:10), that could be forgiven in the hereafter.

 

Commenting on this, Catholic apologist Karlo Broussard noted:

 

There are good reasons to think the “age” (or “world” as the Douay-Rheims Bible translates it) Jesus refers to is the afterlife. One is that Jesus uses “the age to come” elsewhere in the Gospels in this way.

 

Consider, for example, Mark 10:29-30 (see also Luke 18:30), where Jesus says those who leave house, brother, sister, mother, father, and land for his sake will receive a hundred-fold return “in this time . . . and in the age to come eternal life.” Jesus speaks of “this time” and “the age to come” as two distinct states of existence (this life and the next), both of which consist of people receiving rewards for giving up everything for him . . . This reading is further supported by the fact that mellō is used elsewhere in Scripture to refer to the afterlife. Take Ephesians 1:21, for example. Here Paul says Christ’s name is above every name that is named, “not only in this age [Greek, aiōni toutō] but also in that which is to come [Greek, tō mellonti]” (emphasis added).

 

Here Paul clearly is referring to the age to come as an age distinct from the present one and is saying Christ’s name is above every name in both ages.

 

Moreover, the Greek in Ephesians 1:21 is almost exactly the same as that used in Matthew 12:32. In Ephesians 1:21, the phrase “not only in this age but also in that which is to come” translates “ou monon en tō aiōni toutō alla kai en tō melonti.” The key phrase in Matthew 12:32, “either in this age or the age to come,” translates “oute en toutō tō aiōni oute en tō mellonti.”

 

Given that Paul uses mellonti  to refer to the afterlife in Ephesians 1:21, and Paul uses this word in a phrase that’s almost exactly the same as the Greek found in Matthew 12:32, it’s reasonable to conclude that mellonti, or “the age to come,” in Matthew 12:32 is used to refer to the afterlife.

 

Other passages where mellō is used to refer to the afterlife are 1 Timothy 4:8, Hebrews 2:5, Hebrews 6:5, and Hebrews 13:14. (Karlo Broussard, Purgatory is for Real: Good News About the Afterlife for Those Who Aren’t Perfect Yet [El Cajon, Calif.: Catholic Answers Press, 2020], 71, 72)

 

Other texts in the New Testament that teach this (as well as soundly refute the presuppositions of the Protestant doctrine of justification) include Matt 18:23-35 and 1 Cor 3:15. For articles discussing these pericopes, see:

 

Christina Darlington, D&C 82:7, and the Parable of the Unforgiving Servant


1 Corinthians 3:15: A very un-Protestant Biblical Verse