The Importance of Defining Bible Words
Every time we fail to define a word as God used that word in the Bible, we open the door to believing something that God simply did not teach. For example, those who redefine the word “baptism” to include sprinkling allow individuals to believe that infant baptism is what God intended. There is another word, the Hebrew word olam, which is often misunderstood and which leads many to wrong conclusions about what God actually taught.
How should “olam” be understood?
The Hebrew word is often translated as “eternal,” “perpetual” and “forever.” The Jehovah Witnesses try to find proof here that, while 144,000 will enter heaven, the rest of mankind will be on the earth, for “…the earth abides forever (Hebrew word is olam)” (Ecc. 1:4). The Seventh Day Adventists, who want to find proof that God intended for the Sabbath to be kept even in the Christian age, find the verses which say the Sabbath was to be “a sign between Me and the children of Israel forever (olam)” (Ex. 31:17). The problem is that these denominations fail to understand the word olam (translated as “forever” in these passages above). The Hebrew word does not convey the same meaning as the English word “forever.”
How can we see that this is true? How do we show the true meaning of the Hebrew word olam? It is a simple process. Just look at the other things in the Old Testament which were to abide olam (forever). Just let God define the word.
What things did the Old Testament describe as being olam? Genesis 17:13 affirms that circumcision as a religious act was to abide forever. The same is true of the Passover (Ex. 12:14-17); slavery (Ex. 21:6); the Levitical priest wearing bonnets and girdles (Ex. 29:9); the priests washing their hands and feet as a religious act (Ex. 30:21-22); the entire Levitical priesthood (Lev. 7:34-36); the blowing of trumpets on the first day of every month (Num. 10:8); the perpetual existence of the stones placed at the crossing of the Jordan (Josh. 4:7); and the amount of time Samuel would serve at the temple (1 Sam. 1:22). The word olam is found in every one of the verses listed in this paragraph.
One cannot be honest in selecting verses to support the eternal earth or the eternal Sabbath while denying that the other things no longer are binding. All these things stand or fall together.
Then, what is the meaning of olam? It simply affirms that those things given were intended to be long lasting with no end in sight. It was God’s assurance to Israel that His commands could be trusted by men. They were not temporary. They were established by God, and He alone would determine when they would end.