WHAT DOES IT MEAN TO PERISH?
For most of us who were religionfied our minds have been brainwashed and conditioned to understand the word perish means eternal punishment in the torture chamber of a fiery hell. But is that what it really means? I think not and here is why. Jesus used the same Greek word for perish in reference to Himself. In Luke 13:33, Jesus said, “Nevertheless, I must go on my way today and tomorrow and the day following, for it cannot be that a prophet should perish away from Jerusalem.” Jesus clearly isn’t using this word in the sense of eternal suffering in hell fire. He is referring to oppression and likely using it to refer to His own death. Three times in the gospel of John Jesus uses this word perish in connection with, but not meaning eternal life. He uses this word in contrast of eternal life. His use of the phrase eternal life means to speak of the quality of God’s life that we can have in the here-and-now when we believe in Jesus. Therefore, to perish means not exhibiting God’s li