The Facts Regarding the Greek Preposition "Eis" translated as "for"

Revelation 11:15. The kingdoms of this world are become the kingdoms of our Lord, and of his Christ; and he shall reign for ever and ever.

Do you see the problem?

If we understand the last part of this verse that says He shall “reign for ever and ever” to mean that it is for an eternity, then it would mean that Christ would take the kingdoms of this world and rule over them for eternity.

That does not make sense; that is, it does not make Biblical sense, which means it does not fit or harmonize with the rest of the Bible. Why?

Because we know this world is going to be burned up and destroyed, and it will be gone for evermore, and, therefore, all the nations of the world will soon disappear.

How can Christ reign over them for ever and ever?

One cannot reign over nothing.

It has to have some kind of existence in order for it to be reigned over.

We are helped because we have learned within the last couple of decades that when we see the Greek preposition “for” that is found in this verse, where it says, “for ever and ever,” the word “for” can properly be translated as “to.”

And I can just picture a person, or two, listening to E Bible that does not agree with us, and they roll their eyes: “There he goes again, changing the Word of God, and making it say something else.” No – I am just telling you a fact. The preposition that is translated here as “for” is the Greek word eis, and it is found 1,774 times in the New Testament, and of those 1,774 times, do you know how many times it as translated as “for”? Only 140 times out of 1,774, so in over 1,500 instances it is translated in another way. Overwhelmingly, this Greek word eis is translated as “into,” 573 times. It is translated as “to,” 281 times. It is translated as “unto,” 207 times, and it is translated as “toward,” 29 times. They are all saying similar things, whether it be “into” something, or “to” something, or “unto” something or “toward” something. They are basically giving the same kind of idea, and you could use any one of those definitions in Revelation 11:15, and it would read this way: “And He shall reign to ever and ever;” “And He shall reign into ever and ever;” or, “He shall reign toward ever and ever or unto ever and ever.” And these give a different meaning than saying, “for ever and ever.” When we see the term “for ever and ever,” we think it goes on and on into eternity future, but when the preposition is changed to the preposition that is most often used, “into” or “unto” ever and ever, that changes the meaning.

So we realize that it is not that Jesus will reign over the nations of this world eternally, for ever and ever, but He is reigning over the nations of this world to the point of “ever and ever,” or “unto” the time when eternity is ushered in on the last day.

Then we have a proper understanding of the preposition and an understanding that fits with the rest of the Bible. It harmonizes and, therefore, we have the truth.