Romans 16:19-20 “…The God of peace will soon crush Satan under your feet.”(NIV)

When scripture does not make sense, it is not scriptures fault.  Men inspired by God wrote it. It made sense to the person who wrote it, and it made sense to the first people who read it.  If it does not make sense to us, the problem is in our translation or understanding of the words original meanings.  I must admit that when I read the word “soon” it often does not make sense to me.  The bible writes about Jesus returning soon.  Paul writes about God crushing Satan soon.  Often in the Old Testament, the prophets would tell the children of Israel that God was going to do something soon.  Based on our understanding of the word soon, most of these texts are not truthful.

Either the word soon is mistranslated, or the writers used soon in a way that had a different meaning to them than it does to us. The word “soon” is a correct translation; however, a study of the way the Old Testament Hebrew preachers use the word indicates that it had a meaning similar to our word next.  When we substitute the word “next” for the word “soon” meaningless scriptures often become meaningful.  When the early church says Christ is returning “next”, they are affirming their belief that the completion of God’s salvation plan only awaits the return of Christ.

Substituting the word “next” in verse 20 gives it a new meaning.  A meaning that I believe makes sense, especially when we connect it to the second part of verse 19.  I would paraphrase the verses like this, “I want you to be experienced in doing good, and inexperienced in evil, because then the God of peace will next begin crushing Satan under your feet.  The crushing of Satan comes next, after we begin walking in righteousness.  When the church takes the first steps of faith, then God guarantees those steps will defeat our enemy and lead to victory.