What is the time of restoration of all things (Acts 3:21)?

Let us first refer to a short statement in the Acts. It seems to follow, very naturally, those at which we have looked. "And he shall send Jesus Christ, which before was preached unto you: whom the heaven must receive until the times of restitution of all things, which God hath spoken by the mouth of all his holy prophets since the world began." (Acts 3:20-21.) I ask your serious attention to this passage; I pray that it may rest upon many minds tonight. These words were spoken in one of the first addresses of Peter after Pentecost. Peter had heard his beloved Lord and Master speak of his departure to the Father's house, and of his future return; and his mind was filled with the cheering truth. So it was with the rest of the apostles. They went throughout the world, publishing not only "the sufferings of Christ," but also "the glories (See Greek.) which should follow" — the "glory which should be revealed" at his return from heaven. In almost every address this was the prominent theme. In the occasion before us it was so. "Repent and be converted," said Peter to the multitude he then addressed; "and he shall send Jesus Christ, which before was preached unto you, whom the heaven must receive, until "until when? "until the times of restitution of all things." What times are those? "The times of restitution of all things which God hath spoken by the mouth of all his holy prophets since the world began." Mark well this declaration. It is an exceedingly important one. The heaven must receive the Lord Jesus "until" those times. It is not said that the heaven shall receive, or retain, the Lord during those times, or until the end of them; but, definitely and distinctly, "until the times," that is, until those times arrive. When those times come, then the Lord shall be sent; when they arrive, he will return.

I do not pretend, dear friends, to indicate either the day, the hour, or the year, of the Lord's return — I deprecate such presumption. No man knoweth either the day or the hour in which the Son of Man will come. What we learn here is this — that there is a certain period — a period of "which God hath spoken by the mouth of all his holy prophets since the world began;" and that the return of the Lord Jesus with power and great glory will be, not at the end of that period, as in modern days has been most erroneously imagined, but at the commencement. This Peter clearly asserts. What period is it that is here designated "the times of restitution of all things," and as to which it is said, "God hath spoken of them by the mouth of all his holy prophets?" Has God spoken of the final judgment at the end of the world by the mouth of all his holy prophets? No. It may be questioned whether he has spoken of that event anywhere in the Old Testament. Certainly all the holy prophets of the old dispensation have not spoken of it. What times, then, have they all spoken of? Plainly of the millennial times — of the times when all the nations of the earth shall be brought under the Messiah's sway. These, then, are "the times of restitution," at the commencement of which the Lord Jesus will return. The word which is rendered "restitution," means restoration from a state of disorder, brokenness, and confusion. Suppose the building in which we are met were thrown down, and the materials scattered, and that it were subsequently reconstructed, its restoration or reconstitution would be expressed by the Greek word here rendered "restitution." It refers to the times at the commencement of which all things shall be re-ordered, restored, and set to rights — the millennial times. When these times come, as we have previously said, then will be the time of the Lord's return.

Now it is wholly denied that the blessed manifested kingdom of Christ rests on that passage only of the N.T., while the O.T. prophets are full of it, yea law, Psalms, and Prophets. Take Acts 3:19-21, "Repent ye therefore, and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out, so that seasons of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord, and He may send Jesus Christ, Who hath been fore-appointed unto you: Whom the heaven must receive until the times of restoration of all things, of which God spoke by the mouth of all His holy prophets since the world began." Seasons of refreshing were to come from the Lord's presence, Who would send Jesus that had been fore-appointed for them (Israel's repentance being in full view, as usually for the millennium). Heaven must receive Him till times for restoring all things according to prophecy. That is, Jesus will be sent to bring in these blessed times when all things shall be (not destroyed, as in Prof. Beet's scheme, but) reconstituted, as the prophets of old testified. Christ will come from heaven to earth in order to establish millennial blessing. The Greek must be wholly altered to bear the meaning "till all be accomplished." Christ is on high till times come of restoring all, not till all shall have been restored. Having received the kingdom, He returns in it, and must reign till He has put all His enemies under His feet; for He is to abolish all rule, and all authority, and power, before He gives up the kingdom at the end of all. The repentance of Israel, the return of Jesus, the restoring of all things, besides fulfillment of the prophetic word, point to the millennial kingdom.

The term, "restitution of all things," has been misused in the service of the idea that God is going ultimately to save and restore everybody — even the devil himself. But the passage reads, "the restitution of all things, which God has spoken …" It is things, not persons, and things which from the outset He had spoken by His prophets. God is going to make good every word, and to establish in Christ everything which has broken down in the hands of men. That time will not come till Jesus Himself comes, and since He is the Prophet of whom Moses spoke, all things will be brought to an issue when He does come, and everyone who disregards Him will be destroyed from among the people. There will be a time of blessing established, the like of which has not been since the world began.

We read in Acts 3:21 of "the restitution of all things." Does not this mean that ultimately everybody will be redeemed and brought into blessing?

It does not. That verse speaks of "the times of restitution of all things," i.e. the millennial age of which God had spoken by His prophets from the earliest moments. Enoch's prophecy, for instance, was concerning that day, as recorded in Jude 14, whilst the fifteenth verse describes the judgments that precede the ushering in of the reign of peace. That phrase exactly describes the character of the millennium. Throughout the ages God has brought forth to men many things that are His purpose for this world. He created Adam as head, and he sinned. He established government in Noah, and it was corrupted. He gave His law through Moses, and it was broken. He instituted priesthood in Aaron, and it was perverted. He set up kingly authority in David, and it collapsed.

The "times of refreshing" and "restitution of all things" are expressions in which the Holy Spirit gathers together the hundreds of promises He gave through the different prophets of God concerning a time of great blessing for His people, and through them for the nations of the world. It would be impossible to mention all these promises and in what the times of refreshing and restoration of all things consist. These days of a coming age, the kingdom age, or as we call it because its duration will be a thousand years, the Millennium, are fully described on the pages of Old Testament prophecy. Not alone will the nation be blessed, but Jerusalem will be a great city; the land will be restored and become the great center for blessing; the nations of the earth will receive blessings, and groaning creation will be delivered from its groans and the curse which rests upon it. If we interpret the Word of Prophecy literally and cease spiritualizing it, we shall have no difficulty to behold the full meaning of the times of refreshing and the restitution of all things. The latter word does not include a restoration of the wicked dead, a second chance for those who passed out of this life in an unsaved condition. And these glorious times cannot come till the Lord Jesus Christ comes again.

The time of God's long-suffering with evil, which still goes on, will end in the appearing of Christ; and so will the time of Israel's judicial blindness — the time of Gentile dominion — the time of universal misrule — the time of the enemy's power to deceive — the time of the church's weakness and suffering — the time of Christ's sitting at the right hand of God. These times, and more that might be named are limited in their duration — limited to the time of the Lord's coming — "The times of restitution [or restoring] of all things." The times of evil, of distress, of sorrow, and of open wickedness, will end, run out — cease to be, in "the dispensation of the fulness of times." Christ will then take up that which has failed in the hands of men from Adam downwards, and reign as the Lord's anointed for a thousand years. All things will be put under Him as head. The church, His bride, will then be with Him, as the joint-heir of the inheritance of glory. Then God will be perfectly glorified in the world's government — His will done on earth as it is in heaven, and all His ways completely vindicated.

Not only for these the heavenly saints will it be glory with Christ, but times of refreshing, for those who repent and are converted, both in Israel and in the nations on earth, will surely come from the Lord's presence who sends the Anointed Jesus Who was fore-ordained for His people but now in heaven; but there are times of restoring all things of which God spoke by the mouth of His holy prophets since time began. So the apostle preached in Acts 3. It is clear therefore that this word leaves no room for expecting the Holy Spirit as now working to bring in those times. The Spirit had just come for the gospel and the church; and He was in no way grieved and hindered and denied as He soon began to be. But ever increasing woes have been since the apostles. But even then the apostle explicitly looks to God's sending the Lord Jesus again to bring in the day of earth's blessedness, and the nations rejoicing with Israel, no longer deaf and dumb, but the loudest in that united and continuous chorus of divine praise. Yet the sword, as we have seen, must inevitably clear the earth before Jehovah, Jah the Saviour, "shall be king over all the earth; in that day shall there be one Jehovah, and His name one."

The apostle tells us that "the times of refreshing shall come from the presence of the Lord," and, as to the way of it, that "He shall send Jesus Christ, whom the heavens must receive until the times of the restitution of all things," — the times of restoring, not after they have been restored (Acts 3:19-21).

But the word "apokatastasis" cannot rightly be rendered "fulfilment." It is correctly rendered "restitution" in our English version, and, as a noun, occurs only this once in the New Testament. But the verb from which it is formed, occurs several times, and always in the sense of restoring, replacing, reconstituting. The passages we give below; as also some instances of the use of the word in other writings than the Scriptures. Referring to the note for proof of what we affirm, that "restitution" is the right rendering of the word, we would put it to any of our christian readers, whether Scripture does not teach us to look for "times of restitution of all things" — whether these predicted "times of restitution" be not identical with millennial times — and whether God has not indeed spoken of these times "by the month of all his holy prophets since the world began?" Till these "times of restitution" — till the arrival of these times — the heavens must receive our Lord; but no longer than this. His return will usher in those times. When He returns, these "times of restitution" will arrive. It is then that Israel will be restored to their own land. The throne of David, so long prostrate, will then be re-established, and He shall occupy it, who is both David's son and David's Lord. Israel's supremacy over the nations will also be restored. The curse will be removed; creation will be delivered from the bondage of corruption; even the brute creation, shorn of their ferocity, will sport together, and yield willing subjection to an infant yoke; (a little child shall lead them;) while Satan, expelled from the earth, and forcibly restrained, will have his murderous rule replaced by that of Christ and His heavenly saints; heaven and earth no longer hostile and divided, as they have been since the fall, but "all things in heaven and in earth gathered together in one, even in Christ." These will be "times of restitution" indeed! And until these times arrive, but no longer, the heavens must receive our Lord. His advent ushers in this blissful, glorious era. May our hearts adore Him while exulting in the blissful prospect! The author of the Horae Apocalypticae, whose scholarship none will question, says, "Katastasis means the actual state, condition, or constitution; and, consequently, apokatastasis must most naturally mean a new and different constitution of things, generally by restoration to what it was originally."

The personal return of Jesus for the restoration of Jewish privileges, and at the time of national repentance, is still more strikingly shown a little further on in the same apostolic history. We there find Peter taught by the Holy Ghost, urging the nation to repentance by this very promise. "Repent ye, therefore, and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out, in order that" [I give the version admitted to be correct by all scholars] "the times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord, and that He may send Jesus Christ, which before was preached unto you; whom the heaven must receive until the times of restitution of all things, which God has spoken by the mouth of all His holy prophets since the world began" (Acts 3:19-21). What are "the times of restitution of all things?" They cannot be the end of the world, for that is the time of destruction of all things. Besides, which of the prophets had spoken of this event? The prophets are full of "the sufferings of Christ, and the glory that should follow." When Peter addressed the Jews, the sufferings were past but the glory was to come. This glory, then, of which all the prophets have spoken, is the "restitution of all things" mentioned by Peter — of the temple, of the kingdom, of the throne of David — all which the Jews hoped for, all which, at the time of their repentance, they will have fulfilled. And at that time God will send Jesus Christ once more from heaven. He is not gone there till the end of the world, but till these times come, and when they are come, He will return to the earth, be seen by His people, and "restore again the kingdom to Israel."