What isapocatastasis, and is it biblical?

A false doctrine which claims that all persons will be saved in the end. The Bible never says this – although some verses have been misinterpreted to pretend that it does (see also question 22). Further, universalism flies in the face of scriptures such as John 3:36: “He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life: and he that believeth not the Son shall not see life; but the wrath of God abideth on him”. If the wrath of God ‘abides’ on such persons, how can they be saved ‘in the end’? It is ‘whosoever believes’ will have eternal life, not simply ‘whosoever’ (John 3:16).

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.

The restoration of all things has limitations. Peter's words show this: "of which God has spoken by the mouth of His holy prophets since time began." Some have pressed the Apostle's words to make them include even the unpardoned dead. The restoration does not go beyond what "God has spoken by the mouth of His holy prophets," and certainly no prophet bids us look for the restoration to divine favour of men who have died in their sins. The prophets' standpoint was the earth, and in heart-stirring language they describe the removal by divine power of all the scars that sin has caused in order that God may once more have pleasure in the works of His hands, and that men may enjoy His mercy. The healing of the lame man was an example, strikingly illustrating Isaiah 35:5-6.

This expression, which is found in Acts 3:21, has been taken out of its connection and used in the attempt to prove Universalism, namely, that all mankind will be eventually saved. The restitution mentioned in scripture is of all things "which God hath spoken by the mouth of all his holy prophets." The thought is thus limited to what had been stated in the prophets. In Matt. 17:11 Christ speaks of Elias coming and 'restoring' all things. All such expressions clearly have reference to God's dispensational dealings on earth, to which the term 'all things' refers, and do not touch one way or another the idea of universal salvation. See also RECONCILIATION.

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."

For Scripture examples, I may refer to Matthew 12:13, "His hand was restored (apekatestathe) whole as the other." Matthew 17:11, "Elias shall restore (apokatastesei) all things." Acts 1:6, "Wilt thou at this time restore (apokathistaneis) the kingdom to Israel?"

All these are instances of the use of the verb. As to the substantive, which only occurs in Acts 3:19, the same writer observes, "By classical authors the noun and verb are similarly used in the sense of restoration: surgically — of the setting, or restoration, of diseased or broken limbs, astronomically — of the sun returning into his old sign in the Zodiac; politically — of hostages or exiles returning to their country." Instances are given also from the fathers, of a similar use of the word.

I cannot allow the justice of what is said of Acts 3:19-21. The obviously correct rendering of the passage is: "Repent ye, therefore, and be converted, unto the blotting out of your sins, that *times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord, and that He may send τὸν προκεκηρυγμένον (or with Griesbach, Scholz, etc. προκεχειρισμένον) ὑμῖν Ἰ.Χ. whom the heaven must receive until the times of restitution of all things," etc. Now, the very formation and nature of the word ἀποκατάστασις proves that it cannot have here, or any where else, "the same effect with fulfillment." Supposing even that the verb ἀποκάθιστημι meant to fulfill, still it will hardly admit of question, that the amendment here proposed is wrong; for words so formed, as a class, refer not to an act past and completed, but to the doing of the act implied in the verb. In other words, it would mean the fulfilling or fulfillment, but not an action already finished; and, therefore this verse would teach the retention of Christ in heaven, not till the prophecies have received their accomplishment, but till the times of the fulfilling itself, i.e. the reverse of what the sermon would aver. But the truth is, that in the eight passages where that verb occurs in the New Testament, there is not one passage where it can be shown to mean "fulfill;" there is not one where it may not be safely rendered "restore." "Reconstitute," in some cases gives the force well. Using this, then, the meaning of the verse in question would be, "until the times of reconstituting, or restoring," i.e. not, in any sense, till the act was done, but being done, or doing. So far from subverting, this text falls in with and supposes the coming of Christ from heaven, for the purpose, or at least at the time, of God's effectuating in the earth the latter-day glory, Jewish glory, as predicted by the prophets. The Church, as we have seen, is blessed in another and higher sphere.

Let us look a moment at these texts ere we pass on, and ask ourselves how far they conflict even seemingly with eternal punishment. Few would imagine perhaps that the blessing in Abraham's seed to all kindreds of the earth did that. And by the very fact that all the prophets have spoken of the "restitution of all things," it is plainly not what Mr. Jukes would imply. Moreover this "restitution" is of things, not persons, and (according to what we have seen to be the scope of that Old Testament to which, of course, the apostle refers), it is upon earth, — and nowhere else. "Restitution of all (the) things of which the prophets have spoken" is the true force of the word, and not a restitution of the universe, as Mr. Jukes seems to imagine.

The book is written in the form of a letter to a friend. On page 2 he says, "Your difficulty is, How are we, as believers in Scripture, to reconcile its prophetic declarations as to the final restitution of all things with those other statements of the same scripture which are so often quoted to prove eternal punishment?" There are no such prophetic declarations as to the restitution of all things absolutely. He leaves out, as all such do, the words "which God hath spoken by the mouth of all his holy prophets since the world began" (Acts 3:21), "Repent ye therefore, and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out, so that the times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord, and He shall send Jesus Christ, who before was preached unto you: whom the heavens must receive until the times of the restitution of all things which God hath spoken by the mouth of all his holy prophets since the world began," Acts 3:20-21. The "all things" refer solely to those things of which the prophets have spoken. The reading of the passage dissipates the notion based on it by leaving out the end.

Advantage has been taken of the term “the times of restitution of all things” by the enemies of the truth to deny eternal punishment and to teach the final salvation of all men. It will be found, we believe invariably, that those who quote Scripture to support error, quote part texts. The devil did this when quoting the Word to the Lord—so in this case; but this term, which has been so much abused, is qualified by the full sentence—“the times of restitution of all things, which God hath spoken by the mouth of all His holy prophets since the world begun. ”

79 Again, "will have all men to be saved." No doubt thelei, but this is now in the day of salvation; 1 Tim. 2. It is all wholly a present thing. That Christ was a ransom for all, I believe. As to Romans 11, "that he might have mercy upon all" is, as he quotes it, the merest abuse of words. The Jews are come under mere mercy as Gentiles by rejecting Messiah and the promises. "That the world through him might be saved" it is too bad in the author to quote for his purpose, for that passage distinguishes believers as alone profiting, and the rest judged. "He is the propitiation … for the whole world." So He is. "The Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world." So He will. "That he might destroy the works of the devil." So He will; but all this proves nothing at all as to the rejection of rejectors. Destroying the works of the devil rather implies that the devil stays where he was, and that as a result "there shall be no more death," etc.; and then without are "the fearful and unbelieving, and the abominable, and murderers, and whoremongers, and sorcerers, and idolaters, and all liars," who "shall have their part in the lake that burneth with fire and brimstone: which is the second death," Rev. 21:8. His quotation for universal salvation of John 6:37-39; chap. 12:32, is too bad. The first passage spoken of carefully teaches that only those will be saved whom the Father has given Him: look at verse 36, and indeed at the whole chapter. The other passage — "draw all men unto me" — is the present effect of the cross in contrast with a Messiah to the Jews.

After giving several sets of passages, with the confusion indicated in the few we have remarked upon, he asks: "Now is not this apparent contradiction, few finding the way of life, and yet in Christ all made alive? God's elect a little flock, and yet all the kindreds of the earth blessed in Abraham's seed? mercy upon all, and yet eternal punishment? the restitution of all things, and yet eternal destruction? the wrath of God for ever, and yet all things reconciled to Him? eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels, and yet the destruction through death, not of the works of the devil only, but of him that has the power of death — that is, the devil? the second death and the lake which burneth with fire, and yet no more death or curse, but all things subdued by Christ, and God all in all? What can this contradiction mean? Is there any key, and if so, what is it, to this mystery?" The conclusive answer is, There is no "contradiction," nor "mystery." The above references are all falsely cited apart from their context. This makes the apparent contradiction. Then he mentions the common answer, "That some are saved and some are lost for ever"; that therefore the words, "in Christ shall all be made alive," only mean that all who are here in Christ shall be made alive; that the Lamb of God, though willing to be, is not really, the Saviour of the world, but only of those who are not of the world, but chosen out of it; that, instead of taking away the sin of the world, He only takes away the sin of those who here believe in Him; that all things therefore shall not be reconciled to God;** and that "the restitution of all things," whatever it may mean, does not mean the reconciliation to God of all men.