Apokatastasis: A Word Still Wreaking Havoc

             The Greek word apokatastasis means restoration of things to their original condition. It came from the Greek word Apokathistemi which means restore. This word was part of Greek thinking concerning the end of things.

            This Greek word is used only once in the New Testament. That is in Acts 3:19-21. The passage reads like this: Repent therefore and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out, so that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord, 20 and that He may send Jesus Christ, who was preached to you before, 21 whom heaven must receive until the times of restoration of all things, which God has spoken by the mouth of all His holy prophets since the world began. (NKJV). The ‘times of restoration of all things' is where the word apokatastasis is used.

            Restoration of all things in Christ is a theme in the New Testament. The Bible presents it as a result of Jesus reconciling mankind and eventually the entire creation with God through his death and resurrection. When we read the New Testament, the word used is not restoring, but reconciliation (Rom. 5:10, 2 Cor. 5:12, 18, 20; Col. 1:19-21). The process by which it will be accomplished is given to us in Ephesians 2:14-16.

            The interpretation of the timing and the extent of what Peter referred to in his speech on the day of Pentecost has caused a lot of havoc in the church. One major point of contention was and is what is included in the word ALL.  I still vividly remember when God gave me an understanding about this over thirty years ago as a four-step process of breaking the curse of sin from creation. It was a eureka moment for me who did not have any Bible College education at that time. Step one is the salvation of our souls (2 Cor. 5:17). When we become a new creation in Christ, we are brought out of the curse of sin and law (Romans 5:12-21). Step two will be the resurrection of our bodies at the second coming of Jesus (1 Cor. 15: 42-45). The Bible teaches clearly that death entered the human race as a result of the sin of the original parents (Romans 5:12). So our natural bodies will die one day. But when are resurrected by the power of the Holy Spirit, the bondage of sin will be broken once and for all. Step three will be the restoration of the rest of the creation as we go into the millennial kingdom of Christ (Romans 8:19-21). “The earnest expectation of the creation eagerly waits for the revealing of the sons of God” is a reference to the resurrection of the saints. During the thousand-year reign of Christ, the creation will go back to its original state. We read in Isaiah 11:6-9 that

            “The wolf also shall dwell with the lamb,

The leopard shall lie down with the young goat,

The calf and the young lion and the fatling together;

And a little child shall lead them.

7 The cow and the bear shall graze;

Their young ones shall lie down together;

And the lion shall eat straw like the ox.

8 The nursing child shall play by the cobra’s hole,

And the weaned child shall put his hand in the viper’s den.

9 They shall not hurt nor destroy in all My holy mountain,

For the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord

As the waters cover the sea.” (NKJV)

The fourth and final step of this restoration will be the cleansing of the face of the blood-stained earth (2 Peter 3:10). Peter tells us that “the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night, in which the heavens will pass away with a great noise, and the elements will melt with fervent heat; both the earth and the works that are in it will be burned up.” Since the time of Abel, innocent blood has been shed on the face of this earth billions of times. The earth is crying out with the burden of it. God will cleanse the face of this earth with an intense fire and heat and burn away all the curses of bloodstains that have polluted the face of the earth and will usher in the new earth and new heaven.

Just prior to that will be the final White Throne judgment given to us in Revelation 20.

But not everyone thinks along this line. Origen (184-253 CE), who is called the “greatest genius the early church ever produced,” is someone who thought differently. He looked at Romans 3:21 and 1Timothy 2:4 and said ALL means ALL, irrespective of whether they are Christian or not. He was the first one to look at Acts 3:21 in a different way and caused the apokatastasis controversy.

Origen was outside the orthodoxy on many things, to begin with. For example, he believed, like Plato, that God created all the souls first before the creation of human beings and that one soul from this collection enters into each person. Some say this view actually played into his conclusions about apokatastasis.  For him, hell was just a purifying place where you suffered according to the number of sins in your human life. Once you pay for your sins, you will be allowed to enter heaven. As an extrapolation, all human beings will be eventually out of hell.

But Origen used the term “all intelligent beings in creation” will be eventually saved. There are two intelligent creations – one is man, and the other is angels.  The angels that will end up in hell are the demons and Satan (Rev. 20). Does that mean eventually even Satan will be saved? Origen vehemently denied that he ever taught it. But it was a natural extension of his arguments.  Later Gregory of Nyssa (335-395CE) continued this teaching and it became part of the orthodox theology, though not all of them endorse it. Clement of Alexandria and St. Jerome are others who believed in it. It has continued to our day in some circles. An article in Catholic Encyclopedia states that  the doctrine of apokatastasis viewed as a belief in universal salvation is found among the Anabaptists, the Moravian Brethren, the Christadelphians, among rationalistic Protestants, and finally among the professed Universalists.¹

            This doctrine was formally condemned in the Council of Constantinople in 543 and anathema was pronounced on Origen posthumously. Since then the doctrine is considered heterodox by the church.

            But it did not make it disappear. As pluralism became a reality of life since the 1900s, and increasingly ever since, what will happen to the non-Christian is a question theologians struggle with. Close proximity with people of other religions has shown to us that they are not ‘pagan’ or ‘heathen’ but civilized and cultured people who often try to live a very moral life within the light they possess. Can God overlook such people? What about the people who never heard about Jesus but lived a moral life? These questions played a key role in the ecumenical efforts of mainline denominations. It has landed Christians in three distinctive camps- pluralism, inclusivism, and particularism. (I am leaving the details of it for another blog).  Suffice to say here that pluralists and generally also universalists, people who believe that all human beings will be eventually saved.

            Let us see what the Bible says. John 3:36 says that only those who believe in the Son have eternal life, others have the wrath of God upon them.  Hebrews 9:27 tells us that once we die, despite the conscious existence of our souls, there is no ongoing ‘wooing by Christ’ to receive him and that all are appointed to face judgment.  Jesus taught clearly in Luke 16:19-31 through the story of Lazarus and the rich man that, no one can cross over into heaven from hell or vice versa.

            It is now, while we are in the land of the living, the time to seek forgiveness for our sins through Jesus. Though God has plans to reconcile all things unto Himself through his Son, it is not what Origen and others have taught. Apokatastasis is a heresy.

¹Batiffol, P. (1907). Apocatastasis. In The Catholic Encyclopedia. New York: Robert Appleton Company. Retrieved October 25, 2021 from New Advent: http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/01599a.htm