My Introduction to "Apokatastasis"

I was first introduced to “apokatastasis” (restoration of all things) in the early 1980s.

I was serving as a missionary for the Christian Reformed Church in Nigeria, and somehow – I have no idea how – I got a book entitled Unconditional Good News: Toward an Understanding of Biblical Universalism by the Rev. Neal Punt, who was a pastor in the Christian Reformed Church.

It was the first whiff I got of the idea that perhaps the doctrinal system I had grown up with and had been sent out to spread into the world may be open to some serious questioning. And by “serious” I mean that the one doing the questioning takes God, Jesus and the Bible seriously.

The question is: who is “saved”? (The question of “salvation”, what it means and to whom it may apply, is a whole topic, which will be covered in these posts, but probably not for a while.) Of course, we knew and believed that not everybody was “saved”, the main questions were “how many are saved?” and “what does one have to do/believe to be saved?

Punt frames the question this way:

“Since there has been and still is widespread agreement that not all are saved, a certain protectionist attitude can be found in every evangelical theological tradition, which never permits the Bible to make the simple declaration "All people are saved." Whenever the Bible does speak of the blessing of eternal salvation in terms of "all," "all men," or "the world," believers have felt compelled to dig deeply for a way to interpret these passages restrictively. Is this the only way out of the problem for those who wish to avoid absolute universalism*? Does the fact that not all are saved mean that one must approach these passages with the prior understanding that all are lost and look only for "the exceptions" in the Scripture? Is there any sense in which these texts can be accepted as saying that all are saved?” (pg 3)

He goes on to articulate two statements that could reflect the teaching of the Bible:

“The apparent difficulty, I believe, stems from an assumption common to all mainstream historic theological traditions. This assumption is so basic, so generally held, and so venerable in Christian thought that it seems almost insolent to question. One can glimpse this elusive presupposition by asking which of the following two statements reflects the Bible's teaching: (1) All persons are outside of Christ except those who the Bible declares will be saved; (2) all persons are elect in Christ except those who the Bible declares will be lost.” (pg 4)

This articulation of these assumptions set me on a path of wondering and exploring. Was it possible to understand the Bible in another way and still remain faithful to it and the Jesus of whom it tells?

Some forty years later I am still wondering and searching. I have learned much, and have much to learn. I believe there is even more I will never know.

What I do know is that I want to remain faithful to the character of the God who sent Jesus into the world to “reconcile to himself all things” (Col. 1:19).

*I use the phrase “restoration of all things” instead of “universalism”.