The Evangelical Universalist Forum

The Restitution Of All Things

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#21

Eternity and Time

There is in the Divine Nature the very fundamental characteristic of love-compelled self-emptying. It is not, of course, a depleting self-emptying, but a self-emptying of absolute fulness into another so that by that self-emptying, the Divine Nature wondrously reinvigorates Itself out of Its own depths with a fresh supply of Love/Grace/communion- provision.

In the procession of the Pure Relational Being, which is God, unfolding itself as Family-constituted Personhood, everything that the gender-complete, gender-uniting Deity is, is given by reproductive love to “the Son of His love.”

Our Father, God, gifts Himself—in gender-completeness—to His Son, who becomes, in His consequent gender-completeness (Bridegroom and Bride) His all-inclusive Gift to His brethren. To restate: God gives us the Gift of His Son by Gifting Himself to His Son.

This, however we perceive it, involves movement, procession, an unfolding, as it were, of Deity—the majesty of Eternal Being becoming more of all that it is. Translating Paul carefully from the Greek, we discover him describing the above as “growing the growth of God,” or “increasing the increase of God,” to quote Paul very literally. (See Footnote A Clearly there is no element of the static in the procession of Personhood out from Being. The Family of God—which is what I’ve been describing—is eternally adding to Itself.

What we call time, the aeons, or the space-time continuum, ought not to be thought of as contradistinctive to God’s eternality, but integral to the same. As eternity is God-immutable, so, all that is aeonian is, in its essence, the quality of Immutability becoming more of Itself out of Itself.

The aeons are the unfolding of the cosmos See Footnote B), and in the cosmos we have the unfolding of the Divine Nature placing Itself under stress for the purpose of the increase of the glory of His grace. There is a tendency to perceive time in contradistinction to eternity—and I, myself, have up to very recently tended to reinforce that perception. But I am re-examining that perception.

In intense dialogue—a truly fellowship-dialogue—with several brethren in Christ, we have reached remarkably edifying conclusions together. From that fellowship, I have come to ascribe to the aeons an intrinsic vulnerability to contrarianism without defining time itself as intrinsically contrarian.

It seems we must dare to say that within the dynamic of the unfolding of the fulness of the Godhead, God freely subjects His self-emptying fulness to the anomaly of deprivation within time, which is the dimension of God’s self-imposed vulnerability. This universal deprivation is gathered together, summed up in the suffering and death of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, our Lord.

That is, eternally flowing love, for the purpose of making increase of itself, self-restricts the flow, creating a pressure within the Divine Nature that provides an intensification of overwhelming givingness. A crude illustration might be that the power of water is intensified by restriction within a hose.

Given the force of the passion of God’s heart intensified by the inherent limitation/restriction within the dimension of time, the effect is that any barrier to its reception is overcome in the gushing forth of Divine love. The complex of this dynamic involves the deprivation/restriction of the human heart, shared by God in Christ, that calls forth from God an intensification of provision/flow.

Imagine a great need (deprivation) behind a barrier erected to reject the supply to that need. The need cries out to the supply (provision), and the only thing that can provide the necessary force to break through the barrier, is for the supply (provision) to subject itself to the same restriction of neediness which exists behind the barrier. This, as best God has allowed me to see, is the way God brings out the best of Himself from the depths of Himself. This is the way of glory shared. This is the Way of the cross.

Thus, It would seem, in the interaction of time within eternity, that eternity, after all, does have a future, the future of glory becoming more glorious out from Its own depths. The broadly accepted definition of eternity as timeless, may, after all, not be as accurate as we thought.

It certainly was an improvement over the idea that eternity is simply the infinite extension of ages laid end-to-end into the past and forward into the future, but we must be constantly re-examining our convictions lest we, while calling to our brethren to move on in God, are found stuck in place no longer reflective of all the light God is giving to His people.

But what about the element of a divine-human past. To express myself with a combination of prophetic spontaneity and worshipful reflection, I would say that in the cross of Christ we have eternity’s past. God with us and for us has, in the cross of Christ, put in, death, sorrow, weeping behind Him. Likewise, the resurrection of Christ opens to Deity— and to the humanness inherent in Deity— its future of hyper-intensified glory.

Footnote A:

In discussion with my friend, Ed Browne, a student of both Hebrew and Greek, seeking to determine if Paul, by his expression, “the increase of God,” really was indicating a profound truth that God does, in truth, increase Himself—of course, out from the depths of Himself—by the growth of Himself in our enChristed humanity, it became abundantly clear that that was the very thought the apostle was conveying.

I’m referring to the sublime observation in his epistle to the Colossians, chapter 2, verse 19, where he points out the full implications for God and man in the relationship of Christ to His corporate body. I quote the very pertinent portion of Ed’s translation, the “whom” of the following sentence being Christ as Head of His corporate body: “
out from within whom all the body (whole body) while being supplied and while being united by means of the attachments and bonds keeps growing/increasing the growth/increase of the Divine Nature.”

Here we are struck with the truth that it is not a matter—as most are inclined to interpret it—of simply an increase FROM God, but rather the very increase OF God in/by His increase in the enChristed body of humanity. But let’s not miss a profound nuance. While, of course, ultimately, God is the source of His own increase, Paul actually says that it is the body which grows the growth of God.

The same principle is found in the truth that we are the garden of God, God’s husbandry, God’s planting, again as, per Paul—“Ye are God’s husbandry, ye are God’s building.” God plants himself in His garden and His garden grows the growth of Him.

Very interestingly, when I mentioned this pertinent analogy of Paul’s, Ed decided to take a close look at the Greek word translated as “husbandry” in the KJV, (other versions offer “tillage,” “farm” and the like) and found that it included, not just the plot of ground to be planted, but the plot and the planting. That is, the whole idea of us being God’s farming or agriculture.

In the Greek, the expression “the increase of God,” simply and really means God’s increase, that is, it is a quality of the Divine Nature to increase itself out from Itself, and God committs the increase of His increase to the body of Christ. As, for instance, the grace of God is God’s grace, and God’s grace is integral to His nature, not something that He gives that is not intrinsic to what He is.

The Divine Nature is reproductively expansive, and we are that expansion. We expand by the provision of His expansion, and He expands by the expansion He provides to us, the expansion He gives by giving of Himself. As it were, God says to us, "Here, I give you the fulness of Myself in my Son, now by my Spirit, expand my self-expansion by your expansion.

It is akin to the truth that it is, of course, by God that we become His children, but it is also true, thus, that God becomes a Father by us. Amazing consideration is it not? We owe our being to God who birthed us, yet, it is by us that God became a Father. God realizes His Fatherhood in our existence. Out of our becoming His children, God becomes our Father. I fathered three daughters, and my daughters made me a father.

Let the reader know where I am coming from in all this. I in no way am suggesting that it is not all of God. It is all God; absolutely all the production is of God, but in the participation He has granted to us in the Divine Nature, it can be said—and Paul dares to say it—that we increase the increase of God. The language seems clumsy. Why does he not simply say, “The Body increases God,” instead of the body increasing the increase of God?
That’s because we cannot define God to the exclusion of His intrinsic expansiveness. To be a body that increases God, is to include increasing that inherent quality of the Divine Nature. Otherwise, the increase would be of us, not God. But since it is His nature to be increasing, what we increase is His increase. Only that which has within its nature the quality of increase can have that increase increased. Only that which has within its nature the quality of growth can have that growth grown.

Footnote B:

This definition of the biblical meaning of the aeons was what Ed Browne settled on after much consideration of the essential meaning of the Greek word, “aion,” and its adjective form, “aionios,” a consideration involving dialogue between him, fellow Greek student, Jonathan Mitchell, and myself, along with very valued input from other brethren from time to time. Brother Gary Amirault, also, has pressed the issue of the need of a more refined definition of “aion” and “aionios.”

-John Gavazzoni-

#22

I am Robert Beecham. My wife Daphne and I live in Cheltenham in England.
I was born in 1942 and soon after baptised (by force without my consent!) into the Church of England. I was educated at Winchester College where I specialised in Latin, Greek and Maths and then at Cambridge University where I read engineering. (Later I taught myself Hebrew.) I experienced a new birth when I was 18, and, a few years, later an infilling of the Holy Spirit. I have no official theological qualifications and do not now belong to any sect or denomination!

In 1968 I went to Nepal as a missionary and met and married Daphne. We returned to England with 2 children in 1973.

God then began to open the Scriptures to me in new ways sometimes directly and sometimes through other people. The 50 or so writings on my website are the result.

Nearly all of the writings contain new thoughts and some are controversial. If you belong to a denomination to which God has given a monopoly of the truth, or if you already know all you need about God, I suggest you click the small x at the top right of your screen. If you choose to read my articles, I recommend the advice of Paul: “Test all things. Hold on to what is good” (1 Thess 5:21). Test things by Scripture; test also by reason; and above all test by the witness of the Holy Spirit.

https://www.growthingod.org.uk/growt
od/the-author/

#23

Gerry Beauchemin & Gary Amarault

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3mzv0g9yXJY

http://www.salvationofall-av.org/indexEN/Beauchemin/Beauchemin.htm

#24

Eternal Death----WHAT!!!

What a concept; Eternal death; Wow! Death that just keeps going on and on and on without end. Infinite death. Now THAT’S crediting death with a lot of power, especially considering that scripture credits Jesus with destroying him who has the power of death, and that death, the last enemy shall be destroyed. I think it was while reading a study Bible with notes by Dr. Charles Ryrie—a very respected scholar at least within the Dispensationalist wing of western Evangelicalism—when I first ran across the notion that, while all men, without Christ, are dead in trespasses and sins, that state of death becomes eternal when they die without receiving Christ as Lord and Savior. This was given as the meaning of the second death in Revelation.

Think about that: Imagine that scenario.

Death existing along with life for all eternity. Though Paul saw the Day when God will become all in all, it seems – according to the above theory – that there’s going to be another all where not only will God not be all, but His arch enemy, death, will have its own kingdom where it will reign forever. They’re not talking about death as annihilation, they’re talking about an eternal state of anti-life existence without love, without grace, without mercy, abandoned by God to eternal darkness.

Stand this nonsense up against Jesus’ claim that He is making ALL THINGS NEW.

The re-making of all things new is by His resurrection life. THAT life, not death, goes on and on and on eternally. It’s life that goes on and on, not death. To understand the operation of death, as opposed to life, our focus must be upon Jesus’ experience of death, whose death is inclusive of all death. Yes, that’s what the Bible clearly teaches. Christ died for all, the just for the unjust that He might bring us to God. Possibly the most important verse in the Bible for explaining how Christ’s death relates to all mankind’s death, is found in 2Cor. 5:14. Nearly every translation that I’m familiar with renders this verse with greater clarity than the KJV.

This is Paul’s explanation from the Amplified Version of how Christ’s death relates to all mankind’s death:

“For the love of Christ controls and urges and impels us, because we are of the opinion and conviction that [if] One died for all, then all died.” That’s what it means that Christ died for us all. We needed to die, finally, once for all; no more dying, so the death of all the generations past, present and future met its destiny in Christ, and death finally, fully died. You see, life is lived, and death is died. “For in that He died, he died unto sin once; but in that He lives, He lives unto God (Rom. 6:10).” The destiny of death is not to go on and on eternally.

The destiny of death is to die, finally.

God’s warning to Adam and Eve, in the original Hebrew was, “
dying, thou shalt surely die.” Get that. Not dying, thou shalt continue to die without end; “dying, thou shalt surely DIE.” Death doesn’t terminate life. Life terminates death. “Death is swallowed up of life,” through Christ’s resurrection. The Source of death’s finality is the same as the Source of life’s continuance: Jesus Christ our Lord, crucified, buried and risen.

As I recall–not having it with me at the time of this writing—the NAS translation of Rom. 6:10, makes very clear how death and life work, and Jonathan Mitchell includes it as an alternate rendering. From the NAS: “For the death He died, He died to sin once; but the life He lives, He lives unto God.” Ah! There it is. 
“the death He died, He died
but life He lives, He lives
” Death is died; life is lived. Jesus gathered together all death into His death, and now lives, and " It’s not that He merely lived; HE LIVES, and we live in and with Him. As the lyrics go to that beautiful gospel hymn, Because He Lives: “Because He lives, I can face tomorrow; because He lives, all fear is gone. Because I know He holds the future, and life is worth the living just because He lives.”

As death came through one man, spreading to all men, so death has come to its end in One Man.

According to Paul in Colossians, all mankind shall be gathered together in Christ, for He sums up in Himself all humanity, as He is the fullness of the Godhead bodily. To extol the power of death, as does much of pseudo-orthodox Christianity, is an affront to the power of Christ’s resurrection. The effect is the same as saying to our Lord, “yes, You live forever, but death is your equal match. It has the same power as your life.”

-John Gavazzoni-

#25

George Macdonald’s Universalist Point of View

One unusual perspective on salvation comes from storyteller George Macdonald (well respected by C.S. Lewis), who asserts with some force that salvation will be universal. His viewpoint was formulated in reaction to the overwhelmingly Calvinist religious atmosphere of his day and age.

I am currently reading through his ‘Unspoken Sermons’, but a fair summary of Macdonald’s message can be found here:

George MacDonald and The Larger Hope, Part 1

George MacDonald and The Larger Hope, Part 2

I am not at the stage where I can agree or disagree with Macdonald’s Universalism. It is difficult to dismiss, however, given the amount of thought Macdonald had put into his interpretation.

However, the unexpected thing that George Macdonald’s perspective helped to justify was not this or the other view on the promise of salvation in the New Testament, but rather the appropriateness of God’s utter wrath on occasion in the Old Testament. (Something that many perspectives on God seem to de-emphasize, or otherwise have severe trouble with.) Or, rather, Macdonald presents a picture of the cause and purpose of God’s wrath, which to my mind brings the following passage from Ezekiel 16:

Now when I passed by thee, and looked upon thee, behold, thy time was the time of love; and I spread my skirt over thee, and covered thy nakedness: yea, I sware unto thee, and entered into a covenant with thee, saith the Lord God, and thou becamest mine.

Coming as it does in the midst of a multi-chapter litany against Israel’s iniquities, the imagery seems to suggest that God’s wrath against Israel is a function of God’s love, not something separate from it.

A very different sense from a doctrine of the elect, who are spared God’s wrath, and the damned, who receive it for their ultimate worthlessness!

#26

Thomas Talbott

The Inescapable Love of God

Chapter 3=

Chapter 5=

Chapter 11=

From Him ta panta, through Him ta panta, in Him ta panta

Ta panta= the all

Source, Guide, Goal of ta panta

#27

Alex. Thomson is a caliber individual in koine. I believe he had considerable input in the following quality translation>>>>>>

Concordant Literal N.T.

https://www.concordant.org/version/r
tament-online/

Alex. Thomson

https://alexanderthomson.blogspot.co
n-of-time.html

Ta panta

https://alexanderthomson.blogspot.co
-ta-panta.html

#28

“Some have asked what good does it do to believe that God will save all men. You might as well ask what good it does to believe that God will save some men
 Every evangelist believes that it is God’s will to save some men during this present time, or he would not be an evangelist. And if a man does not believe that God will save any men past this present age, what does he expect to be doing in the ages to come? To what end, then, is such a man’s “sonship” ministry? Why strive and labor to be a Son, to set creation free, if what God is accomplishing in redemption during this present age is all there is
If there is no out-working of redemption in the ages to come, no extension, nor expansion of the kingdom of God beyond the formation of the Body of Christ, they why not settle for the fundamentalist’s version of heaven and content ourselves with spending eternity shouting up and down the golden streets, waving palm branches and strumming harps?” -Preston Eby

J. Preston Eby

https://www.godfire.net/eby/saviour_of_the_world.html

#29

God In Creation>>>Redemption>>>Judgment>>>Consummation -A.E. Saxby-

http://www.theheraldofgodsgrace.org/Saxby/GodInCreationRedemptionJudgmentAndConsummation.htm

“For as by one man’s disobedience many were made sinners, so by the obedience of one shall many be made righteous.” -Romans 5.19-

" For even as, through the disobedience of the one man, the many were constituted sinners, thus also, through the obedience of the One, the many shall be constituted just."-Concordant Literal-

Even as=háč“sper,=

Exactly like, even like.

Disobedience= parakoᾗ, =

Hearing amiss. Disobedience

Many= polĂœs=

Many, much, large.

Were made= kathístēmi,=

To set, place, put.

To set down as, constitute, to declare, show to be

To constitute, to render, make, cause to be.

To conduct or bring to a certain place.

Sinners= hamartƍlós=

Devoted to sin, a sinner.

Not free from sin

Pre-eminently sinful, especially wicked

Righteous= dĂ­kaios=

Righteous, observing divine laws.

In a wide sense, upright, righteous, virtuous, keeping the commands of God

Innocent, faultless, guiltless.

Used of him whose way of thinking, feeling, and acting is wholly conformed to the will of God, and who therefore needs no rectification in the heart or life.

Rotherham Emphasized=

"For, if, by the fault of the one, death reigned through the one, much more, they who the superabundance of the favour and of [the free-gift of] the righteousness do receive, in life, shall reign through the one, Jesus Christ.

Hence then, as through one fault, [the sentence was] unto all men unto condemnation, so, also, through one recovery of righteousness, [the decree of favour] is unto all men for righteous acquittal unto life;

For, just as, through the disobedience of the one man, sinners, the many were constituted, so, also, through the obedience of the one, righteous, the many shall be constituted."

#30

Christ Triumphant

Preface

http://www.tentmaker.org/books/ChristTriumphant.htm#Preface

Chapter I – The Question Stated

http://www.tentmaker.org/books/ChristTriumphant.htm#Chapter1

Chapter II – The Popular Creed Wholly Untenable

http://www.tentmaker.org/books/ChristTriumphant.htm#Chapter2

Chapter III – The Popular Creed Wholly Untenable (continued)

http://www.tentmaker.org/books/ChristTriumphant.htm#Chapter3

Chapter IV – What the Church Teaches

http://www.tentmaker.org/books/ChristTriumphant.htm#Chapter4

Chapter V – What the Church Teaches (continued)

http://www.tentmaker.org/books/ChristTriumphant.htm#Chapter5

Chapter VI – Universalism and Creation

http://www.tentmaker.org/books/ChristTriumphant.htm#Chapter6

Chapter VII – What the Old Testament Teaches

http://www.tentmaker.org/books/ChristTriumphant.htm#Chapter7

Chapter VIII – What the New Testament Teaches

http://www.tentmaker.org/books/ChristTriumphant.htm#Chapter8

Chapter IX – What the New Testament Teaches (continued)

http://www.tentmaker.org/books/ChristTriumphant.htm#Chapter9

Chapter X – Summary and Conclusion

http://www.tentmaker.org/books/ChristTriumphant.htm#CHAPTERX

The Entire Book>>>>>

Christ Triumphant by Thomas Allin

#31

The Place Of Humanity In God’s Purpose -Part 3-

The lessons of the Potter

MOST OF YOU who read these words will at some time or other have been to an exhibition, for all kinds of shows are held in the main countries of the world every year. Generally they are designed to be instructive and to further the interests of those who are putting on the display. They are often made up of different stands, each presenting its own theme. In a travel exhibition, for example, one stand might portray the grandeur of the United States, another the historical attractions of Britain, another the various means of travel from place to place, another the advantages of being able to converse with peoples of foreign countries. On each stand will be placed the best examples that can be found to illustrate its particular theme, and everything will be done, through arrangement and lighting effects, to enhance its impact.

Now this idea of putting things on exhibition in order to demonstrate certain facts is by no means new and has indeed been used by God on many occasions. For instance, He has filled the heavens with stars in order to display His majesty and glory. “The heavens declare (or are rehearsing) the glory of God,” says the Psalmist (Psalm 19:1). This is a display that is going on all the time; it was true in David’s day, when the psalm was written. It was true back in Abraham’s time, for was not he told to gaze into the heavens and count the stars and see if it were possible to number them? It is still true today. It is a tremendous display of God’s greatness and wisdom and power, both in the creation and in the control of such a multitude of heavenly bodies, and it is rehearsed for us both by day and by night. “Day unto day uttereth speech, and night unto night showeth knowledge.”

And into whatever aspects of creation we look, whether into the infinitely great or the infinitesimally small, we find the majesty of God displayed.

Continued below>>>>>

The place of humanity in Gods purpose, by John H Essex

#32

“It is love alone in the holy Deity that will allow no peace to the wicked, nor ever cease its judgments till every sinner is forced to confess that it is good for him that he has been in trouble, and thankfully own that not the wrath but the love of God has plucked out that right eye, cut off that right band, which he ought to have done but would not do for himself and his own salvation.” -William Law-

“It is claimed that it takes the iron out of Christianity because it removes the threat. No longer can the sinner be dangled over the pit of hell. No longer can what Burn’s called the ‘hangmen’s whip’ of the fear of hell be threateningly cracked over the sinner. But the kind of universalism in which I believe has not simply obliterated hell and said that everything will be all right for everyone; it has stated grimly that, if you will have it so, you can go to Heaven via hell.” –William Barclay-

“A belief in God’s universal love to all his creatures, and that he will finally restore all those of them that are miserable to happiness, is a polar truth. It leads to truths upon all subjects, more especially upon the subject of government. It establishes the equality of mankind – it abolishes the punishment of death for any crime – and converts jails into houses of repentance and reformation.” – Benjamin Rush-

It were better to have no opinion of God at all than such an opinion as is unworthy of him; for the one is unbelief, the other is contumely; and certainly superstition is the reproach of the Deity. Plutarch saith well to that purpose, “Surely,” saith he, “I had rather a great deal men should say there was no such man at all as Plutarch, than that they should say that there was one Plutarch that would eat his children as soon as they were born;” as the poets speak of Saturn. And as the contumely is greater towards God, so the danger is greater towards men. –Sir Francis Bacon- (1561-1626)

“The whole of created life shall be delivered/set free
”

#33

Richard Murray had an explanation of God’s “wrath” that makes sense to me. He said that in Old Testament times, people regarded Satan as a servant of God who was under God’s authority. So when Satan acted in his evil way, the writers just said that God did it. However, by New Testament times, it was understood that Satan is an enemy of God, who acts in his own initiative in doing his dastardly deeds.
God doesn’t do such deeds or have a wrath that results in harming people. “In Him is no darkness at all.”
(1 John 1:5)

#34

It could also be suggested that it was not so much either-or, but both
 Satan did as he willed (Jn 8:44) but also had divinely appointed limits to where he could actually only ever go so far, but no further (Job 1:12; 2:6).

1 Like
#35

" Through the Son God made the whole universe, and to the Son he has ordained that all creation shall ultimately belong."

" He has made known to us the secret of His will. And this is in harmony with God’s merciful purpose for the government of the world when the times are ripe for it-- the purpose which He has cherished in His own mind of restoring the whole creation to find its one Head in Christ; yes, things in heaven and things on earth, to find their one head in Him. And you
"

Dr. Arthur Tappan Pierson -The Bible & Spiritual Life-

“This view (Restitution of All) is so clearly scriptural that the only surprise is that it has not been more definitely and widely held. It adds immeasurably, both to the glory of Christ as the coming King, and the Father as the former and framer of the ages. It is the period typified by the eighth day of the Mosaic Code: the perfect glory of Christ, reserved for ‘the morrow after.’ The millennial ‘Sabbath.’ And while the millenial period is limited to a thousand years, there are no definite limits to this final age of glory.”

-Dr. P. B. Fitzwater- (Professor of Systematic Theology- Moody Bible Institute) Christian Theology P. 407

“Then there is the Universalist who declares that the redemption provided by Christ avails for the salvation of all men. This means that what God has done for the salvation of sinful men accrues to the benefit of all men. This view of Universalism is quite widespread. Many leaders in the evangelical church hold to this view, even though they have not dared to declare it.”

From the Lutheran ELCA website


The Christian hope for salvation, whether for the believing few or the unbelieving many, is grounded in the person and meaning of Christ alone, not in the potential of the world’s religions to save, nor in the moral seriousness of humanists and people of good will, not even in the good works of pious Christians and church people. 
 There is a universalist thrust in the New Testament, particularly in Paul’s theology. How else can we read passages such as ‘for as all die in Adam, so all will be made alive in Christ’ (1 Cor 15:22)?" (See also Colossians 1:15-20, Ephesians 1:9-10, 1 Corinthians 15:28.) -Carl Braaten-

The universal scope of salvation in Christ

ELCA Lutherans will say with Braaten,

“Salvation in the New Testament is what God has done to death in the resurrection of Jesus. Salvation is what God has in store for you and me and the whole world in spite of death, solely on account of the living risen Christ. 
 The universal scope of salvation in Christ includes the destiny of our bodies together with the whole earth and the whole of creation. This cosmic hope is based on the promise of eternal life sealed by the resurrection of Jesus from the dead. Through raising Jesus from the dead, God put death to death, overcoming the deadliest enemy of life at loose in the world. This hope for the final salvation of humanity and the eternal universal restitution of all things in heaven and on earth 
 is drawn from the unlimited promise of the Gospel and the magnitude of God’s grace made known to the world through Christ.”

http://www.elca.org/questions/Results.asp?recid=21:

A Survey of Bible Doctrine" by Charles Ryrie, Professor of Systematic Theology: Dallas Theological Seminary.

In the section on future things, he dismisses the Restitution of all things which he refers to as “Classic Universalism” as unbiblical.

However

In his K.J.V. Ryrie Study Bible, which was published a few years after his doctrine book, he says a very interesting thing in his footnote on Colossians 1:20

Col 1:20 
 to reconcile all things unto himself. Christ is the remedy for alienation from God, and eventually all things will be changed and brought into a unity in Him, even though this will involve judgment.

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#36

The Man Who Met God In A bar -Part 1 of 2-

If there were an award given for “Most Terrible Parable,” my vote would go straight for the one about the coins. Known traditionally as “The Parable of the Talents,” the story almost single-handedly drove me out of the church and into a spiritual detox. You may know it: the tale of a nobleman who is leaving town for a while and so offers three of his servants an investment opportunity, as shifty salesmen do, giving each one a different amount of money “according to their ability.” Amy All-Star gets five talents (or coins), Count-On-It Carl gets two, and the lowlife, who maybe we just call Larry, gets one. If you’re already getting nervous, just wait.

Each of them is given the same objective: to take care of what’s been entrusted to them. Larry, who sounds a lot like me if I’m being honest, is afraid he’s just one more demotion from the curb, so he wraps it up in a napkin and buries it. He thinks he’s being smart by not losing the one thing he’s been given. You can hear his thought process, can’t you? Oh man, just imagine what the boss’d say—I’m already on the rocks with the guy—if I lost this one, too
It’s not worth the risk. I’ve got to keep this job.

Predictably, the boss returns, and Amy and Carl have doubled their funds, now sitting in higher cotton than they were before this cruel experiment. Lowlife Larry, on the other hand, only falls farther. As he tries to explain to the nobleman why he buried the coin, how afraid he was of losing it, his boss silences him and tells him to pack up his desk. “Cast the worthless servant into the outer darkness.” Jesus gives his listeners the following ominous warning: “For to everyone who has will more be given, and he will have an abundance. But from the one who has not, even what he has will be taken away.”

So, considering some of the nicer parables—about lost lambs found, about prodigal sons welcomed home, about the last being first—yeah, this one sticks out to me. Even if you seem more like All-Star Amy, and you view yourself as someone with quite a lot to be grateful for, you can’t not hear the conditionality lining this story.

Like a sore toe, this parable became impossible to ignore. It came to dictate the Jesus I believed in. And it wasn’t exactly the Sweet Jesus of Lambs and Orphans. It was the Very Serious Jesus of Judgment I had always been afraid was hiding behind the curtain. It’s not surprising that this picture of God—the expectant landlord, his threat of punishment, his focus on productivity—has provoked leagues of burnouts over the church’s tenure. Have you done enough? Invested wisely enough? Have you, too, chosen to sit on my opportunities for fear of losing them?

-Robt. F. Capon-

#37

To say that sin, assuming it to be opposed to God, has the power of creating a world antagonistic to God as everlasting as He is, attributes to it a power equal at least to His; since according to this view, souls whom God willed to be saved, and for whom Christ died, are held in bondage under the power of sin for ever; and all this in opposition to the Word of God, which says that God’s Son was “manifested that He might destroy the works of the devil
” -Andrew Jukes, The Restitution of all Things-

The 2nd Death & The Restitution Of All Things

The Restitution of All Things

#38

By these three prepositions Paul ascribes the universe (ta panta) with all the phenomena concerning creation, redemption, providence to God as the


Ex= The Source

Di= The Agent

Eiv= The Goal

The Koine, ta pavnte, is the strongest word for all in the Scriptures; it literally means the all.

Romans 11:36=

ta pavnte/ ta panta, “in the absolute sense of the whole of creation, the all things, the universe, and, everything in heaven and earth that is in need of uniting and redeeming.”

It is not in the limited sense of “nearly all”, “pavnte” minus "ta

The final preposition [eiv) reveals the ultimate goal of all that is. What has been provided in Christ is a re-turn, a re-storation, a re-newing, a re-demption, a re-concilation, a re-surrection, a re-stitution.

The prefix “re” means back again, again, anew–and all the words with this prefix speak of something that left its place and has now made its circuit and come back to the point of its beginning.

In the Christian story God descends to reascend. He comes down;
 down to the very roots and sea-bed of the Nature He has created. But He goes down to come up again and bring the whole ruined world up with Him. -C.S. Lewis

#39

Every created thing ( pan ktisma ). Every creature in a still wider antiphonal circle beyond the circle of angels (from ktizw , for which see 1 Timothy 4:4 ; James 1:18 ), from all the four great fields of life (in heaven, upon the earth, under the earth as in verse James 3 , with on the sea epi th qalassh added). No created thing is left out. This universal chorus of praise to Christ from all created life reminds one of the profound mystical passage in Romans 8:20-22 concerning the sympathetic agony of creation ( ktisi ) in hope of freedom from the bondage of corruption.

If the trail of the serpent is on all creation, it will be ultimately thrown off. Saying ( legonta ). Masculine (construction according to sense, personifying the created things) if genuine, though some MSS. have legonta (grammatical gender agreeing with panta ) present active participle of legw , to say. And to the Lamb ( kai twi arniwi ). Dative case. Praise and worship are rendered to the Lamb precisely as to God on the throne. Note separate articles here in the doxology as in Romans 4:11 and the addition of to krato (active power) in place of iscu (reserve of strength) in Romans 5:12 .

-F.W. Robertson N.T. Word Pictures-

#40

Dear choir boy: you still cannot sing in symphonic tones. Your voice must stand before the Tuning Fork of the Lord and be adjusted accordingly!

This is what the Lord Jesus Christ, the Saviour of all mankind declares>>>>

“And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto me.”

Will draw=ጕλÎșω /helkƍ

helkƍ=

To draw/ drag off.

To draw by inward power.

To lead.

To impel.

All=

The radical π៶ς/pas.

Jesus Christ draws every last broken creature to Himself