Help with Acts 3:20-21

The verses refer to a restoration of Creation that will come at the Second Coming of Christ.

The teaching of a restoration (apokatastasis) of creation at the Second Coming of Christ is found in Acts 3: 19– 21: Repent ye, therefore, and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out, when the times of refreshing shall come fom the presence of the Lord; and He shall send Jesus Christ, Who was before preached unto you: Whom the heaven must receive until the times of restitution [apokatastaseos] of all things.... Here apokatastasis is to be understood as the change, renewal and transfiguration of man and the cosmos at the time of the General Resurrection ... It is not to be understood as “universal salvation,” that is, the heretical Origenist notion that all human beings and even all the demons will ultimately enter into everlasting blessedness. The Orthodox [Christian] understanding of apokatastasis is presented in the Ambigua of St. Maximus the Confessor, which contain both a refutation and a correction of Origenism.

Pomazansky, Fr. Michael (2014-11-24). Orthodox Dogmatic Theology (Kindle Locations 6573-6581). St. Herman Press. Kindle Edition.

abacabb3 said:

I have looked at commentaries and thought about it over two days, and I honestly do nto understand what is being communicated and its chronology. Help!

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There are different position in commentaries on this .... most do not believe this refers to the 2nd coming.. but rather to repent now to avoid judgement

It seems there is no full agreement on its clear meaning ... I have read it personally as Jesus has already restored all things when He became a propitiation for our sins

rnmomof7 said:

There are different position in commentaries on this .... most do not believe this refers to the 2nd coming.. but rather to repent now to avoid judgement

It seems there is no full agreement on its clear meaning ... I have read it personally as Jesus has already restored all things when He became a propitiation for our sins

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The text clearly refers to a future event (And He shall send Jesus Christ ...), does it not?

Dialogist said:

The text clearly refers to a future event (And He shall send Jesus Christ ...), does it not?

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From a Partial Preterist point of view, it could be referring to the events around 70AD, but I (as well as most of my commentaries) believe it to be referring to Christ's final coming.

Dialogist said:

The verses refer to a restoration of Creation that will come at the Second Coming of Christ.

The teaching of a restoration (apokatastasis) of creation at the Second Coming of Christ is found in Acts 3: 19– 21: Repent ye, therefore, and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out, when the times of refreshing shall come fom the presence of the Lord; and He shall send Jesus Christ, Who was before preached unto you: Whom the heaven must receive until the times of restitution [apokatastaseos] of all things.... Here apokatastasis is to be understood as the change, renewal and transfiguration of man and the cosmos at the time of the General Resurrection ... It is not to be understood as “universal salvation,” that is, the heretical Origenist notion that all human beings and even all the demons will ultimately enter into everlasting blessedness. The Orthodox [Christian] understanding of apokatastasis is presented in the Ambigua of St. Maximus the Confessor, which contain both a refutation and a correction of Origenism.

Pomazansky, Fr. Michael (2014-11-24). Orthodox Dogmatic Theology (Kindle Locations 6573-6581). St. Herman Press. Kindle Edition.

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Agreed.

aba, if you can get your hands on Bavinck's 4th volume he'll lay it out for you.

see also:

Zechariah 13

1 In that day there shall be a fountain opened to the house of David and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem for sin and for uncleanness.
2 And it shall come to pass in that day, saith the Lord of hosts, that I will cut off the names of the idols out of the land, and they shall no more be remembered: and also I will cause the prophets and the unclean spirit to pass out of the land.
3 And it shall come to pass, that when any shall yet prophesy, then his father and his mother that begat him shall say unto him, Thou shalt not live; for thou speakest lies in the name of the Lord: and his father and his mother that begat him shall thrust him through when he prophesieth.
4 And it shall come to pass in that day, that the prophets shall be ashamed every one of his vision, when he hath prophesied; neither shall they wear a rough garment to deceive:
5 But he shall say, I am no prophet, I am an husbandman; for man taught me to keep cattle from my youth.
6 And one shall say unto him, What are these wounds in thine hands? Then he shall answer, Those with which I was wounded in the house of my friends.
7 Awake, O sword, against my shepherd, and against the man that is my fellow, saith the Lord of hosts: smite the shepherd, and the sheep shall be scattered: and I will turn mine hand upon the little ones.
8 And it shall come to pass, that in all the land, saith the Lord, two parts therein shall be cut off and die; but the third shall be left therein.
9 And I will bring the third part through the fire, and will refine them as silver is refined, and will try them as gold is tried: they shall call on my name, and I will hear them: I will say, It is my people: and they shall say, The Lord is my God.

abacabb3 said:

"He shall send Jesus Christ, Who was before preached unto you: Whom the heaven must receive until the times of restitution"

What the part about heaven must receive mean?

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It's referring to Jesus' ascension into Heaven.