The Restitution Of All Things

grafted branch said:

Hi FineLinen,

I will admit upfront that I am a novice when it comes to Greek and Hebrew, so go easy on me. I have a question about the restitution of all things. If all things are restored at some point in the future, would this include Satan?

In Ezekiel 28:13-15 it appears that the verses are speaking of Satan, although in Ezekiel 28:2 it is addressed to Tyrus. Specifically in verse 15 it states thou wast perfect in thy ways from the day that thou wast created, till iniquity was found in thee. So if Satan is restored to his former perfect state then would he still have the potential to sin again? And would something similar to what happens to Adam and Eve be repeated, like an endless cycle? In Ephesians 3:21 it does say “world without end”.

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Dear Grafted: My friend we are all novices in Greek and Hebrew, but worse still (by far) in the ways of our God and His ultimate purpose as the Beginning & the End.

The scope of Reconciliation encompasses the heavens, the earth and the underworld. The bowing and confession of all individuals in these three realms is NOT by perfunctory genuflections but IN/EN the Name of the Lord Jesus Christ.

There are precisely two references in koine using the word "'eternal" which is aidios. The one reference is to the eternal/aidios God, the other in reference to the aidios chains of the Aidios God binding Satan. Will those chains ever be loosed?

I know not! If they are, our Father will do the loosing, and encompassing His mighty Plan ln the Lord Jesus Christ.

That IN/EN the Name of Jesus every knee shall bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth...

Salvation

Salvation is not getting into a good place, but into a good state. It is not being where you cannot sin, but it is being so you will not sin. Lock a man up in jail and he cannot steal, for there is nothing there to steal. He is where he cannot sin the sin of stealing. God does not propose to save us from sin by locking us up in heaven.

Make a man thoroughly honest and he will not steal, no matter how much there may be to steal. He is saved from the disposition to steal. Salvation, therefore, is such a state of moral perfection as delivers us from all wish or desire to sin. God proposes to save us by so educating our minds and hearts that we will not choose to sin. To the degree, therefore, that we obtain this moral education we are saved, and we are saved to no greater degree. No matter where we are, in this world or some other, we are saved only so far as we are able to reject the wrong and choose the right. It is of vast importance, therefore, that we seek this moral education now; that we seek salvation from sin now. The more of this salvation we get now the better – the better for us here and hereafter. Seek salvation – seek moral education, therefore, now, for in it is the promise of the life that now is and of that which is to come.

You must be saved. God wills to save you. Why do you not obey his will and seek salvation now? Sometime you must believe in and confess Christ. Why do you not believe in and confess him now? Sometime you must repent of your sins. Why do you not repent of your sins now? Sometime you must learn the truth of God. Why do you not learn that truth now? Sometime you must obey God’s truth. Why do you not try to obey that truth now? Sometime you must experience the purifying and saving influence of Divine grace. Why do you not try to experience that influence now? Can you tell? -S. Crane-

Baptist Testimony=

It has sometimes been claimed that the doctrine of probation, or repentance after death, has a tendency to cut the nerve of religious efforts. Not so, however, thinks Rev. Mr. Williams, editor of the St. Louis Central Baptist . He says: –

“Could it be known that there is probation after death, the knowledge would not make less urgent the business of saving souls.”

So we say. What people need to be taught, is, that sin is an evil and a bitter thing. That the longer it is persisted in, the longer we make ourselves miserable. and that the sooner we repent and turn to God, the better.

The many constituted sinners= the many constituted righteous

"This, in a nutshell, is that will: that everything handed over to me by the Father be completed - not a single detail missed - and at the wrap-up of time I have everything and everyone put together, upright and whole."



"Every person the Father gives me eventually comes running to me. And once that person is with me, I hold on and don’t let go."

Pantelism.com

Done222 said:

Where does Jesus fit into this redemption?

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"Grace which He, the possessor of all wisdom and understanding, lavished upon us, when He 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...."

Ephesians 1 Commentary - Vincent's Word Studies

Andrew Jukes: The 2nd Death & The Restitution Of All Things

The Restitution of All Things, Andrew Jukes

Thomas Allin: Christ Triumphant

Christ Triumphant by Thomas Allin

FathersLoveLetter.com

Early Church Fathers

Irenaeus: (130 to about 200 A.D.) “Bishop of Lyons.” His nearness to the apostles makes his testimony most interesting. Irenaeus did not believe evil would last forever. In his treatise Against Heretics, he wrote in Book III, chap. 23, §6:”(1) Wherefore also He drove him (Adam) out of Paradise, and removed him far from the tree of life, not because He envied him the tree of life, as some dare to assert, but because He pitied him and desired that he should not continue always a sinner, and that the sin which surrounded him should not be immortal, and the evil interminable and irremediable.—Irenaeus.

Theophilus, (160-181 A.D.) “Bishop of Antioch.” (3) And God showed great kindness to man in this, that He did not suffer him to continue being in sin forever; but, as it were by a kind of banishment, cast him out of Paradise, in order that, having by punishment expiated within an appointed time the sin, and having been disciplined, he should afterward be recalled.—Theophilus. To Autolycus, Book 2, chap. 26.

Clement of Alexandria, (190 A.D.) “Head of the catechetical school there. He speaks of having learned from a disciple of the Apostles.—Strom. lib. ii. His wide and various learning, and his sympathetic spirit combine to give special weight to his teaching.” (5) All men are Christ’s, some by knowing Him, the rest not yet. He is the Savior, not of some (only) and of the rest not (i.e., He is actually Savior of all) for how is He Lord and Savior if He is not Lord and Savior of all? But He is indeed Savior of those who believe…while of those who do not believe He is Lord, until having become able to confess Him, they obtain through Him the benefit appropriate and suitable (to their case). He by the Father’s will directs the salvation of all for all things have been ordered, both universally and in part, by the Lord of the universe; with a view to the salvation of the universe…But needful correction, by the goodness of the great overseeing Judge, through (by means of) the attendant angels, through various prior judgments, through the final (pantelous) judgment, compels even those who have become still more callous to repent.—Clement. Strom. lib. vii. pp. 702-6, Cologne, 1688.

Origen, (185-254 A.D.) “Pupil and successor of Clement of Alexandria, founded a school at Caesarea…the greatest theologian and exegete of the Eastern Church.” (7) But he that despises the purification of the word of God and the doctrine of the Gospel only keeps himself for dreadful and penal purifications afterward; that so the fire of hell may purge him in torments whom neither apostolical doctrine nor gospel preaching has cleansed, according to that which is written of being “purified by fire.” But how long this purification which is wrought out by penal fire shall endure, or for how many periods or ages it shall torment sinners, He only knows to whom all judgment is committed by the Father.—Origen. Commentary on Rom., Book 8, Chap. 11.

Eusebius of Caesarea, (265-340 A.D.) “Bishop of Caesarea in Palestine; friend of Constantine; the greatest of the early Church historians, wrote on Ps. 2:” (9) “The Son’s ‘breaking in pieces’ His enemies is for the sake of remolding them, as a potter his own work; as Jer. xviii. 6, says: i.e., to restore them once more to their former state.”–Eusebius. De eccles. theol. iii. 16.

Athanasius, (296-373 A.D.) “Called ‘the Great,’ ‘Father of Orthodoxy,’ ‘Pillar of Orthodoxy;’ Bishop of Alexandria and writer of many works; especially noted for defending the deity of our Lord.” (11) “While the devil thought to kill one he is deprived of all cast out of Hades, and sitting by the gates, sees all the fettered beings led forth by the courage of the Savior.”—Athanasius. De pass. et cruce Darn.

Gregory Nazianzen, (330-390 A.D.) “President of the second great Ecumenical Council, was considered the most learned bishop in one of the most learned ages of the Church.” (13) “Until He loosed by His blood all who groan under Tartarean chains.”—Carm. xxxv. (ed. Lyons, 1840.) “Today salvation has been brought to the universe to whatsoever is visible and whatsoever is invisible…(today) the gates of Hades are thrown open.”—Or. xlii. “Adam receives death as a gain, and (thereby) the cutting off of sin; that evil should not be immortal: and so the vengeance turns out a kindness, for thus I am of opinion it is that God punishes.”—Nazianzen. Orat. xli

Ambrose, (340-397 A.D.) “Bishop of Milan; converted Augustine by his preaching; the Father of Latin hymnology; reproduced many of the writings of the Greek Fathers.” (15) The mystery of the Incarnation is the salvation of the entire creation…as it is elsewhere said, “the whole creation shall be set free from the bondage of corruption”…So the Son of Man came to save that which was lost, i.e., all, for as in Adam all die, so, too, in Christ shall all be made alive. The subjection of Christ consists not in few, but in all (becoming obedient)…Christ will be subject to God in us by means of the obedience of all…(then) when vices having been cast away, and sin reduced to submission, one spirit of all people, in one sentiment, shall with one accord begin to cleave to God, then God will be All in All.—Ambrose. De fide lib. v. 7.

Didymus, (380 A.D.) “The last distinguished head of the school of Alexandria, Didymus, surpassed all of his day in knowledge of the Scriptures.” says S. Jerome. He argues, “divine correction (even vengeance), and promise, have the same object in view.”—Adv. Man. ch. xviii. (17) Also “God ‘destroys liars, so far as they are liars.’—In Ps. v. 6. [Christ] ‘descends to Hades and brings back the souls, there detained on account of their sins.’”—Didymus. In Ps. lxxi. 20. See, too, De Trin. lib. iii 21, &c.

Gregory of Nyssa, (332-398 A.D.) “A leading theologian of the Eastern Church and one of the most prominent figures in the second great Church Council which practically established the orthodoxy of the Nicene Creed.” (19) The Divine judgment does not as its chief object cause pain to those who have sinned, but works good alone by separating from evil, and drawing to a share in blessedness. But this severance of good from evil causes the pain (of the judgment). In other words, the penalty is the cure; it is merely the unavoidable pain attending the removal of the intruding element of sin.—Gregory. Dialogue of the Soul and Resurrection.

Jerome, (340-420 A.D.) “Devoted to Scripture study; revised the old Latin translations and translated the Old Testament from Hebrew into Latin of the New Testament. Allin stated he found nearly 100 passages in his works indicating Jerome sympathized with the ‘larger hope.’” (21) “When the Psalmist says, ‘Your enemies, O God, shall perish,’…every man who has been Your enemy shall hereafter be made Your friend; the man shall not perish, the enemy shall perish.”—Jerome. In Ps. xcii. 9.

Hillary, (354 A.D.) “Hillary, Bishop of Poictiers, is considered one of the champions of orthodoxy.” (23) “The whole human race, who are one, are the one lost sheep, which is destined to be found by the Good Shepherd.”—Hillary.

Titus, (364 A.D.) “Bishop of Bostra. Caillou, describes as ‘the most learned among the learned bishops of his age, and a most famous champion of the truth.’ S. Jerome reckons him as one of those, in whom you are at a loss whether to admire most, their learning or their knowledge of Holy Scripture.” (25) The very pit itself is a place of torments and of chastisement, but is not eternal. It was made that it might be a medicine and help to those who sin. Sacred are the stripes which are medicine to those who have sinned. “Therefore we do not complain of the pits (of hell)—abyssis—but rather know that they are places of torment, and chastisement, being for the correction (amendment of those who have sinned.”—Titus Adv. Man. lib. i. 32.

Diodorus, (378 A.D.) “Bishop of Tarsus…noted for untiring zeal in defense of the Nicene Faith.” (27) “For the wicked there are punishments not perpetual…according to the amount of malice in their works…The Resurrection, therefore, is regarded as a blessing not only to the good but also to the evil.”—Diodorus. ASSEM. Bibl. Or. iii. p. 324. (28) Theodore of Mopsuestia, (407 A.D.) “The crown and climax of the school of Antioch…called the ‘Master of the East’ from his theological eminence.” Dorner. ( Pers. of Christ, i. 50). (29) “Who is so great a fool as to think, that so great a blessing can be to those that arise, the occasion of endless torment?”—Frag. Ex. lib. cont. pecc. orig. “All have the hope of rising with Christ, so that the body having obtained immortality, thenceforward the proclivity to evil should be removed.” [God] “recapitulated all things in Christ…as though making a compendious renewal, and restoration of the whole creation, through Him…Now this will take place in a future age, when all mankind and all powers (virtues) possessed of reason, look up to Him, as is right, and obtain mutual concord and firm peace.”—Theodore. In Eph. i. 10

Cyril of Alexandria, (412 A.D.) “He (Cyril) describes Christ as having spoiled Hades, and ‘left the devil there solitary and deserted.’—Hom. Pasch. vii. And again, ‘Christ, wandering down even to Hades, has emptied the dark, hidden, unseen treasuries.’”—Glaphy in Gen. lib ii. (31) “For when death devoured Him who was the Lamb on behalf of all, it vomited forth all men in Him and with Him…Now when sin has been destroyed, how should it be but that death, too, should wholly perish?”—Cyril. In S. Jno. i. 29.

Maximus of Turin, (422 A.D.) “Christ carried off to heaven man whose cause He undertook, snatched from the jaws of Hades mankind.”—Maximus. In Pent. Horn. ii.

Theodoret, (423 A.D.) “Bishop of Cyrus…perhaps the most famous, and certainly the most learned teacher of his age; uniting to a noble intellect a character and accomplishments equally noble.” (34) “After His anger, God will bring to an end His judgment; for He will not be angry unto the end, nor keep His wrath to eternity.”—Theodoret. In Is. xiii. (35) “He shews here the reason for punishment, for the Lord, the lover of men, torments us only to cure us, that He may put a stop to the course of our iniquity.”—Theodoret. Hom in Ezech. cap. Vi. vers 6.

Peter Chrysologus, (433 A.D.) “Bishop of Ravenna.” (37) On the parable of the hundred sheep he said, “That the one lost sheep represents ‘the whole human race lost in Adam,’ and so the Good Shepherd ‘follows the one, seeks the one, in order that in the one He may find all, in the one He may restore all.’”—Chrysologus. Ser. clxviii.

The First 500 Years

Richard Wayne Garganta's TV Show - First Century Christianity

Saint Steven said:

Where did Christ go and what was he doing between the crucifixion and the resurrection?
Remember, he was laid in an above ground tomb.

Matthew 12:40
For as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of a huge fish, so the Son of Man will be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.

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Dear Steven: I have personally missed you.

It is a joy hearing from you again with a remarkable question for all of us indeed!

Where did Christ go and what was the outcome?

Saint Steven said:

Thanks for keeping the home fires burning while I was away.

As I understand it, Christ went and preached to those in the realm of the dead. Those imprisoned since the time of Noah (or earlier?). And he took "captivity captive" when he left.

So, indeed there is a mechanism for redeeming those in the afterlife. It has already happened. Why could it not happen again?

Please correct me if my explanation is poor, or further enlighten with additional commentary. Thanks.

I sure appreciate having you here on the forum with us. Keep up the good work.

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Dear Steven: My precious wife thinks I am spending far too much time keeping the fires burning. She is right (again).

These are remarkable days as darkness covers the earth and great (gross) darkness the people. It is a perfect environment for our unlimited God of Glory. >>>>BUT

The Lord shall arise upon you with His glory

The risen Christ preaches to the dead

“Christ also has once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh, but quickened by the Spirit: by which also he went and preached to the spirits in prison; which once were disobedient, when once the long suffering of God waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was in preparation, wherein few, that is, eight souls were saved by water… for this cause was the gospel preached also to them that are dead, that they might be judged according to men in the flesh, but live according to God in the spirit.”

Dead=

nekros= a corpse (from nekus)=

Breathed his last/ lifeless.

Deceased/ departed.

Destitute of life/ without life.

Inanimate.

Disobedient= apeitheo=

Not to allow one’s self to be persuaded.

To refuse or withhold belief & obedience.

To refuse belief and obedience.

Not to comply with.

Live= zao=

To be alive with resurrection life.

Live= zao

Dennis Rhodes said:

Matthew 12:40
For as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of a huge fish, so the Son of Man will be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.

and it interests me that when Jonah described his time in the big fish he said...

Jon 2:6 I went down to the moorings of the mountains; The earth with its bars closed behind me forever;(‛ôlâm ‛ôlâm) Yet You have brought up my life from the pit, O LORD, my God.

Jonah repented inside the belly of the earth/or big fish.....and also the time he was inside the belly of the earth or big fish, was forever--which we know was only 3 days!! The time he was in there was decided by how long it took him to repent. The whole story shows us that God restores all sinners to Himself...even after they go to the belly of the earth/fish (forever/unknown length of time determined by their response to God)

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Dear Dennis: Welcome to our little corner. There appears to be a spiritual invasion of saints of calibre from down under. Your post is much appreciated!