The Gospel of The Restoration of All Things. Tim Hodge

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СКАЧАТЬ of marrow, of well refined wines on the lees. And he will destroy on this mountain the surface of the covering cast over all people. And the veil that is spread over all nations. He will swallow up death forever and the Lord God will wipe away tears from all faces.’

      (Isaiah 25 v 6-8)

      So Isaiah believed that one day God will make a feast for all people, will destroy the covering over all people, will swallow up death forever and wipe away tears from all faces.

      This passage is a problem for those people who believe that death is ‘eternal death’ when God says he will swallow up death forever. Those who believe in ‘eternal torment’ need to explain how torment is eternal when God is going to wipe away tears from all faces.

      It is important at this point to understand that all of these Old Testament Prophets gave a mixture of messages between describing God’s character, the judgement of God against the people of their day, God’s plan for the earth but also God’s overall plan for the salvation of all mankind. Many people use passages and verses that talk about people being judged as a reason to thwart the message of God’s plan of universal salvation, but these verses deal with things that occur prior to the restoration of all things, which is a common theme throughout scripture.

      Isaiah goes on:

       ‘The glory of the Lord shall be revealed and all flesh shall see it together. For the mouth of the Lord has spoken.’

      (Isaiah 40 v 5)

      ‘Look to me and be saved all you ends of the earth for I am God and there is no other, I have sworn by myself. The word has gone out of my mouth in righteousness and shall not return that to me every knee shall bow, every tongue shall take an oath they shall say ‘surely in the Lord I have righteousness and strength.’’

      (Isaiah 45 v 22-24 )

      Notice again that every knee will bow and every tongue shall swear an oath, that these are ‘in the Lord’ means they are saved, and again this applies to ‘all the ends of the earth’ meaning all people throughout all history.

       ‘The Lord has made bare His holy arm in the eyes of all the nations, and all the ends of the earth shall see the salvation of God’

      (Isaiah 52 v 10)

       ‘I know their works and their thoughts. It shall be that I will gather all nations and tongues and they shall come to see my glory.’

      (Isaiah 66 v 18)

       ‘All flesh shall come to worship before me says the Lord.’

      (Isaiah 66 v 23b)

      The prophet Jeremiah also knew that the day would come when all people would ‘know the Lord’ when he wrote:

       ‘No more shall everyman teach his neighbour and everyman his brother saying ‘know the Lord’ for they shall all know me from the least of them to the greatest of them says the Lord for I will forgive their iniquity and their sin I will remember no more.’

      (Jer 31 v 34)

      It is generally believed that Jeremiah wrote the book of lamentations as he watched and lamented over the destruction of Jerusalem at the beginning of the children of Israel’s captivity in Babylon, yet he realised that the judgements of God are not permanent and that the day would come when they would return and be restored, for he wrote:

       ‘For the Lord will not cast off forever though he causes grief yet he will show compassion according to the multitude of his mercies for he does not afflict willingly nor grieve the children of men.’

      (Lam 3 v 31-33)

      Evangelical Christians teach that the Lord will cast people off forever and will not show them compassion. Jeremiah thought differently because he knew the ‘Gospel of restoration of all things.’

      Daniel knew this principle too when he prophesied:

       ‘I was watching in the night visions and behold one like the son of man coming with the clouds of heaven, he came to the ancient of days and they brought him near before him, then to him was given dominion and glory and a kingdom that all people, nations and languages should serve him’.

      (Dan 7 v 13-14)

      Daniel knew that one day all people would serve God.

      The Prophet Joel knew the day was coming when the Messiah would return to earth, raise the dead and pour out the Holy Spirit on all flesh when he wrote:

       ‘And it shall come to pass afterwards that I will pour out my spirit on all flesh your sons and daughters shall prophesy, your old men shall dream dreams, your young men shall see visions and also on my menservants and on my maid servants I will pour out my spirit in those days.’

      (Joel 2 v 28-29)

      Again, ‘all flesh’ means all people.

      Like many of the Old Testament prophets, the prophet Zephaniah speaks of God’s judgement of all nations and the ultimate restoration of all people when he writes:

       ‘Therefore wait for me says the Lord until the day I rise up for plunder, my determination is to gather the nations to my assembly of kingdoms to pour on them my indignation, all my fierce anger, all the earth shall be devoured with the fire of my jealousy, for then I will restore to the people a pure language that they all may call on the name of the Lord to serve him with one accord.’

      (Zeph 3 v 8-9)

      Again, we have the judgement of God preceding the ultimate restoration of all things.

      We can see from all these scriptures that the Gospel of the restoration of all things was proclaimed by all God’s holy prophets since the world began. The problem came when the Jewish people limited salvation to only the Jewish people and forgot that God had promised that all families, nations and people of the earth would be blessed in the seed of Abraham who is Jesus Christ.

      The Church has done exactly the same thing, teaching that only Christians will be saved instead of everyone for whom Christ died, which is the whole world!

      We now come onto the New Testament, John the Baptist, Jesus himself and the Apostles, to see that they also taught and believed that ultimately all will be saved and restored back to perfect union with God.

      Firstly, in John chapter 1, Jesus is described as:

       ‘The true light that lights every man that comes into the world’

      (John 1 v 9)

      In other words, Jesus will light every man with the light of the gospel and the light of regeneration. Every man will be born again and will receive of his light.

      In Matthew chapter 1, an angel of the Lord appears to Joseph in a dream, saying:

       ‘Joseph son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary as your wife for that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Spirit. And she will bring forth a son and shall call his name Jesus for he will save his people from their СКАЧАТЬ