Loading...
BiblicalTraining's mission is to lead disciples toward spiritual growth through deep biblical understanding and practice. We offer a comprehensive education covering all the basic fields of biblical and theological content at different academic levels.
Read More

Restorationism

The doctrine of universal salvation, or universalism, also known as “Apocatastasis.” It claims that all free moral creatures-men, angels, devils-will ultimately be saved. If there is a hell, it is purgative only. Some have held that it is taught in the NT (e.g., C.H. Dodd on Romans 11). The doctrine seems present in Clement of Alexandria* and clearly appears in Origen,* who hoped that the devil would be finally redeemed, though even Origen's universalism needs to be qualified by his insistence on the eternity of man's freedom. Gregory of Nyssa* supported restorationism, but it was attacked by Augustine* and formally condemned in the first anathema against Origenism* at the Council of Constantinople (543). It was held by John Scotus Erigena (ninth century), by mystics like Eckhart and Tauler, by Johannes Denck and some Anabaptists, and by several Moravians and Pietists. In modern times exponents include Friedrich Schleiermacher, Erskine of Linlathen, F.D. Maurice, Ethelbert Stauffer, and many others in all sections of Christendom.