The Gospel of The Restoration of All Things - Tim Hodge

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law, but as Paul says in Galatians 3 v 17 that the law covenant cannot annul the universal promise made to Abraham, that one day ‘In Christ’ all the families, nations and people of the world would be blessed.

      For Moses says in Numbers:

       ‘The Lord said ‘I have pardoned them according to your word, but indeed as I live, all the earth will be filled with the Glory of the Lord.’

      (Num 14 v 20)

      ‘All the earth’ means everyone who has ever lived on earth will one day be filled with the glory of the Lord’.

      The prophet Samuel understood God’s universal gospel when he said:

       ‘God does not take away life, but plans ways so that the banished ones may not be cast out from him.’

      (2 Sam 14 v 14)

      God has a plan so that anyone who has been banished from him, either ‘on earth’ or ‘under the earth’, can be saved, and this plan is called ‘the Gospel of the Restoration of all Things’.

      But King David is probably the Old Testament’s biggest exponent of universal salvation and was a man after God’s own heart, for he said in Psalm 22:

       ‘All the ends of the earth shall remember and turn to the Lord, and all the families of the nations shall worship before you for the kingdom is the Lords and he rules over the nations. All the prosperous of the earth shall eat and worship. All those who go down to the dust shall bow before him, even he who cannot keep himself alive.’

      (Psalm 22 v 27-29)

      The phrase ‘all the ends of the earth’ means ‘all mankind’ (from both ends of history), again echoing the gospel spoken to Abraham. We have ‘all families’ and ‘all nations’ and this also applies to all those who have died ‘all those who go down to the dust’, will what? Will ‘remember and turn to the Lord’ and will ‘bow before him’!

      In Psalm 65 David makes this simple declaration:

      ‘Oh you who hear prayer to you all flesh will come.’

      (Psalm 65 v 2)

      ‘You who hear prayer’ is God himself, and ‘all flesh’ is all mankind. Many in the church today believe that when every knee bows to God and confesses ‘Jesus is Lord’, God is somehow forcing his enemies to submit to him and it will be too late to be saved, but David says this:

      ‘Through the greatness of your power your enemies shall submit themselves to you. All the earth shall worship you and sing praises to you. They shall sing praises to your name.’

      (Psalm 66 v 3-4)

      So rather than being forced to submit they shall submit themselves to God. Not only that, but ‘all the earth shall worship God’ means all people and all people will become believers, for when are unbelievers going to worship God or sing praises to his name?

      ‘All the ends of the earth shall fear him.’

      (Psalm 67 v 7)

      ‘All the ends of the earth shall see the salvation of God.’

      (Psalm 98 v 3)

      The phrase ‘all the ends of the earth’ means all mankind (again from both ends of history) and all will fear (or show reverence) to him and all will see the salvation that God has planned for everyone.

      In Psalm 145, David again declares that the day will come when all people will worship God.

      ‘The Lord is good to all and his tender mercies are over all his works, all your works shall praise you and all flesh shall bless his holy name forever and ever.’

      (Psalm 145)

      The Prophet Isaiah understood and proclaimed the Universalist Gospel when he said:

       ‘For the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the sea.’

      (Isaiah 11 v 9)

      It is difficult to see how ‘all flesh’ and ‘all God’s works’ shall praise him and bless his Holy name forever and ever if most of mankind are lost and writhing in agony in hell. Isaiah continues:

      ‘And in this mountain, the Lord of hosts will make for all people a feast of choice pieces, a feast of wines on the lees, of fat things full 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

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