In considering the Scripture intimations regard- ing the hope of a universal Restoration of humanity, it must be (clearly seen that whatever hopes may, more or less distinctly, emerge in the expressed thought of the Apostles, are all clearly based upon, and inspired by, an enlarging thought concerning the Person of .Jesus Christ, and the revelation given in Him and recorded in the Gospels.
The word ' restoration ' (d7ro/caTd<rra(rts, AV ' res- titution ') is found only once in the Gospels, and in its verbal form, in Mt 17", in connexion with a hope current in our Lord's time of a moral renova- tion of the nation under the leadership of Elijaii (cf. Mai 31 4^- "), and declared by our Lord to be fulfilled in the great spiritual movement initiated by John the Baptist (Mt H'"-'*). The noun is employed in Ac 3-^, where it would be extremely interesting if we could believe that St. Peter, in his anticipation of the xpofos dTro/caTao-rdo-fcos irdvTwv, had in his mind any thought of the uni- versal restoration of mankind, and its final up-
raising to the life of fellowship with God. His need of mental enlargement, given later by means of the vision (Ac W"^^), to enable him to believe in the possibility of Gentile salvation, is decisive against such an interpretation. We may well inquire, however, how far the expression, calculated to express so much, was due to the writer of the Acts, St. Luke, to whom such a pregnant phrase and such a large hope for humanity would natur- ally commend itself.
But the question remains. Does the larger idea of the restoration of humanity as a whole to obedience, and to the condition of blessedness for which it Avas created, receive a warrant from the Avords and thoughts of Scripture ?
1. In examining, first, our Lord's own teaching, which we take as fundamental in the consideration of the question, it must be clearly understood what we are to ask concerning it. We desire to know if we have any evidence from the words of Jesus re- ported in the Gospels, that He Himself held the faith of the final restoration of all men. Was it for Him included in the possibilities of the future? or have we any express declaration that in this life only is there a possibility of right moral decision being made, Avitli the consequent attainment to a right and saving relation to God ? The last ques- tion stands on the threshold of the inquiry ; for if it be unmistakably answered in the affirmative, it must determine the whole problem for those who accept His authority as final ; while, if no such declaration is found, the Avay is left open for a redeeming process bej'ond the bounds of this brief mortal life.
Our Lord is reported to have spoken of ever- lasting or eternal punishment (KdXaaiv aiwviov), ap- parently as the opposite of life everlasting or eternal (fcoTjv aiihvLov, Mt 25'"*). The use of the same term aluvios of both life and punishment has inclined many to regard the passage as decisive on this momentous question ; but the majority of modern scholars consider that the seonian (literally ' age- long') life or sufi'ering is to be understood as at least possibly terminable, and that the expression applied is qualitative rather than quantitative, referring to the relation of both life and death to God rather than to duration of time. ' Eternal ' and not 'everlasting' is its true equivalent. It may also be said that even if the expressions are meant to refer to the endlessness of the punishment or of the blessedness, they may properly be understood as a very strong assertion of the undoubted fact that the suffering that comes of sin is eternally, endlessly bound up with the sin, even as the blessedness of the righteous is necessarily involved in their obedience. The hopelessness of the blas- phemy against the Holy Ghost is summed up in the words 'he is guilty of eternal sin' (Mk 3^**). The latter possibility, however, is nowhere asserted of all who ' die in their sins ' ( Jn S-'*), and leave this world unrepentant. See Eternal Sin.
Similarly, the same fact of the eternal and neces- sary association of suffering with sin is expressed in Mk 9^3-48 . ^ijg ^yorm that dieth not,' and 'the fire that never shall be quenched.' But in neither case is it declared that those who are sent away into that searching experience are doomed to abide there endlessly. The fire of the Divine wratli against sin is essential to the Divine Being, and while God is God it cannot but burn. Both passages convey a most solemn warning to men against being caught into that holy wrath, the fiery trial of sufi'ering and remorse that inevitably waits upon all disobedience, against that dissolu- tion of the life which elsewhere our Lord describes as the cutting of man asunder, and as that terrible portion of tlie unbeliever or hypocrite which is weeping and gnashing of teeth (Mt 24'^', cf. Lk 12'**).
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RESTORATION
RESTORATION
Unspeakable horror of the workl to come for the impenitent and disobedient reveals itself in all that He teaches us regarding it ; in His sense of sin, and the mischief, corruption, and agony which it works ; in His urging tliat it were 'i^rohtable,' good for a man, to make the utmost sacrifice of all that makes life good to live, even to the i^lucking out of the eye or the cutting oft" of the hand, rather than to be cast into that loathly Gehenna which our Lord glances at, rather than depicts (Mt 5^"- ^°) ; but of tlie duration of that state of woe He gives no hint. Although it may with much force be maintained that the images He employs — the worm, the fire, the salting with fire — are all most naturally in- terpreted as purifying and cleansing agencies, yet it is wiser to see that He leaves the Divine purpose in all that mysterious process of retribution to be inferred from the whole revelation of God which He had given in His earthly life. See, further, Eternal Fire, Eternal Punishment.