Definition
Apokatastasis (Greek: ἀποκατάστασις) literally means “restoration” or “restitution to the original state.” As a soteriological term it refers to the doctrine that God will ultimately restore and reconcile all things — including all human beings and possibly all spiritual beings — to himself. The term appears as its biblical anchor text in Acts 3:21: “whom heaven must receive until the period of restoration [apokatastasis] of all things about which God spoke by the mouth of his holy prophets.”
Usage in the Corpus
Stephen Jones
Jones regards apokatastasis as “the secret of His will” — not a speculative fringe position but the central mystery of the gospel revealed to Paul during his three years in the desert. He draws on Col. 1:19-20 (“reconcile all things to himself, having made peace through the blood of his cross”) and John 12:32 (“will draw all men to myself”) as converging evidence: “This is the mystery, the secret, which Jesus revealed to Paul.” Jones explicitly distinguishes his position from universalism: universal restoration is compatible with real judgment and predestination because it determines sequence, not exclusion. [Jones, Creation’s Jubilee, Ch. 5]
Cees Noordzij
Noordzij treats apokatastasis in connection with the universal liberation of creation (Rom. 8:18-25). For him, the restoration is not merely the salvation of individuals but the eschatological redemption of the entire cosmos from the “futility” to which it has been subjected — the manifestation of the sons of God as its liberating event.
Origin
The word appears in the Septuagint (LXX) for the return of land to its owner in the Jubilee year (Lev. 25). In the patristic period it was used authoritatively by Origen (On First Principles III.6), who taught a universal restoration cycle, and by Gregory of Nyssa. Augustine rejected the teaching; the Second Council of Constantinople (553) condemned Origen’s apokatastasis.