God's love will finally triumph over every rebel will, so that in the end all people, and in some forms even fallen angels, will be reconciled to God and saved.
A heresy denies the Gospel or the God it reveals (Galatians 1:8).
Where It Began
The best-known early form came from Origen of Alexandria (c. 185–c. 253), who speculated that all rational beings, possibly even the devil, would at last be restored to God. Greek writers called this restoration the apokatastasis.
Origen's ideas were debated for centuries. In the sixth century, under Emperor Justinian, bishops of the state church condemned Origenist teaching on the restoration of all things. The idea faded until the modern era, when it returned in two forms: the pluralist claim that all religions lead to God, and Christian universalism, which says all will eventually be saved through Christ, even after death.
An organized Universalist church formed in America in the late eighteenth century and in 1961 merged with the Unitarians. In recent decades, popular books and some evangelical writers have revived the hope that hell will at last be emptied.
The People Involved
Loading the rest of this profile
Why This Is Dangerous
It tells the lost they have no final loss to fear and empties Christ's own warnings about judgment (Matthew 25:46). If everyone will be saved, the cross needs no response in this life, and the urgency of the Gospel is gone.