The Restitution of All Things The Restitution of All Things When Peter stood up to preach before the wondering crowd who were eye witnesses of the healing of the lame man at the beautiful gate of the temple, he told his hearers in no uncertain tones, “Ye denied the Holy One and the Just, and desired a murderer to be granted unto you: and killed the Prince of life, whom God hath raised from the dead” (Acts 3:14-15). But, after having said this, he consoled them with these wonderful words: “And now, brethren, I wot that through ignorance ye did it, as did also your rulers. But those things, which God before had showed by the mouth of all His prophets, that Christ should suffer, He hath so fulfilled. Repent ye therefore, and be converted, that your sins may he blotted out, when the times of refreshing shall come from the presence of the Lord; and He shall send Jesus Christ, which before was preached unto You: Whom the heavens must receive until the times of restitution of all things, which God hath spoken by the mouth of all His holy prophets since the world began.” (Acts 3:17-21) Peter’s statement speaks clearly of the times of the restitution of all things. Restitution, according to the best English usage, means the act of restoring something that has been taken away or lost; the act of making good or rendering an equivalent as for loss or injury. (Funk and Wagnall’s Dictionary) This is in exact harmony with the Greek work temuriak which means restoration. Some will no doubt reply to this by stating, as many do, that Peter was not promising that God would restore everything but only those things of which the prophets had spoken. I wish, however, to show as clearly as possible that the grammatical construction of this sentence declares the exact opposite to be the truth. I mean that Peter was actually saying that all the prophets from the beginning of the world had prophesied that there would be a restoration of all things and that the restoration would indeed be universal and would include all things. You will notice that in the scripture quoted (Acts 3:21, King James Version) there is a comma after the word things. This comma indicates that the clause following : “which God hath spoken by the mouth of His holy prophets since the world began” – is what is known as a nonrestrictive clause. A nonrestrictive clause is one which can be omitted without changing or destroying the meaning of the principal clause or main statement. (See Mastering Effective English by Tressler-Lewis, Revised Edition, Pages 545-546.) It simply adds further information. Now read the scripture, omitting the clause in question, and you will find the meaning is clearly stated and nothing of the sense is destroyed. If this clause were modifying the word things, it would be restrictive and no comma would be used. To this agree the words of many scholarly translators, a few of whom I will quote here for the benefit and understanding of all who read. “That the Lord may send Jesus, your long-decreed Christ, who must be kept in heaven till the period of the great Restoration. Ages ago God spoke of this by the lips of His holy prophets.” Moffatt. “Heaven must receive Him until those times of which God has spoken from the earliest ages through the lips of His holy prophets – the times of the restitution of all things.” Weymouth “He must remain in heaven till the time for the universal reformation of which God told in ancient times by the lips of His is holy prophets.” Goodspeed. “Whom it behooveth heaven, indeed, to receive till times of a restitution of all things, which God spake through the mouth of all His holy prophets from the age.” Young’s literal....George Hawtin
Posted on: Sun, 18 Aug 2013 22:23:06 +0000
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