Apocatastasis (also apokatastasis) is the belief that everyone and everything will experience an ultimate restitution. The word apocatastasis is a transliteration of a Greek word that means “restoration.” Apocatastasis involves a belief in universal salvation, but it goes beyond that to include a total reconciliation of all the universe to God. Some forms of apocatastasis even embrace the “salvation” of Satan, believing he will be restored to his original, pre-fall position (God Questions). The word found in Acts 3:21: “For he must remain in heaven until the time for the final restoration [apocatastasis] of all things, as God promised long ago through his holy prophets.”
Question eight deals with apocatastasis which is the view of universal salvation held to by Origen. One of the texts on which Origen based his view of apocatastasis was 1 Corinthians 15:28.
“The Son’s submission to the Father means perfect reintegration of all creation, so the sub-mission of his enemies to the Son means salvation of his subjects and reintegration of the lost....this submission will take place in certain ways and times and according to precise rules: the entire world will submit to the Father, not as a result of violence, nor by necessity that compels subjection, but thanks to words, reason, teaching, emulation of the best, good norms, and also threats, when deserved and apt . . . Providence operates in of each one, safeguarding the rational creatures’ free will”[1]
In 1 Corinthians 15:28, Paul is giving the results of the resurrection of Jesus Christ when the millennial kingdom will be turned into the eternal kingdom and all things will be in submission to God the Father even the Son functionally not ontologically. At the beginning of chapter 15, however, Paul makes it clear that the gospel of the death, burial, and resurrection of Christ must be received by faith for a person to be saved and enter salvation and the eternal kingdom.
John R. Sachs showed how Origen believed Christ’s atonement affected the salvation of all: The final healing transformation and perfection of all things is not merely the result of a natural cosmological process, but the direct result of God's loving, saving action in the cross and resurrection of Christ. The cross is not merely an ethical example of pious death for believers, but the beginning of an ontological victory of God's love over evil and the devil in a new and perfect creation.[2] John in 1 John 2:2 makes a distinction between those for whom Jesus died and those who appropriated the propitiation of Jesus’ death. While the provision of the propitiation is for the whole world, the whole world does not appropriate that provision.
Origen explains that the "destruction of the last enemy" does not mean the "annihilation of his God-given substance" but the "destruction of his rebellious will." Thus the devil is destroyed "not so that in the future he might not exist, but that in the future he will no longer be "enemy" and "death."[3]
[1] Origen. De principiis, Book 3 Chapter 5 and paragraph 8.
[2] John R. Sachs, Theological Studies 54 (1993) Apocatastasis in Patristic Theology. Weston School of Theology).
[3] Origen. InDePrinc.ΠΙ6.5 (GCS 22.286.12 ff.; 22.287.2 f.