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==Definition==
'''Apocatastasis''' or apokatastasis (from Greek: ἀποκατάστασις; literally, "restoration" or "return") is the teaching that everyone will, in the end, be saved. It looks toward the ultimate reconciliation of good and evil; all creatures endowed with reason, angels and humans, will eventually come to a harmony in God's kingdom. It is based on, among other things, St Peter's speech in Acts 3.21 ("[Christ Jesus] who must remain in heaven until the time of the final restoration of all things [χρόνον ἀποκαταστάσεως πάντον]") and St Paul's letter to Timothy in which he says that it is God's will that all men should be saved (1 Timothy 2.4).
For [[Origen]], this explicitly included the [[devil]]. In effect, apocatastasis denies the final reality of [[hell]], and interprets all Biblical references to the "fires of hell" not as an eternal punishment, but a tool of divine teaching and correction, akin to [[purgatory]]. The implication is that hell exists to separate good from evil in the soul.