The story of Lucifer, Son of the Morning, was kind of an eye-opener for me. Forced into looking at it having on a different pair of glasses, the presupposition I carried with me for 40 years, was demolished by the lightning-bolt type of revelation God gave me about Universal Reconciliation. Reading Colossians 1:15-20 in an image on a website I had attempted to click out of, I noticed the phrase “all things” was accentuated each of the six times it appeared in the passage by increasing the size and changing the color of the font.

As I read, it hit me! “Can this be true?” I was asking God emphatically! “Will everyone be saved after all?” God’s Spirit seemed to be affirming what I read and what I felt as I began to weep hard. I am weeping even now, as I write this.

My mind raced to passages of scripture that seemed to corroborate my new-found truth and to Bible verses that I have since begun calling “hell myth passages”. But it was only a matter of minutes before I realized that to be a valid proof text for Universalism, Colossians 1:15-20 must include the devil and his angels. A somber moment, to be sure. That was January 2021.

The reconciliation of all things, admittedly, is difficult when it comes to the devil and the angels which left their first estate. After four decades of resisting Satan, I didn’t want it to be true. I did a little research and wrote a blog post entitled, What About the Devil? In it I make a philosophical argument for his reconciliation. However, I’m not trying to kid anyone here, if it wasn’t for the “all things” argument of Colossians 1:15-20, I wouldn’t go down this road at all.

“There are no explicit scriptures that show ultimate reconciliation for the devil.”

This is what a brother, with whom I was discussing the topic, said to me. It seemed to hang out there for a little while as the statement took on new significance. It seemed the accuracy of that statement could turn the whole debate on a dime. If it can be shown that the devil and his angels will be reconciled, then who among all of humanity would not?

While not explicitly saying so, the scriptures can be seen passing through that neighborhood – if not overtly, then the Bible certainly seems to be painting that picture for us. I believe it is doing so in four different ways:

• The aforementioned “all things” argument. The language of Colossians 1:15-20 seems to force us here, even though we may not want to be. The passage indicates that all things will be reconciled to God. “All things” includes the devil.

• The casting of the devil and his angels into the Lake of Fire with the people who do not have a knowledge of the truth, given that we’ve made a case for fire being employed to purify, would seem to indicate a refining event for all involved (Revelation 14:9-11; 20:10). See Refiner’s Fire.

• A fresh examination of the scriptures relative to Satan’s rebellion, his being cast down to the earth, his subsequent destructive works (see Job 1:6-12), God’s perfect foreknowledge, and God’s creation of evil (Isaiah 45:7) in the light of sovereignty and a paradoxical free will might offer answers.  It also seems curious to me that after the thousand-year reign of Christ, Satan “…must be loosed a little season.” All of this seems to point in the direction of a being that was acting out the will of God, his ignorance notwithstanding.

• The language in the originals of these passages make it clear that “principalities” (arche’) refers to supramundane beings who exercise rule, (a) of holy angels and (b) of evil angels. Angelic beings are also called “powers” (exousia) in Ephesians 1:21, 3:10, 6:12; and Colossians 1:16, 2:10, 15.¹

1. And having spoiled principalities and powers, he made a shew of them openly, triumphing over them in it. (Colossians 2:15)
2. For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. (Romans 8:38-39)
3. Far above all principality, and power, and might, and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this world, but also in that which is to come: (Ephesians 1:21)
4. For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places. (Ephesians 6:12)
5. And the angels which kept not their first estate, but left their own habitation, he hath reserved in everlasting chains under darkness unto the judgment of the great day. (Jude 6)
6. For by him were all things created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers: all things were created by him, and for him… And, having made peace through the blood of his cross, by him to reconcile all things unto himself; by him, I say, whether they be things in earth, or things in heaven. (Colossians 1:16, 20)

The “all things” of Colossians 1:15-20 clearly includes the evil principalities and powers that were spoiled in Colossians 2:15, that were unable to separate us from the love of God in Romans 8:38-39, with which we wrestled in Ephesians 6:12, and the angels that kept not their first estate in (Jude 6) and therefore will be reconciled to God, having made peace through the blood of the cross.

Again, it is hard to swallow, but having advanced a philosophical argument at first and following up now with an expository treatment of the subject, it doesn’t seem to be a stretch for me to embrace the “all things” argument that leads to Universal Reconciliation.

ENDNOTES

¹W. E. Vine, Vine’s Expository Dictionary of New Testament Words, Nashville: Thomas Nelson Publishers, ©1997, Pp. 868, 885