The Narrow Path Ministries

I've tried going through these last few hell related threads, but it's hard to discern anything with all the bickering back and forth. I was just wondering if someone could briefly lay out what the restorationist view is? I previously thought it was just another name for the universalist view, but this comment confused me and made me think there is a fourth view out there:

Steve wrote:
"Those arguing against the restorationist view here keep speaking as if salvation is primarily defined as being saved from something. While annihilationists and universalists, as well as traditionalists, see salvation as involving a rescue from a horrendous hell, that is not the biblical focus."

So is the restorationist view another view altogether?

I am using "restorationist" as a synonym for "universalist," just as "conditionalist" is used largely as a synonym for "annihilationist." These views are labelled differently by different people. I tend to use synonyms to avoid montonous repetition of the same word repeatedly.

I realize the sentence you cited sounds like it is distinguishing between the positions of the restorationist and the universalist, but it was not intended to be read that way. I could have written:

"Those arguing against the universalist view here keep speaking as if salvation is primarily defined as being saved from something. While [all three views:] annihilationists and universalists, as well as traditionalists, see salvation as involving a rescue from a horrendous hell, that is not the [primary] biblical focus."

Thank you. That clears up the confusion I had.

I thought Steve was using "restorationist" in the way he described. I thought it was a reference to "the restoration of all things" (Acts 3:21)

A more common use of the term "restorationist" identifies those people who think that Christianity ought to be restored to the form in which it existed in the primitive church.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Restorationist