Restoration of Christianity’s
Judaic Heritage
When nearly a century ago Julius Wellhausen boldly proclaimed that Jesus was not a Christian, but a Jew, the cause of prophetic restoration received a dramatic boost from a very unlikely source. While Wellhausen’s motive for his statement was the promotion of his anti-revelational liberalism that sought to "demythologize" the Bible by taking God and spiritual things out of it, his statement sent shock waves through academic circles. While some saw this statement as an opportunity to further their assault on the revelational authority of the Bible, others were burdened with the quest of searching for the historical Jesus.
Around the turn of the twentieth century, a few scholars began to consider what had been unthinkable for centuries–the fact that Jesus was a Jew and the religion which he practiced throughout his lifetime was biblical Judaism. The church, including Catholic, Orthodox, and Protestant traditions, had long enshrined Jesus as the cosmic Christ to such a degree that his Jewish humanity was all but forgotten. While in dogma and creed it maintained that he was very God and very man, for all practical purposes the humanity of Jesus was lost, including his identification as a Jew among his Jewish brethren.
The church’s denial of the Jewishness of Jesus has represented a revival of the ancient heresy of docetism, which utterly denied the humanity of Jesus, calling his physical appearance merely an apparition used to disguise his absolute deity. Monophysitism declared that Jesus had only one nature, the divine. Jesus came to be portrayed as a Western European with blond hair and blue eyes and of such obvious divinity that a nimbus always appeared around his head. The truth is that the absolute humanity of Jesus was a precondition to his prophetic office: he could not have redeemed man without becoming man, living as man, overcoming all sin as man, and dying as man ( Romans 8:3; Hebrews 2: 9, 10, 14). This he did as a Jew. While the ecumenical council of Chalcedon in 451 C.E. established the doctrine of the contemporaneous total deity and total humanity of Jesus in his incarnation, the church since that time has largely denied the most basic fact of his humanity–that Jesus was a Jew. Robert T. Osborn has called this Christian rejection of the Jewishness of Jesus the "Christian blasphemy," a willful prevarication to support its continuing anti-Judaism.
With the rediscovery of the Jewishness of Jesus has come a growing interest in studying the influence of Judaism upon Jesus and upon the nascent church. For centuries, most of the church had believed that Jesus as the Christ had brought an entirely new religion which replaced Judaism–that he brought totally new ideas theretofore unknown to man. Despite the fact that the scriptures themselves declare that Jesus grew in wisdom and stature as a part of the normal process of human maturation (Luke 2:52), the church denied the influence of his Jewish family and environment upon Jesus and his human spiritual and intellectual life.
Christian Foundations in Judaism
The truth is that Jesus borrowed eclectically from all of the various Judaisms that were a part of first century Israel, just as he addressed himself to the traditions of the various Jewish sects that contravened the Word of God (Tenach). Since there was no monolithic Judaism in the first century, Jesus came into contact with, and was influenced by, the various expressions of Jewish faith. The "Golden Rule," the origination of which the church has attributed to Jesus, is in reality an adaptation of Hillel’s earlier statement. It can be readily demonstrated that most of the teachings of Jesus were antedated in the messages of the prophets and sages of Israel, including those of what has been called the intertestamental period and of the great rabbinical schools in the decades before and during the time of his ministry. He also can be seen to disagree in some way with each of the first century Judaisms, including the Sadducees, the Pharisees, the Essenes, the Qumran community, the Zealots, the Herodians, and others. The church has done itself and the Jewish people a great disservice by ascribing originality of concepts and statements to Jesus which he quoted and/or adapted from those before his time. Of course, as the person of the Word (Memra or Logos) of God, Jesus gave all the Word to the prophets; however, in the voluntary limitation of his humanity, he grew in wisdom by assimilating teaching of Torah in home, synagogue, and temple.
As understanding of the interrelationship between biblical Judaism and the gospel of Jesus has continued to unfold, more and more scholars have begun to recognize that the religion which Jesus practiced was Judaism, the same religion that he as the Logos theophany at Sinai had delivered to the Jewish people. The practice of Judaism was not optional to Jesus, for it was also a precondition to his prophetic office. He was born of woman, under the Torah, under the obligation to observe the entire law of Yahweh (Galatians 4:4). He was an observant Jew, very orthodox in fulfilling the requirements of the law to the letter. It was in this way that it could be said of him that he knew no sin, for if he had violated the law, he would have been a sinner (I John 3:4; I Peter 2:22). In this way he established the perfect righteousness that made him a perfect sacrifice for the sins of the whole world (Hebrews 2:10).His observance of the law established the righteousness that is imputed to the believer instead of his faith in Jesus so that the believer who is cleansed from sin through the blood of Jesus is justified by the imputed righteousness of Christ (II Corinthians 5:21; Romans 3:21,22). While Jesus was often in conflict with the oral Torah or the tradition which was later codified in the Mishnah and the Gemara of the Talmud, he in no way violated the commandments of God in the written Torah, nor did he renounce all of the tradition of the sages. Jesus simply practiced biblical Judaism.
As the knowledge of the Jewishness of Jesus and of his observance of Judaism has expanded both in the academic community and elsewhere, more and more scholars have come to understand that Jesus simply did not come to establish a new religion called Christianity. He did not come to replace an old religion with a new one. He did not come to replace a bad religion with a good one. He came only to reform what he had authored at Sinai by perfecting it through his death at Calvary (Hebrews 12:2). Christianity as we know it is the product of well-intended men’s efforts to make the gospel relative to their Gentile cultures, efforts which resulted, however, in a system that was divorced from its heritage.
The Time of Reformation
The ministry of Jesus could be encapsulated in one word–reformation (Hebrews 9:10). Jesus was a reformer, not an innovator. His whole purpose was to reform Judaism, taking the eternal principles of that system and making them applicable to and liveable in the entire world. His reformation was actually a restoration, a returning of the Torah to its original intent and purpose. His fundamental position with regard to Judaism was stated in Matthew 5:17: "Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets: I am not come to destroy, but to fulfil." It was never the intention, design, or will of Jesus to abrogate the law and destroy Judaism, replacing it with a new religion. And, he was not forced to do so because of the leadership of Israel’s unbelief in his day (Romans 3:3, 4). He maintained his own personal faithfulness to the religion which he, himself, had authored, and he encouraged both the Jews and his own disciples to be faithful to the fundamental principles of that religion, reformed and perfected only by his own death and resurrection (Matthew 5:19, 20; Luke 18:18-22).
The major areas of reform that Jesus brought to Judaism were in its sacrificial and ceremonial systems. Jesus fulfilled once and for all the sacrificial system as it related to offerings for sin when he became the one and only sacrifice for sin on the cross of Calvary (Hebrews 9:25-28). When the blood of Jesus was shed, the atonement for the sins of all mankind was made; therefore, the ongoing system of animal sacrifices for sin became superfluous. It is important to note, however, that the system of sacrifice for sin was not destroyed. It was only reformed with a new and better sacrifice, the perfect sacrifice of the body and blood of Jesus. The remainder of the sacrificial system took on a new dimension in the church that was manifest in sacrifices of praise (Hebrews 13:15), prayer (Revelation 5:8), and of living bodies submitted to the will of God (Romans 12:1).
Much of what was done in Judaism’s ceremonial system was also rendered superfluous by the life, death, resurrection, and ascension of Jesus. What had been an agrarian, natural society was transformed by Jesus into a spiritual society, the church. While many of the Judaisms of Jesus’ time had come to emphasize the fact that the spiritual applications of the eternal principles of the Torah were more important than mere slavish devotion to its external ritual, Jesus developed this idea further, reforming the entire ceremonial system of Judaism. The Sabbath and the agricultural festivals took on spiritual significance. First of all, Jesus became the Sabbath for the believer (Hebrews 4:1-11). He also became the Passover to those who received him (I Corinthians 5:7). Pentecost became a time for celebrating the giving of the Holy Spirit as well as the giving of the Torah. The ceremonial ablutions were fulfilled in spiritual washings of regeneration and sanctification (I Corinthians 6:11). Again, however, the system of Judaism was not destroyed: it was merely reformed. Celebration of the Sabbath and of the festivals continued in remembrance of the Lord of the Sabbath and of his works of redemption (Passover) and empowerment (Pentecost). Without exception, the work of Jesus was one of reformation of the existing system of Judaism, not of its abrogation and replacement with a completely new system called Christianity.
The Nascent Church and Judaism
There is ample evidence in the Apostolic Writings that the first century church continued in the teachings of Jesus and remained inherently Jewish. The church of Jesus Christ, like its Lord and namesake, was Jewish and continued to function within Judaism as a reformed sect (Acts 24:14). The apostles did not seek to divorce the church from Judaism. They rather sought to make their views regarding the Messiahship and eternal redemptive work of Jesus normative for all of their Jewish brethren. They continued daily in the temple as loyal parts of the worshipping community of Israel (Acts 2:46), even submitting themselves to temple ritual that could in no way be demanded of them by the reformed Judaism of Jesus (Acts 21:23-27). Even the requirements that the church enjoined upon the Gentiles were taken directly from Judaism (Acts 15:19, 20).
Though Paul has been accused by the Jewish people of being an apostate from Judaism and has been hailed by many Gentile Christians as being the one who dealt the theological death blow to Judaism, replacing it with a Gentilized Christianity, the truth is that there was no one more faithful to Judaism than Paul. Throughout his life he maintained his status as a Pharisee, a disciple of Gamaliel (Acts 22:3; 22:6). Though he reasoned and taught the truth of Jesus’ reformation of Judaism, he continued to encourage both Gentiles and Jews alike to maintain the New Testament order for the observance of God’s ancient religion (I Corinthians 5:8). Like Jesus and other Jewish leaders before him (especially the diaspora Jews), Paul recognized that the ritual, external observances of the system of the law were not to be equated with the internal, spiritual relationship with God through the eternal principles on which the law and Judaism were founded and of which those external observances were temporal manifestations. This is why Paul willingly submitted to rites of temple purification (Acts 21:24-27) and encouraged the Gentile churches to observe the festival of Passover with its New Testament celebration in the communion of the body and blood of Christ (I Corinthians 5:7, 8). What Paul consistently taught was not a new way of salvation. According to him, men must attain a right relationship with God in the same manner in which Abraham did, by faith (Romans 4:16; Galatians 3:5-29). Paul patterned Christian life after Judaism as interpreted by his Jewish Lord, not after Platonism or Gentile mystery religions, as some Christian theologians have asserted.
Indiginization Brings De-Judaization
The church, however, failed to hear the warnings of Paul in Romans 11:18-20 that the Gentile branches not boast against Israel and the exhortations of Jude that it earnestly contend for the faith once delivered to the saints (Jude 3). Indeed, as Paul had predicted, after his departing, grievous wolves entered in who did not spare the flock of God (Acts 20:28, 29). The door that God opened to the Gentile nations swung both ways, letting in the traditions and concepts of the non-Jewish world, as well as opening the faith of God to the nations. Just as there can be no doubt about the intention of God to bring the Gentiles into the household of faith, so there can be no doubt that his Spirit sought to insulate the church from the concepts of the Hellenistic world. The church, however, rapidly lost its legacy in Judaism and was overpowered by corrupted ideas of the pagan cultures into which it was called to minister.
In their attempt at indiginization of the gospel so that the Hellenistic world could receive it, the Greek fathers of the church succumbed to the process of syncretism in which Platonic philosophy and Greek religious ideas were added to the Judaic teachings of the church. From the time of Justin Martyr attempts were made to reconcile Platonism with Christian teaching, a process which reached its zenith in Clement of Alexandria and Origen, who believed that Plato had been a Christian even though he was not aware of it. Such attempts at syncretism between Platonism and Christianity were well intended but ill advised. Eventually these accretions so overwhelmed the heritage of the church in the Hebrew faith that Christianity became a Gentilized movement, both in demographics and in theology and polity. What began in the good intentions of the apostolic fathers, the apologists, and the polemicists of the first four centuries to make their faith relevant and appealing to the sophisticated intelligentsia of Greek society actually led the church down the road to compromise with philosophies and religious ideas that were foreign to the faith of Jesus Christ.
This compromise produced a Gentilized gospel that was divorced from its Jewish matrix, a gospel that alienated the church from the commonwealth of Israel. While it is true that the parting of the ways between Judaism and Christianity was by mutual agreement and was facilitated by the Jewish community as well as by the church, the church must bear the greater share of responsibility for renouncing its heritage and separating itself from Israel. Eventually the church came to ignore and in many cases even to repudiate the Jewishness of the Jesus of the gospel in favor of the Christianized and Gentilized Christ of the church, in whose name it spewed forth centuries of venomous boastings against the natural branches of God’s olive tree. Those initial polemic pyrotechnics escalated into the conflagration of the pogroms and the inquisition and ended in the holocaust of the twentieth century, with wave after wave of the anti-Semitism which still remains a grave disfigurement on the face of the church.
Restoring the Church’s Judaic Heritage
The Reformation of the sixteenth century began to restore the light of faith to the Christian church; however, it stopped far short of what God had intended, became steeped in nationalism, and perpetuated the anti-Judaism which had been part of its spiritual heritage for some fourteen centuries. Gradually, however, God has brought about a greater awareness of the truth about the apostolic church and its inherent Jewishness. Initially in the minds of scholars, many of whom were considered eccentric by their peers, the responsibility of honoring the Jewish people for the heritage of the church came to the fore. Then with the tragic events of the twentieth century, the plight of the Jewish people was emblazoned inescapably on the corporate consciousness of the Christian church.
The result has been that in some circles the historical church doctrine of supersession or replacement theology has been abandoned in favor of a revisionist theology which argues for the continuing validity of two parallel and equal covenants and religions–Judaism for the Jews and Christianity for the Gentiles. Though well intended, this doctrine flies in the face of the clear statement of scripture, which unequivocally declares that there is "one Lord and one faith" (Ephesians 4:5).
On the other hand, however, there have been many who have realized that for Christianity to be a truly authentic expression of the religion which Jesus practiced and taught, it must return to its Judaic roots and restore its essential Jewishness. These believers realize that the only way in which the biblical mission of the church can be fulfilled is for the church to recognize and repent of its own sins of Judaeophobia, anti-Judaism, and anti-Semitism and to restore its inherent Jewishness, thereby facilitating among the Jewish people a more accurate perception of Jesus as the church’s Jewish Messiah, not just the Christian Christ. The Christian church must take responsibility for its role in feeding the fires of anti-Semitism. It must repent fully for its sin either of actively persecuting the ancient people of the Bible or quietly countenancing the overt actions of others against the Jews. It must realize that its attitudes are the result of its denial of its own essential Jewishness as well as that of Jesus, himself. When the church becomes more Jewish in content and expression, the Jewish people will be able to come to an accurate perception of biblical Christianity, as opposed to its historical perversion as Christendom.
For nearly nineteen centuries, the church has been spinning out of control in a vortex of lost identity, wrenched from its biblical moorings, denying what it was designed by its Founder to be. Now, like a child snatched as a newborn from its birth parents, it is crying out, searching for its roots, its self identity. And, many are awakening to the realization that Judaism is the parent of Christianity. This great awakening is already beginning, and it will only increase throughout the world as the Holy Spirit moves on the hearts of believers of all denominational persuasions to recognize and reestablish the Jewishness of their faith through Jesus, their Jewish Lord. This is not a call for Christians simply to become more Jewish by practicing the cultural elements of modern Judaism. It is not a call to major in minutiae or to collect artifacts. It is a call for Christians to be more in love with their Jewish Lord. It is a call to have a right relationship with God by having a right understanding of the Jewish Book and a right experience with the Jewish Lord. The time is now for those who truly love the Word of God to search the scriptures diligently to see the truths which have been kept from them and to begin the process of restoration.
The many believers throughout the world who are searching for orthodoxy in Christianity need to take one step further. The answers are not to be found in England, or in Italy, or in Greece. The answers are in Israel. The church must look beyond the Reformers, the Thomist theologians, the influences of Plato and the philosophers, and even beyond the Greek and Latin fathers. It must return to the Hebrew faith of old if it is to find the orthopraxy that will enable it to be the light of the world and show mercy to Israel.
After being characterized for nearly nineteen centuries by Judaeophobia at best and by overt anti-Semitism at worst, the Christian church is beginning to receive what will become a miraculous healing. The Holy Spirit is awakening a hunger in people in nearly every segment of Christianity for a restoration of the Judaic heritage of the first century church. Edward Flannery encapsulated what God is doing when he called for an "over-Hellenized, over-Latinized Christianity" to experience a "re-Judaizing process to restore it to its inherent Judaic ideal." That this work is a product of the agency of the Holy Spirit is underscored by the fact that no one individual, denomination, or group of people can claim responsibility for this widespread and growing phenomenon.
Could it be that a renewal of the Judaic heritage of the gospel of Jesus Christ is the next great awakening of the Holy Spirit in the ongoing fulfillment of the restoration of all things that Peter predicted in Acts 3:20, 21 would precede the parousia of our Lord? Is it possible that Christians everywhere could soon reclaim their lost legacy in Judaism? Will God finally and irrevocably expose the Hellenization and Latinization of the gospel and restore his church to its rightful Judaic heritage? With the growing emphasis on this biblical and prophetic truth, it would seem that at long last the answer to these questions is a resounding, Yes!
As you have seen in reading this book, there is much to be gained from understanding the Jewish scriptures, the Jewish law, and the Jewish faith (Romans 3:1). With such an understanding one has an expanded awareness of the omniscience of God in authoring a plan of salvation for mankind that has been in operation since the creation of the world. One also gains a new appreciation for the continuity of the Holy Scriptures and of the work of God that has unfolded from generation to generation. And, one also acquires a more complete understanding of the nature of the incarnation, life, death, and resurrection of the only begotten Son of God.
I believe that among the great works which the Holy Spirit is bringing to pass in our generation are a revived commitment to the survival of the Jewish people and their religion and a revolutionary awakening of Christians of various communions to their heritage in biblical Judaism. This awareness is expanding in most, if not all, denominations of Christianity. It is a healthy sign of spiritual maturity when men are able to conquer their prejudices and traditions to recognize the roots from which their faith springs. And, it is a healthy sign of spiritual revival when such an awakening is taking place across denominational lines and throughout the world.
As we gain a clearer insight into the inherent Jewishness of the gospel, we also receive a greater appreciation and love for those ancient people, his kinsmen according to the flesh, who have suffered such atrocities because of their dedication to the God of the Bible and who have defied all the laws of history to be preserved as a people and testify to the immutability of the Eternal God. Restoration of Christianity’s Hebrew foundations is an expansive effort which touches on every area of Christian life and worship. Many scholars throughout the world are researching various aspects of this idea, documenting the historical correlation of Judaism, the faith of the Old Testament, and Christianity, the faith of the New Testament.
It is my personal belief that such efforts as these will produce an appreciation for the Hebrew faith and will set the stage for the return of Jesus, the Jewish Messiah, to establish a kingdom patterned after biblical Judaism. We know from the scriptures that Jesus will rule from Jerusalem, Israel, and that various aspects of the religious system that pleases God will be required during the time of that kingdom (Isaiah 66; Zechariah 14).
This is the reason for the formation of a new networking organization, Restoration Foundation. There are thousands of people throughout the world who share a common burden for Judaic restoration and the salvation of Israel. They are, however, fragmented and isolated, a fact which has kept their efforts minimized both in their own eyes and in the eyes of the world. It is time, however, for those whom God has given this burden to network together to share their burden, to share their ideas, to share their resources in the overall interest of impacting the entire Christian church with this message of restoration.
For over thirty years, one of the major facets of my own intellectual and spiritual life has been an analysis of the Judaic heritage of the gospel of Jesus Christ. My early impetus for this abiding interest in Judaica as it relates to Christianity came from my education in the principles of divine immutability and the continuity of biblical religion from my mentor, the late Bishop Grady R. Kent. During these thirty years, I have studied and written extensively concerning various aspects of Judaeo-Christianity. This ministry of restoration has burned into my heart a vision to share the inherent Jewishness of the Christian faith with all believers throughout the world.
In 1992, interactive dialogue with many leaders in the restoration ministry convinced me of the need for a vehicle to facilitate the actualization of this ministry. I began to envision a networking organization that would bring together biblical scholars, church leaders, and other persons interested in Judaic restoration in a forum free of denominational or other agendas to do research and development into the restoration of the Judaic heritage of the Christian church and to devise means of marketing this concept the Christian community. Thinking about this need over a period of time, I was inspired with the idea for Restoration Foundation.
Restoration Foundation is a non-profit research and development educational foundation. The vision of Restoration Foundation is to promote the restoration of the Christian church to its Judaic heritage. The purpose of Restoration Foundation is to promote Christianity’s return to the faith of Abraham perfected and extended to the entire world through Jesus the Messiah by researching the historical and theological understanding of the Hebrew foundations of the gospel of Jesus Christ, developing the concept and its practical applications, and encouraging its implementation in the church.
Restoration Foundation, by virtue of its basic nature and intention, is non-denominational and functions entirely apart from any denominational agenda. This is not to say that Restoration Foundation is anti-denominational. Indeed, it is transdenominational, an educational resource to the entire body of Christ in all of its communions. The integrity of the foundation is protected from either direct or indirect denominational or organizational influence or manipulation. It seeks to bring together leaders in the field of Judaic restoration to pool their resources for research, development, and marketing of this important part of the prophetic restoration ministry.
A recent Gallup poll revealed that over forty percent of American Christians prefer not to be identified with any denomination. This represents a large constituency of believers that Restoration Foundation can enlist in support of such a worthy spiritual and intellectual cause as Judaic restoration. At the same time, however, a fair and non-threatening relationship with established denominations and existing power structures can enlist already organized support for the overarching goals of Restoration Foundation for bringing the Christian community to an understanding of its biblical heritage.
The first practic of Restoration Foundation is the development and maintenance of a network of individuals, ministries, and organizations that share a common interest in promoting Christianity’s Judaic heritage. It is designed to provide a vehicle for interfaith and inter-organizational fellowship, dialogue, and cooperation. It establishes retreat forums to provide intense and interactive Bible study, private and corporate prayer, personal interaction and fellowship, and think-tank sessions that promote creative thinking, idea exchange, and concept testing among peers in a non-threatening atmosphere free from hidden agendas and denominational/organizational objectives. This forum has been and will continue to be one of the most important parts of the Restoration Foundation agenda. It fulfills another of my long-standing ambitions to bring leaders together in a spirit of true ecumenism that is not just a spirit of unity but a unity of the Spirit (Ephesians 4:3). It is an irrefutable biblical axiom that "in the multitude of counsellors is safety" (Proverbs 24:6). When leaders come together in mutual submission, they can function in a team relationship that is patterned after the Judaic model that Jesus espoused among his disciples (Matthew 20:25). Team management and servant leadership are the guiding principles for the oversight and operation of Restoration Foundation.
Restoration Foundation also focuses on a very vital aspect of Judaic restoration–the marketing of this concept to a Christian church whose traditional Judaeophobia causes it to be biased against Judaism and the Jewish people and to be predisposed not to receive this message. In this effort we focus the attention of experienced scholars and ministers on the evaluation of terminology, methodology, and attitudes for their effect on the potential acceptance by the church of its inherent Jewishness. The foundation is careful that its language communicates truths in a way that does not alienate those who have not yet gained an appreciation for their Judaic heritage.
To assist scholars and researchers in the quest for greater understanding of Judaism’s influence on the origins of Christianity, Restoration Foundation is creating and will maintain a resource center that makes available to members, scholars, and Christian leaders books, periodical articles, and audio-video presentations that analyze Christianity’s Judaic heritage. There is simply a wealth of material that has been developed by many researchers and authors on various aspects of the interrelationship of Judaism and Christianity. It is important that these resources be gathered and made available to leaders in the body of Christ.
Restoration Foundation promotes, organizes, and produces seminars and other teaching forums for instruction in Judaism’s legacy to the Christian church. Many of its constituent members have their own teaching ministries, the effect of which Restoration Foundation merely seeks to augment and promote. There is room in the field of this ministry for many specialists, each of whom can make invaluable contributions to the overall understanding of the Christian church and its constituent congregations and ministries. Restoration Foundation promotes each of these worthy ministries without influencing their individual structural integrity. While it may be possible that some ministries will desire to work collaboratively and corporately within the Restoration Foundation structure, the assimilation of other ministries is not its designed purpose. It does not seek to control its members, nor does it attempt to establish an orthodoxy. While the foundation maintains certain central theological non-negotiables, it does not seek to establish orthodoxy in peripheral matters. Instead, it promotes the Judaic concept of unity in diversity in contrast with the traditional Christian concept of unity through uniformity which has produced nothing but division.
Development, production, and marketing of materials for educating families in the Judaeo-Christian faith as it is confirmed in both the Hebrew Scriptures and the Apostolic Writings are a featured and important part of Restoration Foundation. Works that constituent members of the foundation are doing in this area of ministry are promoted by the foundation. It is my personal opinion that the most readily accessible channel for conveying the understanding of Christianity’s Jewishness is through emphasis of the family heritage of Judaism. When it is demonstrated that Judaic principles strengthen the family, the millions of people who are hungry for restored family relationships will be open to receive additional truths concerning the Judaic heritage and Christian faith.
Through its Golden Key Publishers, Restoration Foundation seeks to publish books and other materials and to produce audio and video presentations of seminars and other instructional and promotional materials that facilitate understanding of the interrelationship of Christianity and Judaism.
Restoration Foundation also publishes Restore! magazine, a high-quality journal that is helping Christians around the world recover the Hebrew foundations of their faith. The name Restore! is an imperative to all believers in the Christian church, for everyone must restore the Jewish roots of his faith. We believe that if restoration is a sign of the coming of Jesus, then God’s imperative to the church is, "Restore!" Restore! presents theologically sound, methodologically practical teachings on the church’s Judaic heritage.
An important underlying work of Restoration Foundation is its use of every means possible, including prayer, education, and promotion, to eradicate Judaeophobia and anti- Semitism from the entire Christian church and from the world at large. As the church comes to understand its rightful inheritance in biblical Judaism, it will repent of its historical and traditional anti-Judaism and outright anti-Semitism and will turn to the Jewish people with mercy, affirmation, and love for Israel.
In aid of this effort Restoration Foundation works to minister love, commitment, and assistance to the nation of Israel and to all Jewish people. It seeks to create opportunities for interfaith dialogue with leaders of Judaism throughout the world. It promotes the input of Judaism’s rich heritage into the Christian church by the spiritual leaders of the Jewish community. It also seeks to communicate greater understanding to the Jewish community of the Christian belief in Jesus as Messiah and Lord.
My vision for Restoration Foundation is admittedly expansive; however, I believe it is biblically based and serves a function that is demanded of prophecy. With the help of countless others who will want to enlist in such a biblical cause, I pray that Restoration Foundation will be empowered to take the message of Judaic restoration into the entire Christian community worldwide so that the body of Christ can be prepared to receive the returning Jewish Messiah, Yeshua HaMashiach, Jesus Christ.
We invite your comments, criticism, and advice. We also trust that you will want to join Restoration Foundation as a Golden Key Partner. Let us hear from you!
John D. Garr, Ph.D.
President