As the sounds, sights and smells of Christmas are everywhere, a new Bible prophecy book is raising a strange question.
Was Jesus born in Bethlehem about two millennia ago to convert Jews first and pagan gentiles second to a new religion called Christianity?
While that’s what most Jews and Christians seemingly believe, Joseph Farah, founder of the largest Christian website in the world and author of “The Restitution of All Things: Israel, Christians and the End of the Age,” hopes to shatter what he believes is that illusion for both religions, bringing a reconciliation of the two faiths by raising the possibility they are both missing part of the truth.
They key question he poses to start the discussion is this: Did Jesus come to start a new religion?
His unequivocal – and, perhaps for some – shocking conclusion is “no.”
Farah is something of an anomaly to begin with:
- An Arab-American Christian who champions Israel and annually leads some of the largest pilgrimages to the Jewish state;
- A lifelong journalist who says he had success in so-called “mainstream journalism” for 20 years, running daily newspapers in major U.S. markets, not in spite of his zealous faith but because of it;
- The first person to launch an alternative, independent, online news operation dedicated to exposing corruption, fraud, waste and abuse in government and other powerful institutions who ended up creating the biggest Christian website in the world;
- A newsman who has studied Bible prophecy throughout his 40-year career in journalism and sees no incompatibility, only synergy, between the two pursuits;
- A Christian who observes the weekly Sabbath on the seventh day as well as what are commonly referred to as “the Jewish holidays,” such as Passover, Shavout, Sukkot, Yom Kippur and Rosh Hashana, and follows the Bible’s dietary restrictions against pork, shellfish and other things called “unclean.”
- A former radical leftist in his youth, he now views those former passions as something akin to a fling with the devil himself.
People who know him say he has never shied away from controversy or a fight if he believed he was right and on the side of truth.
And, with his latest of more than a dozen books he has authored alone or collaborated on with others that have collectively sold more than 6 million copies, he fully expects plenty of controversy.
“With ‘The Restitution of All Things,’ I’m going to be challenging readers about some of their most cherished beliefs, shocking them with ideas many of them have never heard and encouraging them to go back to the Bible for answers as if they have never read it before to re-examine their most fundamental perceptions,” he says.
For instance: Did Jesus come to start a new religion?
“The Restitution of All Things” begins with a thorough walk-through of the Gospel of Matthew probing a related question: Why was Jesus, whom he frequently refers to often by His Hebrew name, Yeshua, continually doing verbal battle with the religious authorities of His day – notably the Pharisees? He urges his readers, again and again, not to accept his own conclusions as to his answer, but to put it to a test by reading through all four gospels with that question in mind?
“It’s amazing, but when you approach the gospels looking specifically at what Jesus was saying to the Pharisees, the answer becomes so obvious,” Farah says. “The answer literally jumps off the pages of the Bible.”
Here’s what Farah found after a 10-year spiritual journey with his wife, Elizabeth: Jesus didn’t come to start a new religion. He came to serve as a perfect sacrifice on the cross for the atonement of sin, to empower disciples to spread the good news to the whole world following His death and resurrection and to set the stage for his return and what Simon-Peter called “the restitution of all things.”
But there was one more big recurring lesson in the gospels that most Christians miss, Farah proclaims: “He also came to clean up the practices of those religious authorities in Israel who had added man-made commandments to those that were handed down on Mount Sinai by Moses and recorded in the Torah – sometimes placing their own traditions above God’s laws.”
The entire first chapter of the book is devoted to an exhaustive and persuasive number of examples of such rebukes of the Pharisees by Jesus, including the from Matthew 15:
- Matthew 15:1-3: “Then came to Jesus scribes and Pharisees, which were of Jerusalem, saying, Why do thy disciples transgress the tradition of the elders? for they wash not their hands when they eat bread. But he answered and said unto them, Why do ye also transgress the commandment of God by your tradition?” (Emphasis added.)
- Matthew 15:6: “Thus have ye made the commandment of God of none effect by your tradition.”
- Matthew 15:7-9: “Ye hypocrites, well did Esaias prophesy of you, saying, This people draweth nigh unto me with their mouth, and honoureth me with their lips; but their heart is far from me. But in vain they do worship me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men. (Emphasis added.)
In short, Farah explains, Jesus was contentious with the Pharisees, the religious establishment of His day, because they were laying their own rules, doctrines, laws and traditions of men on top of God’s commandments.
They were breaking the law, not keeping it, Farah says, citing Deuteronomy 4:2: “Ye shall not add unto the word which I command you, neither shall ye diminish ought from it, that ye may keep the commandments of the Lord your God which I command you.” (Emphasis added.)
Again and again throughout all four gospels, Farah insists, Jesus delivers this message to the Pharisees.
But then he raises the question of whether there might be Pharisees among the leadership of the church today.
“While the Pharisees were guilty of adding to God’s word and commandments, the church may be intentionally or unintentionally following its own traditions and taking away from God’s perfect word and eternal laws,” he says.
It’s a controversial charge today with the church dominated by those who teach that God’s law was nailed to the cross and is of no more effect to believers. These teachings, Farah says are based largely on misinterpretation of two teachings:
- Colossians 2:14: “Blotting out the handwriting of ordinances that was against us, which was contrary to us, and took it out of the way, nailing it to his cross;”
- Romans 6:14 “For sin shall not have dominion over you: for ye are not under the law, but under grace.”
“I have no argument with those who say salvation comes through repentance for sin through grace,” says Farah. “That’s the great gift Jesus gave the world when He allowed Himself to be tortured and nailed to the cross as our perfect sacrifice. But it was not the law that was nailed to the cross with Jesus. It was our sins, our indictments, our guilt if we are willing to be forgiven. The cross and the resurrection are not invitations to sin, which, by definition means to transgress the law. As Paul would say in Romans, ‘God forbid!’”
Farah says his book is meant to challenge Christians to determine whether, like the Pharisees, they are following the traditions of men rather the commandments of God.
“Too many Christians seem to believe God made a mistake when He gave His commandments,” Farah said. “God doesn’t make mistakes. He doesn’t change His mind. He knows the end from the beginning. He doesn’t change the rules. Before Jesus came, people were redeemed by faith – notably Abraham.
Hebrews 11:17: “By faith Abraham, when he was tried, offered up Isaac: and he that had received the promises offered up his only begotten son.”
“In Romans and Galatians and Hebrews we read ‘the just shall live by faith,” says Farah. “But, before that, we read it in Habakkuk 2:4: ‘Behold, his soul which is lifted up is not upright in him: but the just shall live by his faith. Jesus is the Creator of the world, according to John 1:3. And Jesus is the same yesterday, today and forever, we’re told in Hebrews 13:8. Jesus Himself said He came not to destroy the law but to fulfill it. Does fulfill mean to do away with?”
Farah says the Pharisees’ biggest mistake was not adding to the law. Instead, it was not recognizing their long-awaited Messiah had indeed come. He worries that some modern-day Christian Pharisees may not just take away from the law, but also fail to recognize their Savior when He returns.
And that’s the real point, he says, of “The Restitution of All Things.”
“We’re on the precipice of living through what Peter explained was a time about which all of the prophets pointed toward – the Kingdom of God on Earth, the restitution of all things, the return of Jesus-Yeshua to reign over the planet in justice, peace, rest and righteousness,” he says.
“All Christians should be curious about what Jesus will require of us in that time. You might be surprised to learn that everyone, not just Jews, will be observing the Sabbath and the biblical holy days. Those who don’t will be strictly disciplined. The Torah will be the ultimate law of the land – and not just Israel. Wouldn’t it be wise to start figuring this all out now in preparation? Obedience to God is a wonderful thing. It’s not ‘Judaizing.’ It’s Jesusizing. It’s all in the book.”