The Restitution: Biblical Proof Jesus Is NOT God
Ages: 18+
CHURCH FATHERS SAID JESUS IS GOD.
NOT TRUE--ACCORDING TO THE BIBLE.
The Restitution: Biblical Proof Jesus Is Not God (570 pp.) may be the most comprehensive, well-documented, biblically in-depth, and yet accessible book ever published that affirms all that the church has proclaimed about Jesus except that he is God. It cites over 400 scholars.
Author Kermit Zarley, a former Trinitarian for 22 years, alleges church fathers of the 4th and 5th centuries were influenced by Greek philosophy in wrongly deciding Jesus was both man and God, the Second Person of the Trinity. Yet he affirms everything else the church has proclaimed about Jesus, including that he was the Christ, born of a virgin, sinless, did miracles, died for our sins, and was raised from the dead to provide forgiveness and salvation. Zarley insists that the early Christians called Jesus “Lord,” identified only the Father as “God,” and in calling Jesus “the Son of God” they meant no more than one highly favored by God.
With non-technical language and a conservative view of the inspiration of the Bible, Zarley shows (1) Jesus never claimed to be God, (2) his early disciples didn’t say he was God in their evangelistic messages in Acts, and (3) most of the major texts cited to prove Jesus is God have grammatical problems that result in alternate readings in Bible versions. So, this book affirms the Apostles Creed but finds fault with the Nicene and Chalcedonian creeds. In sum, The Restitution seeks to restore to Jesus his identity as a man who was essentially subordinate to the one and only God, the Father Almighty.
Reviews
I am much impressed. It runs 600 pages, is throughly researched and documented, and fully in touch with the massive scholarly discussion currently available on the Christology of the New Testament. ... a mortal wound to the doctrine of the Trinity. ... it is a towering work that will stand for a long time to come.
Kermit Zarley has provided another powerful witness against the complex, Greek philosophical definition of God and Jesus which have prevailed since the great Church councils. ... Zarley's work needs to be read by every pastor in the land. He calls the church to a complete reappraisal of one of its core doctrines. He shows that God is single Person, the Father ... The implications of this invitation to reexamination of theology and Christology are huge. ... a tour do force ... extensive documentation.
The wedge driven by Martin Kahler between the historical Jesus and the kerygmatic Christ was, according to Kermit Zarley, mishit. Instead, the wedge of misinterpretation needs to be driven between the New Testament's depiction of God's Son and the ecclesiastical Christ, the portrait of Jesus as redrawn by Christians under the influence of Platonic and Neo-Platonic philosophical categories. Readers of the New Testament and historians of Jesus should recognize this important thesis. In addition, Zarley combines a high view of Scripture with a thoroughly human Jesus and lands with a square stance on a unique tee box—an unusual form of unitarian theology. No one can read this book without being challenged.
