The Restitution of Jesus Christ (2008) may be the most formidable, comprehensive, well-researched, and biblically in-depth book to ever challenge the church dogma that Jesus is God. Yet it affirms all other major church teachings about Jesus, including his virgin birth, sinlessness, miracles, atonement, resurrection, ascension, heavenly exaltation, and future return to establish his earthly kingdom. This book is based on a conservative view of the inspiration of the Bible. So, it affirms the historical integrity of its four gospels. They tell almost all we know about Jesus of Nazareth.
The book begins with an Introduction. Chapters 2-3 provide 100 pages of the history of identity Christology (study of Jesus' identity). Chapter 4 is about the Old Testament and Judaism. The remainder of the book addresses mostly the exegesis of the major New Testament texts which have commonly been believed to support the view that Jesus was and is God. They include the following: John 1.1c, 18; 5.18; 10.30; 20.28; Romans 9.5; Philippians 2.6-11; 1 Timothy 2.5; 3.16; 2 Thessalonians 1.12; Titus 2.13; Hebrews 1.8-9; 2 Peter 1.1; 1 John 5.20. This material is arranged according to biblical authors. Therefore, chapters are titled "Christology of the Synoptists," "Christology of John," "Christology of Paul," etc.
The Restitution of Jesus Christ is written for the general reading public. It has no technical jargon, but does have a glossary. Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek words are transliterated and translated. Yet the book is well documented. Its reference footnotes (no endnotes) will appeal to students, and discursive notes are minimal. The bibliography cites over 400 scholars, most of whom are authorities in their specialized fields of expertise.
Due to the book’s size of being 600 pages, some readers may prefer to treat it as a reference source. If so, they should at first read at least the book's back cover, Preface (very important), Chapter 1, each introduction in Chapters 5-10, and the portions on John 1.1c and 20.28. The examination of these two verses represents the most important part of the book. Such readers may appeal later to the book's treatment of other biblical texts as readers become familiar with their importance to the discussion. However, the two chapters on the history of identity Christology are quite informative and provide a sense of the importance of the topic--whether or not Jesus is God.
For an explanation of the meaning of this book's title and its front cover images, see the last paragraph on the Michael Servetus webpage.
Click on the following excerpts to get a sense of the book's scope. You can also download and/or print these excerpts for free.
