By John D. Garr, Ph.D.
Founder & Executive Director
For some thirty years, a major focus 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, analyzing the emergence of the first century church from the matrix of Biblical Judaism and detailing the effect of the ministry of Jesus Christ upon the religion of the Hebrew Scriptures.
A significant and related part of this vision for restoration has been my observation of the need to eradicate the inherent Judaeophobia and anti-Semitism that has robbed Christianity of its Biblical legacy in Judaism and has produced the church’s dreadful record of hatred for and persecution of the international Jewish community. I came to believe that a full recovery of Christianity’s Jewish roots would return believers everywhere to the love and support for Israel and the Jewish people that is a part of the church’s Biblical mandate.
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This ministry of restoration has burned in my heart a vision to share the inherent Jewishness of the Christian faith with all believers throughout the world. As time progressed, I discovered more and more people who had a similar vision, and amazingly, many of them had begun their own quest to understand the Jewishness of Christian faith around the same time that I had begun my own. Rather than accepting this a coincidence, I am inclined to believe that what we have been witnessing is a sovereign move of God to restore the church to its rightful legacy in Judaism.
In 1992 interaction with many leaders in the restoration ministry, including Dr. Karl Coke, Bishop John Looper, Dr. Howard Morgan, Dr. Terril Littrell, Pastor Leon Mohammed, and others, 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 scholars, church leaders, and other persons interested in Judaic restoration in a forum free from denominational or other agendas to do research and development for the restoration of the Christian church’s Hebrew foundations and to devise means of promoting this concept in the Christian community. After thinking about this need over a period of time, I was inspired with the idea for Restoration Foundation.
As I shared this very embryonic idea with my friends in various denominations and fellowships, I was amazed at their immediate and unreserved acceptance of the concept. What started out as a development in my own thinking immediately became our vision, with an ever-widening network of colleagues affirming ownership of the organization and adding their own creative energies to the developmental process. A group of fifteen scholars and church leaders met in Atlanta, Georgia, June 1, 1993, and officially formed Restoration Foundation on the day of Shavuot (Pentecost). Then began the task of organization, putting together a management team, devising a philosophy of fundraising, defining the parameters of the operation, and beginning the process of research, development, and promotion. An organizational task force met in September, 1993, to give further definition to this networking organization.
The founding directors agreed that Restoration Founation is a non-profit research and development educational foundation with the vision of promoting the restoration of the Judaic heritage of the Christian church. The purpose of the foundation is to promote Christianity’s return to the faith of Abraham perfected and extended to the entire world through Jesus the Messiah. Our focus is on researching the historical and theological influences of the Judaic heritage on the gospel of Jesus Christ, developing the research into concepts with practical applications, and encouraging their implementation in the church internationally. We understand that without such practical application of these concepts in the lives of individuals and their local assemblies, they remain little more than academic exercises. From the very beginning, we unanimously agreed that Restoration Foundation would be transdenominational, interracial, multi-cultural, and international, welcoming the participation of scholars, church leaders, pastors, and laymen alike. We agreed that Restoration Foundation, by virtue of its basic nature, would be a non-denominational, parachurch organization, functioning entirely apart from any denominational agenda. Although many, if not most of its members/constituents have denominational and/or organizational associations which they are not asked to suppress or mask, Restoration Foundation is a networking and resource vehicle only. We merely seek to bring together leaders in the field of Judaic restoration from every part of the Christian community to share resources for research, development, and promotion of the restoration ministry.
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. The foundation is designed to provide vehicles for interfaith and inter-organizational fellowhip, dialogue, and cooperation. This part of its function seeks to promote unity in the body of Christ and fellowship and cooperation between Christians and Jews. It provides retreat forums for intensive and interactive Bible study, private and corporate prayer, personal interaction and fellowship, and think-tank sessions that encourage creative thinking, idea exchange, and concept testing among peers in the non-threatening atmosphere of free-flowing, open-forum dialogue.
Another major practic of Restoration Foundation is the development, production, and marketing of books, magazines, pamphlets, and audio-video presentations which share the vision of the church’s Jewish roots with people throughout the world. This includes a program for marketing artifacts and emblems of Judaism and Israeli culture, along with detailed explanations which enable those who learn the concepts to become teachers themselves. We are also working to develop and maintain a resource center for books and other materials on Christianity’s Judaic heritage to be made available to scholars and others engaged in research and/or promotion of the church’s Jewish roots.
Restoration Foundation uses every means at its disposal, including prayer, education, promotion, and example to eradicate Judaeophobia and anti-Semitism from the Christian church and from the world at large. We stand solidly behind the rights of the nation Israel and the international Jewish community, and we seek to minister loving encouragement, commitment, and assistance to Israel and the Jewish people throughout the world. Restoration Foundation promotes interfaith dialogue by encouraging the input of Judaism’s heritage into the church from Jewish spiritual leaders and by seeking to foster in the Jewish community better understanding of Christian beliefs in order to produce a more accurate perception of Biblical Christianity.
The foundation has many programs to facilitate the church’s recovery of its Judaic heritage. These include seminars on Christianity’s Jewish roots designed for every level of understanding. Our International Institutes program provides intensive, seminary-level courses for pastors and educators in nations around the world. We are also developing Restoration School of Theology which will offer a comprehensive directed-study program that focuses on Bible-based theological training in both faith and practics with the emphasis on the church’s Hebrew foundations. Restoration Foundation also sponsors ongoing research into the historical and theological emergence of Christianity from the matrix of Biblical Judaism and the implications of these issues for the restoration of New Testament Judaeo-Christianity in this day.
Restoration Foundation has an expansive vision. With its Board of Directors made up of people from a cross section of the Christian church and with the continuing input of wise counsel from its International Advisors to the Board of Directors, the foundation continues to make steady progress toward its goals. Our prayer is that this network will be used of God to make a lasting impact upon the Christian church by bringing life, renewal, and maturity to believers everywhere as they discover the rich Judaic heritage of their faith in Jesus.
If you have a vision for restoring the church's Judaic heritage, along
with a love for Israel and the Jewish people, you are invited to join Restoration
Foundation. Membership includes subscriptions to publications and registration fees for
colloquia and seminars, as well as other benefits. For more information, write:
or
email Restoration Foundation.
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