The Universal Restoration

“… The reality is the Body of Christ!” (Colossians 2,17)

Addressing the Jews in the past, Peter said: “Repent and turn to God, so that your sins may be wiped out, and so that the Lord may send the time of comfort. Then He will send you the Christ he has predestined, that is Jesus, whom heaven must keep till the universal restoration comes which God proclaimed, speaking through his holy prophets” (Acts 3,19-21).

We must underline some of Peter’s important points, and meditate on them well:

“God will send Christ Jesus.” He will send Him in the future, therefore again, as He had already sent Him a first time. The phrase “will send” is in the future. Heaven must then keep the Christ for a period, then the Lord will send Him, again, at the time of the “universal restoration”. Jesus came the first time to regenerate the spiritual life, hindered by human cults, and which were never prescribed by God. He praised his Apostles for supporting Him in this work of regeneration: “… I tell you solemnly, when all is made new and the Son of Man sits on his throne of glory, you will yourselves sit on twelve thrones to judge the twelve tribes of Israel.” (Matthew 19,28)

If a general, universal restoration imposes itself after His first advent, it is so that the Christ finishes his work of “Regeneration” at his Return. He returns thus, with a well defined mission: to regenerate, to re-put in order, “to restore”, once and for all, his work, disfigured by the clergy and their eccentric cults.

“Restoration” was a well known expression of the Jews. But this, to them, always took a political dimension: the reestablishment of the Kingdom in Israel, from a dynasty of David with a universal Zionist empire, “Greater Israel”. According to them, this restoration, of a strictly political order, should be run by the awaited Messiah. This is the reason why the Apostles themselves, did not always understand the spiritual restoration of Jesus, even asking him before the Ascension: “Lord, has the time come? Are you going to restore the kingdom to Israel?” (Acts 1,6). They still thought of restoring the Jewish political kingdom.

The prophet Zephaniah, on behalf of God, had already announced this restoration. Yet for Zephaniah, as for all the Jews, prophets and Apostles included, it represented nothing other than, as we have seen, the return of the Jews from exile and the restoration of David’s throne: “… when that time comes, I will gather you in; I will give you praise and renown among all the peoples of the earth when I restore your fortunes under your own eyes” (Zephaniah 3,19-20).

In the divine intention however, this restoration is spiritual and universal: It is neither political, nor limited to the Israelis alone. To benefit from it, God poses a condition on the Jews, as we have noted in Peter’s words: to repent and convert by believing that Jesus is the Messiah.

In reading Peter’s words attentively, we conclude that God restores man through the Messiah in two steps: the first, at the physical coming of the Messiah historically 2,000 years ago, and the second at his Return. This Return is not physical, but spiritual, in the consciousness, and by specific apocalyptic events that precede it and announce it. (See the text “The Signs of the Return of Jesus”).

In fact, Peter explicitly says, and this after the advent of Christ, that God “will send you (in the future) the Christ He has predestined, Jesus, whom Heaven must keep till the universal restoration comes”. We must realize then, that after his resurrection, Jesus ascended to Heaven, to be “kept” until the time of the universal restoration. When this time comes, God will send him once again. But how? Again in the flesh? Off-course not! (See the text “The Return of Jesus”).

1. The purpose of the Return of Christ

The purpose of this second manifestation of the Messiah, is “the Universal Restoration” (Acts 3,19-21). Now, if we talk of a restoration, it is because there has been a period of decadence. It is clear that Jesus’ message has been disfigured over the centuries. A general restoration is needed; the initiative can only be divine. This is the purpose of Jesus’ Return: He returns to entrust to some new Apostles - called “angels” in Matthew 24,31 - the task of revealing His true Face, jagged by the treasons of his ilk and the cults - so-called “Christians” - inspired by paganism.

The Return of Christ was announced by the prophecies as a certain fact. Jesus Himself had said: “I shall return…” (John 14,3). It is an absolute certitude: “For the Son of Man is going to come in the glory of His Father with his Angels (the new apostles) …” (Matthew 16,27) He returns in the end, to restore everything in freeing the believers from the cults imposed by a mercenary clergy.

This restoration concretizes itself by the sharing of Jesus’ Meal with the family, in simplicity, as Jesus had instituted, and as the first Christians practiced, without rites, informal, with a lot of love: “They went as a body (with one heart) … they met every day in their houses for the breaking of bread (the Body of Christ); they shared their food (the Body & Blood of Christ) with joy and simplicity…” (Acts 2,46). It is for this reason that Jesus asks of us to look out for his Return: His ardent desire is to place us at Table, with Him, to share his Mystic Meal. This is evident where Christ says: “Look, I am standing at the door, knocking. If one of you hears me calling and opens the door, I will come in to share supper, side by side with him” (Revelation 3,20). This sharing, in intimacy, is ardently desired by Him; he had said to his Apostles: “I have longed to eat this passover with you…” (Luke 22,15) This ardent desire has remained hidden over the centuries, just to be revealed in our time, by He Himself, in view of a universal spiritual restoration.

At the time of His first Advent, Jesus was “the revelation of a mystery kept secret for endless ages, but now so clear that it must be broadcast… This is only what scripture has predicted…”, Paul wrote to the Romans (Romans 16,25-26). Today, Jesus comes back to clarify what is left of “the mysteries kept secret for endless ages” in the Book of Revelation (Revelation 10,7). It is time to consult, again, the Holy Scriptures to put a full light on God’s mysterious plan (Romans 16,25 / Revelation 20,12).

The Scriptures foretell that Jesus will manifest Himself again to explain God’s ultimate designs that remain in mystery. These designs concretize themselves in one word: Restoration. This restoration has to be done through the explanation of the Holy Scriptures. Those who do not want to bother themselves to scrutinize and understand these scriptures, will not go far. In fact, Paul wrote to Timothy: “… the Holy Scriptures—from these you can learn the wisdom that leads to salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. All Scripture is inspired by God and can profitably be used for teaching (to restore), refuting error, for guiding people’s lives and teaching them to be holy” (2 Timothy 3,15-16).

It was thus announced by the Scriptures: The Christ must manifest himself a second time. But before this happens, “The Lost One, the Enemy” must reveal itself (2 Thessalonians 2,3-4). Jesus returns to annihilate it and then subsequently restore, and definitively, with the aid his new Apostles, His Kingdom on Earth: “… before the Rebel (the Antichrist) appears openly. The Lord will kill him with the Breath of His Mouth and will annihilate him with His glorious appearance at His Coming” (2 Thessalonians 2,8). This restoration is based on the permanent Presence of Jesus Himself through the Mystic Meal in the family.

Through this new Restoration, Jesus establishes a new priesthood. All the believers, men and women, are priests and able, if they are willing, to share the Lord’s Supper in their homes with Jesus because “He loves us and has washed away our sins with His blood, and made us a line of kings and priests to serve His God and Father…” (Revelation 1,5-6) “… with your blood you bought men for God of every race, language, people and nation and made them a line of kings and priests, to serve our God and to rule the world” (Revelation 5,9-10). (See the text: “Jesus restores the Priesthood”)

This new concept of the priesthood is called “the New Heaven and the New Earth”. It was ardently awaited: “What we are waiting for is what he promised: the New Heavens and New Earth”, Peter said (2 Peter 3,13). John perceived this in a vision after the fall of the Antichrist: “Then I saw a New Heaven and a New Earth; the first heaven and the first earth had disappeared now…” (Revelation 21,1). Such is the Kingdom of God on earth.

This divine Kingdom on earth means the cohabitation of God with his children from hereon. In Hebrew, this is given the word “Immanuel”, which means “God with us”, the symbolic name given to Jesus (Matthew 1,23). The Apocalypse, signifying the restored people, says: “Here God lives among men. He (God) will make His home among them; they shall be His people, and He will be their God, his name is God-with-them (Immanuel)” (Revelation 21,3).

Thus, God’s dwelling place should no longer be understood as the Temple of Jerusalem, nor as Saint Peter’s Basilica, nor as Mecca’s Mosque, nor as any other religious centre in the world, Pagoda or other.

The true Temple is an assembly of believers, an international spiritual community, fervent, united by the links of love around Jesus’ Table: “I saw that there was no temple in the city since the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb were themselves the Temple” (Revelation 21,22). Paul had already said 2,000 years ago: “Do you not realize that you are a temple of God with the Spirit of God living in you? God’s Temple is holy and you are this Temple” (1 Corinthians 3,16-17). Jesus has already commenced his Restoration in us and through us, as “The Most High does not live in a house that human hands have built” (Acts 7,48 / 17,24). Jesus returns to restore everything by reminding us of it.

The world destined to disappear is the so-called religious world of all forms, with their rites and cults impregnated from paganism. This old world does not reflect the true face of God. It will be replaced by the “New Heaven”, a new and authentic spiritual concept, a better comprehension of God in his simplicity, linking man intimately and spontaneously to his Creator, as Adam before his fall.

It is a “new Earth”, as it is “on the earth” that all will be renewed. All homes, all families, are invited today to become temples of God, God inhabiting the heart of man. In the Old Covenant, Jeremiah had already prophesied: “Within them I shall plant My law, writing it on their hearts. Then I shall be their God and they will be my people” (Jeremiah 31,33).

God renews the believers through the Return of Christ who opens to them a new door of salvation: “Look, I have opened in front of you a door that no one will be able to close” Jesus says (Revelation 3,8). This new door is a liberator from the futile yoke of the strictly human ritual practices. Christ’s “yoke” is simple and light (Matthew 11,29-30). He is not embarrassed by the fruitless complications imposed by men, but that displease God (Matthew 15,8-9). St. Paul had warned us: “Make sure that no one traps you and deprives you of your freedom by some secondhand, empty, rational philosophy based on the principles of this world instead of on Christ… why do you still let rules dictate to you, as though you were still living in the world? ‘It is forbidden to pick up this, it is forbidden to taste that, it is forbidden to touch something else’; all these prohibitions are only concerned with things that perish by their very use—an example of human doctrines and regulations! It may be argued that true wisdom is to be found in these, with their self-imposed devotions, their self-abasement (false humility), and their severe treatment of the body; but once the flesh starts to protest, they are no use at all.” (Colossians 2,8-23)

“Reduced to slavery”; we were so by these religious, theatrical, and skimpy ceremonies. “Human reasoning” was built to justify them and to guard the fearful believers, incapable of reaching spiritual maturity. Men have complicated faith with rituals, and each with its well-defined and proper rules and gestures. The worship of God passes through some narrow forms: hands clasped or held out, stand or kneel, even crawling on the ground, special clothing, different signs of the cross, varied ways of fasting, hand kissing, etc… These religious expressions, disapproved by God, satisfy those whose faith is immature and unstable. They need such rules like a guardrail to secure them. If their faith had been mature and unshakeable, they would have understood that God desires to be known and loved, not “adored”.

Several biblical texts urge true believers to reject these novice practices:

Hosea 6,6: God says: “What I want is love, not sacrifice; knowledge of God, not holocausts.”

Micah 6,6-8: “‘With what gift shall I come into Yahweh’s presence and bow down before God on high? Shall I come with holocausts?…’ What is good has been explained to you, man; this is what Yahweh asks of you: only this, to act justly, to love tenderly, and to walk humbly with your God.”

Jesus declared:

“'Believe me, the hour is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain, nor in Jerusalem… true worshippers will worship the Father in spirit and truth: that is the kind of worshiper the Father wants. God is spirit, and those who worship must worship in spirit and truth.” (John 4,21-24)

Jesus also declared:

“And eternal life is this: to know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent.” (John 17,3)

Vain are the various sumptuous cults:

“This people honors me only with lip-service, while their hearts are far from me. The worship they offer me is worthless; the doctrines they teach are only human regulations…” (Matthew 15,8-20)

To restore, useless cults and endless speeches should be abandoned, non-felt by the heart. Only at this price will Christ’s disciples succeed in renewing spirituality on earth, as God asks of them. Faith, and the courage to break human taboos, are needed to “mount up higher”, as is asked of us in the Apocalypse (Revelation 4,1). Cowards will not be able to free themselves from human traditions. The majority has still not yet understood what it is to worship in spirit and suffices itself with the corporal cult. As a matter of fact, true believers are those “who worship in accordance with the Spirit of God… without having to rely on a physical operation (diverse rituals).” (Philippians 3,3)

Those who are attracted by the cult in spirit, free themselves of the religious ceremonies “modeled by the world” (Romans 12,2). On the contrary, those who hold on to these human rites “desert the faith and choose to listen to deceitful spirits” (1 Timothy 4,1-2), which drag them “away from Jesus”:

“Live in Christ… so that if he appears, we may have full confidence, and not turn from him in shame at his Coming.” (1 John 2,28)

We are given the choice between following the hypocrite religious chiefs, or the Christ who “knocks at our door”, even today, to come in and “have supper” with us (Luke 12,36 / Revelation 3,20).

Today, each family is invited to become a spiritual Temple, this Temple “which nothing unclean may come into it” (Revelation 21,27). “Those who commit abomination and evil” exclude themselves by “choosing to listen to deceitful spirits and doctrines that come from devils” (1 Timothy 4,1-2). They thus refuse to be part of the “new spiritual Universe” (Revelation 21,5). Today, the true Passover (Easter), the crossing of the Red Sea, the passage from death to Life takes place through the Paschal meal with Jesus in the family.

The Apostles asked Jesus when and where the events of the last times should take place (Matthew 24,3 & Luke 17,37). He answered them: “Where the body is, there too will the vultures gather”. The Body of Christ is now in the families. It is there where the hungry “vultures” gather (Revelation 19,17) to share this “wedding feast” (Matthew 22,1-14). The one who has eyes and ears, will see, will hear, and will understand the words of the Spirit (Revelation 2,11) and will live eternally (John 6,51-54).
Jesus’ Meal, shared in familial intimacy, far from the fracas of the material cult and from the distraction of the rituals, was prophesied by Jesus. Believers who watch out for his Return, will open to Him the door at the first signs of his approach:

“Be like men waiting for their master to return from the wedding feast, ready to open the door, as soon as he comes and knocks… He will sit them down at table and wait on them.” (Luke 12,35-37)

It is through the Bread of Life that Jesus “passes from one to the other” at Table.

We are already at Table with Jesus, all of us who have already opened the door wide open to Him as soon as we heard his footsteps, “to share supper, side by side with Him” (Revelation 3,20).

The grand visible sign of the start of the Universal Restoration is, paradoxically, the reappearance of the Beast. Its Return sounded the death knell of the old world. Since then, for us, it is no longer any ritual which restores the original link with the Creator, but the sharing of the Bread of Christ in the family. Just as Jesus and the Apostles (Luke 22,14-20 / Acts 2,46), it is with simplicity and sobriety that we take this Bread of Restoration in our homes with Jesus, Him close to each one of us.

The Mystical Table is already served! It is a divine grace offered to the whole of humanity. It is welcomed only by hearts thirsting for truth and love. It is to them that Christ manifests Himself. It is Her, the “Lamb’s Wedding Feast Banquet”, the Banquet of Life to which only the chosen answer (Matthew 22,1-14). It is the moment to wake yourself up, to do yourself violence, so to seize the Kingdom of God: “The Kingdom of God has been preached, and by violence everyone is getting in.” (Luke 16,16 / Matthew 11,12) There is no room for the hesitant (James 1,6-7).

This is the Universal Restoration practiced
by all independent believers.
The Time to renew all has arrived.

Finished on 19 March 1994

Feast of Saint Joseph

Pierre