The Gospel in Every Book of the Old Testament (ePub)

Joseph Farah, best known as a newsman, has been studying the Bible for more than 40 years. A former self-described leftist radical, he was first evangelized in college and, within a week, became a believer. Instrumental in his conversion was reading Hal Lindsey'sLate Great Planet Earth. It was the fulfillment of Bible prophecy that grabbed Farah. A few years later, Farah interviewed Hal Lindsey for a profile story in the Los Angeles Herald Examiner, where he worked for nearly 10 years. The two hit it off and began a 10-year collaboration on books, a TV show, and a monthly newsletter. Farah also got to sit at the feet of the best-selling author, who became his spiritual mentor. During the writing and research of his most recent 2017 title,The Restitution of All Things: Israel, Christians, and the End of the Age,Farah began focusing on what Jesus called "the gospel of the kingdom." He observed that most definitions of the gospel revolve around personal salvation, rather than worldwide redemption, on which the prophets of both the Old Testament and the New focused. He began wondering if this "gospel of the kingdom," which points to a future garden of Eden–style restoration of the world, could be the secret of finding the gospel in every book of the Old Testament. Farah searched in vain for references to prior works that found the gospel in all 39 books of the Hebrew Scriptures. He could not find any. So, he decided to see if he could find that redemptive message himself, starting with the most unlikely books of the Old Testament—Esther, where there is no mention of God; the Song of Solomon; Ecclesiastes; the strictly historical books; and so on. Once he found evidence of the gospel message there, he knew from prior research that the rest—Genesis, Exodus, Isaiah, Jeremiah—would be easy. "It was the spiritual mystery of the gospel of the kingdom that allowed me to find the gospel all over the Hebrew Scriptures," the author says. "When I was doing media appearances for my previous book about the kingdom,The Restitution of All Things, people could hear the excitement in my voice. It was a message they hadn't heard often in church, Bible studies, or spiritual retreats and conferences. When they heard it, they got excited too." For the last five years, Farah and his wife, Elizabeth, have been leading tour groups to Israel to show them ancient prophecies being revealed before their eyes. The Bible promises a time of restoration in Israel and all over the world. But it's very specific about Israel. "I love to show people around Israel—starting with the ruins," he says. "Every time we view the archaeological ruins, we see evidence of God's judgment. Then, when we see the people returning to the land and the deserts blooming, we see the evidence of the restoration. Israel is like a laboratory of Bible prophecy confirmed. And when we see it confirmed in the judgment and the early evidence of restoration, we can then project ahead with near certainty that there is a greater restoration coming in the future." That's the gospel of the kingdom, he says. "It brings tears to people's eyes when they see it for themselves," he says. "They leave with the assurance, the knowledge, the certainty that the kingdom of God is coming to the earth in a real and powerful way—not just allegorically or spiritually." Without these experiences and his journalistic instincts, Farah says, he would not have been able to writeThe Gospel in Every Book of the Old Testament.