The Rambam on "oyso ish"

The Rambam’s Words

These are Maimonides" words, written in his Laws of Kings (11,4):

"Even Jesus the Christian, who thought he was the Messiah... was the subject of a prophesy in the Book of Daniel (11, 14): "...also the renegades of your people will exalt themselves to fulfill the vision - but they will stumble." Could there be a greater stumbling block than this [Jesus]? For all the prophets spoke of the Messiah who will redeem and save Israel, who will ingather all its exiles, and who will strengthen them in the fulfillment of the Torah"s commandments - while he [Jesus] caused Israel to be killed by the sword, their remnants to be dispersed and humiliated, the Torah to be switched for something else, and most of the world to worship a G-d other than the G-d of Israel! But - the thoughts of G-d cannot be fathomed by human minds. For our ways are not like His, and our thoughts are not like His. All these activities of Jesus the Christian, and the Ishmaelite who came after him, are all for the purpose of paving the way for the true King Messiah, and preparing the entire world to worship G-d together, as is written (Tzefaniah 3,9): "For then I will convert the nations to a pure language, that they may all call in the name of G-d and serve Him together."

"How will this work? For by then, the world will already be filled with the idea of Messiah, and Torah, and commandments, even in far-off islands and in closed-hearted nations, where they engage in discussions on the Torah"s commandments: some say that the Torah"s commandments are true but are no longer binding in these times, while others say that there are hidden, deep meanings to them, and that the Messiah has come and revealed their hidden secrets. But when the true King Messiah arrives, and will succeed and will raise them up, all the peoples will immediately realize that they had been taught lies by their forefathers, and that their ancestors and prophets had misled them."

Preparing the Way

From these words of the Rambam, we learn that even though Christianity negates the Torah, and promotes a different redemption and a different redeemer – even so, the very discussion of these issues arouses thoughts and anticipation throughout the world of great events. And even though these are misdirected, the hearts are still ready and waiting. When the Messiah, King of Israel, reveals himself, everyone will immediately recognize him, and will realize that "Moshe is true, and his Torah is true."

This will lead to the redemption of the entire world and their understanding that "The L-rd, our G-d, is One, and His Name is One."

Rabbi Adin Steinsaltz was asked : Did the founder of Christianity have any links to Kabbalah?

Answer: He employed forbidden methods. His motives are still not fully understood. In any case, he was a son of the Jewish people and by now has certainly gone through all the appropriate stages of repentance in the Other World. Proponents of the so-called "Judeo-Christian ethics" see him as a prophet and a popularizer of the ideas of the Torah and the Kabbalah. Well, popularizers have been many but the end result is what’s important. From Christianity we’ve witnessed rivers of spilled Jewish blood as a result.