We recently received a letter:
I just recently found your website and it seems very solid to me. My question has to do with the Hebrew Roots movement. Our son is deeply involved in this and insists that we should be, too. It has had a very divisive affect on our family. We have looked at the beliefs and practices of this movement and feel that it is placing people back under the law. In fact, our son tells us that we are NOT under a new covenant, but that the old covenant has been renewed and we should still practice all the feast days. He also says that celebrating Christmas and Easter are pagan and we should steer clear of them. He even says he is NOT a Christian, but a Hebrew. This deeply saddens us. Can you lend us some insight on this and how to respond to him? Thank you, B
Download the podcast mp3! Subscribe (RSS | iTunes)
We are 100% Listener supported. Donate now!
So what exactly is the Hebrew Roots movement? We’re going to explore that topic in depth today. Although there are many different and diverse Hebrew Roots assemblies with variations in their teachings, they all adhere to a common emphasis on recovering the “original” Jewishness of Christianity. That doesn’t sound so bad, does it? But as you’re going to hear today, this movement and the varients of it are leading people into grave deception.
Related articles
- Torah Observance – Opposing God, Following Blind Men
- “What is the Hebrew Roots movement?”
- More Dangers on The Sacred Name Movement/Hebrew Roots
- The Hebrew Roots Cult
- The Dangers of the Hebrew Roots Movement /The Sacred Name Movement
- What is Messianic Judaism?
- Should a Christian celebrate Hanukkah (Christmaskah)?
There is a lot of false information in this podcast about the Hebrew Roots movement. I would love to debate you live on the air in the #1 Hebrew Roots radio station on the internet PaRDeS Radio. Yet I have a feeling you are not up for the challenge
Also, you quoted Acts and never read the next line saying where it says he was not talking about food but people, to call no person unclean. Why were you dishonest and leave that verse out? Same with Matthew 5:17-19 and you left out two key verses you were very dishonest in your analysis. And I noticed Romans 3:31 was not quoted either when you quoted Romans 3 you left out verse 31. Hmmm, guess you do not want your listeners to check the Scripture, and to just trust you
Right, Christopher, because that’s what we tell our listeners every day at the beginning of every program: “Don’t read the Bible; just trust us.” Good grief. We have no interest in debating you about the Hebrew Roots Movement. That’s not what our ministry is all about. You are welcome to be a part of whatever discussions we have about it though, just like everyone else.
I have a few questions for you.
Where did the original Jewish religion come from? Who started it and why?
Who is the original Jew? (maybe a history lesson from Exodus)
The Jews were not a lone group of people in the wilderness.
why do you put Paul’s words above the words of Christ. Why is the church so rebellious towards God? Only wanting to teach grace.
Why can’t we obstain from evil. Christmas is a pagan evil holiday revolved around child sacrifice. Why would it be ok for Gods chosen to participate in pagan customs and traditions.
It is important to follow dietary laws because the food God tells us to obstain from: shellfish and pork are full of parasites and bacterias. Many of these things are not killed during the cooking process. ( two weeks ago yahoo.com posted a news article with a picture of worms in a cooked ham.) Will eating these things kill us or even keep us out of Gods presence no, but if obeyed our church may enjoy health collectively.
Duet. explains this well, God placed before us life and death, blessings and curses, why would we not want to obey our creator, why shun his advice and wisdom by believing He’s done away with it. Rules for our benefit, not His!
Also, the next Jubilee year is 2016, this year also hold several eclipses, and blood red moons. The Jewish (whom were entrusted the oracles of God ) maintain that these events signal the return of our Messiah, wouldn’t it be nice for a pastor in a christian church explain why? From this passover to the Jewish feast of trumpets is exactly 1290 days, sound like something the church should be aware of? Maybe inform us followers of? But our pastors are too busy teaching us freedom from the law to read it and teach us from its pages.
This is why the church population is dwindling and people are walking away.
Our pastors teach a very different message than the one laid out within the pages of the King James bible. Jeremiah explains our fathers taught us lies. . . they sure did!
And Paul warns of a day when people would not embrace sound doctrine. Looks like we’ve made it to that day as well.
The deception is so great at the return of Christ, that even the elect are deceived. We have all read that verse, so why is so hard for the average Christian to see that maybe we’ve been deceived, being deceived is not a sin, but staying in that deception and turning your face from it is!
Blessings to you all.
Repent now for the kingdom of Heaven is near!
So just wondering is the New Testament false doctrine in which we are not to trust and believe. It is there that tells us that we are no longer under the law but under grace. If as you two suggest and as the Hebrew Roots suggest are still under the law you know that if you break one law you have broken them all? So I take it that you conduct sacrifices in that to ask for forgiveness afterward? If you do that then what does that say for the ultimate sacrifice of Jesus Christ for our sins? Oh my bad, that was in the New Testament as well. An interesting person once wrote, “The deception is so great at the return of Christ, that even the elect are deceived. We have all read that verse, so why is so hard for the average Christian to see that maybe we’ve been deceived, being deceived is not a sin, but staying in that deception and turning your face from it is!”
“Return of Christ…” So you do believe in the New Testament? You either do or you don’t. You decide.
Friend, salvation is by grace alone. Absolutely. But what then? 1 Corinthians 10 warns about craving evil things.
Can we commit adultery? Steal? Give in to drunkenness? Ignore the Sabbath? God has explained to us what evil is throughout the Bible.
Jesus re-established how we enter the covenant like Abraham, by faith. But were their unclean animals in the days of Abraham? In the days of Noah? In the days of Peter?
Jesus once said, “Do not think that I came to abolish the Law or the Prophets”. Jesus is our example of how to live a life pleasing to God. He did what God desires of us, which was given in the Law and Prophets and New Testament.
To live by rules “the law” is impossible, which is why we are saved by grace. Christ did not come to abolish the law but to fulfill it. He was the last sacrifice. If any attempt to re-establish that which He came to fulfill then that discredits His coming? Did it happen or didn’t it?
He came to establish relationship with us, That was what the covenant was. The relationship! Once one believes in the relationship the law is fulfilled in itself by the honoring of the relationship. Following laws with no relationship is just a system of rules and regulations in which one is to follow, which by the way that’s what the Pharisees and the Sadducees were all about.
I agree, friend, that following laws with no relationship is just a system of rules and regulations. This is very true. On the flip side, how can you have a relationship with someone if you ignore what they like and dislike? If your spouse’s least favorite color is green and you paint the house green inside and out, what kind of relationship do you have? To honor the relationship, you have to know those involved.
My friend, I do not know the best way to explain this, but please study how the 1st century Hebrews viewed the idea of abolishing or fulfilling scripture. The law contained prophecy but is much more than that. He fulfilled the law through his teaching, and his example. If understood correctly (as Jesus taught) it was how to have a pleasing relationship with God. Read Matthew 5:17-48. He says the same thing three different ways: the law is not gone. Then he fulfills it right there in the rest of that chapter by teaching how it is, like you said, a relationship and not just rules and regulations. Those who say it doesn’t apply anymore have, in essence, abolished it.
Peace.
I like how you begin with friend. It lets me know that this is wonderful, conversation to rightly divide His word in which I welcome not in argument. Matthew 5:17-18 speaks volumes. Meaning we all shall still be judged by the law in which we all will be found guilty. Hence the reason for the sacrifice of Jesus. He has already paid the debt for our violations of the law. There remains no more sacrifice for sin. The truth that we know is that Christ Jesus, the son of God came in the flesh to die for our sins (violations of the law), and was resurrected beating death, now seated in heaven, We now honor that with our lives. Not attempting to go back and follow laws in which we will never be able to follow to the letter, but bringing others to the understanding that Christ has paid the price for we could not ever pay for.