This is part of a testimony of someone who came out of the Hebrew Roots Movement, written as an apology and explanation to a friend that she had convinced should become part of HRM. Posted with permission.
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I left the BL congregation a couple of months before I moved to the west coast, and I never really looked back. I had a member call me, and when he found out I was moving, I never heard from any of them again. The last few times I attended, I had a heaviness I could not explain. I was crying a lot at home, I was burdened, and I felt confused. I felt something in my soul urging me to not go back. Why? I felt my relationship with Christ was becoming diluted; replaced by the Torah…the SHADOW of what He came to do. It’s far more profound than that, though. Do I think Believers should know and understand the Feasts? Yes. Should we understand Torah and know its purpose? Absolutely. But the doctrine that “We are Israel,” and other ideas are false.
There is such a sense of pride and arrogance with the Hebrew Roots Movement, and in a way, it’s essentially culture idolatry and Torah worship. It took me a while to be content that I’m a Gentile, to not let that make me feel “less spiritual,” or like a “regular old Christian like the rest of ‘em.” I went to BL because I was in pain from my Mom’s death and wanted answers. They told me she was not in Heaven, and would not be until Christ’s Second Coming. Heresy. Before, I’d been dissatisfied at my former church. I was jumping from one disappointing congregation to another. I think we all do it, as we wrestle with getting to know the Lord, to shut out doubts we have about the world. But something I noticed at BL after being there a while, is that they twist scripture to their own benefit, to keep this movement going. That elated feeling I had when I first attended had waned, because I began to see through so many things. I was given sarcastic, snappy answers sometimes, because the “rabbi” clearly couldn’t explain how the Gospels, the TRUTH in Christ, refuted what he was saying.
I know that there are some doctrinal problems there, but after much praying, seeking, studying, I’ve realized this is universal with Hebrew Roots and their Systematic Theology. If I ask you anything, it is to forgive me for influencing you in any way. I have felt bad for quite a while about this, and when you told me your family is divided, I just wanted to get you all on a conference call and apologize. And I know even recently I’ve said some things that can be construed as in support of it. Mainly out of confusion and just feeling uneasy about all of it. My prayer is for forgiveness and that you don’t think of me as double-minded or two-faced. What the Lord had shown me is the New Covenant is one of grace. No, it doesn’t mean “do as you wish,” it means as a saved Believer, you’re going to WANT to obey the Lord… Gentiles were not given the Mosaic Law. (I can see the folks at BL shouting “blasphemy.”) We know what’s right and wrong, but FAITH and LOVE is what dominates…two things I struggle with and why I floundered into HRM.
BL thrives on pulling people in who are already saved, giving them the idea that Christ is not enough and they must be an “exclusive club that knows things from a Hebraic mindset that ‘the church’ doesn’t.” The Lord clearly says he hates secrets. Why would we witness to those already redeemed by HIS blood? Why would we focus on His race, a covenant not made with the Gentiles, why try (and fail) to learn a difficult, ancient language, when he came for “all nations, tribes and tongues?” Don’t get me wrong, Hebrew is beautiful and the Lord’s chosen language for the Jewish people. But He created us Gentiles as an entirely different culture for a reason.
One night, I printed out the laws of the Torah. My mouth dropped. There is no way one can be “Torah observant” without (just a few I’ll list here)… stoning an unruly child, stoning adulterers…stoning those who’ve had sex before marriage, not leaving your dwelling on the Sabbath, etc. Even driving or studying on the Sabbath is considered “work,” so that’s one that I was breaking, trying to “keep” it. The Torah was given exclusively to the nation of Israel – the biological Jews – and even THEY couldn’t keep the Law – and some of course were absolutely fanatical about it. And because of that…we have the whole purpose of Christ’s death and resurrection. This is one simple truth, the whole POINT of salvation, and I overlooked it, because I felt something was missing from Christianity. What was missing was MY faith problem and MY poor relationship with Christ because of my own problems. The way I’d been let down by people and the church had nothing to do with my relationship with the Father through his Son.
That’s another point. I noticed we at BL went straight to the Father. They disregarded that Christ said no one can come to the Father except by Him. Christ was mentioned here and there, sort of like salt and pepper on the “meat,” which was the Torah… (And…do know how long it took for me to be able to call Him “Jesus” without feeling I was calling on the name of a pagan god?) Again, that was more brainwashing. I was weak and fell prey to lies.
I realized when the itinerary for the home Shabbat service followed that of BL, I became concerned. The worship services of the HRM are based on rabbinical tradition, the Talmud and Kabbalah. All I can say is…Judaism is definitely not Christianity, and when one tries to incorporate a little of one into the other, a bit of what each means is lost. And that’s more confusion. I don’t want my relationship with Christ fade even more because of that, especially with the tough times I’m going through right now. I do want to add that I sat down over a few weeks and read the Gospels, then I read Galatians, more than once. There’s no way one can reconcile being Torah observant with what Paul writes, without twisting scripture and coming up with a far-out, exaggerated translation. And believe me, when I asked the rabbi at BL questions about why Galations refutes everything about the Sabbath and keeping Torah, he had the strangest explanations that were so convoluted it was ridiculous. And sadly, I became suspicious of anything Paul wrote and still have difficulty with things because of the intense influence that I encountered at BL. They want to be Christians, but Jewish… “just in case.” And that is a theme that resonates throughout all of the Hebrew Roots Movement and Torah Observance.
Looking back, I see that they are planting a destructive seed that takes the focus off of Christ, and puts it on Laws that were not even given to us, but those who were set-apart to bring Christ’s birth and death to fulfillment. The key is the focus which IS NOT on the strength, the power, or the salvation which is CHRIST, as it should be. The Gospels, of course, focusing on the person of Christ, and the rest of the New Testament focusing on our purpose in Him. I think the Lord can use the HRM for his Glory, like he used the Jews’ short-sightedness to His Glory. I believe I was allowed to get involved to show me how we all want some type of “exclusivity,” a sort of “us” vs. “them.” But the Gospel is inclusive, not an exclusive club. And even though I know the home services don’t operate like that, the foundation is the worship style at BL, and that’s the agenda.
We now have the freedom to choose to celebrate the feasts, to choose to adhere to the dietary laws, but we are not obligated, because of the sacrifice Christ made. Before going to BL, I never let the Gospels and what Paul said sink in. I was just restless with “church.” But it has gotten to the point…I realized I either need to believe the Gospels, the words of my Savior and of Paul, or focus solely on the study guide/tutor (Torah) and neglect the entire purpose of Christ’s finished work.
I hope and I pray that this makes sense, and again, I ask that you forgive me for the influence I had in leading you to look into HRM. I didn’t even know it was called that. They were very careful at BL to not “label” anything. But the whole idea that all things Christian are pagan…well, again I will tell you the Talmud and Kabbalah, which is where their worship styles, Bible interpretations, and doctrines come from, are more pagan than most things you’ve ever seen. I do hope this does not in any way affect our friendship. And yes, I was so happy to share my newfound knowledge with you back then. That was before I was confronted with the heresies that began surfacing very quickly once I dug deeper into it. At the end of the day, it’s all about what the Son did for us, why, and what that accomplished for the world. And thank the Lord for that!
Thank you for this very thorough explanation. I had/have (I’m not quite sure) a dear friend who married my cousin. She became interested in the Hebrew roots movement, and then eventually, so did my cousin. Their son was 12 at the time, and didn’t have much of an opinion.
Eventually they left their church, which they had only been marginally attending, and began to attend a messianic home fellowship. Little by little I begin to see changes in then. My cousin began wearing a kippah, praying with a prayer shawl, my friend began mentioning kosher food and using Hebrew terms. Within a few years they were dressed like the Amish, kept the Saturday Sabbath and cooked everything the day before, tried to figure out when the moon appeared in Israel or something like that so they would know when to light the candles, etc. She was speaking less and less of Yeshua, more about the rabbi from her fellowship, keeping the law, kosher rules, the Biblical feasts, and posting angry and almost better tirades on Facebook about pagan Christmas and Easter and showing many photos and videos of her family celebrating Shavuot and Hanukkah and how she was finally living set apart unto HaShem. Not long after, she would officially identify herself as a Jewish Christian, and they have taken Jewish names. My cousin and I are part Jewish genealogically (Spaniard Jews who migrated to Belize many generations ago), but our families were basically pagans until becoming Christians a few decades ago. To the best of my knowledge, she is not genealogically Jewish, even though she had DNA testing. Now she considered herself a Jewish Christian. It almost seemed like they were participating in costume parties, method acting, and cosplay. For all their zealousness, there was no detectable love for God. More tirades happened. Their son was now an older teenager and very unhappy about restrictions on his life. That’s how he viewed Torah observance. Eventually though, they took him to a matchmaker who helped marry him to a young Jewish Christian woman, and now they have two children and plan to move to Israel in the future. They desire to live among “fellow Jews”. He is studying with their current rabbi to become a rabbi.
My friend and cousin now both identify as orthodox Jews. They claim to still believe in Yeshua, but they believe in the oral law, and claim there is no written Law apart from the oral law. “Torah is the frame and walls, but Mishnah adds the furnishings and arranges our lives on how and where to walk, sit, eat, and live.” They study and liberally quote the Talmud, they study Kabbalah, claim to be doctrinally correct and pleasing to HaShem (but spend little time studying the doctrines of Scriptures. They mostly use Scriptures out of context to prove Rabbinic teachings or disprove NT teachings). They mock the idea that we don’t need rabbinic interpretation of the Torah, and that Jesus and the Father are one and both are God. When I referred to John chapters 15-17, and how the Holy Spirit is the one who teaches us, and how Jesus and God are different Persons of the Godhead, they laughed arrogantly and told me that was ludicrous. They seem to treat Jesus as an exalted Rabbi, not much different than Moses. Apparently they have graduated into some higher form of knowledge than Christians have, knowledge that only the rabbis of old and new can bring. They even said that anyone without having such knowledge who is not seeking it out is someone they cannot consider to be their brother or sister.
I am terribly grieved, but not surprised. They both got too close to the edge of the waterfall and eventually tipped over. It took a few years to reach the waters of heretical doctrine at the bottom, but once you’ve gone over the tipping point and are soaked in false teachings, it takes divine intervention and great grace to climb out and get back to the safe waters at the top.
I thank God for delivering you and returning you to all He has planned for your life. May many who are in error read this and have their eyes opened to the lies which have ensnared them. And may they have the courage to turn back to the Lord God and be restored.
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I am so very sorry for the pain and frustrations you have gone through dealing with this. It hurts my heart as I am sure it does yours.This is so distracting from the Gospel and drives people into bondage and away from the freedom found in Jesus Christ. My thoughts and prayers are with you – my hope is that the Lord will have mercy and rescue these people who are so dear to you and find true peace and salvation in Christ alone …
Sheep