"HEBREW ROOTS" - DANGEROUS??
Posted by: prophetic <prophetic@...>
DANGEROUS??
Below is a very interesting testimony from a lady who was deeply
involved in these movements.
Like me, you have probably come across Christian groups telling
us Gentile Christians that we need to get back to the Torah and
observe the Jewish Sabbath and Feast Days, etc. This is often
called the "Hebrew Roots" movement - and some of it is fine -
simply learning more about Jewish culture and traditions, etc.
But then there is the very real danger of LEGALISM. To me, the
entire thrust of the movement ends up going right against the
New Testament - in fact, right against true Christianity. I think it
can become very dangerous. -The bondage of the Law again.
And then there are the people who claim that we MUST call
Jesus by the name "Yeshua" - even though the apostle Paul
simply called Him by the Greek word 'Iesous'. They say that
unless we use "Yeshua" we are totally "off". Well - I believe
the facts completely overturn this theory. I don't mind people
calling Jesus 'Yeshua' if they wish - but to make a "doctrine"
out of it is extreme error in my view. However, it is amazing the
number of people who are being caught up in all this - as though
it were the "great answer" to all our problems! (It's not).
Below is the testimony of a woman who was deeply involved:
"I wanted to share with you why I feel that the Hebrew Roots
Movement & Sacred Name Movement is just as dangerous as the
The Latter Rain Doctrine. Coming out of both I feel confident in
saying so. I grew up in the Assembly of God church, one that did
not teach Latter Rain/Dominion poison. After my husband and I
were married (he grew up Baptist) we began searching for something
deeper ( I think that is how you get sucked into Latter Rain etc.,
you feel like there just has to be something more, sadly the Word
of God is not enough). We began attending a non-denominational
church which would turn out to be one of many disastrous church
experiences.
This church was heavy Dominionist and were really into the
"shepherding" thing so that they knew everything about everyone
and would use it as a form of control. This was our first experience
with the prophetic movement and we were drawn in by it. After
leaving there because of the control issues (we did not notice the
theology was twisted because we were deceived) we continued
on in the prophetic circles including attending Bill Hamon's church
when we were able to travel there and reading everything we could
from all the big NAR's. Well after about 10 years of this running
after new revelation (we had a huge box of tapes with personal
prophecies!) we became really disallusioned with the hypocrisy,
lawlessness and cheap grace attitudes. We decided to leave the
Apostolic/Prophetic church that we were attending. This did not
sit well with the "Apostle". In these types of churches you do not
leave unless you are "sent out" by the Apostle, which never
happens by the way.
After leaving we were contacted by a couple that had left a few
months before we had. Before visiting with them, I remember really
clearing going to my bookshelf and taking a book off the shelf that
was a study on Galatians, I know now the Lord was trying to warn
me but sadly I put the book back without taking a look at it. Well
we began to meet with this couple and we shared our frustrations
about the lawlessness, etc. that we had left (at the time I did not
know anything about Latter Rain and how it was connected to the
Prophetic/Apostolic movement, it would have explained so much).
They gave us a book by Lew White called Fossilized Customs.
The book has some facts but much twisted truth. We took the bait
though. The whole book is about how the name Jesus is supposedly
pagan along with a lot of other extreme ideas! Thus Sacred Name.
These people believe that you can only use the name Yahweh
when referring to God, the Father and Yeshua (some use Yahushua)
all else is pagan and Satan has deceived all Christians into using
the name Jesus and that Jesus really means Zeus! And this has
been revealed to only the remnant (notice the Gnostic elitism)
which is funny because they pride themselves on staying away
from anything remotely Greek!
Well this began a four year journey with these people. We backed
off a bit of the Sacred name only but began studying many Jewish
writings. You must understand that this was all very gradual and
the leader of this group was very skilled at studying things and
presenting it to us.
Sadly to say we drifted more and more from the New Testament,
the new covenant and the cross of Christ. That is the danger of the
Hebrew Roots movement. You want so desperately to return to the
Word of God but in the end it takes you away from it in it's entirety.
The leader began planting seeds such as" the New Testament was
not totally flawless since it had been written in Greek there were
many different texts and some may not be accurate". He began to
pick and choose and before we ended up leaving he had pretty
much thrown out Galatians and John because it did not reconcile
to his theology! He taught that the Virgin birth was just a doctored
up Catholic version of the Word. He taught that Jesus was Joseph
and Mary's natural born son even though he could not prove this
scripturely. That is why he brought into question the accuracy of
the translations.
You are probably saying "how could you stay?" All I can say is
that deception does not happen over night it is gradual, we became
emotionally tied to these people and looked to them as a mother
and father (I think that is why many stay in abusive churches).
We participated in the feasts of the Bible and of course we observed
Sabbath religiously every Saturday (what got me is that instead of
us resting we had to go to the leader's home early that morning to
hear hours of his twisted teaching!). He began to teach that we
became righteous through the law and that was why Yeshua came
to show us how to keep the law. He actually began to teach that
we needed to keep as much of the Law of Moses that we could
and it was lawlessness not to do so. In essence you basically had
to convert to Judaism even though we literally did not.
We started to get a clue about a year before we actually cut all
ties and we started to question him about some of the laws in the
Old Covenant and how we were uncomfortable with some about
slavery for instance, of course he came up with some justification
about it. Around this time he began making references to having
more than one wife. My husband and I were really uncomfortable
with these continuous comments and so one day we confronted
him (his wife was not present and by the way it was obvious this
journey was taking it's toll on her as well by this time.) He told us
he was one of those that could love more than one woman! (There
is double standard because it is unthinkable for a woman to have
more than one husband in their eyes!). We told him "what about
the words of Jesus (in the beginning God made male and female,
etc.) but what was obvious to us was not to him. If it wasn't in
"Torah" then it didn't count!
Well that was it, I cried all weekend and we just began to think
about everything and the path that we had been on and how far we
had strayed from the gospel and it was heartbreaking! I take full
responsibility for allowing myself to be deceived but I must say
that man really messed with my mind! He was skilled in twisting
scripture and to this day I still struggle with some things. I almost
lost my faith in God because of my involvement with these people.
My husband came through a little easier than myself.
I have to say there are many sects within the Hebrew Roots
movement and not all believe what I have shared. But the core
belief is that the church has strayed from it's Hebrew roots and
that God is restoring this revelation (the same theme of the Latter
Rain) but only to a select few and the rest of the church is pagan.
Because of this belief you begin to cut yourself off from the Body
of Christ and before you know it you are isolated. You are no longer
the salt of the world. You do not witness or share the gospel
anymore because you don't believe the gospel anymore!
The very thing that you think is bringing you closer to God (returning
to His word) takes you further away because it is a twisted
perception of the Word of God. My heart goes out to anyone caught
up in this deception because it leaves you so confused. I praise
God that he opened our eyes to this and for His grace and mercy
and for the blood of Jesus which is our true Redeemer!"
SOURCE-
endtimespropheticwords.wordpress.com/2008/09/23/the-hebrew-roots-
movement-sacred-name-movement/