Beware of the Hebrew Roots Movement and Other Legalistic Cults (Another Old Facebook Post)

     A couple of months or so ago, I came across another old post in my Facebook memories that I thought was worth sharing. I wrote it on 12 June 2015, and it has to do with the Hebrew Roots Movement and other Judaising sects or cults that have a legalistic focus on the Old Testament Law. I shall now quote the post below and then follow up with a few additional comments.

Earlier in the week, I addressed the somewhat thorny topic of Israel and antisemitism. In this post however, I'd like to reflect a little on the opposite extreme that is just as dangerous in many ways, maybe even more so. And that is Hebrew Roots, Judaising and suchlike. Judaising of course involves going back under the Law, including Sabbath keeping. (The Seventh Day Adventists are a classic example of Judaising.) The Hebrew Roots movement goes even further though and has people adopting Jewish dress, Jewish customs and using the Hebrew name of Jesus (Yeshua, although some also say Yashua).

Now as I said earlier, it is very important for us to have a right understanding of Israel and the Jews, and their place in Biblical history and prophecy. (This is not a salvation issue - you can be saved and still have some wrong notions about Israel and the Jews initially, but if the Holy Spirit is in you, He will surely correct you over time. Nonetheless it is still something that is vitally important to understand.) However, that does NOT mean that we have to become de facto Jews ourselves! (I heard a podcast a while back that said most real Jews have little time for the Hebrew Roots Movement - they regard it as Gentiles playing at being Jews, and I reckon that pretty well nails it.) There is no requirement in the Bible for us to adopt the laws and customs of the Old Testament. Nor are we required to call Jesus by His Hebrew name. If we were supposed to do that, then God would have made it plain in His Word. But over and over in Acts for instance, we see the apostles preaching Jesus, not Yeshua. It is the name of Jesus Christ that makes the devils tremble, and by which we can be saved.

The Bible is clear that when we are saved, we are under grace and not law. However, we should certainly not discount the Old Testament Law out of hand. It has three parts to it (triune like God Himself), each with its own particular purpose:

1) The moral Law shows us that we are sinners in need of a Saviour. It shows us all the ways that we have sinned and come short of the glory of God. That is why this aspect of the Law needs to be preached hard to proud and unrepentant sinners, to break up the fallow ground of their hearts.

2) The civil Law, while only applicable to Israel, has some useful general principles of justice, and also shows us God's absolute hatred for sin, especially those kinds He calls an abomination.

3) The ceremonial Law, again only required for Israel to practise, points to Christ, with everything about it foreshadowing His ultimate sacrifice on the cross. By studying the ceremonial Law, we can gain a deeper appreciation for what the Lord Jesus Christ did at Calvary, especially when we consider all the ways He fulfilled it.

So the Law is certainly a very important part of the Bible, but we are not required to live under it, because Christ has redeemed us from its curse and from all the burdens it would place on us. Attempting to keep the Law in all its points is the ultimate in works salvation. (We should certainly obey the New Testament commandments though, some of which repeat the moral Law. Not to be saved or stay saved though, but because we ARE saved and out of love for the Lord who saved us.) And trying to live like a Jew, especially when you are not one, is completely unnecessary at best, and a road to legalism and bondage at worst. Avoid this extreme then every bit as much as antisemitism. The best way to love the Jewish people, at the end of the day, is to give them the Gospel!

 

      Like the Facebook post I reproduced here in June, I have not edited this one other than to fix a solitary typo. It is otherwise exactly as I wrote it seven years ago.

    Recently I did a study of Colossians, and in the second chapter of that epistle, I came across this rather important little passage:

     "Let no man therefore judge you in meat, or in drink, or in respect of an holyday, or of the new moon, or of the sabbath days: Which are a shadow of things to come; but the body is of Christ." (Colossians 2:16-17)

     Some people take Verse 16 to mean that we shouldn't let anyone judge us for things like celebrating Easter and Christmas ("holyday" is where we get the word "holiday" from). However, the next verse makes it clear that it is only the Jewish ceremonies and feasts prescribed in the Old Testament being referred to. These ceremonies are "a shadow of things to come", or as I wrote in my old Facebook post, they foreshadow Christ and His sacrifice on the cross. Christmas and Easter, on the other hand, are not a shadow of anything. They are Catholic inventions incorporating a wide range of pagan traditions, many (or even most) of which are based in witchcraft. So these are not good things for Christians to be celebrating, and anyone speaking against these holidays is NOT in violation of Colossians 2:16, nor should anyone use this verse as an excuse to justify celebrating them. (The problems with Christmas and Easter are a discussion for another day. Right now, the main point I want to stress is that they are not shadows of anything to come, whereas the old Jewish ceremonies stipulated in the Old Testament ARE such shadows. So the verse is dealing with old Jewish traditions and has nothing to do with modern so-called Christian holidays.)

    The very first Christians were Jews, and from Acts 10 onwards, Gentiles (non-Jews) began to be converted in large numbers as well. The Jewish converts had been raised to observe the Mosaic Law, including keeping the Sabbath, celebrating Passover and so on. Even though they no longer had to do this, old habits died hard for some of them. There were also some (either immature believers or false teachers) who tried to persuade the Gentile converts to observe these old ceremonies as well. Indeed, sometimes they tried to make the Gentile converts feel like they were not proper Christians, or that they were at best inferior Christians somehow, if they didn't keep all the old ceremonies. This is the true context of the above verses. Paul was quite simply telling the members of the Colossian church that they should not let anyone make them feel bad for not eating or drinking in a "kosher" way, or observing Passover and similar feasts, or keeping the Sabbath (note that last one in particular). In NOT doing such things, they were doing nothing wrong. Those old ceremonies were just a shadow pointing to Christ. Because of what and Who they represent, they are good for us to study, but there is otherwise no need to partake in them.

    Nowadays, there are still people (such as Hebrew Roots practitioners and Seventh Day Adventists, among others) who insist we should keep the Sabbath and/or observe other Old Testament rituals. Like the Gentile Christians of New Testament times, we should not let such people judge us when we ignore these ceremonies, for it is they who are in the wrong by trying to make people go back under the bondage of the Law. That is the application of the Colossians passage above. Again, it has nothing to do with celebrating modern-day "Christian" holidays. People who want to keep the Sabbath and other parts of the Old Testament Law are really just trying to save themselves by works, which cannot be done. They are moreover making the exact same error that the unbelieving Jews of Paul's day did (and which the unsaved Jews of today also make):

     "Brethren, my heart's desire and prayer to God for Israel is, that they might be saved. For I bear them record that they have a zeal of God, but not according to knowledge. For they being ignorant of God's righteousness, and going about to establish their own righteousness, have not submitted themselves unto the righteousness of God. For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to every one that believeth." (Romans 10:1-4)

    When you try to establish your own righteousness through works, you are not submitting to the righteousness of God (repentance and faith in Jesus Christ, which results in salvation by GRACE and not works). Many people who are into keeping the Sabbath and suchlike are often very zealous, but their zeal is not according to right knowledge or understanding of the Scriptures. Trying to keep the Old Testament Law is just setting yourself up for failure:

    "For whosoever shall keep the whole law, and yet offend in one point, he is guilty of all. For he that said, Do not commit adultery, said also, Do not kill. Now if thou commit no adultery, yet if thou kill, thou art become a transgressor of the law." (James 2:10-11)

    This ties in with what I wrote in the Facebook post above: "Attempting to keep the Law in all its points is the ultimate in works salvation". You only have to break one law, one time, to be a sinner. So you could keep the Sabbath faithfully for your entire life, yet if you tell a lie or steal something, or break any other moral commandment, you become a sinner and guilty before God. No amount of good works that you do, or ceremonies that you observe, can make any difference to your liability for your sins. That is why you need to repent of your sins (be deeply sorry to God for them and have grief over them) and put your faith in Jesus Christ and His finished work on the cross to be saved.

    However, if you try to keep the Law, you make Christ of no effect in your life. Paul explains this to the Galatians using the example of circumcision (which was required for baby boys born as Jews and also required for people wanting to convert to Judaism in Old Testament times - some false teachers in Paul's day were insisting that Christian men should be circumcised to be saved; see Acts 15:1 for instance):

    "Stand fast therefore in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free, and be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage. Behold, I Paul say unto you, that if ye be circumcised, Christ shall profit you nothing. For I testify again to every man that is circumcised, that he is a debtor to do the whole law. Christ is become of no effect unto you, whosoever of you are justified by the law; ye are fallen from grace. For we through the Spirit wait for the hope of righteousness by faith. For in Jesus Christ neither circumcision availeth any thing, nor uncircumcision; but faith which worketh by love." (Galatians 5:1-6)

    Now if you happen to be someone who was circumcised for a genuine medical reason (because that can happen), or your parents circumcised you as a baby (which you obviously had no control over), then be assured that this passage does not apply to you. It is talking about professing Christians who did it because they thought they had to obey some or all of the Old Testament Law. So Paul is pointing out that if you submit to that rite, then you're submitting to the entire Law and thereby putting yourself in a yoke of bondage. Notice that being "fallen from grace" has NOTHING to do with "losing salvation". The point is rather that if you are trying to be justified by the Law, you are rejecting salvation by grace, which requires only repentance and faith. So this is the sense in which you can be "fallen from grace". Observing the old Jewish rituals is another form of bondage, as Paul points out in the previous chapter of Galatians:

    "But now, after that ye have known God, or rather are known of God, how turn ye again to the weak and beggarly elements, whereunto ye desire again to be in bondage? Ye observe days, and months, and times, and years." (Galatians 4:9-10)

    Going back to Colossians 2, he also says:

    "Wherefore if ye be dead with Christ from the rudiments of the world, why, as though living in the world, are ye subject to ordinances, (Touch not; taste not; handle not; Which all are to perish with the using;) after the commandments and doctrines of men?" (Colossians 2:20-22)

    Some of the points made in these last two passages could actually apply to modern holidays, because they are based on the doctrines and commandments of men, coming as they do from Catholicism and not the Bible, and can often put people in bondage (such as the obligation people feel to give presents at Christmas - if you're doing that because you feel you have to, you're in bondage). But the main focus is still on the old Jewish ceremonies. Christ did away with all those things on the cross, and He did something else rather important too (which I alluded to in the Facebook post above):

    "For as many as are of the works of the law are under the curse: for it is written, Cursed is every one that continueth not in all things which are written in the book of the law to do them. But that no man is justified by the law in the sight of God, it is evident: for, The just shall live by faith. And the law is not of faith: but, The man that doeth them shall live in them. Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us: for it is written, Cursed is every one that hangeth on a tree: That the blessing of Abraham might come on the Gentiles through Jesus Christ; that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith." (Galatians 3:10-14)

    So these Hebrew Roots and Seventh Day Adventist types, and others who believe that Christians need to do works of the Law, are not only putting themselves and those they influence in bondage, but are also under the curse of the very law that they think will save them! But no one can be justified by the Law, a point also made in Galatians 2:16, "Knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the law, but by the faith of Jesus Christ, even we have believed in Jesus Christ, that we might be justified by the faith of Christ, and not by the works of the law: for by the works of the law shall no flesh be justified". It really couldn't be much clearer. Obeying the Old Testament Law, including keeping the Sabbath and keeping other ceremonies and rituals, WILL NOT JUSTIFY YOU. Only through repentance and faith in Jesus Christ can you be justified. If keeping the Sabbath, celebrating Passover and so on were so necessary for Christians, why did the apostles not command the early church to do those things? Instead, they only gave them four simple rules:

    "But there rose up certain of the sect of the Pharisees which believed, saying, That it was needful to circumcise them, and to command them to keep the law of Moses." (Acts 15:5 - Hebrew Roots right here, except these were Jewish converts who were either not born again or immature in their faith)

    "Now therefore why tempt ye God, to put a yoke upon the neck of the disciples, which neither our fathers nor we were able to bear?" (Acts 15:10 - a great point made by Peter; those who want to make Christians keep the law of Moses today are putting the same unbearable yoke on them)

    "Wherefore my sentence is, that we trouble not them, which from among the Gentiles are turned to God: But that we write unto them, that they abstain from pollutions of idols, and from fornication, and from things strangled, and from blood." (Acts 15:19-20 - and here are the four rules, proposed by James)

    "For it seemed good to the Holy Ghost, and to us, to lay upon you no greater burden than these necessary things; That ye abstain from meats offered to idols, and from blood, and from things strangled, and from fornication: from which if ye keep yourselves, ye shall do well. Fare ye well." (Acts 15:28-29 - the rules are repeated in a letter to the early churches)

    So the four rules were made in response to some Jewish converts who were insisting that Christians should be circumcised and keep the Old Testament Law, just like those in the Hebrew Roots Movement and other legalistic cults do today. The early Gentile converts were instructed simply to abstain from idolatry (which is repeatedly warned against elsewhere in the New Testament), fornication (also repeatedly warned against in the NT), eating anything with blood in it (are you Catholics who think that transubstantiation turns the wine in your Mass into the literal blood of Christ taking note?) or eating anything strangled. They were not required to observe any old ceremonies or traditions.

    Peter also dabbled in a little Judaising and had to be soundly rebuked by Paul for it. I think that reproof is a good point on which to wrap this post up. Those who adhere to the Hebrew Roots Movement and similar groups are trying to compel Gentiles (and remember most of them are Gentiles themselves) to live like the Jews. To do so however is to not walk uprightly according to the truth of the Gospel. It is legalism at its absolute worst, putting people under bondage. So Paul's rebuke to Peter applies to modern-day legalists as well. When we are born again, we are made free from all that. Note that we do not have liberty to sin (that's what we're saved from, and besides, sin puts us under bondage too), but we don't need to observe any Old Testament rituals. Rather, all we need to do is focus on loving God and others. That is what we are truly set free to do when we're saved.

    "But when Peter was come to Antioch, I withstood him to the face, because he was to be blamed. For before that certain came from James, he did eat with the Gentiles: but when they were come, he withdrew and separated himself, fearing them which were of the circumcision. And the other Jews dissembled likewise with him; insomuch that Barnabas also was carried away with their dissimulation. But when I saw that they walked not uprightly according to the truth of the gospel, I said unto Peter before them all, If thou, being a Jew, livest after the manner of Gentiles, and not as do the Jews, why compellest thou the Gentiles to live as do the Jews?" (Galatians 2:10-14)