Is the Hebrew Roots of the Christian Faith in a State of Crisis?

Sabbath Thoughts and Reflections Episode 50

Well, I have to tell you, I was hard-pressed and set to continue with the Purim series for this posting when I got tangled up with thoughts on the state, or for that matter, the condition of our beloved Faith, popularly referred to as Hebrew Roots. I became side-tracked with thoughts on the condition of our community and Faith when I asked myself, why do our cousins in Churchianity—that is nominal Christians—fail to see what we see in the bible? Why do they outright reject the greatest truths on the planet having to do with the relationship that must exist between the Creator and human-beings if one has notions of being “saved” and the life of obedience to the Word of Yahovah—contained in His Torah–that we have been tasked to lead? In other words, why do they outright reject Torah and reject us as followers of Y’shua Messiah?

It is evident to me that our cousins in Churchianity are at a severe disadvantage as it relates to not understanding the importance of the Hebrew Roots of the Faith Once Delivered. For when a Hebrew Rooter studies any Megillah (i.e., book or scroll) of the Tanakh, and that includes the Megillah of Ecter, we find whole new levels of truths contained in the sacred Word that our nominal Christian counterparts are, frankly, incapable of seeing. We see these nuances of truths that our Christian counterparts time-after-time fail to see. I believe, besides the simple fact that the greatest proportion of nominal Christians fail to actually take the time to read their bibles, they have been so indoctrinated into Churchianity and have adopted lock-stock and barrel the grace doctrine perversion, that they see us as threats to the security of their religion. I’ve not seen nearly the level of vitriol applied to our community by owners of the various anti-Hebrew Roots sights applied to another religion or Faith. It’s quite fascinating, yet at the same time, quite disappointing and disturbing.

You see, what I’ve found in my handful of years as a Hebrew Rooter, often trying to explain the where, why and what we stand for in our Faith, that the nominal Christian has absolutely no interest whatsoever in looking at the bible and their Faith from a holistic perspective. What do I mean by this? Well, quite simply, the Christian has erected a wall separating the Old and New Testaments and they’ve made it perfectly clear that the titles of these testaments—that is the old and new—are just that: one is the old, done-away documentary of their Faith; while the new is the constitution, the law, the government, the constitutional amendment to the old that is based primarily upon a twisted westernized—Pauline replacement theology—built upon their unsupportable perverted grace theology. Consequently, the only thing that applies to their nominal Christian lives is the manipulated teachings of the Apostle Paul, with maybe a smattering of Jesus Christ here and there. So no, the nominal Christian would be hard-pressed to delve into the Megillahs of Ecter and the other writings of the Tanakh. In eliminating the Tanakh from their spiritual diet, the average Christian is subsisting on spiritual candy and spiritual junk-food that if not halted at some point along the way, will result in their overall spiritual—and even physical—demise.

We, however, are fortunate to have been selected by Father to receive the endless—eternal riches—of His Word. Let’s face reality, we did not arrive to this point of our lives on our own. We were chosen by our Heavenly Father to be His special treasure; His elect. Rav Shaul (i.e., the Apostle Paul) stated this fact throughout his various writings: “Greet Rufus, chosen in the Lord…” (Rom. 16:13, ESV); “But God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong…” (I Cor. 1:27, ESV); “…even as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world that we should be holy and blameless before Him…” (Eph. 1:4, ESV); “But we ought always to give thanks to God for you brothers beloved by the Lord because God has chosen you from the beginning for salvation through sanctification by the Spirit and faith in the truth” (II Thes. 2:13, ESV). Not to be left out of this “chosen of Yahovah” thinking, three other apostles spoke on this vitally important fact: “Listen my beloved brothers, has not God chosen those who are poor in the world to be rich in faith and heirs of the kingdom which He promised to those who love Him?” (Jam. 2:5, ESV); “But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for His own possession that you may proclaim the excellencies of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light” (I Pet. 2:9, ESV); “They will make war on the Lamb, and the Lamb will conquer them, for He is Lord of lords and King of kings, and those with Him are called and chosen and faithful” (Rev. 17:14, ESV).

So saints, we have something to shout about today. This is the biggest news on the planet right now. With so much stuff and mess going on in the world today, isn’t it a blessing to know within the fibers of our being that we are chosen of the Creator of the Universe to be His unique, special and loved possession? If so, why then do we allow the cares of this life to bog us down? Why do we give in to the pressures of the outside world that influences us at every turn to abandon the life that Father has established for us? Why do we marginalize the Torah and the teachings of our Master Y’shua? Why do we choose relationships with people over the only relationship that matters—the relationship that we must have with our Heavenly Father? Why do we not read His Word on a daily basis? Why do we not rub the frowns from our faces and live and treat others as Y’shua admonished us to do? Why do we who know the truth—we who call ourselves Hebrew Rooters, have to be so angry and smug and full of ourselves to the point that the world finds us unapproachable, weird, crazy, misled, fallen from grace—everything but the witnesses to the world that Master instructed us to become? Our community and our Faith is in flux and I’m sorry to say, is in disarray. I see in our Faith a clear re-iteration of that which the Prophet Isaiah wrote back in the day: “All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the LORD hath laid on Him (i.e., a prophetic utterance of Y’shua Messiah) the iniquity of us all.” (Isa. 53:6, KJV)

We realize (or better, we should realize), contrary to the nominal Christian’s perspective, that the true constitution of our Faith and community is Torah. We further realize that Father sent His Son, Y’shua HaMashiyach, to us to not just atone for our sins and mend the broken bridge that has existed between the Creator and mankind since the garden tragedy, but He also taught us how to live holy and righteous lives in accordance with the spirit of Torah. Thus, we view the bible from a holistic perspective and having that understanding tucked under our spiritual belts, we are able to see the untold spiritual riches contained in books of the bible.

So we have so much going for us as a community and Faith, yet we’ve not reached our ultimate potential as that chosen and holy community of priests that Father so desires of us to be. We are fragmented and there is no stable understanding as to what we believe and where we’re heading as the true people of God. Our cousins in Churchianity have this whole thing already figured out and thus we are completely at a disadvantage in that respect. That is, they know who they are and they act and live accordingly. But for some reason, we don’t really understand what we are and whom we belong to. In fact, the Hebrew Roots Faith has become more of a closet space for those who are in search of the Hebrew Roots of the Christian Faith. Unfortunately, we’ve not been able to sort out the specifics—the doctrines, the understanding of that Faith that the Brother of our Lord Y’shua described in his general epistle. Not to mention, our Faith seems to me to be in crisis simply because we are all over the place as it relates to what we believe and it appears that we’re at each other’s throats half the time. It’s no wonder that if you do a simple Google search on the topic “Hebrew Roots,” you’ll see, conservatively speaking, that a good 80-90% of the websites that are listed on that search are extremely critical of us and our community. Now, that’s not to say that we should be fearful of persecution. Those that truly belong to Messiah will be persecuted. Y’shua stated to His disciples: “Remember the word I said to you…if they persecuted Me, they will also persecute you…” (Joh. 15:20, ESV) So Master has made it clear that when one embarks upon a true relationship with the Creator of the Universe and with Him, persecution comes with that territory. However, it would seem that our biggest problem is not our relationship with the Father and Y’shua, but more so, our biggest problem seems to be us. We have not done a good job defining our relationship to Torah and grace through the agency of Y’shua Messiah. As it stands, to the Christian world, we reject Christ in lieu of Judaism and the Law. And in some instances, one can see why the persecutors of our Faith feel that way. In the Messianic Jewish sector of our community, seems to show the world that they all but worship Torah. Additionally, we’ve seemed to all have adopted Jewish traditions and customs and in many cases, taken on Hebrew names. These are the ultra-orthodox of our Faith and community if you will. But then we have the extreme opposite who dabble in certain aspects of our Faith, but fail to commit to the Hebrew lifestyle. These individuals like the thought of rebelling against the Christian establishment and experimenting with the Feast Days, the Sabbath and the dietary laws. But these typically show up to the party, but at the first opportunity, they sneak out the back door, often never to be heard from again. I’ve found that these individuals are quick to grab hold to the latest ear-tickling inventions of the more charismatic and imaginative of our community’s lot. I’m talking about the lunar-solar-sabbath, flat earth, black-Israelitism, etc., etc., etc stuff that seems to be taking certain sectors of our community by storm these days. It’s crazy stuff and the people that fall for these schemes are what I’d call Hebrew Roots agnostics. These individuals know there is a God somewhere; they’re just not sure how that God fits into their worldview and lifestyle. So they are constantly in search for new truth and new revelation.

But then, there are all the others that sort of fit into the center of the spectrum along the sliding scale. I’d say I fit somewhere in there, albeit toward the conservative side of the spectrum. I don’t, however, subscribe in the least to Messianic Judaism. I wholly subscribe to honoring and obedience to Torah; the Hebrew names of the Creator and our Master; observance of the weekly Sabbath and the 7-Feasts or Moedim of Yahovah; the belief and understanding that the Gospel that Y’shua brought to us is that of the Kingdom of Yahovah; that He came to show us how to live Torah and that His sacrifice affords us the opportunity to have a true relationship with the Creator of the Universe. Furthermore, we are disciples of Master Y’shua who have been given a unique mission to make disciples of the nations of the world. (Reference: Matt. 28:19) We see this Faith as our life. It’s not a religion. Most of us have completely sold out to the Faith once delivered. To us, there is nothing else that matters. To us, we are led by the Ruach Kodesh in every aspect of our day-to-day lives. The Bible is our life’s instruction manual. We study and we pray and we fast significantly more than our counterparts. We are all about family—be it our home families or our Faith-community—fellowship families. We tend to not be affiliated with brick and mortar church organizations, but flourish in home fellowships. We have one, maybe two or three Hebrew Roots teachers we follow, but we never take what is taught to us by anyone as the end all to be all truth. We revere the example of the Bereans whereby we search the Scriptures daily to determine or ascertain that which is being taught is indeed correct and in alignment to that which is actually codified in our bibles. (Reference: Acts 17)

The rest of our community seems to be into Hebrew Roots Christianity, whereby they ascribe to the Sabbath and the Feast Days—to a greater and lesser extent; maybe dabble in the food Laws unless there’s bacon on the menu. But for the most part, they are still stuck in Churchianity. These refuse to consider the efficacy of using sacred names of our Creator and our Master. In many respects, they hold on to Christmas and Easter celebrations and are attracted to a “Church” mindset whereby the members of these types of congregations are churched and taught what they should believe. I personally spent the first six (6) or so years of my Hebrew Roots journey in this sector of our community and I have to admit, that experience proved to be good grounding—a good foundation for me, if you will. For it was in this sector of our community that I learned the basics of the Hebrew Roots Faith (subject to interpretation of course) and got a feel for the Hebrew Roots lifestyle without all the hardcore elements that one finds typically in, let’s say, the Messianic Jewish sector. In other words, it was introductory and it did not threaten or infringe too much upon my secular life. I could practice my Faith and no one would be any wiser that I was doing so. But what I found was that those who get stuck in Hebrew Roots Christianity tend to be just that: stuck. The teachings and lifestyle are elementary in nature and there is very little to no spiritual growth beyond the fundamental stuff. People tend to get bored and the one thing that bothered Hilary and I during our time in this sector was, that you dare not ask pertinent questions that might challenge the established teachings of that particular Hebrew Roots Christian organization—such as the Churches of God and other similar type organizations. If you did so, you would be seen as a trouble maker, and likely asked to cease and desist, or even leave and not let the front doors of the church hit you in the behind on your way out. When one looks at what I call Hebrew Roots Christianity—dare I say Hebrew Roots Churchianity—closely, one sees very little distinction between traditional/fundamental Christianity and Hebrew Roots Christianity—except maybe the weekly Sabbath worship routine.

So, as you may well see, we are all over the place in our Faith and community. We are divided and often in conflict with one another. Simply look at social media—it’s not uncommon to see us at each other’s throats about the minutest aspects of our Faith. It’s embarrassing. And as I stated earlier in this post, there is certainly good cause for Churchianity to see us as loons. But I do believe that there’s hope for us as a community. We certainly may not agree with one another on certain aspects of the Hebrew Roots Faith, but we can certainly agree on the fundamentals of our Faith. All the rest, we can civilly agree to disagree.

What are those fundamentals? Well, we’ve been called to be kings and priests to the world as well as because of our commitment to the Faith and our relationship with the Father, shame the Jew to jealousy. We can not accomplish this unless we have our collective acts together. Thus I am calling upon our community to agree to follow the example set forth to us by Y’shua Messiah; that we figure out what are the true essentials of our Faith and then live out those essentials in obedience to our Creator, by our Master’s example, the leading of the Ruach Kodesh. We know we are to keep the weekly Sabbath and to honor the mandated Feasts of Yahovah. We know that we are to adhere to Yahovah’s dietary laws. We know that we are to be hardcore—sold-out disciples of Master Y’shua Messiah and to live lives worthy of our elect status. Beyond these things, the rest is between us as individuals and Father. If I choose to wear tzitzits everyday but you don’t feel it’s right for you, so be it. That’s between you and Yah. If I choose to refer to the Creator as Yahovah and you believe it to be Yahuah, so be it. Why can’t we fellowship together and sharpen one another for the times ahead? If you kiss or touch a Torah scroll with your tzitzits but I choose not to, again, that be your business. If you choose to celebrate Christmas, respect me enough not to try to convince me that Christmas is ordained by Father and you and yours go ahead and do what you gotta do. Leave me and everyone else who does not celebrate that day out of the equation; unless, however, I or someone else ask you why, how and when. Then it is all fair game.

Bottom line saints: we do not need to agree on the extra stuff that is not of salvation significance or are not commandments of the Father—such as traditions. Most of us know what those salvation level elements of our Faith are and we generally adhere to those commandments—that is, those of us who are completely committed to the Faith.

So we then can kiss and make-up now, right? Just say’n.