Real Christianity #122： Disproving the Hebrew Roots Movement：
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Summary
In this episode, Pastor Dale discusses the Hebrew Roots Movement, a group of Christians who hold to a Jewish-centered theology and believe that Jesus should be called Yahweh . Is this a Christian denomination?
Transcript
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My name is Dale Partridge, where each week I offer 15 to 20-minute answers to tough theological
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Okay, have you guys heard about the Hebrew Roots Movement?
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Have you heard about these Christians who adopt practices from the Torah, the Old Testament,
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like keeping Sabbaths or feasts or dietary laws,
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and they demand that Jesus should be called Yeshua and that God should be called Yahweh?
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Some of you might know these people as Messianic Christians, but there's a new growing movement
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of people holding to this Jewish-centered theology.
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But the question we have today is, is that biblical?
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Well, stay tuned because that's what we're going to be discussing and more.
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But before we begin, I just wanted to make one quick announcement.
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I feel very unsettled with their interpretation
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of the scriptures, especially the New Testament scriptures
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but I don't feel fully equipped to disprove their doctrines. Would you be willing to shed some light
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on this movement and offer some insights for defending biblical Christianity against these
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false teachings? Okay, great question, Casey. I've actually had a lot of people ask me to do a show
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on this topic, so you're in good company. This is a major topic that deserves far more discourse
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and study than what I can offer you here. But I do believe I can at least bring an explanation
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of what it is and some great resources that I'll leave at the end of this episode for you to do
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further study and research. So first, what is the Hebrew Roots Movement? It's a group with
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several factions or sects, right? S-E-C-T-S, right? Where some of them are more extreme than
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others. You might be familiar with the Messianic Jews, which is a part of this group, but the
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general defining characteristic of these people is that they believe you should follow the law
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of Moses, the Torah, to the best of your ability. So that means that keeping Sabbaths and
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feasts and dietary laws and potentially cleansings, et cetera. And some people in this group believe
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that you can't be saved without obedience to the law, while others in the group believe that you
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can. Some reject the authority of the apostolic writings of the apostles, but some don't. Some
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even reject Jesus as God, while others in the group don't. And so they don't have a statement
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of faith or a collection of doctrine. So I know that I'm throwing many groups of people into one
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category. But again, the thread between all of these groups and the unity between them all
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is basically obey the Torah. And this is the root issue, no pun intended, with this movement.
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minute. So I can absolutely say from my research so far as we get into this, that the Hebrew roots
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movement is a cult. Now, I know that's a strong word. What is a cult? A cult is any group founded
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upon the Christian religion or the Judeo-Christian view who diverts from the biblical, historical,
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and evangelical doctrine of the gospel of Jesus Christ.
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So for example, a Lutheran and a Baptist expression of church, those are denominations, not cults.
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They both believe in the core tenets of the historical Christian gospel, that mankind
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is saved by grace alone, through faith alone, and Christ alone.
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Now, the Jehovah's Witnesses and the Mormons are a cult.
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They do not believe that you're saved by grace alone, through faith alone, and Christ alone.
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And they also have several other perversions of a variety of other core Christian doctrine
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that are detached from both sound interpretation and church history.
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The Hebrew Roots Movement acts just like a cult as well.
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There are a group of people who really claim that the current church is corrupt.
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The scriptures, the pastorate, and the seminaries have all been blinded and lured by the doctrines
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and that they have found, quote, the real way that God wants us to live.
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Again, it's the same heretical foundation that the Jehovah's Witnesses and the Mormons were built upon.
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This idea of corrupt scripture, this idea of a need for a new way.
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And when you know church history, you quickly learn that Satan only has a few ways to decorate a lie.
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And so you start to see that, wow, this is the same pattern of all the other cults that
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have been produced and spun off of Christianity over the years.
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Now, it's important to note that the majority of these people, at least from what I'm
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researching, and I've done a significant amount of research here, these people don't
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In fact, they consider themselves missionaries to the Christian church.
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So don't view this group as people who have a slightly different view of God in the gospel.
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And that's a really critical statement to just start with.
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Now, I know there's some people that are not as extreme, but I'm dealing with the people
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that will identify with the Hebrew Roots movement.
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Now, most people who leave the church for the Hebrew Roots Movement leave as a reaction
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to what I think are the valid weaknesses of the modern expression of the church.
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People are tired of reading about the closeness and intimacy and connectedness of Christians
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in their Bible and then not experiencing that type of closeness in their own Christian life.
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Additionally, I think that more and more Christians are sensing the shallowness of infotainment
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Christianity or audience Christianity, and they're tired of the superficiality of it
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They run from the modern expression of the church to something that has more historical
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And they end up putting their trust in this sense of tradition and ancient paths.
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And this is why you see many people leaving the megachurches for Catholicism or Eastern Orthodoxy or this Hebrew Roots movement.
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And this, I am going to say one thing, is I've noticed several times from the testimonies of people that are in the Hebrew Roots movement,
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they pray, meaning they P-R-E-Y, they pray on these weaknesses of the current modern expression of
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the church. They say things like, if you're feeling like there's something more to your
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Christian experience, we understand, right? They kind of appeal to this bankruptcy that's currently
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in the institutional or the traditional expression of church, and I should say the modern expression
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of church. Or they'll say things like, does something not feel right at your church? Do you
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wish that there was more for you and more for God's people? Well, there is, right? Like that's
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their angle. And so ultimately they target people who are emotionally unsatisfied and relationally
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deficient in the church. And instead of telling them that they need to go find a more biblical
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and healthy church, they say, you know, the modern church is lost, but we have found the way.
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Come, let us show you. Let us show you. Come with us and let's show you what we found. We have to go
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back to the ancient ways. And it's very, very deceptive. And this is definitely a tactic
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they use. I've watched several videos on YouTube of people that are a part of this. And that's the
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general undertone of how they express and evangelize. And so this is also why the modern
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extra biblical expression of church should frustrate you. Okay. These again, conference
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style rock band, coffee shop churches generate a spiritual territory that leaves the flock
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vulnerable to these heretical movements. And these movements, they take the valid weaknesses
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of the church, again, like the intimacy between the brethren or a low reverence for God or our
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sad state for biblical literacy. And they say, hey, get out of the kiddie pool and come over
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here to the ocean. You guys are missing it over there. We've recovered the true faith. Come and
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join us, right? This is, this is what they do. And the problem is that their interpretation of
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the quote, true faith is detached from church history. It's detached from theological history,
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and it stands in direct oppositions. I should say opposition of the teaching of the apostles.
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So let me give you a few reasons why I have come to my conclusion. So after watching some videos
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from 119 Ministries. I watched a documentary called Inside the Hebrew Roots Movement.
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I read several articles by their proponents. You quickly start to realize that they hold
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scripture in hierarchical categories. What I mean by that is the words of God the Father
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have the most authority. Thus says the Lord, has the most authority. The words of Jesus and
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the prophets kind of hold the next layer of authority. And then the apostles, especially
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Paul's last, hold the least amount of authority. And additionally, they have kind of this major
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covenantal confusion going on that leads them to elevate the Old Testament scriptures above the
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New Testament scriptures, when in reality, the New Testament supersedes the Old Testament. So
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they have this backwards covenantal confusion. And then lastly, they really have a limited
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or just a perverted or distorted Trinitarian view of God.
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They would believe in all three persons of the Trinity,
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meaning that God the Father is going to have more authority than the Son.
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So it's not a true historic evangelical definition
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And so let me offer just a brief theological argument
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And again, I wish I could spend a lot more time on this, but hopefully this will at least
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get you started, be aware of this movement, and understand what's really going on.
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So first, their instruction to keep the law of Moses, the Torah, not only stands in opposition
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of the New Testament, but it also undermines the work of Christ.
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And this is why I have a major problem with it, and this is why I believe that the Hebrew
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They are pushing a Jesus plus model, okay, a Jesus plus gospel, not a Christ alone gospel,
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but a Jesus plus works gospel. This is exactly what the Judaizers did in the New Testament
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that was condemned by the apostle. Let me read you Acts 15, 5 through 13. Actually,
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it might be 6 through 13. It says, but some believers who belong to the party of the Pharisees
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rose up and said, it is necessary to circumcise them, that is the Gentiles, and to order them
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to keep the law of Moses. The apostles and the elders were gathered together to consider this
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matter. And after there had been much debate, Peter stood up and said to them, brothers,
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You know that in the early days God made a choice among you, that by mouth the Gentiles should hear the word of the gospel and believe.
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And God, who knows the heart, bore witness to them by giving them the Holy Spirit just as he did to us.
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And he made no distinction between us and them, having cleansed their hearts by faith.
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Now, therefore, why are you putting God to the test by placing a yoke on the neck of the disciples
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that neither our fathers nor we have been able to bear? But we believe that we will be saved
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through the grace of the Lord Jesus just as they will. The Hebrew Roots Movement misses that the
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purpose of the law was to reveal our inability to keep it, to show our absolute condemnation
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by the law, and to point us toward our need for a savior to rescue us from the law. Okay, the law
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is a giant arrow that points us toward and prepares us for Jesus Christ, the righteous one.
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This is key, and this is at the heart of what they don't understand in this movement.
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I'm going to read you another passage, Galatians 5, 1 through 4, and I'm going to break this
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Verse 1 says, it was for freedom that Christ has set us free.
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Well, he's freed us from the jurisdiction of the law.
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That is that we who have faith in Christ are no longer condemned by the law.
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So he says, it was for freedom that Christ has set us free.
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Therefore, keep standing firm and do not be subject again to a yoke of slavery.
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We're saying stand firm in grace and don't go back to the burden of the law.
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Verse two, look, I, Paul, tell you that if you have yourself circumcised,
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Christ will be of no benefit to you. He's saying, if you believe that you're saved by keeping the
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law, which included circumcision, then Christ will be of no benefit to you. He's telling these
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people, are you really serious? You would rather attempt to attain your own righteousness than
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accept the righteousness of Christ? Verse three says, and I testify again to every man who has
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himself circumcised, that he is obligated to keep the whole law. He's saying, Paul's saying,
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if you're going to keep some of it, you better keep all of it. In other words, you better realize
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that you need to keep all 613 of those laws if you want to be found righteous on judgment day.
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Verse four says, you have been, so he's basically summing this up as a result. So he says in verse
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four, you have been severed from Christ, you who are seeking to be justified by the law.
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you have fallen from grace, end quote. So this is, man, I can't tell you how many passages
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of scripture teach this. So it's just a deceptive movement of people who don't read their Bibles and
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who don't believe in the authority of scripture. So most importantly, and again, as I said earlier,
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they have covenantal confusion. They don't understand the grand narrative of scripture.
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They don't see that God is doing something in a whole story with the creation and then the fall
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and then the prophecy and then the fulfillment and then redemption and then promise and then
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consummation. They don't see this. And they, like the book of Hebrews explains in chapter 8 through
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10, they point out, um, they serve a shadow of the real thing. So imagine, let me just give you
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an example here. Imagine if you were talking to me in person, but I was behind a wall. Okay. So
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it's totally acceptable if you can't see me to speak to my shadow, because it's all you can see
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of me at that point. Uh, but what if I came out from behind that wall and you still spoke to my
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shadow. Okay. That's basically what the Hebrew roots movement is doing. The, the old Testament
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was the shadow of the things to come, right? There was these promises that were like a shadow of the
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things to come that it was pointing toward and preparing us for Christ. But imagine now that
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Christ is here and we still keep looking back instead of looking forward or looking at Christ
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who is in front of us. What they really don't understand is they don't understand the obsolescence
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or the impotency of the old covenant. The old covenant has gone away. Hebrews 8, 13 says,
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in speaking of a new covenant, he makes the first one obsolete. And what is becoming obsolete
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and growing old is ready to vanish away. Okay. Romans 7, 6 says, but now we are released from
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the law, having died to that which held us captive, so that we serve in a new way of the
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spirit and not in the old way of the written code or the written law. Okay, Romans 8, 1 through 4.
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Some of you guys know this passage. There is therefore no condemnation for who? For those
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who are in Christ Jesus. For the law of the spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from what?
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from the law of sin and death. For God has done what the law weakened by the flesh could not do
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by sending his own son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, he condemns sin in the flesh
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in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, meaning us who believe,
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who walk not according to the flesh, but according to the spirit. This is like a summed up argument
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So if you run into anyone, just point them to Romans 8, 1 through 4.
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And so they're going to probably just slide that away.
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But that is absolutely the core doctrine that refutes this entire movement.
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So the ultimate message of the Hebrew Roots Movement that they can't understand, I should
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say is that we have freedom in Christ. Because we were condemned by the law, we were condemned by
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the law. Christ fulfilled the demands of the law for us. And he offers us freedom now from the law
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by imputing to us or giving us his righteousness by faith. Okay, that is the gospel. And this is
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what makes the gospel so great. The bad news is that without Christ, you're condemned by the law,
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and this should cause anyone eternal fear of God. But the good news, the gospel,
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the good news is that Christ fulfilled the law. And by putting your trust in him alone,
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not him plus not eating pork, not him plus keeping the Sabbath, not him plus keeping the
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feasts, when you realize that your works add nothing to your security or to your ability
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or to your ability to keep or earn your salvation, you can rest fully in the grace of God. You can
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rest and trust in Christ alone to earn that righteous verdict for you on judgment day.
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It's not about what you do. It's about what's already been done. Okay. That, that is the gospel
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message. And again, stands in opposition to this movement. Now I want to put a caveat here just
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because we're under grace. It doesn't mean that we don't obey. Now I'm not talking about obeying
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the 613 ceremonial laws of the Old Testament. I'm talking about obedience according to new covenant
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thinking. This is, you know, Jesus wraps up what is the first and greatest commandment to love the
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Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength, with all your mind,
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right? And the second is like it to love your neighbor as yourself. But again, this obedience,
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we do it from love and gratitude for the salvation that is given to us by grace.
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And this group, the Hebrew Roots Movement, they absolutely, they obey from fear and from
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So they're not experiencing the gospel of grace.
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They're having the yoke of bondage that's still on them, and they're trying to put it
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But as Paul says, should I keep on sinning that grace may abound?
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Meaning don't sin just because you can, but you can.
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And it doesn't change your salvation because you're not standing on your righteousness
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You're standing on the righteousness of Christ.
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Your obedience is the fruit of the good root and the good root is Christ.
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Okay, so someone who is saved will be obedient,
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it has nothing to do and it will not affect your salvation.
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Your salvation is secure on the work of Christ,
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Again, this is the defense against this is just the gospel.
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Now they might be deceived and not understand that what I'm saying here, but they don't,
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Like the joy that I have knowing that I'm saved forever because I'm saved by the righteousness
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And that I've imputed, I've been imputed his righteousness by faith and that faith I've
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been chosen before the foundation of the world.
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and that faith's not gonna be taken away from me
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that I have eternal life, that's promised to me.
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How can you promise eternal life if it's not eternal,
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These people in the Hebrew Roots movement don't have that.
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They're still under the wrath and the bondage of God
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that the only way to the Father is through him.
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and the only way to the Father is through me, right?
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who saves us, who offers us that eternal security. And so they have really adopted a belief that if
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they work hard enough, they might be saved. They are deceived. They have rejected grace,
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and they are living under the weight of the law. I'm going to close with Romans 1.16 that says,
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the gospel is the power of God for salvation for everyone who believes, okay? It's not believes
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plus anything else. It's for everyone who believes, everyone who exercises a saving faith
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in Jesus Christ. That is the gospel. It's not about what you do, as I said earlier,
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So hopefully that was helpful in breaking this down, man.
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I'm going to give you two that I think were very helpful for me that you could find on
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the episode post page, or I should say the post page for this episode.
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This is episode, what is it, 122, titled Disproving the Hebrew Roots Movement.
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Okay, there's an article that I read on Answers in Genesis.
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It's pretty long, but it's titled Dangers of the Hebrew Roots Movement by Tim Chafee.
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It's titled Hebrew Roots Movement Exposed by Former Members.
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Hopefully this was helpful and edifying for you guys.
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My name is Dale Partridge, and I'll see you guys next week.
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