Relatable with Allie Beth Stuckey - August 30, 2023


Ep 865 | Hebrew Roots Movement & Its False Gospel | Guests: Jeremiah Roberts & Andrew Soncrant of 'Cultish' (Part One)


Episode Stats

Length

34 minutes

Words per Minute

184.38708

Word Count

6,275

Sentence Count

314

Misogynist Sentences

3

Hate Speech Sentences

20


Summary

The Hebrew Roots Movement is gaining popularity among Christians who reject the name of Jesus for the Hebrew Yahweh, or Yeshua, who reject holidays like Easter and Christmas for Jewish feasts, and who largely abide by Levitical law. But while many who follow these ideas are sincere in their beliefs, the movement as a whole is contradictory to scripture and even has the tendency to diminish the saving work of Christ and His gospel.


Transcript

00:00:00.260 The Hebrew Roots Movement is gaining popularity among Christians who reject the name of Jesus
00:00:06.320 for the Hebrew Yahweh or Yeshua, who reject holidays like Easter and Christmas for Jewish
00:00:12.520 feasts, and who largely abide by Levitical law.
00:00:16.680 But while many who follow these ideas are sincere in their beliefs, the movement as
00:00:21.600 a whole is contradictory to scripture and even has the tendency to diminish the saving
00:00:26.720 work of Christ and his gospel.
00:00:28.320 This is part one of a two-part conversation with the hosts of Cultish, Jeremiah Roberts
00:00:34.720 and Andrew Songkrant on the Hebrew Roots Movement.
00:00:38.940 And this episode is brought to you by our friends at Good Ranchers.
00:00:41.840 Go to GoodRanchers.com.
00:00:43.140 Use code ALI at checkout.
00:00:44.300 That's GoodRanchers.com.
00:00:45.440 Code ALI.
00:00:46.000 Jeremiah, Andrew, thanks so much for joining Relatable again.
00:00:59.940 Today, we are going to talk about the Hebrew Roots Movement.
00:01:06.120 So I'll just let y'all go.
00:01:07.480 Will one of you just kind of summarize in your words, what is the Hebrew Roots Movement and
00:01:12.880 how do we see it showing up within Christianity or professing Christianity?
00:01:19.260 Awesome.
00:01:19.820 Yeah, absolutely.
00:01:20.440 Thank you so much again, Ali, for having us on.
00:01:22.160 It's always a pleasure to talk to you and your audience here on Relatable.
00:01:25.860 The first thing I want to say is that when we even look at a movement like the Hebrew
00:01:29.860 Roots, it's many times when we look at different cultish movements that we kind of discuss and
00:01:34.720 explore on our podcast, when you look at something, for example, like UFOs or Scientology or some
00:01:41.820 Warren Jeffs, we tend to really think of it as something that's really out there that we
00:01:47.660 view from afar, that we view on a Netflix documentary.
00:01:50.840 However, when you look at something like the Hebrew Roots, it's something that is very much
00:01:55.680 in close proximity to really all of us.
00:01:59.000 More than likely, there are probably people in your audience who have had a friend or family
00:02:04.860 member start talking about adhering to the Hebrew Roots, talking about we need to observe
00:02:09.980 the feast or talk about being Torah observant.
00:02:12.960 In fact, my very first introduction to the Hebrew Roots was actually at my church.
00:02:17.780 My friend Gabe invited a very nice and sweet couple that came very nice.
00:02:24.240 I noticed that the husband was wearing this belt that had tassels attached that were sort
00:02:33.080 of hanging out.
00:02:34.060 It looked very odd and different in relation to just the regular clothes that he was wearing.
00:02:40.100 I felt kind of awkward.
00:02:41.100 It's one of those things where you see something and you don't really want to say anything.
00:02:44.180 So I pulled my friend Gabe aside and asked him, hey, what is going on?
00:02:49.400 What was he wearing?
00:02:50.780 And it turns out he is wearing something called a tassel belt, which is something in Jewish
00:02:55.400 tradition is based off of a verse in the Old Testament, which talks about adhering to
00:03:00.220 the law and also adhering to the corners of your garments.
00:03:04.020 So it was just something that it was an extension of what many people believe that there is a
00:03:10.120 resurgence where we want to adhere to Torah observance.
00:03:15.460 And so it kind of breaks down into many different categories.
00:03:18.260 I have some bullet points I'm going to pull up here in a second.
00:03:20.800 But Andrew, I'm going to have Andrew jump in here as well, too.
00:03:24.280 Andrew, we've done a couple episodes with our good friend Andrew Schumacher doing it.
00:03:29.360 How would you give a very broad overview just of their beliefs?
00:03:33.280 And then we're going to kind of talk about where it comes from, but also how it's the
00:03:38.680 challenges, because it's a very decentralized organization.
00:03:41.120 How would you describe that, Andrew?
00:03:43.180 Yeah, the Hebrew Roots movement is diverse.
00:03:45.360 There's no structured statement of faith or centralized leadership.
00:03:50.100 We can find a lot of teachings from the Hebrew Roots movement, particularly online or people
00:03:55.620 with Facebook groups.
00:03:56.620 There are some churches that do teach Hebrew Roots movement type of teachings because it's
00:04:02.800 typically when a pastor, sad to say, gets converted and then their church gets that way as well.
00:04:08.260 But again, there's no specific statement of faith for what they believe.
00:04:13.160 But there are some specific things that Jerry did mention, like Christians must observe the
00:04:19.260 feasts.
00:04:19.820 They must be obedient to the law and the Torah.
00:04:21.620 Uh, specifically, there's two different forms of theology, not forms, but two things that they
00:04:27.020 adhere to.
00:04:27.720 It's called one law theology and two house theology, uh, one law theology.
00:04:33.420 Uh, it's also known as one Torah theology, uh, but it's a theological perspective that emphasizes
00:04:39.040 the unity of God's law for both Jews and non-Jews who believe in Jesus as the Messiah.
00:04:43.840 Uh, it suggests that all believers, regardless of their ethnic background are called to observe
00:04:48.220 the entirety of Mosaic law as a way of life.
00:04:52.160 So that's the commandments.
00:04:53.280 Of course, as Christians, I would say we should obey the 10 commandments, right?
00:04:56.120 But I'm not perfect by any means, but I should still obey them, uh, feasts, but also even
00:05:00.580 some with dietary restrictions and other regulations.
00:05:03.220 But again, there's no centralized statement of faith.
00:05:05.500 So people may differ in this area.
00:05:07.240 And then there's something called two house theology, which people in the Hebrew, uh, Hebrew
00:05:11.640 Roots movement hold to, which is a restoration, uh, movement essentially of, uh, a lost
00:05:17.740 tribes of Israel, that there's scattered descendants.
00:05:21.020 This comes from the thoughts of, uh, you know, the diaspora, which occurred prior to the coming
00:05:25.400 of Christ when, uh, Israel and Judah were overthrown by foreign powers and the Jews were dispersed
00:05:31.740 throughout the nations.
00:05:33.420 Anyways, they believe, uh, that there's a specific role in end times restoration and things of that
00:05:39.520 nature for the house to come back together.
00:05:41.560 And part of that is through the observance of the Torah and the biblical feasts and things
00:05:45.800 of that nature.
00:05:47.740 But what's interesting is this movement actually prior to the Hebrew roots movement finds a
00:06:04.360 lot of its roots actually coming from, um, Armstrongism in the worldwide church of odd.
00:06:09.960 They have very similar, uh, familiarities between the two movements because the Armstrongism died
00:06:16.900 out after, uh, Herbert Armstrong died in 1986 and they kind of repented.
00:06:23.080 They had like a big repentance, uh, within Armstrongism where they started denouncing all
00:06:27.420 of these prior works, which were, you know, keeping the Sabbath on Saturday and the feasts.
00:06:32.520 And a lot of people were actually upset with that in some of the most early influential teachers,
00:06:37.740 the Hebrew roots movement actually came from, uh, the worldwide church of God, which is a very
00:06:41.940 interesting, uh, correlation there.
00:06:44.200 Hmm.
00:06:44.560 I hadn't heard of Armstrongism.
00:06:47.080 Oh yeah.
00:06:47.540 Yeah.
00:06:47.900 That's a big one.
00:06:48.700 So Herbert, Herbert Armstrong, it's, if you know, uh, we've mentioned a kingdom of the cults
00:06:53.040 by Dr. Walter Martin.
00:06:54.360 This is a definitive chapter in that a cult, a non-Christian cult, an anti-trinitarian cult that
00:07:00.340 Dr. Walter Martin dealt with, uh, during his ministry.
00:07:03.360 And one of the primary things is that, uh, Herbert Armstrong, he, like I said, he denied the Trinity.
00:07:09.060 Uh, he had some very interesting views, but again, he had what was called restoration,
00:07:13.380 a restorationist view and what that primarily means.
00:07:16.360 And it's something that, you know, we view different organizations.
00:07:20.180 We get messages all the time.
00:07:21.320 Hey, will you look at this group?
00:07:22.400 Will you look at that group?
00:07:23.540 The one commonality so many of these organizations have, whether it's an organization or just a
00:07:28.480 charismatic figure where they always say that, Hey, somehow along the line, the church lost its
00:07:35.820 message.
00:07:36.580 The true message has sort of gone away, has fallen away, but guess what?
00:07:40.620 I found the truth or we've discovered the truth and you can only find truth within our
00:07:45.440 organization.
00:07:45.840 So you must follow me because I've obtained special knowledge of what was truly lost.
00:07:51.480 And you do see this with, uh, the Hebrew roots movement, where they talk about how a lot of
00:07:56.600 the, uh, a lot of Christianity has sort of fallen away, has embraced, uh, Gentile pagan
00:08:02.440 ways has sort of lost its root, but this is somehow something that's new.
00:08:06.100 But in reality, uh, we believe there's nothing new under the sun.
00:08:09.860 And so when you look at something like the Hebrew roots, the one of the challenges is that
00:08:14.820 it's, it's decentralized right now.
00:08:17.600 When you talk about the Hebrew roots movement, there's not an official, uh, church headquarters,
00:08:21.600 you know, there's not an official, uh, watch our Bible and track society headquarters.
00:08:25.960 You can go to our official publications.
00:08:28.300 It's very decentralized.
00:08:29.700 So no matter what we try and do, even in this conversation to try and articulate their
00:08:34.760 beliefs, there are going to be groups and possibly even in your audience who adhere to
00:08:40.580 Hebrew roots, uh, theology or beliefs on some level.
00:08:43.320 And they'll say, well, you're not representing us properly.
00:08:45.960 Well, the, the problem is no matter who you do, for example, one of the major YouTube channels
00:08:50.920 out there is called 119 ministries, which you've read Psalm 119 and talks so much about
00:08:55.240 the adherence to the law about how much that, uh, Psalmist loves God's law.
00:08:59.820 But that is one example of a very large YouTube channel, but there's so many variations, depending
00:09:05.180 on who you talk to, you'll kind of get different interpretations of what sort of laws you should
00:09:10.520 adhere to.
00:09:11.440 Uh, but when you look at, uh, Herbert Armstrong and this is where a lot of people have real,
00:09:17.240 like, where's this all coming from?
00:09:18.580 Cause it seems to be something that's only kind of really exploded as of late in the last
00:09:22.660 decade or so.
00:09:23.520 And some of it just has to do with the internet influenza era where people can sort of become
00:09:28.300 their own sort of personality.
00:09:29.620 So what they did in private, they can now broadcast to tens of thousands of people.
00:09:33.620 But, um, just, just, uh, this is actually a, I'm going to read from a source here of one
00:09:37.560 of our research that we were doing, um, is that Herbert Armstrong, his teachings, they
00:09:42.060 hinged on the obligation to keep the Sabbath and the feasts and the festivals and kosher diet.
00:09:46.760 Uh, it was, uh, Israel is, it was British Israelism and anti-Trinitarianism and also, uh, Armstrong,
00:09:53.980 he was already, uh, teaching that to become a converted Christian, one must become spiritually
00:09:59.700 in Israelite.
00:10:00.980 And I'll read it just a couple more things and, and what you'll end up seeing as we unravel
00:10:06.040 this, maybe in the comment section, you see a striking similarity to the current beliefs
00:10:10.940 in regards to what, uh, Herbert Armstrong, uh, believed.
00:10:14.280 In fact, uh, this is somebody named, there's a man by the name of Joseph Track, who was
00:10:17.800 very involved in the worldwide church of God.
00:10:20.480 And he states, for those of us who are in the worldwide church of God, it was a central,
00:10:25.720 it was a central plank of our theology.
00:10:28.060 We believe that we were a faithful remnant of the people of God.
00:10:31.040 We believe that we were the true Israel.
00:10:33.160 We observed the Sabbath and the feasts for a very good reason.
00:10:36.800 We were biological descendants of Abraham.
00:10:39.160 We were not Gentiles.
00:10:40.300 This doctrine formed on the basis for how we lived each day and for our view of the world
00:10:45.700 and its future in prophecy.
00:10:47.900 And so what you'll see, you see these tenants where people need to believe they need to,
00:10:51.760 they need to follow the Torah.
00:10:53.100 But one of the main emphasis that you'll see, uh, the one that kind of sticks out specifically
00:10:58.040 is that we need to observe the feasts that are mentioned in the old Testament.
00:11:02.960 These are something that still have to be observed today.
00:11:06.260 And so what you'll end up seeing, and Allie, if you have questions, we'll definitely jump
00:11:09.940 in there.
00:11:10.440 But, uh, when we did the episodes on Halloween, uh, you saw a lot of people starting, even
00:11:15.580 in your comment section, even in our social media, we didn't even talk about Hebrew roots
00:11:20.200 when we were discussing the historical origins of Halloween.
00:11:22.580 Yet, though people who adhere to that, they were jumping in the comment sections.
00:11:27.600 Well, no, this is pagan.
00:11:28.780 We need to observe the feast.
00:11:31.020 And so that's what you see a lot of times.
00:11:32.960 You'll make a resurgence around Easter, around Christmas, around Halloween.
00:11:37.440 In fact, we did a recent episode, uh, with our good friend, uh, Michael Jones from the
00:11:41.500 YouTube channel, Inspiring Philosophy, who has some great content debugging, uh, pagan holiday
00:11:45.700 myths.
00:11:46.620 And we were talking primarily just about, Hey, we should try and have integrity when we do
00:11:52.260 history and seek to tell the truth as Christians.
00:11:54.920 And then you had a bunch of people who just jumped on very passionately.
00:11:58.520 I'm sure they're very sweet person.
00:11:59.920 If I met up, if I met up with them, I'd love to say hi and have a conversation with
00:12:03.080 them, but they were very passionate and adamant that this is some, the feasts are something
00:12:09.620 that are pagan and I'm sorry, not the feasts, but the holidays, these holidays are something
00:12:13.600 that are pagan, but the only authorized holidays that we can celebrate are these specific holidays
00:12:18.720 listed, uh, in the old Testament.
00:12:21.600 In fact, um, one other thing that I'll just, uh, state here, and this is a quote from Herbert
00:12:26.600 Armstrong, uh, and he states, he says, there's no, there, there is a significant amount of
00:12:31.260 open criticism of these Christian holidays in the literature of the worldwide church
00:12:34.640 of God.
00:12:35.060 And this is the quote he said, and Herbert Armstrong is saying now that now we know the
00:12:39.860 pagan origin of the Easter celebration, let's clear away the web of error that covers the
00:12:45.120 truth about keeping the Passover, the memorial of Christ's sake, or take, for instance, the
00:12:50.500 other, uh, most people today do not take the command of the Lord lightly or have, or how
00:12:55.980 the, or have no validity whatsoever and following the tradition of men in observing Christmas.
00:13:00.940 So when you look at someone like Herbert Armstrong, uh, in the worldwide church of God, he's someone,
00:13:05.740 he's someone who really articulated this theology.
00:13:07.940 And what's very interesting if you follow the history and we have an episode on the worldwide
00:13:11.740 church of God, you can check out in our podcast, but, um, it started to really sort of
00:13:15.760 disseminate and dismantle in the 1990s.
00:13:18.740 And that's almost exactly a part and parcel, which a lot of people who've examined this
00:13:23.060 movement, that's when you start to kind of see all this fragmentation from all different
00:13:27.200 areas, different spheres of these sort of observance to, uh, these, uh, specific aspects,
00:13:34.420 selective aspects, we believe of the Torah.
00:13:45.760 What are your thoughts so far, Allie?
00:13:50.340 What questions do you have regarding this movement?
00:13:52.020 Yeah, I'm thinking for people who are like, you know, I don't know anyone who believes this
00:13:56.140 stuff.
00:13:56.620 I know that I have seen it on my own Instagram with the messages and comments that I have
00:14:01.540 received.
00:14:01.880 So just so people can kind of understand what we're talking about and things that they've
00:14:06.800 seen, but maybe didn't know to link it to a whole movement like the Hebrew roots movement.
00:14:11.380 And again, as you said, uh, Jeremiah, this isn't necessarily indicative of every representative
00:14:17.460 of everyone who is in this Hebrew roots, but what I see a lot is they refuse to say Jesus
00:14:23.360 because they say that's Roman.
00:14:24.860 So they will say Yeshua, and then they will say, yes, we do need to abide by the old Testament
00:14:30.640 laws because if we follow Jesus, Jesus abided by the old Testament laws.
00:14:34.000 If it's good enough for Jesus, it's good enough for me.
00:14:35.840 And, um, also the same thing with not celebrating Christmas, not celebrating Easter, because these
00:14:42.920 are pagan holidays.
00:14:43.840 They might even say the name of Jesus itself is pagan and that Christianity has been paganized.
00:14:50.060 Um, and so we need to go back to the roots.
00:14:53.400 Actually, some would argue to be more like Jesus and we're emulating his life by following
00:15:01.060 the law to the letter.
00:15:02.540 Now, if I bring up and I have before, and this was even before I knew that this was kind
00:15:07.980 of a collective thing.
00:15:09.280 When you bring up Galatians about not being tethered to the law anymore.
00:15:13.580 And if you try to uphold one part of the law, then you've got to uphold the whole part of
00:15:17.720 the law, but Jesus actually fulfilled the law.
00:15:19.920 They claim that it's, that's not what Galatians means, that it's not talking about that.
00:15:26.000 I'm not really sure exactly what the argument is, but that might kind of help people understand
00:15:30.760 what we're talking about.
00:15:32.320 Very often it's the use of Yeshua.
00:15:34.020 Very often it is saying basically that everything that Christianity has kind of come up with when
00:15:40.840 it comes to traditions and who Jesus was has kind of been paganized and modernized over
00:15:45.660 time.
00:15:46.700 And they see it as a form of like reformation going back to the Old Testament law.
00:15:51.980 Yeah, no, that's, that's really good.
00:15:54.840 In fact, so one of the challenges even with this as well, too, is that it's so, it's so
00:16:00.540 broad that there's no way, even if we went three hours, we could encompass every nuance.
00:16:07.060 And again, every single group will, will always, there's always, there's so many different
00:16:11.140 variants of people who disagree with each other with what gets applied, but I'll just start
00:16:16.800 off in bite-sized pieces.
00:16:18.240 So there's another movement on top of the Worldwide Church of God that started in the
00:16:22.200 1930s.
00:16:23.740 And this is something known as the Sacred Name Movement.
00:16:26.660 And primarily, this was a movement that taught that there's only certain ways you can address
00:16:32.380 God, not only in regards to name, but in pronunciation.
00:16:37.500 And if, and almost, in some, in some cases, it was almost extreme to an extent that if you
00:16:43.180 pronounced the name of God wrong, then you could lose your salvation.
00:16:48.620 And it's something that's just very interesting, because I mean, I, as a Christian, you know,
00:16:52.720 I've been on world mission trips, and one of the coolest things to be able to see, whether
00:16:57.880 it's, whether it's in a, in a Muslim country, or in somewhere in Mexico, or really any culture,
00:17:04.200 when you see them, the translation of their specific Bible, and when you see them worshiping
00:17:09.180 in their specific language, it's so amazing to see.
00:17:13.880 In fact, and there's, so there's, just so you know, too, there's nothing wrong or taboo
00:17:18.160 of referring to Jesus as Yeshua, for example.
00:17:20.860 Yes, I'm glad you said that.
00:17:21.540 Like, in fact, one of my favorite things, too, are seeing people, you know, testimonies
00:17:26.960 of people who are Jewish, who come to find out that Jesus is the Messiah.
00:17:31.180 In fact, we did an episode with our good friend, Dr. Michael Brown, who is Jewish.
00:17:35.100 He is a Jewish, he is an apologist, he has done the most debates with rabbis, whether
00:17:40.360 or not Jesus is the Messiah, and it's, it's, it's just, it's always very awesome to see.
00:17:45.960 But what's interesting is that, what I've seen is that they try and take something that
00:17:51.520 honestly isn't a bad thing, but then they try and make it this very legalistic, very tribalistic
00:17:57.560 have and have not.
00:17:58.600 It's like, you need to pronounce it this way.
00:18:00.660 And you've seen, I even started seeing on my social media a couple of years ago, where
00:18:05.220 people would start saying, like, praise the Lord, and they would take out the vows.
00:18:10.020 Now, this is something that you would see in earlier traditions where people, when they
00:18:15.000 would translate, they have this sort of sacredness for the name of God.
00:18:17.540 But as far as us as Christians, I guess if you felt in your own personal conscience, this
00:18:24.200 is something I should maybe do.
00:18:26.740 Okay, I'll, I'll give you that.
00:18:28.320 I'll throw you a bone there.
00:18:29.380 But what's concerning about this movement, I also just want to say too, that the, for
00:18:34.240 the majority of people that you're dealing with, you're probably dealing with your friends,
00:18:37.760 someone who genuinely loves the Lord, but in many cases are in error.
00:18:43.060 And it's, and, and, and also you think about too, even the climate today, where you see a
00:18:49.000 lot of churches just preaching very wishy, washy, practical sermons, but there's no deep
00:18:54.340 theology being taught.
00:18:55.740 And a lot of times the Old Testament is ignored.
00:18:58.340 And so there's this vacuum where people are genuinely curious.
00:19:01.380 And then you have somebody like Andy, Andy, Stan, Andrew Stanley, who's saying that we need
00:19:06.020 to detach from the Old Testament.
00:19:08.240 And all of a sudden there's hunger to go back there.
00:19:10.560 But what you see, and it's the case with everything that you think of like purity culture
00:19:14.480 and the conversations we've had with Ginger Duggar.
00:19:17.040 And now people are pendulum swing from purity culture all the way into radical LGBTQ plus
00:19:22.980 as a response to that.
00:19:24.260 So that's an overcorrection.
00:19:25.440 So almost in the same way where you look at a lot of just sort of wishy-washy theology
00:19:29.960 the church has, the church does have their responsibility in some sense for this movement.
00:19:33.760 It's filled with a vacuum, it's a pendulum swing, and it's an overcorrection.
00:19:38.520 Andrew, what thought, what other things could you talk about the sacred name movement and
00:19:42.840 some of the errors and concerns we would have concerning that movement?
00:19:47.080 Yeah, absolutely.
00:19:47.860 In relation to Hebrew roots.
00:19:48.380 Yeah, yeah.
00:19:49.800 Sacred name movement in relation to Hebrew roots.
00:19:52.240 I think there's a biblical precedence for this that's shown to us in the book of Acts.
00:19:57.560 We can go to Acts chapter 19 with the sons of Sceva when Paul is in Ephesus and he's performing
00:20:03.220 miracles and he's casting out demons in the name of Jesus, right?
00:20:07.560 Or let's say Yeshua, if I'm even pronouncing that correctly.
00:20:11.780 But what happens is, is there's these sons of Sceva who are essentially Jewish exorcists.
00:20:16.880 And what they do is they travel around performing exorcisms or incantations.
00:20:21.700 Josephus actually notes in his Jewish antiquities, he says, there's people who invoked even Solomon's
00:20:26.400 name in expelling demons.
00:20:27.560 So this form of Jewish mysticism was going around during this time.
00:20:31.320 And they saw that Paul was casting out demons in the name of Jesus and performing miracles.
00:20:36.240 And so what did they try to do?
00:20:37.560 They followed him into Ephesus and they tried to do the same thing.
00:20:40.820 They saw these demons and they tried to invoke the name of Jesus.
00:20:43.520 And if someone can actually speak Hebrew very well, it would probably be people that are
00:20:47.480 Jewish in descent, if the sons of Sceva even were.
00:20:51.360 But what actually shows happening in Acts chapter 19 is they were overpowered by the demons.
00:20:56.640 They said the name, right?
00:20:58.200 But that had no power in it.
00:20:59.840 They actually were driven out, butt naked, derobed.
00:21:03.160 These, quoting, priests were derobed by the demons and overpowered.
00:21:07.640 They said, I know, I know Jesus.
00:21:08.940 I know Paul, but I don't know you, right?
00:21:11.340 So in terms of the sacred name movement, does the name really have power?
00:21:15.260 Is that what we're being shown in Acts chapter 19?
00:21:18.000 No, it's the fact that Paul, through apostolic authority, as a messenger on behalf of Jesus,
00:21:22.760 had a spiritual authority given to him to cast out the demons through the name of Jesus.
00:21:27.460 It's not the actual name that had power, but it's the Holy Spirit that was working in
00:21:32.520 throughout with him, you know?
00:21:35.260 And so in terms of a sacred name movement, of course, there's things that you may find
00:21:40.060 important, but really ask yourself, are you, do you really think you're saying it correctly?
00:21:44.420 By what, other than the grace of God, do we know I am that I am, right?
00:21:50.260 God had to graciously give that to us as a form to even grasp the concept of the eternal God.
00:21:56.300 Is that, does that name in itself actually capture the eternality of God and his omnipotence,
00:22:01.620 omnipresence and omniscience?
00:22:02.700 No, no, it doesn't.
00:22:05.040 So it's something that if we've got to think logically, consistently, and actually go back
00:22:09.820 to the Bible to see if we see a precedence of these things occurring within time and in
00:22:14.120 early church history in Acts chapter 19, we see the very same thing and the Bible demonstrates
00:22:17.960 it wasn't the name, it was the power of the Holy Spirit and the gifting that Paul had.
00:22:21.820 And that's important too.
00:22:23.120 So I think in terms of even thinking biblically about feasts or keeping the Sabbath, like we got
00:22:30.260 to understand it's important to us as Christians to want to obey God in his commands.
00:22:34.740 And that's where we can fall into some certain traps, right?
00:22:37.320 Because someone can come along and say, well, you worship on Sunday.
00:22:40.640 That's not on Sabbath.
00:22:42.180 If you really want to be worshiping God correctly, you must worship on Saturday.
00:22:46.460 And you're going to go, wow, you know, I love God.
00:22:49.420 I want to worship God in spirit and in truth.
00:22:51.760 You know, I really want to worship him the right way.
00:22:53.600 So you start falling into some of these teachings by certain aspects within our being that want
00:23:01.600 to worship God the correct way.
00:23:03.980 Uh, but when we do that, uh, we start, you know, throwing out some historical precedents
00:23:10.400 we have through the, through the Bible.
00:23:11.780 I mean, Hebrews chapter four, you can go in and read it on how Jesus is our Sabbath rest,
00:23:16.020 right?
00:23:16.300 And there's other scriptures that say that there was worship on the Lord's day, the resurrection
00:23:20.080 on the set on a Sunday that was occurring.
00:23:22.260 I mean, we have rest, perfect rest fulfilled in Jesus.
00:23:24.980 And we can think about the feasts in the same way.
00:23:28.680 Jesus, he's such an awesome guy.
00:23:30.640 Go read the book of John, go read John eight through 10.
00:23:33.120 And we have Jesus standing up during these feasts, proclaiming, uh, I am the living water
00:23:40.160 in front of everybody.
00:23:41.620 Right.
00:23:42.180 And then he says, I am the light of the world during, uh, the feast.
00:23:45.720 I think it is a boost in John chapter eight, referring to that, this, that these feasts were
00:23:51.700 a shadow of the Messiah who was to come.
00:23:54.520 And Jesus says, I am here.
00:23:56.240 Look to me.
00:23:57.100 Don't look to the feast.
00:23:58.580 Look to me.
00:23:59.340 He stands up in front of everyone and says it.
00:24:00.920 And then the question you got to ask yourself too, is can you actually celebrate the feasts
00:24:05.260 like they did back then?
00:24:06.980 And this is what I mean by it.
00:24:08.220 Those feasts required sacrifices.
00:24:11.000 They did.
00:24:11.780 And God says you must sacrifice in specific locations.
00:24:14.700 Can you do that?
00:24:16.140 Can you do that?
00:24:17.580 No.
00:24:18.000 Can you sacrifice where God said that they were to perform these sacrifices?
00:24:22.460 No.
00:24:22.760 And then the other question you got to ask yourself is, is can you only celebrate the
00:24:26.020 Levitical holidays?
00:24:27.160 Is that what it is?
00:24:28.080 Can you not celebrate anything outside the Levitical holidays?
00:24:30.480 Well, there's holidays Jesus celebrated that are in the Bible.
00:24:34.040 John chapter 10.
00:24:34.900 He was there during Hanukkah.
00:24:36.840 That's not a Levitical holiday.
00:24:38.220 Jesus celebrated it.
00:24:39.860 Right.
00:24:40.100 So we got to we got to think consistently.
00:24:43.220 We got to use all of scripture when we're making some convictions before we try to place
00:24:48.500 those convictions on others.
00:24:49.480 I'd say if you want to go ahead and say Jesus fulfilled the feasts of booths.
00:24:54.160 So I'm going to celebrate it my own way with my family in the backyard pointing to Christ.
00:24:58.460 That's fine.
00:24:59.300 Go ahead.
00:24:59.720 You have the freedom in Christ to do those things.
00:25:01.480 But the line gets drawn when you look at somebody else and you say to them, you must do X, Y and
00:25:09.400 Z.
00:25:09.900 And if that's the case, right, Galatians, you brought it up earlier, Ali.
00:25:13.600 It says those who seek to be justified by the law, the grace of Christ has no effect on
00:25:18.740 you.
00:25:19.420 We really we really have to be careful when we're starting to create manmade traditions
00:25:24.240 that Paul warns about in Colossians chapter two, because they have an appearance of promoting
00:25:29.300 self-made religion, but they're of no value in stopping indulgence of the flesh.
00:25:32.480 So that's so it's still stuff.
00:25:46.760 And I'll just say one other thing regarding the feast is that we I think the feasts are
00:25:51.160 a beautiful thing.
00:25:52.300 Like one of my favorite experiences, if I can recollect, I was at a church event at a church
00:25:58.200 I used to attend, and there was a man by the name of Neil Pitchell, who is Jewish, and
00:26:03.380 it was right around Easter.
00:26:05.180 And what he did is he had us all participate in a Passover Seder dinner.
00:26:09.820 He did the very strict traditional Jewish way.
00:26:13.400 But then he kind of broke it down line by line, really item by item with how the whole feast
00:26:18.260 works and how people back during that time were really looking forward to the Messiah
00:26:24.420 that was to come.
00:26:25.440 And in it, he's telling his testimony.
00:26:27.260 And so for me, like in that experience, like I walked away with such a deeper appreciation
00:26:32.940 for what I have as somebody who's non-Jewish, really experiencing in the blessings of the
00:26:39.040 covenant, even the church that we attend.
00:26:41.720 There's such a broad variety of different backgrounds, ethnicities.
00:26:46.160 You know, you think about even some of the woke churches where they try and just like,
00:26:49.720 hey, we need to have this race or over another.
00:26:51.500 When you see the broad variety of cultures and backgrounds who now are reveling in the
00:26:58.320 blessings of this Jewish Messiah, it's amazing to see that the area of error of where this
00:27:05.280 comes from, speaking very broadly, is that when you start utilizing the feast that you have
00:27:09.680 to celebrate this as in a have and have nots, then you have an issue of concern because now
00:27:17.180 all of a sudden you're creating some divisions, you're creating tribalism.
00:27:21.540 And so it's not just something you have an appreciation for that makes you get a better
00:27:25.440 understanding, appreciation for Christ and what he did.
00:27:28.120 Now this becomes part of your tribal identity.
00:27:30.860 And you start to look down and shun upon others who don't see the same.
00:27:34.760 And there's a lot of very different, and it's very similar almost in a sense to a lot
00:27:38.340 of the sort of nuanced debates sometimes within the Twitterverse and on Christendom, for example,
00:27:43.780 like head coverings, right?
00:27:45.460 So that's something that I've noticed a lot of has taken a conversation as of late.
00:27:51.280 And even in the church I attend, I've noticed there's been a couple of women who are like,
00:27:55.620 oh, there's someone wearing a head covering.
00:27:57.200 Okay.
00:27:57.600 Okay.
00:27:58.220 That's interesting.
00:27:59.020 And it would be in a situation where, okay, well, if that's how you genuinely feel, if
00:28:03.820 you genuinely feel convicted about how this, you should present yourself in worship, then
00:28:09.100 great.
00:28:09.780 I'm not going to, I don't have a bone to pick with you.
00:28:13.100 I think where the difference is when you start making a have and have nots, and say you start
00:28:17.520 looking down upon and shunning those who don't have head coverings, that's where we would
00:28:23.020 take issue.
00:28:24.240 But it would be very similar with Hebrew roots.
00:28:27.200 And again, there may be different variations of Hebrew roots would also differ on women
00:28:32.480 and head coverings, but that's another small aspect of it.
00:28:36.320 Have you found in what you do know about the movement that salvation for those who follow
00:28:43.860 this is tied up in keeping the feasts and keeping the law, that it's actually, you know,
00:28:51.840 going to heaven, being saved is dependent upon keeping Levitical law as much as possible.
00:29:00.940 Yeah.
00:29:01.820 I think one way to think.
00:29:03.260 Go ahead, Andrew.
00:29:04.180 Yeah.
00:29:04.420 I think one way to think about it, since it is such a diverse movement, there are people
00:29:07.440 who adhere to some forms of Hebrew roots movement teachings, but they do believe that the grace
00:29:11.700 of Christ is what saves them.
00:29:14.060 But there are different parts of the group that are also anti-Trinitarian, they're anti-Trinitarian.
00:29:19.300 And there's also ones where it's like, well, Jesus says also, if you love me, you'll obey
00:29:24.140 my commands.
00:29:25.120 Right.
00:29:25.540 So if you're not obeying Christ's commands and you're not ignorant to the fact that these
00:29:30.180 feasts are mandatory and you're willing, willfully disobeying according to them, then salvation
00:29:35.740 would be dependent upon that.
00:29:37.140 But again, not all of them hold to these forms of teachings, but it is something that is definitely
00:29:41.920 out there and you need to be worried about.
00:29:44.940 I mean, we're told about it.
00:29:46.460 Second Corinthians 11 verse four, different Jesus, different gospel, different spirit.
00:29:49.960 So if we start messing with the gospel, Jesus is going to get toyed with, right?
00:29:54.080 All of these things are going to start changing.
00:29:56.420 And the rabbit hole is, is not seeing the perfect fulfillment of Old Testament typology in
00:30:04.760 Jesus Christ, in Jesus Christ.
00:30:07.740 He fulfilled those things.
00:30:10.040 The feasts, the sacrifice from the Old Testament, they were looking forward to the promise who
00:30:15.220 was to come.
00:30:15.920 And if you start blurring the lines on those things, you can fall into a trap.
00:30:21.120 And by God's grace, I hope it doesn't happen to anybody.
00:30:24.760 But then you'll go running back to the feasts to justify.
00:30:27.860 You read the book of Hebrews.
00:30:29.680 It's all throughout Hebrews.
00:30:31.180 The author of Hebrews keeps saying to them, look, today is the day of salvation.
00:30:35.060 Don't be like the Israelites who hardened their hearts in the wilderness and turned back.
00:30:38.520 He says, you have heard the gospel.
00:30:39.700 Don't turn back to Judaism.
00:30:41.740 Yeah.
00:30:41.980 Stay strong because Jerusalem is going to be destroyed.
00:30:44.720 It's in the book of Hebrews.
00:30:46.180 Really read that.
00:30:46.920 Pray about that.
00:30:47.620 Yeah.
00:30:48.360 Yeah.
00:30:48.840 I would say, I would say also just to capitalize on what Andrew is saying is that for the
00:30:54.220 majority, I believe, of our friends in the Hebrew roots movement is that the majority
00:30:58.500 of them, I would say, are born again, they love Jesus, they love the Lord, and they want
00:31:02.740 to be pleasing in his sight.
00:31:04.640 But because of their misunderstanding of the difference between the law and the gospel,
00:31:09.620 they're putting on themselves a yoke and a burden that's unnecessary.
00:31:14.340 However, it is some of a nuanced bag of wolves and sheep in the sense that one of the primary
00:31:19.720 views of underlying within the majority of Hebrew roots practitioners is that you need
00:31:25.940 to adhere to, on some level, the Torah or Jewishness, depending on how you interpret
00:31:31.180 it.
00:31:31.640 But the more Gentile that you get, that's where you start deviating into paganism.
00:31:37.800 And so what you end up seeing is that throughout the majority of church history, the majority
00:31:41.700 of church fathers are non-Jewish.
00:31:43.920 It just happens to be the people that God raised up.
00:31:46.260 So when you look it up, for example, Herbert Armstrong, one of the things that he, his
00:31:50.700 arguments against the Trinity was against St. Athanasius, who in the first century, he,
00:31:55.860 if you read the book on the Incarnation, or even the statement of Athanasius Contramundum,
00:32:00.100 he was the only church father who was standing up really against all these heresies, against
00:32:05.360 Arianism.
00:32:06.820 But Herbert Armstrong's primary argument is that he was Gentile.
00:32:11.080 And so therefore, just because of that nature of him being non-Jewish, well, he was adopted
00:32:16.240 being pagan ideals, and he kind of wrapped it into the Trinity.
00:32:19.260 And you see the same thing with Jehovah's Witnesses, for example.
00:32:22.900 They make the same argument of the Trinity being pagan, invented at the Council of Nicaea.
00:32:27.440 So if you start adopting a worldview that says that the more Gentile you get, the more you
00:32:33.860 are to adopting being pagan, then you start to question everything.
00:32:37.660 And the reality is, when you look at the whole central point of church history, and again,
00:32:41.960 there's people who are probably way more knowledgeable than Andrew and I, when it comes to church
00:32:45.860 history, the primary thing the creeds have done is that they've really have protected
00:32:49.600 the doctrinal integrity of the essentials of the faith, namely the Trinity and salvation
00:32:54.580 by grace through faith alone, and most importantly, the deity of Jesus.
00:32:58.300 But when you start going down this rabbit trail in many different ways, and you start taking
00:33:03.540 it, for some people, they follow this, the logical conclusion is to completely derail and
00:33:08.500 almost deconstruct, in a sense, where you then deny the Trinity, the deity of Jesus, and
00:33:15.320 then your whole identity is literally, the Torah almost becomes your Lord and Savior.
00:33:21.160 And Jesus is just a means to follow, the identity is Torah observed, it's not necessarily your
00:33:25.400 identity in Christ.
00:33:38.640 All right, guys, that was part one of our two-part conversation.
00:33:42.840 Make sure that you tune in tomorrow for part two.
00:33:45.880 We will be diving into this even more, comparing it to what scripture actually says, and then
00:33:51.440 also just looking at different reactions that Christians tend to have toward culture that
00:33:56.140 aren't necessarily biblical.
00:33:58.940 All right, thanks so much for listening.
00:34:00.600 We will be back here tomorrow.