Hebrew Roots

Today I want to talk about a group of people that Dale mentioned back in his Easter Sermon, they are called the ‘Hebrews Roots’ movement. They are modern day Judaizers that have wiggled their way into our modern culture,and seek to uproot the work of Jesus on the cross by placing burdens on mankind today. Before we talk on that though, I want to nip something that has really been bothering me about our American Church culture today. It stems from a question that I overheard someone ask someone else in this very church.

Why Call Out Heresy?

Back a few months ago Dale gave a presentation about the different Jesus’ that proclaiming Christians worship, that are not real Jesus’s. They are false Messiahs made up by those who want to pick and chose the attributes of Christ they like, and leave everything about the work of Christ they find challenging at the door. We see this when we look at people who are apart of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saint and the Jehovah Witness Church. However, when it comes to our protestant denominations that do the exact same things but in different ways, for some reason we struggle to see the connection. Maybe it is because we do not want to admit that a few misinterpretations of our doctrine can push into being just as lost as these obviously heretical churches. When we look at these false churches what do we see when they teach us about Jesus?

These people believe that Jesus came to the earth, died on the cross, rose from the dead, and is now in heaven. Is that not good enough, we’re do we draw the line?

Where do We Draw the Line?

I asked Dale what he thought about this, what constitutes a salvation level issue within the Church today? He answered me by quoting Galatians 1:8

Galatians 1:8 ESV

But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach to you a gospel contrary to the one we preached to you, let him be accursed.

I will talk more on Galatians here in just a minute, and though I think that is a great place to start however before we talk about anything else I want to share with you what the ‘Gospel’ is. The last sermon I gave was about the gospel message and how if we believe in a works based salvation we are not saved because we have denied the truth Gospel message in favor of a lie. Then I showed how the Gospel message of the New Testament was always the fruition of the teachings of the Old Testament. However, this is just one aspect of the Gospel message. Another, equally important but far more over-looked, part is the Person and Work of Jesus Christ in relation to mankind. We see this laid out throughout the Epistles like 1 John 2:23-26

1 John 2:23–26 ESV

No one who denies the Son has the Father. Whoever confesses the Son has the Father also. Let what you heard from the beginning abide in you. If what you heard from the beginning abides in you, then you too will abide in the Son and in the Father. And this is the promise that he made to us—eternal life. I write these things to you about those who are trying to deceive you.

1 John was written by the Apostle John in response to an early heresy called Gnosticism.

Gnosticism is the belief that there is secret knowledge that is necessary to salvation. Along with this teachings came, of course, the secret knowledge and that was primarily that Jesus did not come in the flesh. That he instead only appeared in the flesh, this came from their teachings that said the physical world is bad, and the spiritual world is good. Therefore doing things to increase your pleasure of the physical world is inherently evil. They abstained from things like eating and drinking water, sexual practices and even some fundamental things like touching others in affection. But ultimately, as John clarifies further, the mistake as false doctrine requiring of a full rebuke comes from them changing the person of Christ. 2 John 7

2 John 7 ESV

For many deceivers have gone out into the world, those who do not confess the coming of Jesus Christ in the flesh. Such a one is the deceiver and the antichrist.

So, now we see that a perversion of the Gospel message, and the person of Christ are both worthy of rebuke. Lets run back to the three aforementioned churches.

The LDS Church teaches that Jesus was at one time not God thus changing the Person of Christ.

The Jehovah Witness’s teach that Jesus was not ever God nor will he ever be God, thus changing the Person of Christ

But what about this Hebrew Roots movement? Certainly they are not changing the person of Jesus or the Gospel Message right? It is actually far deeper than that as we will see. Yes, they are changing the Person of Christ and the Gospel Message, but as we read Galatians we are going to see that they are also changing the Work of Christ. Now all of these fall victim to the warning in Galatians 1:8 because the Good news encompasses not only the message but the person and work of the one who sends the message. However I really wanna hit all three of these points hard- the Hebrew Roots movement changes the Gospel message because they force it to be about works, they change the Person of Christ because they make him just a prophet, and they change the Work of Christ by making his work not enough to fulfill the law.