The Error of the Hebrew Roots Movement

Does the Hebrew Roots Movement with its adherence to the Mosaic Law offer a true path to salvation and Heaven?

To help answer that question, we turn to Dr. Richard Hill, the messianic pastor of Beth Yeshua Messianic Congregation and member of CJF Ministries.

Attempting to Please God with Legalism

Tim Moore: On recent episodes of our television program Christ in Prophecy, Nathan and I have been talking to Dr. Richard Hill about all things dealing with the feasts of Israel. We’ve both gotten excited about what God has shown us in Scripture concerning the feasts God ordained for the Jewish people. They almost make us want to become Jewish! And yet, some people take that desire to become Jewish to an extreme, and so they have fallen into the error of the Hebrew Roots Movement.

So, Richard, how do we balance a desire to want to learn about our biblical heritage leading to faith in Yeshua—our Jewish Messiah—without going over the edge and falling into the Hebrew Roots mentality with its belief in adhering to the Mosaic Law to attain salvation?

Richard Hill: There is a balance in which we must be aware. Each person needs to be led by the Lord on how to be able to make the proper balance. Even though I am Jewish, in my own personal life, I am not that “Jewish” in my daily living. A lot of people can really get into all the Jewish customs, such as wearing a tallit or putting on a kippa, even when doing so really isn’t for them. I’m okay if Gentiles are interested in doing that. I’m okay if they want to wear traditional Jewish garb. But it depends on why they’re doing that.

Tim Moore: Doing so can become an act of legalism as if they’re attempting to demonstrate their faith in God by donning Jewish accouterments. Doing so lends one to an almost legalistic mindset.

Richard Hill: Our faith comes down to a heart issue. So where is the heart in pretending to be a Jew? If you’re trying to please God by being Jewish, well then, that’s not the right way.

Nathan Jones: Attempting to reach out to God by what we wear becomes a works-based salvation, correct?

Richard Hill: Yes, for the only way we can please the Lord is by putting our faith in the Son of God.

Nathan Jones: Our ministry often gets correspondence from those practicing the Hebrew Roots Movement because our ministry’s name is Lamb & Lion Ministries. There’s another ministry out there called Lion and Lamb Ministries, which is a Hebrew Roots Movement ministry. Sometimes that ministry’s followers will accidently contact us due to getting the two ministries mixed up. They contact us wanting to know what law they have to follow or which ceremony they must celebrate or how long their braids must be. It sounds like they are weighed down by all these rules and regulations. But didn’t Jesus Christ free us from living under the Mosaic Law? We don’t get saved by being a Christian and acting Jewish, rather we are saved by Jesus Christ having shed His blood on the cross.

Richard Hill: Yes. The problem with the Hebrew Roots people’s thinking is that they believe they will please God by following all the Mosaic rules. The same thing is increasingly happening in the Messianic Jewish Movement. We’re seeing a lot of our Jewish, and even Gentle, believers in our movement turning to Torah and so wanting to follow all the commandments in the Scriptures. They think that that’s the way to go to please God.

Tim Moore: How well did that work out for the Jews of the Old Testament? Were they ever successful in following all the Old Testament commandments?

Nathan Jones: The Mosaic Law ended up with 613 requirements.

Richard Hill: The councils held by the Apostles and Early Church Fathers recognized that no man can possibly live a life in strict obedience to the Mosaic Law. Their fathers couldn’t do it, and they couldn’t do it either.

Tim Moore: I couldn’t even follow ten of the commandments perfectly, let alone all 613. It’s a false hope believing I could ever attain that level of perfection.

Richard Hill: You can’t do it. Nobody can do it.

Justified By Faith

Nathan Jones: Richard, what’s a good passage we can go to that refutes the erroneous teaching of works-based salvation? How can we help those people who are suffering under this great weight of works, feeling they have to follow the Old Testament Jewish law to become saved?

Richard Hill: I would encourage anybody who’s thinking they must place themselves back under the Mosaic Law to be saved to read the whole book of Galatians. In particular, Galatians 2:15-16 reads:

“We who are Jews by nature, and not sinners of the Gentiles, knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the law but by faith in Jesus Christ, even we have believed in Christ Jesus, that we might be justified by faith in Christ and not by the works of the law; for by the works of the law no flesh shall be justified.”

The Apostle Paul told us three times in this passage the same thing—we are not justified by the works of the law, but through faith. Why do we humans need to hear this three times? Because we have trouble accepting that salvation is a free gift that does not require our works.

Nathan Jones: Skip to Galatians 5:1 and we learn, “Stand fast therefore in the liberty by which Christ has made us free, and do not be entangled again with a yoke of bondage.” The yoke of bondage can be interpreted as sin, but it can also be interpreted as legalism under the Mosaic Law. Why in the world then would we want to return to works if Jesus freed us from such an impossible bondage?

Now, as Christians, we obviously have to stop sinning. But I hear a lot of times legalists claiming that if we’re not living by all their rules and regulations then we’re going to fall into sin. Christians are accused of wanting to sin all they want and yet still get into Heaven, but that’s not what Paul is saying here. He’s saying that we can be freed from the yoke of the Mosaic Law because in our hearts, through the Holy Spirit indwelling us, we now possess the ability to live out God’s moral law.

Richard Hill: Right. The issue is, that once you start to follow all the regulations, you will most certainly come up short, and that’s when you’re missing the mark. And that’s what sinning means—to miss the mark.

Nathan Jones: By placing ourselves back under the Mosaic Law, doesn’t that make us pretty much our own god, because we’re choosing to make our own way to salvation and Heaven apart from Jesus Christ? But Jesus said that we can only be saved and see God the Father by going through Jesus Christ (Jn. 14:6; Acts 4:12).

Richard Hill: The problem with making your own way to Heaven is that eventually, you’re going to become shipwrecked in your faith. You keep on following the law, and you keep on following all these commandments, but there’s no way that you can follow them to perfection. You will fail, and then so will your faith in God. The rabbis of the Hebrew Roots Movement are telling you: “Keep going! Keep pressing on. Keep moving forward. You can do it. You’ll get there!”

Tim Moore: But you’ll never get there, and so your hope in Heaven will begin to wane. Our hope should be in Christ alone and never in our own ability to make our own way to Heaven.

In Acts 10, the Apostle Peter was called by God to go and share the Good News with Cornelius, who became the first Gentile convert. Peter at first protested because Cornelius was a Gentile. Peter even wondered if he should step foot in a Gentile’s home. But the Lord didn’t command, “Go and convert Cornelius to Judaism.” No! Rather, God ordered Peter to tell the Gentile about Jesus Christ and the Gospel.

Then in Acts 15, when the mostly Jewish church realized all these Gentiles were coming in, they wondered what to do with them. The new Gentile believers were only given a very minimal set of requirements to make sure that they were acceptable within the brotherhood to be able to fellowship with the Jewish believers. In verse 20, Peter said they should “abstain from things polluted by idols, from sexual immorality, from things strangled, and from blood.”. That’s a very short list compared to the 613 Mosaic laws.

Now, obviously, Christians should want to follow the Ten Commandments. We should want to become obedient to God’s moral law, but not the Old Testament laws in the hopes of trying to put on some sense of false holiness. I could never attain holiness apart from Christ. All my justification is through Jesus Christ and not by anything I can do or aspire to do.

Trust in the Lord

Nathan Jones: Richard, how would you advise somebody who’s struggling under this weight and is being told by these Hebrew Roots Movement leaders that they must live under the Mosaic Law? Surely, many of these poor souls just want to love the Lord and connect with Him. They are sincere in their faith, but these leaders are placing them back under the yoke of the Old Testament legal system. What advice do you have for them?

Richard Hill: That’s a tough one, I tell you because my assistant pastor and I have tried to counsel many people who have fallen into this situation. The crashing of their faith that they experience when they come to realize that their works can never be good enough, well, it’s very difficult to get them to leave their works-based bondage. It tells them that they have to trust in the Lord. They have to get rid of all that past “knowledge” that they’ve built up, because it’s simply not true that their adherence to the Mosaic Law provides salvation. It’s just not true! Works do not help one become sanctified, as the Scriptures teach. The only way we become sanctified is through praying, reading and studying the word of God, and following what God truly wants us to do—to live by faith in Jesus Christ alone.

Tim Moore: I’d say it’s about where you keep your focus. You’re either listening to religious leaders and keeping your eyes on them, or you’re constantly trying to evaluate yourself thereby keeping your eyes on yourself and your own inability to keep the Mosaic laws and its regulations. Rather, to be saved, we should keep our eyes on Jesus Christ—the author and perfector of our faith. Realize that we cannot perfect our own faith. We cannot attain any level of perfection on our own. Only Jesus and Jesus alone is the author and perfector of our faith. Keep your eyes on Jesus Christ and He will become your blessed hope.