“O foolish Galatians, who did bewitch you … Are ye so foolish? … Having begun in the Spirit,
are ye now perfected in the flesh?” (Gal. 3:1a & 3, ASV)
The previous teaching listed three specific examples of so-called esoteric knowledge, spiritual “figments of your imagination” as 2 Kings 18:24 (MSG) refers to it. These believers eventually end up walking “according to their own thoughts” (Isa. 65:2), and is unfortunately no longer led by the “Spirit of truth” (John 16:13), even if the Holy Spirit is earnestly called upon during these actions.
Another problematic contemporary practice that is presented as truth, is the movement where many believers are seduced into practices from the Old Testament. In certain extreme cases this is even presented as the norm for “successful” Christian functioning, whatever such a suspicious expression may mean.
A couple of years ago I ministered to one of the home churches in our network, when a member of the church invited the congregation to celebrate shabbat at her home on the Friday evening. I have also in the past participated in this ritual, which is largely based on the Jewish celebration of the Sabbath. It was loaded with beautiful symbolism and healthy practices (like the father blessing his wife and children). There was great interest amongst the congregation, and they joined in the celebration.
Shortly after the leader of the home church notified me that the shabbat-celebrating group invited the church to celebrate Pesach (the Jewish version of the Christian celebration of Easter). They used matzos instead of unleavened bread, and quickly barbecued some mutton chops, and ate it while standing. On first glance there wasn’t much wrong with this type of celebration, but it remains a Jewish tradition, and not a Christian one – Jesus Christ is, after all, our Passover lamb now (1 Cor. 5:7).
My next visit to the church revealed that most people were no longer using the terms God or Jesus, but instead the Hebrew forms – Yahweh and Yahshua. Some even added an extra twang to their pronunciation of Yahshua, speaking of Yehashua/Yahshua/ Yehoshua/Yahoshua, each with great conviction that his version is the correct one. Still I didn’t find this super strange, although I did notice that most women in the church suddenly no longer spoke during the meeting, and that their heads were covered with a type of scarf. At times the men would cover themselves with a tallit, or prayer shawl, playing with the tassels throughout the service. Before the meeting began, someone blew a shofar. I had seen all these practices in various churches and traditions, but never all together in one church, like now.
I started speaking to the church about my nervousness regarding their wide-spread adoption of these practices, but was greeted with condescension about my supposed lack of knowledge regarding our Hebrew roots and were handed a couple of books: Fossilized Customs by Lew White, Come Out of Her My People by the South African Chris J. Koster, and Too Long in the Sun by Richard Rives.
While reading these books I realised there is a deadly deception in the heart of the church. This was confirmed when the leader of the home church called and told me that the congregation had notified him that they are now Torah Observant – they believe that New Testament believers must also follow the letter of the law. One was suddenly so orthodox that he no longer drove his car on a Saturday, as the Torah forbids making fire on the Sabbath, and his car’s combustion engine operates in a way that he feels transgresses this law. [According to Ex. 35:3. This is of course not a reference to combustion engines, only to making fire within the home – this shows how Scripture can be twisted to accommodate personal interpretations.]
Before I could arrange a meeting, the men of the church asked to see me. Their request was presented without hesitation – could I please circumcise the men of the church?
After the initial shock I presented Paul’s pressing argument in Gal. 5:2, 3 & 6: “Indeed I, Paul, say to you that if you become circumcised, Christ will profit you nothing. ‘And I testify again to every man who becomes circumcised that he is a debtor to keep the whole law … For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision avails anything, but faith working through love.’”
And how does one get past Gal. 6:15? “For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision avails anything, but a new creation.”
These Scriptures alas had no impact on the men – they were adamant that they heard from Ruach Hako’desh (the name for the Holy Spirit that is now used) himself, and that they need to be circumcised.
I went looking for a proper knife to do a proper job, and this threat had them leaving the house in haste.
Needless to say – they found someone else to help with the ridiculous job (and two of them suffered permanent damage because the spiritual quack who performed the circumcisions was not trained to handle such a delicate job). A number of these people decided to adopt the Jewish faith as “righteous gentiles”, which implies that they no longer confessed Jesus as the Son of God. A few even immigrated to Israel.
This story is not unique – on websites that chronicle the dangers of this movements reports appear that note how prevalent this trajectory is in the USA, and in South Africa: http://fortheloveofhistruth.com/2012/02/25/the-dangers-of-the-hebrew-roots-movement-the-sacred-name-movement/
What we already learned in earlier teachings about the New Testament position of Israel and the Jews should already have shattered many of the foundational ideas of the New Judaists. It is thus not necessary to go over these practices and rituals again – there is a lot of material available that serves as corrective texts (see below: For a More In-depth Understanding). It is perhaps more important to point to the fact that the movement contains nothing new, and that it was already considered as a sectarian movement in the early days of the Acts church. In Gal. 2:4-5 Paul warns against “false brethren secretly brought in (who came in by stealth to spy out our liberty which we have in Christ Jesus, that they might bring us into bondage), to whom we did not yield submission even for an hour, that the truth of the gospel might continue with you”.
The New Judaists are thus not really new, but as old as Christendom itself. Judaists is a term derived from the Greek verb ioudaïzō. It means “to live according to Jewish customs”. Gal. 2:14 deals with the history where Paul warns Peter about his position regarding Jewish requirements for Christian believers, and presents us with a beautiful description of this concept: “But when I saw that they were not straightforward about the truth of the gospel, I said to Peter before them all, ‘If you, being a Jew, live in the manner of Gentiles and not as the Jews, why do you compel Gentiles to live as Jews?’”
This concept also implies that this group believes in the importance of keeping the law of Moses as we find it in the first five books of the Bible. In contrast to the broad consensus of the general Christian church, who believe that the law of Moses has been fulfilled with the law of Christ, the Judaists believe that it does indeed still need to be kept. In the early church history this group were called as such because they believed that grace and human actions have equal status in the covenant relationship with God. This group commonly held forth that, for a Christian to stand in righteousness before God, he also needs to keep the Jewish laws. Often they were required to first become Jewish proselytisers before they could adopt the gospel of Jesus Christ (see J.G Machen: Christianity and Liberalism). This mixture of Judaism and Christianity is extensively dealt with in Acts 15, as well as in the entire book of Galatians – here it is the principal theme of the letter (see W. Barclay’s The Letters to the Galatians and Ephesians). Gal. 5:4 words it in such strict terms that no misunderstanding is possible: “You have become estranged from Christ, you who attempt to be justified by law; you have fallen from grace.”
The Encarta World English Dictionary defines Judaize or Judaise as follows: 1) “to conform or bring into conformity with Judaism 2) to convert to Judaism 3) to imbue with Jewish principles”.
From this it’s clear that the Judaists are also prone to an evangelical drivenness to convert other believers to their views, often in quite an aggressive manner (as Joy Magazine found out when they questioned the New Judaists in an article. Look at http://www.joymag.co.za/article.php?id=219), which leaves little room for conversation. This brings forth spiritual haughtiness, and a perverted sense of separation, as they, in some instances, see themselves as the only true Bride of Yahshua (based on their perverted perspective).
There is thus very strong pressure from the New Judaists on other believers to convert to the quasi-Hebraic way of thinking. They elevate this dogma to a truth which they consider to be superior to what they refer to as the pagan-infiltrated Christian faith. They place emphasis on the fact that a return to the Hebrew roots is a truth which is revealed to the Body as a new revelation, a restored truth. In some circles the practise of these traditions is even presented as a prerequisite for true salvation. All of this is pure deception.
- Selah: Which of these spiritual practices do you partake in?
- Read: 11-18; Ps. 91 & 114; 1 Pet. 1.
- Memorise: 1 Pet. 1:8-9.
- For a more in-depth understanding: See for instance J. Meyer’s The End of the Law: Mosaic Covenant in Pauline Theology.; also http://www.joymag.co.za/article.php?id=200; http://srh4christ.blogspot.com/2014/01/bewitching-believers-through-hebrew.html; http://www.messianic-literary.com/torah_gentiles.htm; and http://www.gotquestions.org/Judaizers.html#ixzz34EpYBL54 .
