Page 130 - Attractive Deception - The False Hope of the Hebrew Roots Movement

the languages of the Bible, but Yahweh closed those doors. He chose to take me down a different path
to learn spiritual truth, a path that was largely “outside the camp” of mainstream Christianity. In
hindsight I see the wisdom of this, for the Bible Colleges and Seminaries are much affected by an
attempt to mentally apprehend spiritual truth when Yahweh’s school of training is always much more
experiential in nature. We observe this as we read about the lives of the 12 disciples who “walked”
with Yahshua, following wherever He led, partaking of His life and trials and suffering. These
fisherman and other “unlearned men” gained through these experiences, and the impartation of the
Spirit of Christ at Pentecost, a spiritual insight that confounded the Jewish religious leaders.

Acts 4:13
Now when they saw the boldness of Peter and John, and had perceived that they were unlearned and
ignorant men, they marveled. They recognized that they had been with Yahshua.

What I have learned, I have gained from walking with Yahshua and being taught of the Holy Spirit.
Much of my training has been “outside the camp, bearing the reproaches of Christ.” I have learned
to use numerous Bible study tools and resources, including Hebrew and Greek Concordances
(Strong’s, Young’s, Englishmans), the Interlinear Hebrew and Greek Scriptures, and various Bible
dictionaries, but I am not fluent in Biblical Hebrew or Greek. I have learned a number of Hebrew and
Greek words that are significant and appear in my studies, but I do not go about interspersing Hebrew
or Greek words in my daily conversation. To do so would render my speech unintelligible to the
majority of English speakers.

I receive correspondence from men and women who hail from a wide variety of Christian
backgrounds. Many of them are Messianic and Hebrew Roots followers. I have routinely encountered
a large amount of Hebrew words and phrases in their correspondence, often to such an extent that I
lose all comprehension of what they are talking about. I have frequently found myself looking up
these Hebrew expressions online that I might know what is being communicated to me.

Understand that I am more familiar than most English speaking Christians with the languages of the
Bible, but I am left confounded by many of the letters I receive. These letters often open with a
Hebrew greeting such as “Shalom Aleichem” (meaning “peace to you”). They will almost always
include Hebrew words to reference God (HaShem is common). The Holy Spirit will be referred to
as the Ruach HaKodesh. It is also common to find the writer using rabbinic Judaism’s forms of
writing such as “G_d” and “L_rd.” When speaking of the Sabbath they will write “Shabbat.” Passover
becomes “Pesach,” the Feast of Tabernacles is “Sukkot,” and Pentecost is “Shavuot.”

I can track pretty well with these Hebrew expressions, having some understanding of their meaning.
I am finding, however, that many English speaking Christians apparently believe that the more
Hebrew words they can incorporate in their communications, the more pleasing to “HaShem” they
will be. Such ones speak of performing “mitzvahs” (Hebrew for “commandments”) and of readings
from the Parashot and Haftorah. The letter may end with something like:

Y'va-reh-ch'cha Adonai v'yish-m'reh-cha.
Ya-eir Adonai pa-nav ei-leh-cha vi-chu-neh-ka.
Yisa Adonai pa-nav ei-leh-cha v'ya-seim l'cha sha-lom.

By now I have figured out that this is the Aaronic blessing written in transliterated phonetic Hebrew