Page 141 - Attractive Deception - The False Hope of the Hebrew Roots Movement

after the exile and the second Temple with the rise of the rabbis supplanting the priests. That was
really finished once the temple was destroyed. The Sadducees, which really represented the priests,
were wiped out. The Pharisees were the only ones within Judaism who survived that era... Judaism
became synonymous with Pharisaism, and the Talmud was intended to... crystalize this oral law,
which they said was paramount over the written Law that we had in the Pentateuch, and even Moses
and others were in awe of rabbi Akiva who was a more important sage than Moses to Judaism -
which is admitted by the Jewish Encyclopedia and other sources, that Akiva is actually more
important to Judaism than Moses.

Michael Bennett then switches focus to talk about how a much different conception of Judaism today
is foisted upon non-Jews living outside the borders of Israel.

I suggest our listeners look up a principle... called hasbara. It is a requirement for those who have
sympathies within Judaism to Zionism, to basically control the reality of those of us whose resources
they would like to use. Hasbara is a requirement to control what we’re exposed to, to appeal to our
emotions, to appeal to our senses, to appeal to our pride - I am talking about as Christians, using
means that would not be what we would consider New Testament virtues of the kingdom of heaven...
With the intention to confuse us, and to invoke us into a holy war that has not been ours... I can tell
you that my hands are filled with trying to struggle not against flesh and blood, but against
principalities and powers and rulers in high places, which was the task the church was called to do.
To be pulled into lesser wars between men is something that I find no Biblical foundation for
whatsoever. I think we need to do some soul-searching... to start with a clean sheet of paper and the
Gospel and the teachings of the apostles, and start to really work out our own salvation with fear and
trembling.

Mr. Bennett then talks about the false reality presented to Christian tourists who visit the land of
Israel.

You mentioned these tours that you would like to go to, and I can understand it. We’ve learned about
these places in Sunday School. We have this affinity. We picture the people of Israel like King David,
noble figures that desire to seek God and who are surrounded by blood-thirsty beasts. But what really
happens on these tours is a very careful dog-and-pony-show to serve nothing more than in most cases
a political interest. And religious themes will be brought up if it serves that political interest. I am
ready to sign up for another tour if it ends with my Christian brothers and sisters preaching the
Gospel of Christ at the Western Wall, like our brothers the apostles in the book of Acts did. And you
know what happened to them when they did it, and you know what would happen to us.

Christians in Israel today are fire-bombed by Orthodox Jews. They are killed on occasion. (They are
subjected to) extreme vandalism and persecution. Bibles are collected and burned in front of the
Knesset and elsewhere in Israel, and you hear nothing about this in the Christian press. There was
a movement a number of years ago, I believe it was around 1997, where there was yet another set of
laws that was proposed that would expand the penalties against sharing one’s faith in the public, or
proselytizing as they call it, sharing with someone to change their faith from Judaism. Originally
there was a one year sentence for that and they were going to expand it to five years, including any
kind of inducement which would include just giving a Bible or a tract to somebody. They basically
said, “We don’t want you over here talking about Jesus. We want your money. We want your political
cover, but you are banned from this.”