Page 148 - Attractive Deception - The False Hope of the Hebrew Roots Movement

Hebrew Roots Movement - Choosing Style Over Substance

One of the attractions of the Hebrew Roots movement is that it provides Christians with a means to
outwardly demonstrate their devotion to Yahshua while avoiding the far more costly price of true
discipleship. It is my belief that many make this trade-off unconsciously. They do not sit down and
reason that they will embrace the forms and rites of the Hebrew Roots movement as a substitute for
taking up their cross and following Yahshua. The decision is more subtle. Most Christians recoil at
the idea of suffering for their faith in Christ. Dying to self and facing persecution in this world are
both ideas which cause the flesh of man to recoil in distaste and horror. This innate aversion to
suffering causes many Christians to avoid giving serious thought to the idea that the sufferings of
Yahshua are appointed to them as well.

The subject of the cost of Christian discipleship is avoided in the churches today. On those rare
occasions when some teaching on this subject is offered, what is taught often obscures the truth, rather
than clarifying it. Most believers have been introduced to Christianity in apostate denominations and
man-centric congregations which proclaim the benefits of faith in Christ while neglecting to reference
the cost of being a disciple. Yahshua only ever gave one form of invitation. He invited men and
women to “Come, take up YOUR CROSS and FOLLOW ME.” He informed those who aspired to
become His disciples that doing so would cost them EVERYTHING.

Luke 14:25-35
Now great multitudes were going along with Him; and He turned and said to them, “If anyone comes
to Me, and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters,
yes, and even his own life, he cannot be My disciple. Whoever does not carry his own cross and come
after Me cannot be My disciple. For which one of you, when he wants to build a tower, does not first
sit down and calculate the cost, to see if he has enough to complete it? Otherwise, when he has laid
a foundation, and is not able to finish, all who observe it begin to ridicule him, saying, ‘This man
began to build and was not able to finish.’ Or what king, when he sets out to meet another king in
battle, will not first sit down and take counsel whether he is strong enough with ten thousand men to
encounter the one coming against him with twenty thousand? Or else, while the other is still far away,
he sends a delegation and asks terms of peace. So therefore, no one of you can be My disciple who
does not give up all his own possessions. Therefore, salt is good; but if even salt has become tasteless,
with what will it be seasoned? It is useless either for the soil or for the manure pile; it is thrown out.
He who has ears to hear, let him hear.”

In these words, Yahshua proclaimed the costliness of being His disciple. To be a disciple a man or
woman must forsake every relationship. No familial love can hold a higher place in the disciple’s