Page 149 - Attractive Deception - The False Hope of the Hebrew Roots Movement

heart than their love and devotion to Christ. When Christ calls a man or woman to follow Him, they
must do so irregardless of the protestations of parents, wife, children, brothers, or sisters. They must
follow Christ to places their own soul despises. They must accept whatever life and experiences
Yahshua chooses for them. It is a requisite of discipleship that a man or woman die to their own
dreams, desires, and goals for life. Their sole aim must be to follow Christ wherever He leads them
and to live for His satisfaction and glory. Yahshua stated in this passage that the cost of following
Him includes yielding everything the individual possesses to be disposed of as He commands. If
Christ speaks to a person, as He did to the rich young ruler, telling them to sell everything and give
the money to the poor and then come take up the cross and follow where He leads, then this is what
the disciple must do.

It is at this point that a great many men and women balk. Like the young ruler, they walk away
grieved, for they are attached to their many possessions, to their comfortable life, to the acceptance
they have among family and the members of society. To embrace a life that will result in reproach,
in suffering, in separation from the embrace of loved ones, is too high a cost for many to pay.

It did not take long for the church to begin omitting the preaching of the costliness of Christian
discipleship. To become a Christian was redefined as an act of belief. A person had to confess their
belief in certain things relating to the Son of God. If they did so, the clergy members assured them
they were “saved.” Walk the aisle, say the sinner’s prayer, get dunked in the church’s baptismal pool,
and a person will have their name added to the church rolls while receiving assurances that their name
is also recorded in heaven’s rolls.

Such an experience is very common in the churches today. What is presented is an aberration of the
truth. Significant and vital portions of the gospel message are left out. Yahshua said there is a GATE
that all men must enter, and there is also a WAY that all must walk. The churches are in varying
degrees proclaiming the GATE, but they are omitting the WAY. This exclusion will result in the ruin
of many lives. The churches are filled with blind followers of blind leaders.

Matthew 7:13-14
“Enter by the narrow gate; for the gate is wide, and the way is broad that leads to destruction, and
many are those who enter by it. For the gate is small, and the way is afflicted that leads to life, and
few are those who find it.”

You likely have had the preceding words of Christ misquoted to you. Most popular Bible translations
state that “the way is narrow that leads to life.” Thus the gate is declared to be narrow and the way
is also declared to be narrow. However, in the original Greek the two adjectives describing the gate
and the way are distinctly different words. The gate is described as “stenos,” while the way is defined
as “thlibo.” The word “thlibo” does not mean narrow. It is translated as narrow nowhere else in the
New Testament. In every other passage in which this word occurs it bears the meaning of affliction
and suffering.

II Corinthians 1:6
Now if we are afflicted (thlibo), it is for your consolation and salvation, which is effective for
enduring the same sufferings which we also suffer.