Hebrew Roots - Christian Hebrew Roots Movement

Christian Hebrew Roots Movement

The Hebrew Roots movement is related to a subgroup known as "Christian Hebrew Roots." This subgroup follows the Ten Commandments (Ex 20:3-17) and the feasts of the Lord (Lev 23:1-44), but like mainstream Christianity believes that all other Old Testament requirements have been "done away".

The Christian Hebrew Roots movement rejects many of the same practices of mainstream Christianity that the Hebrew Roots movement rejects. In particular, they reject the Catholic Church's "transubstantiation" doctrine, and instead follow what it sees as the biblical teachings set forth in the New Testament regarding the "nature of Communion" as a symbol of Christ's body instead of the literal body and flesh of Jesus. This, they deduce from the words Jesus spoke to describe what they call an "amendment" to the Passover service being symbolic and not literal (in accordance with how they interpret the New Testament Greek).

The Christian Hebrew Roots movement does not teach a return to the law as dispensed by the scribes who Jesus rebuked as hypocrites. They interpret the "law" as pertaining to the Torah, and not the Jewish Oral Law, as the Hebrew Roots movement interprets it. Instead, the Christian Hebrew Roots movement follows what it claims is the worship pattern of Jesus, whom they claim freed mankind from the yoke of the letter of the law; and, in fulfilling the law, Jesus taught Christians to practice only the Ten Commandments and feasts of the Lord which make up "the acceptable year of the Lord" in his speech inaugurating his personal earthly ministry.

This main distinction between the two groups is that followers of the Hebrew Roots movement understand the word "fulfill" (playroo G4137), found in Matthew 5:17, to mean "fill up" specifically with meaning. This is in contradistinction to "destroy" (kataluo G2647) with which it is contrasted earlier in the same verse. fulfill is also found to mean to place the commandments of God "on a firmer footing by interpreting them correctly in terms of God's ultimate will as He originally intended for His commandments to be obeyed", and not dispensing with them as something that has been "done away" by the atoning work of Jesus Christ, as Christian Hebrew Roots followers define it.

Both movements include adherents who are of Jewish heritage as well as Gentile heritage. The Christian Hebrew Roots movement is completely nondenominational, consisting of persons from many different religious backgrounds and teaches adherence to the health laws of the Torah but not the portions of the Torah which it believes were abandoned by Jesus. As such, they function as a sort of "bridge" between true Hebrew Roots theology and mainstream Christianity.