Alone in a Dark, Strange House

Have you ever found yourself groping and stumbling around in a totally dark, strange house without a light? Many people who have left the Christian church with some vague notion of returning to the Hebrew roots of their faith find themselves in such a house. Welcome to the house of the Messianic /Hebrew Roots Movement!

Many of us have been there asking ourselves questions like: Where are we? Where are we going? What’s next? Who’s out there? Am I alone?

Shifting from a Christian paradigm and lifestyle to that of the Hebrew/Jewish roots of the Christian faith as modelled by the early believers in the Book of Acts and Apostolic Epistles isn’t an easy one. Perhaps knowing the transition zones or spiritual growth stages we all go through might be like someone handing you a flashlight in that dark house.

Even a little light on the subject might save your toe and keep you from doing a nose plant on the floor! Not only that, knowing the stages most inevitably go through when making the transition from a traditional Sunday Christian to a Torah-conscious and Yeshua-loving Hebrew might just…

• help us to stay on course so that we won’t get stuck in one stage of spiritual development and fail to move to the next stage.
• help leaders to see where people are at in their path to spiritual maturity, and help them to the next level.
• help those who have advanced through these stages to be gracious and helpful to those who have not yet done so.

Here are the stages, as I see them. Personal experiences may vary, but I think that most of us have more or less gone through these steps ourselves. Read and see what you think.

The Hearing the Sound of the Shofar/the Call of the Bridegroom

• At this stage, as Christians, we begin to awaken to our spiritual heritage—to the Jewish roots of our faith.
• We begin to develop a love for the land of Israel and the Jewish people.
• We become aware of our need to return to the ancient and good spiritual paths (Jer 6:16), which predate Constantine Christianity and from which we have strayed (v. 19).

The Anger Stage/Our Fathers Have Inherited Lies Stage

• We become aware that our spiritual fathers have inherited lies (Jer 16:19): the church has lied to us; withheld biblical truth; substituted traditions of men for biblical truth. If not careful, anger against the Christian church can set in.
• Some, at this point, will begin to despise and denigrate the Christian church, or worse, turn away from what truth the church does have (e.g., the message of Yeshua, the cross, the basic gospel message, the message of love, etc.).

The Exploratory Our Hebrew Roots Stage

• We begin to search the Bible for truth and knowledge. We want to discover the truths the church system been withholding from us.
• This search leads us to a learning about the Torah (the law of Moses). We begin to fall in love with the Torah.
• At the same time, we become drawn to Messianic personalities, the big name “Torah teachers,” programs and conferences. These celebrities are highly instrumental in introducing newbies to the Hebrew roots of the Christian faith.

The Jewishness Stage

• For many, at this stage the spiritual pendulum begins swinging away from Christianity toward Judaism. After all, one reasons, the Jews have been faithful to the Torah, they can show us the way. Perhaps the Jewish sages can teach us what the church system has failed to teach us. After all, we reason, they have faithfully adhered to the Torah. Right??… Therefore, everything Jewish must be good.
• Some will even endeavor to become Jewish, and outdo the Jews with regard to Torah-obedience.

The Apathy Stage

• Apathy for things Christian develops and unwittingly.
• At this point, many inadvertently put the truths of Yeshua, the gospel message and the New Testament (NT) on the back burner. If not careful, we can grow cold in our love for Yeshua. Some never come back and leave Yeshua and the NT altogether figuring these are inventions of the Catholic church fathers. Some go all the way into Judaism and end up denying Yeshua altogether.

The Torah Legalism Stage

• At this stage as one, begins to learn about the Torah-law with all of its prescriptions and proscriptions (dos and don’ts), some will move from the emphasis of Christianity on the spirit of the law to the strongly emphasizing letter of the law.
• A letter of the law orientation causes us to focus more on religiousity—or the externals of Torah-obedience (e.g., mezuzahs, tzitzits and talits, beards, head coverings, shofars, sacred names, Hebraic dance, paleo-Hebrew, etc.) over the spirit of the law. This makes us feel special and better than others.
• Head knowledge and the how-tos of Torah become the dominant motivator in one’s life. Much time is spent worshipping at the alter of intellectualism. Gaining spiritual head knowledge becomes one’s dominant pursuit. We flock to Hebrew roots teachers who inundate us with a torrent of spiritual—often esoteric—truths from the Word of Elohim. As a result, our mind swells with head knowledge, but our heart remains unfed, and we make very little progress in our personal relationship with Yeshua and our Father in heaven.
• In the mean time, we forget about the love and grace a taught in the church. We spend more time debating doctrine, and, if not careful, can become a pack of arrogant, unloving, legalistic and pharisaical spiritual knit-pickers. Yeshua referred to this as being like a whited sepulchre full of dead men’s bones.

The Leanness of Soul Stage

• With a head of full of Torah knowledge and Jewish understanding, and feeling better than everyone else, surprisingly, we still feel spiritually empty inside.
• At this point, totally disillusioned, some leave the Hebrew roots/Messianic Movement and return to Christianity, convert to Judaism, or just give up on religion all together only. Some will invent their own self-styled form of secular Jewish-Christianity. Others revert to total secularism.

The Spirit and Truth Stage/the Bride and the Bridegroom Dance Together

• Those who are hungry truth seekers realize the spiritual traps and pitfalls outlined above, and they begin to understand these stages of spiritual growth and development, yet they refuse to take their eyes off of Yeshua and his word, and so they press onward and upward.
• One begins to long for the grace, mercy, love and Yeshua-centeredness once experienced in the Christian church, yet in a Torah and Spirit-filled context.
• They seek more of Yeshua, desiring to abide intimately in him, yet in a Hebraic, pro-Torah context.
• At this point, it behooves us to rediscover the glorious and transcendent beauty of the Testimony of Yeshua (NT), and then to find out what the apostles really did teach about the Torah, spiritual life and Yeshua.
• As we begin to walk in more love, tolerance, grace, and mercy toward one another, one accordness along with a desire for deep and heartfelt praise and worship begins to return to our fellowships. The power of the Spirit, the anointed Presence of YHVH are soon to follow. This is the dance of the bride and the Bridegroom, which occurs at that place of anointing before the altar of incense before the veil. The bride is preparing to enter the bridal chamber of the holy of holies,which is the chupah or place of marital oneness or consummation, in preparation for the coming of the Bridegroom.

Coming to this place in our spiritual walk needs to be the goal of each born-again, redeemed Israelite, Torah-obedient, Spirit-filled follower of Yeshua the Messiah.