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 mainstream church system with some vague notion of returning to the Hebrew roots of their faith find themselves in such a house. Welcome to the house of Messianic or the Hebrew Roots Movement!

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

Shifting from a traditional church-system paradigm and lifestyle to that of that of a more first century or Hebraic one as modelled by the early believers in the Book of Acts and Apostolic Epistles isn’t an easy to do. Perhaps knowing the transition zones or spiritual growth stages most of us will 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 from getting stubbed and keep you from doing a nose plant on the floor! Not only that, knowing the stages most people inevitably go through when making the transition from a traditional Sunday Christian orientation to a Torah-pursuant one just might…

• help us to stay on course spiritually, 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 move 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. Each one’s personal experiences may vary a little, and the order of the steps may be slightly different for each person, but I think that most of us can relate to these steps of spiritual transformation to one degree or another. I know, because I’ve been through these steps myself!

The Eight Stages of Coming Out of Spiritual Babylon

1-Awakening Stage: Hearing the Sound of the Shofar and the Call of the Bridegroom

• At this stage, 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 the traditions of men that are contrary to the Word of Elohim that often characterize much of what has been associated with our past church involvements. We realize that we have strayed spiritually from the biblical paths of truth and bought into the lying doctrines and traditions of men (Jer 16:19).

2-Anger Stage: Our Fathers Have Inherited Lies

• We become aware that our spiritual fathers have inherited lies (Jer 16:19). Namely, we discover that the church has lied to us, has withheld certain biblical truths from us, and has substituted traditions of men for many biblical truth. If not careful, anger against the Christian church can set in.
• Some people, at this point, will begin to despise, denigrate and even hate the Christian church and Christians. Some don’t even believe that there are any Christians who are saved. In the process, some people become judgmental and bigoted toward Christians who still adhere to anti-Torah belief systems. In anger and bitterness, some people will even turn away from what correct truth the church does have (e.g., the message of Yeshua, the cross, the basic gospel message, the message of love, etc.) and toss out the baby with the bath water. Sadly, some people will turn away from belief in the New Testament, the gospel message and the truth about Yeshua the Messiah.

3-Exploratory Stage: Learning About the Roots of Our Faith

• We begin to search the Bible for truth and knowledge. We want to discover the truths the church system has been withholding from us.
• We develop a new-found love for studying the Scriptures. 
• This search leads us to a learning about the Torah (the law of Moses). We begin to fall in love with the Torah.
• We seek head knowledge from many sources. 
• 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.

4-Jewishness Stage: Rabbinic Judaism Holds the Answers

• For many people, at this stage the spiritual pendulum begins swinging away from Christianity toward Judaism. 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. Non-biblical Jewish traditions and lifestyles are often embraced.
• Some people may fall prey to the anti-Messiah lies in rabbinic Judaism and turn away from the gospel message and from Yeshua altogether and convert to Judaism. 

5-Apathy Stage: Our Love for Yeshua Grows Cold

• Apathy for things Christian develops unwittingly.
• At this point, many inadvertently put the truths of Yeshua, the gospel message and the New Testament (NT) on the back burner. 
• Some delve so deeply into digging out the jots and tittles of the Torah — often by studying the Jewish sages — that the message of the gospel begins to diminish in their eyes.
• If not careful, one can grow cold in one’s 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.

6-Torah Legalism Stage: An Over-Emphasis on the Dos and Don’ts of Torah 

• 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 an over-emphasis on the letter of the law.
• A letter of the law orientation causes us to focus more on religiousity—or the externals of Torah-obedience. Often there is a hyper-focus on things such as the sacred or Hebrew names of Elohim, tzitzits and talits, beards, head coverings, shofars, mezuzahs, Hebraic dance, Paleo-Hebrew, etc. over the spirit of the law. A strict adherence to these externals often makes us feel special and even superior to those who “haven’t attained to our level of understanding.” If we’re not careful, we can become a Pharisaical Torah-terrorist as we demand that others come into obedience to the Torah and condemn them if they don’t. We often become judgmental of others, and prideful in our holier-than-though spiritual walk.
• 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. We tend to hyperfocus on the areas where people are not Torah-compliant instead of focusing on where they are Torah-compliant. If we’re not careful, we can become a pack of arrogant, unloving, legalistic and pharisaical spiritual nitpickers or even Torah-terrorists who beat people over the head with our personal Torah-scrolls. Yeshua referred to this as being like a whited sepulchre full of dead men’s bones. 
• We spend more time debating doctrine, then we do fulfilling the great commission of reaching out to the lost with the love and hope of Yeshua the Messiah. We seldom share the gospel with anyone, feed the hungry, cloth the naked or help the sick and poor. We much of our time in our own spiritual pharisaical bubble.

7—Leanness of Soul Stage: Full Head; Empty Heart

• 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 altogether figuring that it’s not working for them. Some return to Christianity, others convert to Judaism, and some just give up on religion all together only. Some will invent their own self-styled form of secular Jewish-Christianity or “spirituality” which is often a hodge-podge of religious ideologies and traditions that suit them personally. Others revert to total secularism and the pursuit of money and materialism.

8–The Spirit and Truth Stage: The Bride and the Bridegroom Dance Together in the New Jerusalem

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. They progress through all these stages, learn form their mistakes, and pass the tests along the way. Sadly, they see many of their friends and loved ones fall by the wayside, yet they keep pushing forward. They refuse to take their eyes off of Yeshua, who is both the Living and Written Torah. At this point…

• 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 (New Testament), 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, mercy toward one another we come into a spirit of one-accordness with others who are in the spiritual body of Yeshua. We develop a deep and heartfelt desire for praise and worship to return to our fellowships. The power of the Spirit, the anointed Presence of YHVH, will soon to follow those who seek Yeshua more than anything else. This is the dance of the bride and the Bridegroom (Yeshua the Messiah), which occurs at that place of anointing before the altar of incense before the veil in the Tabernacle of Moses. The bride (those who love Yeshua by keeping his commandments, and how have the word of Elohim and the testimony or faith of Yeshua) 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. This is a spiritual picture of the New Jerusalem as revealed in the last two chapters of the Bible.