Michael Rood & the Hebrew Roots Movement

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Michael Rood -- Research Resources


Michael Rood is a self-proclaimed Messianic preacher who was ordained as a Christian minister in The Way International (TWI).



Rood has continued many of the themes and practices which made TWI theologically a cult of Christianity.



“Michael John Rood is an ordained nondenominational Christian minister and Messianic rabbi,” according to a brochure Rood produced to promote his seminars which have been held around the United States

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Unfortunately, Michael John Rood and his teachings are not credible or accurate. Rood is not trained, certified or recognized as a Rabbi, and his “ordination” by a cult called The Way International (TWI) required only minor instruction in an unaccredited TWI program. His central teachings depart radically from the evangelical Christian faith, and several of his teachings and practices are typical among cults rather than among Christians or Messianic Jews (that is, Jews who have accepted Yeshua [Jesus Christ] as Lord and Savior). Furthermore, many of his teachings and practices are drawn from a cult called The Way International which was incorporated in 1954 and widely denounced by Christian leaders and TWI’s ex-followers alike. About 95% of TWI’s followers have left TWI after seeing its severe errors, and many ex-leaders of TWI have founded a variety of splinter groups or ministries, just as Rood has.

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Michael John Rood has continued many of the themes and practices which made TWI a cult. Both TWI and Rood:



disparage the Christian Church as full of deception and pagan practices;

consider themselves to be the one source of truth, the revealer of the unknown Mystery and the way out of “pagan” Christianity;

follow the teachings of one Man who can lead them out of deception,

warned that America would be attacked and destroyed by Communist powers,

promote highly speculative, unfounded and inaccurate theories,

devote attention to minute detail on areas of “research” that have essentially little significance,

criticize celebration of Christmas (TWI replaced it with “Happy Household Holidays),

use similar terminology, such as when Rood refers to believers receiving “the gift of holy spirit,” (Mystery of Iniquity, p. 54) meaning that they receive the human spirit which Adam, lost at the fall, not “the Holy Spirit” as evangelical Christianity teaches,

promote the “Lamsa Bible” written by George Lamsa, which claims to the translated from the Aramaic and therefore more accurate than translations from the Greek.

Lamsa actually rejects most central Christian beliefs (his doctrine is similar to the Unity School of Christianity where he worked for many years) and his translation is deeply flawed in many ways (“George M. Lamsa– Christian Scholar or Cultic Torchbearer?” Christian Research Journal, by John Juedes on Rood’s claim to have identified the exact day of Jesus’ birth while defaming the celebration of December 25 is also something TWI claimed to do. TWI’s book, The Promised Seed, also identified Tishri 1, 3 BC, between 6:18 and 7:39 P.M. as the date and time of Jesus’ birth. (Although Rood says that was Sept 23, while TWI says it was Wed. Sept. 11, because Rood claims to use a “corrected” Hebrew calendar.)





Rood is different from TWI in his legalistic requirement that Christians keep the Torah and observe the Saturday Sabbath and Hebrew festivals. (Although TWI did emphasize obeying certain universal laws, such as believing and tithing.) On the surface, Rood seems to contradict TWI teaching by emphasizing Hebrew religion, while TWI showed some anti-Semitic characteristics such as denying the WWII holocaust.

– Source: Michael Rood, Doomsday Prophet Last accessed, May 4, 2008. Formatted for clarity.



Rood’s teachings are unbiblical to such an extend that he can not be considered to be a Christian.



Table of Contents hide

1 Hebrew Roots Movements

2 A Rood Awakening

3 Failed Prophecy & False Claims

4 Occult Calendars

HEBREW ROOTS MOVEMENTS

Rood is considered one of the leading figures in the so-called “Hebrew Roots” movement. This is a movement within the Christian church that claims to teach Christians the “Hebrew roots of the Christian faith” through the study of the Jewish foundational teachings.



The “Hebrew Roots” movement actually consists of various movements ranging from benign to dangerous in their teachings.



Rood is associated with the most unbiblical form of the Hebrew Roots movement.



A ROOD AWAKENING

Michael Rood is a self-proclaimed Messianic preacher who “traveled the globe exhibiting … Bible-confirming archaeology, and proclaiming that the “Feasts of the LORD” are precise prophetic shadow pictures by which our Creator has revealed the Messiah, and His plan for the created universe. Through his multi-media seminars, … dubbed “A Rood Awakening!“, Michael has invited hundreds of thousands of people around the world to “Leave your western, Gentile mentality behind, and explore the Scriptures (from Genesis to Revelation) from a Hebrew, or Jewish, perspective”, and return to the faith of the First Century followers of Messiah Y’shua (Jesus).”



He is an advocate of the use of the Hebrew Lunar and Agricultural Calendar. Michael Rood’s teaching is aired on Sky Angel satellite television.

– Source: Michael Rood, Wikipedia. Last accessed, May 4, 2008



FAILED PROPHECY & FALSE CLAIMS

Profile

Michael Rood is a self-styled “Messianic Rabbi.” He gained national attention first in the year 2000. During much of that year, Rood was a popular seminar speaker around the country, and guest on the national radio program The Prophecy Club, because he was dogmatically and bombastically predicting that the prophetic “Day of the Lord” would begin on the Feast of Trumpets in the fall of 2000. His prediction failed, but he has continued to promote his speculative prophetic theories through public appearances, literature, a collection of video and audio tape teachings, and his website. At one time he used the name “Michael John Rood” almost exclusively in his ministry, but has recently dropped the middle name.



The Claims



Michael Rood currently presents himself, and is promoted in a number of “Christian” settings, as an “expert” in interpreting End Time prophetic scenarios from the Bible. His specialty is connecting the annual timing of the Feasts of Israel from the Old Testament to his own projected time schedule for events he believes are soon to come to pass.

Rood also is considered in many circles as an expert in clarifying the “Hebrew Roots” of the Christian faith, and emphasizing those roots in evaluating, in particular, various New Testament passages.

One of the factors in the popularity of Rood as a teacher of Hebrew Roots is that those who promote his ministry present him as a “Messianic Jewish” rabbi, with the obvious implication that he has a Jewish education as a “rabbinical scholar” that gives him deep insight into the Old Testament. And yet at the same time, he has come to accept Jesus/Yahshua as the Jewish Messiah so he can understand both the writings of the New Testament and the Jewishness of Jesus.

Although he seems to carefully avoid promoting his most controversial teachings in certain “Christian” settings, he clearly teaches those who are involved deeply in his ministry that any involvement of any kind in the denominations of “historical Christianity” leaves them in bondage to a Satanic counterfeit of Biblical teaching. Thus those who would not embrace exclusive observance of the seventh day Sabbath and the Biblical holy day cycle immediately upon hearing of Rood’s teachings are branded as being under threat of imminent divine retribution, no matter the sincerity of their attempts to understand and serve God.

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An extensive proportion of Rood’s speculations are based in part on unconditional acceptance of the highly questionable archaeological claims of the late amateur archaeologist Ron Wyatt.

– Source: Michael Rood and his “Rood Awakenings”, Field Guide to the Wild World of Religion. Last accessed, May 4, 2008



OCCULT CALENDARS



False teacher Michael Rood on the so-called “Creator’s Calendar.”

In this video, part of a series posted to YouTube by Michael Rood Ministries, Michael Rood talks about what he calls, “The Creator’s Calendar.”



Vicky Dillen addresses this subject here and here



In 1998, Michael Rood united with ” former Way members” Robert Scott Wadsworth and Richard Fike, and published their first Zodiac based calendar. The continually re-corrected, “Corrected Hebrew Calendar,” now includes Karaite calculations for what is to be considered the TRUE Hebraic ABIB correctly calculated calendar. Michael Rood calls his often corrected zodiac based “Corrected Hebrew Calendar”, “The Astronomically and Agriculturally Corrected Biblical Hebrew Calendar”.



…Michael Rood has neglected to point out that the resources for their calendar calculations are found in astrology, numerology and kabbalist gematria. These calculations are also found in the teachings of Oriental, Egyptian, Chinese, Hindu, Zodiac and Gaia based calendar information he and his associates source for the “Astronomically and Agriculturally corrected Biblical Hebrew Calendar.” – Source: Michael Rood: WAY Colleagues, Occult Calendars & False Prophecies, Vicky Dillen


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