At the heart of the false teachings of both christianity and the Hebrew Roots cult is the absence of spiritual discernment, which comes from the Holy Spirit alone; and that void causes people to see only what is physical in scripture, and not to see how the physical is merely a foreshadow (mirror) of the spiritual.
Both cults struggle to square the OT and NT as one volume, typically because they cannot see the correlation between physical foreshadow and spiritual real substance. When the Holy Spirit instructs into the meanings of His scriptures, understanding the foreshadows and real substances clarifies exactly how the scriptures are one volume, and not two. It is the correlation between the physical and the spiritual that unites all of scripture as a single volume.
One of the crafty techniques that the Hebrew Roots cult uses is to alter the very words of scripture by twisting meanings and changing the actual words in the original languages. An example of this deception is their replacing “Word” (Hebrew: dabar, Greek: logos) with “Torah,” and then claiming that Messiah is the “living Torah.” That’s a lie based on perversion of the actual texts.
Another fairly recent false teaching the cult is peddling has to do with the old and new covenants. The HRM cult falsely teaches that the new covenant is actually a “renewed” covenant. The false teachers use cunning deception by changing the text of the Hebrew and Greek words to similar words with different meanings. In the contexts of the scriptures in which the new covenant is taught, it is clear that the meaning is “new” and not “renewed.”
Not to get too linguistically technical here, in Jeremiah 31:31 (a verse they commonly pervert to fit their false teachings), the new covenant is “B’riyt Chadashah,” and literally means “new covenant” within the actual context of the passage. But, there is another Hebrew word that is very similar to this, but is not the one used in this passage.
H2319 חדשׁ châdâsh = NEW
H2318 חדש châdash = RENEWED
Now, which of these Hebrew words do you think is used in Jeremiah 31:31? It is the first one listed, which means “new.” The jots and tittles are vital to understanding, and the Hebrew Roots false teachers simply exchange words used in scripture for others that they deceptively claim support their false doctrines.
But, why would the Hebrew Roots movement (cult) be so committed to such a small alteration of the words in scripture? It’s because the cult teaches that believers are still under the law of Moses. They falsely claim that the precepts (ordinances) in the Torah, which were given to those who possessed the physical covenant, are still to be obeyed today.
What was the physical covenant? It was the Ten Commandments. It was a foreshadow of a spiritual real substance that would be later revealed. Both the old and new covenants were given on the Feast of Weeks, which falls seven Sabbaths plus one day from Firstfruits.
The old covenant (physical) was given seven Sabbaths plus one day after the first Passover in Egypt, which was also a foreshadow. The new covenant (spiritual) was given seven Sabbaths plus one day after Messiah Yahoshua fulfilled the Passover with His sacrifice of redemption, which is the spiritual real substance. We see the giving of the new covenant in Acts 2.
Here’s what the Hebrew Roots cult really misses. The old covenant was physical, it governed the flesh, and the precepts that were given to those who had that covenant were physical as well. They included the animal sacrifice laws and the clean vs. unclean laws. It was ALL physical.
Many in the Hebrew Roots cult falsely claim that the reason there is no animal sacrifice now is because there is no temple in Jerusalem. They don’t understand that the temple in Jerusalem was a physical foreshadow of Messiah’s bride. We’re told in Hebrews 10 that the Holy Spirit declared the end of animal sacrifice, and that was at least a few years before the temple was actually destroyed in 70 AD.
So, it isn’t that there is not a temple, for the real substance of the temple was revealed in Acts 2, and it is those who are sealed by the Holy Spirit (1 Corinthians 6:19). Again, the physical is a foreshadow that is merely a picture, or representation, of a spiritual real substance—it is an object lesson of sorts—a way for the physical mind to understand something that is spiritual.
As such, the Ten Commandments given to the physical Jews was a foreshadow of the seal of the Holy Spirit being given to Messiah’s bride. The Hebrew Roots cult teaches that, somehow, the Father renewed His Ten Commandments, which is absurd.
No, the seal of the Holy Spirit placed within believers is the “torah,” or instructions, that are “written” on their hearts and minds. The Ten Commandments were just a foreshadow of Him (and, He is the one who physically wrote on the tablets of stone).
There is nothing about the physical (old) covenant that saves. Believers were saved before the giving of the old covenant (see: Abraham), and people will be saved during the tribulation, even though the covenant will be removed from the earth with the bride.
The false “renewed covenant” nonsense is just part of the cult’s ploy to place people under the bondage of the clean vs. unclean laws, which were abolished in Messiah (they were the barrier that separated the physical Jews and Gentiles, as shown in Ephesians 2:11-22). One of the “gang colors” of the HR cult is preaching against eating pork and shellfish, as if the dietary ordinances remained intact after Messiah abolished the clean vs. unclean laws.
In fact, the heresy that the HR cult teaches about “clean and unclean food” is the very thing that Paul rebuked Peter for in Galatians 2. Paul called out Peter’s hypocrisy for trying to return to the dietary laws after Yah had told Peter that there were no longer any “unclean foods.”
It is a lie as old any other false religion out there—that man can earn eternal life by performing ordinances that Christ Himself abolished by His redemptive work. And, Messiah’s work of redemption is what provided for the giving of the new covenant—the seal of the Holy Spirit upon Messiah’s bride Y’isra-el (John 16:7).
If someone tries to teach you about a “renewed covenant,” you can immediately know that he has been deceived by the teachings of a cult, and, if he is an actual teacher in the cult, run from him as fast as you can, if you do not have the knowledge and understanding to expose, rebuke, and correct him, since he is an emissary of Satan.
The old covenant was physical—it applied to the flesh. But, salvation is not of the flesh, it is of the spirit. If you preach the Ten Commandments to the lost, you are a heretic, as there is nothing about the commandments in the old covenant that can save anybody.
The Holy Spirit was given as the NEW COVENANT of marriage (“ketubah”) to Messiah—the stone tablets were not given to Messiah’s bride, but to a physical foreshadow of her. The Holy Spirit in the bride is her eternal seal of redemption—He is the NEW covenant!
For more information: What Are the Old and New Covenants?