February 25, 2025 • 44 mins
The Sacred Name and Hebrew Roots Movements aren't the most oft discussed aspects of faith. Peaking somewhere between the 1960s and 1980s through the Worldwide Church of God, these movements largely retreated to small scattered groups in diverse locations. With the rise of the internet, many of their ideas are well-circulated and debated through social media. Join Apostle Dr. Lee Ann Marino for a look at these two movements that both overlap while containing their unique contents, why we should recognize them, and whether or not it matters if we call on the name of God in Hebrew. (Intro and Conclusion Track "Ready to Rock" by Yvgeniy Sorokin, https://pixabay.com/users/eugenemyers-40510887/. ACTS Seminary ad back track "Worship" by Ivan Luzin, https://pixabay.com/music/main-title-worship-151061/.)
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Welcome to Kingdom Now, the podcast featuring faith with an edge,
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I am your host, Dr. Lee Ann Marino, apostle, author,
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And I welcome you to this edition of the Kingdom Now podcast, and I am your host,
Apostolic Dr. Lee Ann Marino here as the Spitfire serving as the voice of counterculture Christianity,
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Teaching on movements is always a challenge because when we discuss movements,
we are discussing groups with no centralized authority.
And that means there are often substantial variations between different groups,
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even when the bulk of what a group might believe is either the same or very similar.
And this is true nowhere more than with the two movements that I'm speaking of today,
namely the sacred name and Hebrew roots movements.
These two movements have a lot in common, well at the same time in some ways, are also very different.
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But because of their similarities, they are often confused for one another.
And it is my hope that through this, we're able to clarify the differences as well as the similarities
and help establish what makes these movements relevant for our times.
Because beyond sometimes encountering adherence online, which is most likely where you're
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going to find them on social media, who can be a bit adamant about their beliefs, the sacred name
and Hebrew roots movements actually tend to surface every few years in some major social.
And sometimes even in national events. And for that reason alone, these are movements we should
aspire to understand. So let's talk and start with a little bit of examination about the history
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of these two movements. So the major difference in history between these two movements lies in
origins. While the sacred name movement has its origins in denominational religion,
the Hebrew roots movement was a work of independent practitioners who absorbed ideas from both sacred
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name and independent sources. So the sacred name movement was historically first.
And it was an outgrowth of the Millerite movement, which once the great disappointment came along,
became what we now know as "adventism." So for those who don't know, let's back up and let's talk
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about that first. The Millerite movement is named after a man named William Miller, who believed
he could predict the second coming of Christ through a carefully detailed dating method using
the entire Bible. And this happened in the mid-1800s. I'm not going to get into the details and the
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methods he used. You can look it up if you're legitimately curious about it. I'm not going to waste
time on it because no matter how carefully he charted and how cute he tried to be about it, it didn't
happen. And so it wasn't accurate. First his date was 1843. And then again, he picked another date in
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1844. And his followers, I'll kind of gather together up on a farm in Western New York State.
And when Jesus didn't return, because as we know, he didn't. The event became known as the great
disappointment. And what happened with the subsequent adherence is someone back to their lives,
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some became atheists, some returned to their other churches. And there were still some who believed
that something happened in 1844. It just wasn't the second coming. And these people became what we now
know to be Adventists, the most well-known being the seventh day Adventists, whose beliefs do very
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considerably from other Adventists. And from this movement came what we know as the Church of God
Seventh Day, which is a Sabbatarian Adventist group. So Sabbatarian Adventism is Adventism,
meaning that they believe the second coming of Christ is immediately imminent at any time.
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So that's the Adventist part. But one thing that's a little unique about Sabbatarian Adventism
is that the beliefs of each of the denominations can vary considerably from one another in some of
their very central beliefs. And we have the Sabbatarian Adventists, the major part of such that you
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need to know for the sake of this episode is the Sabbatarian part. It means not just that they worship
on Saturdays versus Sundays, but that they have a different idea about the believer's relationship
with the law or the biblical Old Testament law as well. So Sabbatarian's belief worship on Saturday
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is required. It's not an option, but that it's required. As are observances of Old Testament
festivals and varied interpretations of the requirements of following moral law. Most groups believe
the Ten Commandments have relevance above the rest of the law. And while they might not adhere to
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the ceremonial law, so the ceremonial law being the issue of sacrificing goats and lambs and
different animals and offering grain offerings and things of that nature, they do believe the law
is relevant for believers in modern times. And before you ask, no, they are not Jewish. This is
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entirely removed from Judaism. It's got nothing to do with Judaism as we would understand it today.
It's sacred name or in this example that we're talking about here, it's Sabbatarian Adventism.
It's a totally different thing from Judaism. So the sacred name movement is an outgrowth of this
very, very religious movement. And while it absorbs the major points of Sabbatarianism,
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it adds its own unique twist, one that was of note among different groups of its day.
In particular, Jehovah's Witnesses, who are not sacred name but emerged in the same time frame
and do hold to kind of a variation on it. So Jehovah's Witnesses believe the true name of God to
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be Jehovah and that there is no other name for God but Jehovah. So that kind of has the sacred name
"esque" feel that they're insisting upon a certain name and that it has to be proclaimed,
but it's a little bit different in the way that they've manifested it through their denomination.
The idea that the Hebrew form of the name of God is the only valid name of God,
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and that for people to be true believers they must use this name is very, very central to Sabbatarianism.
Now they don't all agree on what the name is and I think that that's very, very important,
but most use a variation of Yahweh or Yahveh or Jehovah or their own concoction of such and they
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often use it in their churches and ministries. And a man by the name of CO Dodd took up the cause of
the sacred name sometime in the 1940s and this popularized the cause of the movement through his
magazine which was called the Faith. So the Hebrew Roots movement is more loosely identified
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and actually the sacred name movement can be considered part of the larger Hebrew Roots movement
although Hebrew Roots wouldn't specifically identify with sacred name. So yes, I know that that's where
it gets a little confusing and it's why we use classifications for things. We could say that the
sacred name movement is the more religious of the two. With the Hebrew Roots movement serving as a
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larger, more general body of individuals who are interested in things related to the hebraic
understanding of their faith. It's properly classified as syncretism where it's the merging of more
than one religious system together but it's also important to say that the Hebrew Roots movement is
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not authentically Jewish nor is its goal to necessarily be such. The goal is to apply a very modern
interpretation or application of the Old Testament within a Christian adaptation. So this larger
group as was defined earlier is interested in keeping the Torah, the Sabbath and the annual festivals
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and it includes Messianic Judaism which started in 1916. It's a little bit limited but it's relevant
the sacred name movement of 1937 the worldwide Church of God which started in the 1930s,
Seventh-day Pentecostalism, the Nazarenes, the Hebrew Roots Black Identity movement, independent of
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the movement who are often identified as the Hebrew Roots Awakening and other assorted independent
practitioners or groups who may exist in small communities that espouse a concoction of these
different ideas. In more modern times and I would say that it started somewhere around the mid 90s.
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The independence of the Hebrew Roots movement started to become more visible and more vocal.
Many of these independent practitioners are who we see online. They often portray the independence
of Hebrew Roots with some of the ideas of sacred name and often believe that their values, ideas
and concepts aren't just those of Jesus or the disciples but go back to the Nazarenes. So the Nazarenes
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were an early Jewish Christian sect in 1st century Judaism who were associated with Torah observance
but who exactly they were we don't know much about them. What we do know are found in shades
here and there in quotations from the classification of individuals known as the early Church Fathers.
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Now that makes me question how accurate some of what they said was because not everything and not
every quote that the early Church Fathers made was necessarily factual. They might have said it in order
to defend the faith but they really were not always considering that they weren't always honest about it.
The individuals see the Nazarenes though as the original Hebrews and they often tie back all the
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way to Abraham. Now the legitimacy of this just out of fact is obviously sketchy because well yes in
the early years of Christianity there were sects of Christian adherents that were more Jewish in their
nature and their focus and that was especially true in the apostolic era. There were for example Matthew
was more of a Jewish leaning than perhaps Paul but there is nothing to suggest that the first
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century organizations were anything remotely like the groups we see today and before anybody asks
no there's absolutely no evidence to be speak that these modern day Hebrew roots adherents have
any connection nor correlation to anything people did in the Old Testament times. In fact I'd even say
the New Testament evidence is lacking. Like other movements the Hebrew roots movement incorporates
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many other movements into its flock including Pentecostal and Charismatic groups who might be
interested in an Old Testament focus or a lot of times who want to learn a little bit more about
Judaism or they think they want to have more of a Jewish flair for their faith individuals who
are into faith healing and word faith movements. The Hebrew roots and sacred name movements tend to surge
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and decline in popularity only to surge and decline again with time. The peak though of the sacred
name movement was probably between the 1960s and 1980s through the worldwide church of God.
Now the worldwide church of God was founded by Herbert Armstrong and that show is that church is
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going to get its own program. We're going to do one thing just solely on it by itself because
it really does have the same foundations of other sacred name groups but very much diverged into
its own thing and it rates its own conversational by itself. So what are these different groups believe?
Beliefs do vary as I pointed out earlier the difference between the two movements is basically
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the sacred name movement is more religious and more structured while the Hebrew roots movement is
more broad and encompassing of both structure and unstructured perspectives alike. So let's start with
what the movements have in common recognizing once again that sacred name is under the broader heading
of Hebrew roots acknowledging where they are alike and where they deviate. Both movements believe in
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observance of the Saturday Sabbath rather than the standard Christian observance of Sunday as
the primary day for gathering or worship. Now let's take a moment before somebody says all right well
is that a legitimate perspective because it is biblical to say that Christians worshiped on
Saturday in the New Testament right? Well no the Bible does talk about taking collections and about
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gatherings in meetings every day of the week okay it talks about gathering daily it talks about meeting
on Sundays and the tradition of Christians worshiping on Sunday comes from the earliest of times
because first of all Jesus rose again on the first day and that was Sunday and so basically Sunday
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became what we now know is the Lord's day because it was associated with the resurrection but it also
was to make the statement that while all the businesses and shops were open on Sundays because that's
when the pagan cultures were flourishing Christians decided to go on worship and they said you know
what we're gonna put God first and we're going to not engage with this aspect of society and we're
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going to do what we know we're supposed to do and we're gonna trust God for the rest and give God the
first part of everything so Christians practiced what we would talk about first fruits what we would talk
about people talk about tithing they more than tithe they gave of themselves in their lives and it
was symbolic of doing that on the first day so these movements Hebrew roots and sacred name
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deviate from that practice and they worship instead on the seventh day which is Saturday
they both believe that the Old Testament festivals so the Feast of Passover, unleavened bread,
first fruits, harvest, Feast of Trump its day of atonement and tabernacles should be observed
by believers today the appointed times as listed in Leviticus 23 including the seventh day Sabbath
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for shadow the first and second coming of the Messiah and the creators plan for the salvation of the
world so Hanukkah and Purim are regarded as national holidays some celebrate them in some don't
and some see Hanukkah as a christmas substitute the way these holidays are observed does vary some put
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a side annual offerings toward travel for specific festivals some are celebrated with larger communities
and some are celebrated only at home or only among a local community many regard holidays such as
christmas and Easter to be pagan observances and feel that they should not be practiced
they both believe in observance of the Torah from modern believers the olden New Testaments are
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generally held as sacred books but recognize the Torah or the first five books of the Old Testament
also known as the law as the foundation understanding the rest of the Bible when reading the New Testament
it is generally understood that the New Testament must be interpreted in a way to align rather than
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contradict the commandments of the Torah the oral Torah or the oral tradition that might be used
to help expel the Torah is not seen as a regulation to be obeyed so what they're talking about there
is the existence of what Jews would call the Talmud and it's basically the commentary and
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interpretation of the law down through the centuries by the rabbis now they would not recognize the
Talmud but in most of these groups what they've done is replace one tradition with another and so
their understanding of passages comes from that new tradition that's established by their founders
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or the leaders within the group but they don't see it that way they don't really recognize it for
what it is and both of these movements for the most part I would say are very very literary in nature
what this means is the Hebrew Roots movement though took issue with groups such as the Pharisees who
did embrace the idea of an oral Torah that accompanied and was as authoritative as the written Torah
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so sin is seen as breaking Torah Jesus came to fulfill the law but not abolish it
both groups tend to be interested in religious history often to the point of reconstructing it
Hebrew Roots adherents accept an entire history of the early centuries of Christianity that's
inaccurate that never happened and there is absolutely no evidence to be speak any of it and that
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is a very universal fast said among all these groups there tends to be somewhat of an interest in
the Hebrew language but it's not often studied in and of itself it's usually in bits and pieces
through the lens of the movement they also both have their own bibles those which often incorporate
their unique doctrine so for example some of them are just the King James version with the Hebrew names
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of all the characters inserted while some are more paraphrases that define or interpret passages
to fit specific interests and beliefs so where do these groups disagree there are two major
differences between sacred name and Hebrew roots and these points distinguish the sacred name movement
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the first is the emphasis on the Hebrew names for God and Jesus which as a rule they typically do
distinguish the two viewing God as a family or viewing Jesus as subordinate to the Father
and yes this is seen in some Hebrew roots groups as well but not exclusively
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so the sacred name movement believes some Hebrew variation of the names of God and Jesus are
essential for salvation and as part of that salvation experience one must use these Hebrew names
so as a result they don't use the name Jesus because it's a great form of Yeshua most use
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Yahweh some other variations of it are existing as dependent upon their interpretation
and to be really honest the variations can be really really weird they can be Yehova Jehovah
Jehave Jehave Jehave Jehave Yahve Yahve Yahwah Yahveh Yahoheveh they can all be really really unusual it depends
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on how they're looking at it and how they're pronouncing the words and how they're interpreting
the vowels and all that otherwise I would explain the difference between the two movements as one
devoted to the idea of ritual purity which is on the end of the sacred name movement it's more pious
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it's less on exploration which is a very heavy aspect of the Hebrew roots movement
and it's more about religious devotion and on maintaining a level of religious expression
for example some have rules about attire or whether or not men can have beards
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this means adherents are more focused on personal piety upholding commands and upholding the
various rules of the group which are seen as interpretations of Torah observance there's also
not as much wiggle room for interpretation of doctrine and ideas sacred name teaching also tends
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to center around one individual or one central authority whether the founder of a denomination
or the leader of an immediate group who is seen as an authority figure they practice extreme
shining when someone leaves an excommunication for individuals who somehow don't live up to standards
so what relevance do these particular movements have there are not any exact statistics
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but estimates range around 200,000 to 300,000 worldwide so it's not huge and it's not invisible but it's
definitely not huge and outside of social media where adherents can be extremely vocal and
extremely aggressive there are groups that are more or less relatively unto themselves so why care
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in this vein let's start with some of the theological differences we've seen between these two movements
and Christian understanding it's probably most prudent to start with the fact that these two movements
do see salvation differently than Christians do and the simplest way to explain this is through
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the view of understanding of covenants because these movements are more than just some people
interested in Hebrew or understanding Jewish custom in essence they kind of interpret custom
themselves and define it through a different lens Christians understand from the teachings of
the New Testament that Jesus established a new covenant with us one that's not based on the law
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the law is there to make us realize we need a Savior that we are sinners so its point is to point to
Him but if we understand the New Testament the law was never meant to be kept it was to make us realize
we needed Jesus so rather than seeing all of salvation history as pointing to Christ these
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movements see salvation history as pointing to the law in different applications and dispensations
and it's not that Jesus is absent but almost as if he's kind of there to point back to the law
instead of seeing the law as testifying to him and he fulfilling it and herents of these movements
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don't agree about what these different components are there's a lot we don't know when it comes to
biblical history I once had a student who said that they'd never been in a class before where we
don't know was an acceptable answer but when it comes to many things Bible it is because it's true
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we do know some about practice we know some about history but we don't know everything because
people didn't keep records like they do today so there are things we just simply don't know
that means some of the personal opinion that it's near impossible to definitively say yes this is
the faith of Abraham or whatever mess these groups tend to emphasize in their practice
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unless they're out cutting birds in half and walking between the smoke or engaging in regular sacrifices
they aren't engaging in any sort of thing close to or resembling the religion of Abraham
we can't know exactly what he did because we weren't there and we don't have records of it
we might be able to piece some things together but it's going to look a lot more like paganism than
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they might be comfortable admitting there's also the issue that worship and spiritual practice
changed throughout biblical history even in the New Testament there might have been a general
form or pattern of worship but there was more than one expression of worship in New Testament times
so to say that this was some huge kept secret until the 1930s is a total misnomer it's an
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American synchristism based in different ideas and spiritual practices based in that time
their historical information is also generally off one of the biggest things both Hebrew roots
and sacred name adherence do is find some sort of justification for their radically different views
and their answer is to modify history so what they tend to do is identify themselves with different
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groups of more Jewish believers in the early centuries of Christianity although as mentioned above
there's no evidence to support what they're doing it's an attempt to bridge what I call gap theory
it's an attempt to make something have historical value even though there's no evidence to support it
in the places where there are gaps in historicity and identity the early believers who were more
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Jewish in nature weren't sacred name or Hebrew roots adherence they were formerly Jewish believers
who believed Jesus was who he said he was and they struggled to understand who they were now now
that he changed everything about their spiritual world and identity they represented a transition
between the old and the new and there's nothing wrong with that transition and there's nothing wrong
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with being somebody who's maybe interested in that aspect of Christian history but there is
something wrong with saying that the New Testament was originally written in Hebrew it wasn't there's
absolutely no evidence to be speak that or that the New Testament originally had all these Hebrew
components to it that were later removed also not true the Jews of the Roman world were most
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familiar with Greek and it was the language written and spoken by Gentiles as well thus writing the
New Testament in Greek was more efficient to reach people it was the best way to reach a whole audience
there was no Hebrew conspiracy because it's not the language those people spoke
and wow Jews might have known Hebrew they probably did not speak it in their ordinary lives
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there was even a whole push and a whole identity for Jews to become more Greek in their outlook it
was called Hellenization if we understand this then recognizing the name of Jesus in Greek is also
an important thing because that's how people would have known and understood him it doesn't make Jesus
Greek or the New Testament some sort of pagan conspiracy but it makes him Jesus it makes him the Savior
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of both the Jew and the Gentile which brings me to my next point Jesus is the Savior of all not just
Jewish people or is might be the case of these movements people trying to be Jewish but not really
making the effort to understand Jewish belief practice or culture yes Judaism has considerably
changed over the years and the product of modern Judaism is from somewhere around the 15th century
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with many different modifications since that time but that doesn't change the fact that the sacred
name in Hebrew roots movements aren't Judaism either it's also worth mentioning that Hebrew was
basically a dead language until the 1800s when a past rabbi sought to revive the language in Israel
from 218-800 Hebrew had no function as a spoken language it was more of a ceremonial language
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restricted to text and the Bible, Mishnah and Talmud were studied as each Jewish community developed
their own oral traditions for each there were also different Hebrew language mixtures such as
Yiddish and Spanish for example so to identify Hebrew is the sacred set of part languages misleading
it would mean that for almost 2,000 years nobody could call on the name of God to be saved
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and the Bible repeatedly encourages us to call upon the name of the Lord and nowhere does it say it
has to be in Hebrew so none of this has any actual validity but it's embraced by those who appeal to
the idea of conspiracy as part of faith and what I mean by this is that if you study many not all but
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many religious groups with Adventist and Restorationist roots which both of these groups have
they have a flair for conspiracy at the heart of their core understanding there is a lot of I guess
we could say religious and governmental conspiratory overtone within these groups and that fuels the
doctrinal understanding of the group as much as anything else this is true if you look at for example
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the 7th day Adventists as well as Jehovah's Witnesses and all of the sacred name in Hebrew roots groups
because the idea is that there's been some sort of historical conspiracy to hide the name of God
or make sure believers worship on Sunday rather than Saturday or that the government and church
are going to align at some point and force everyone to worship on Sundays or that there will be a
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vaccine conspiracy where everyone will be forced to take a vaccine and turn into zombies and be
unable to worship God these are examples of the kind of ideas that create a certain world narration
that are intrinsically part of these denominational views
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so it's more than just seeing scripture differently or embracing the idea of Jewish culture into
worship it's an entirely different spiritual worldview this sets the individuals apart from the
rest of the religious community at large when you're not Jewish nor Christian and not claiming such
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that isolates these individuals from the greater spiritual body
they are also spiritually separated from one another because they don't all agree on different points
and to them those disagreements are enough to separate so in some instances a group might be
completely unto themselves with this conspiratory and yes apocalyptic tone preparing for however
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they perceive the end of the world more than one leader within these communities has predicted
the end of the world more than once or made other grand predictions that never came to pass
which brings me to another point of how these groups are relevant
so violence goes along with sacred name even though people might try to talk out of it
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the reality is that a few high-profile national newsworthy crisis
have been either started by or caused by adherence of these movements
and they often also overlook these facts
the siege at Ruby Ridge in 1992 involving the Weaver family
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overlapped with both the Christian identity movement and the sacred name movement
for those who don't remember the siege was an 11 day police standoff near Naples Idaho
over an outstanding firearms charge
what most of us don't consider is that in addition to their belief on racial separation
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they also believe that God was to only be referred to as Yahweh that they were Israelites
and they adhered to old covenant laws and just to kind of throw this in here for fun
they also refuse to pay taxes
Fritz Springmeier who is best known for his conspiracy-driven books note the theme
specifically the banned bloodlines of the Illuminati and a few other books that try to connect
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free masonry to the control of civilization
there's extensive conjecture in it and it connects people and groups and yes free masonry
with things that aren't legitimate i mean he accuses people of being free masons who weren't in
beyond was involved with the sacred name leader and wound up convicted of armed robbery and
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aiding and abetting in the use of a semi-automatic rifle
Yisrayl Hawkins founder of the House of Yahweh in Texas
was arrested on both bigamy and child labor charges he was later fined and given probation
other members were arrested for sexual assault of a minor
rumor has that he was preparing to marry his underage stepdaughter and criminal negligence
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for performing surgery on one of their children
and the question remains why why would there be a higher rate of this religious
community's ideas overlapping with white supremacy through the christian identity movement
even violence or abuse than a mainline religious community
it goes back to the foundations of the movement as a conspiracy itself that there's this larger
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anticipation of something that's not real but becomes a such to these adherents almost as if
living in an alternate reality becomes required for participation
i mean these are people who even see the biblical text we have as a conspiracy
and that can play with your mind after a while
if you accept a conspiracy mindset you must eventually adjust life to that
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and it apparently goes Orion some people
so even though it might not seem like much of a difference on the surface
these groups can produce ideas that lead to dangerous thinking in their manner and approach
of concepts the other thing is the vast isolation involved in these groups people don't have any
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interaction with anyone else no friends no thoughts no other people always constantly on the
edge waiting for the world to end or the government to come and infiltrate and constantly negative
news that's both scary and intimidating and draws you more to feel like you have to rely on the
group now there's a difference between maybe thinking there's some things here and there on occasion
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historically that don't line up versus thinking it's a conspiracy and the difference is the idea
that such things are a continual systematic plot or plan to deceive or control the world by
certain elite people in this case it's the idea that such is both the church and the government
and honestly if you study history you come to learn that the evil of this world and the things that
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go wrong aren't that systematic it's not that structured nor organized
and everything that's come down there have been good and bad people there have been honest and
deceitful people and seeing the world through this lens is much healthier and more discerning
and less intimidating than basing your life around conspiracy religion so let's summarize here
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any of you who know me know I love religion I think it's an essential and important thing it's part
of civilizations of spiritual understanding and a very part of life itself but not our religion
nor religious devotion is the same and that being said when it comes to the ideology of conspiracy
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groups we need to be very careful if you are interested in a group that seems to offer some sort
of uncovering of a hidden conspiracy especially if the conspiracy is thousands of years long
or insists that you have to speak a certain language with a divine name it might be interesting
to investigate but it's definitely not going to lead you to life if a group promises that it's
(39:06):
the restoration of something dating all the way back prior to even New Testament times such as the
original Abrahamic religion questions need to be asked as to how they know and what evidence they
have to prove such claim so consider your life outlook and consider how you want to see the world
and consider the outlook God wants us to have because repeatedly God tells us don't be afraid
(39:32):
because there is no reason to be paranoid when we have God with us he knows who he is
and he knows when we call on him an earnest and he hears us he doesn't make requirements on
specifically what language to call him in or what day of the week we should do it on
likewise he wants our faith to be in him not in a system not in some sort of sense of religious
(39:54):
superiority not in our sense of knowledge but generally and spiritually in him and when we do
that there is no reason to fear there is no reason to see the world through a conspiracy mindset
and no reason to feel like we will be rejected if we go to God in earnest
I thank you for listening to this episode of the program today I'm going to recommend a few
(40:17):
resources for you if you'd like to learn more about church history so I recommend my book series
which is three parts or outlines in church history there's early middle and modern church history
and there are three volumes they're pretty good-sized books they consist of writings that are from
each of those eras and my commentary inserted there in order to kind of summarize what happened
(40:40):
and what was going on so that's outlines in church history volumes one two and three early middle
and modern church history look me up Dr. Lee Ann B. Marino on amazon.com or wherever books are sold
and all of my titles will come up we are well over 35 now and I'm very excited to say as of today
all of the paperwork has been filed and before this episode airs we will start releasing some new
(41:05):
materials so be sure to watch for that once again look me up Dr. Lee Ann B. Marino and you want to
get these new books that are coming out I'm really really excited about all of them also check out
my patheos column at patheos.com/blogs/leadershiponfire that's patheos.com/blogs/leadershiponfire so my
(41:27):
column leadership on fire which is read all over the world is about leadership so it's four leaders
it's for people interested in learning more about leadership it's for people interested in
learning about the ins and outs of it so whether you're called to leadership your training for
leadership you're already a leadership or you just want to learn more about it leadership on fire
(41:47):
is for you and I do cover a lot of the things about different religious groups as well as
different things about history and about christian history so definitely check that out at leadership
on fire also if you would like to learn more about the world of counterculture christianity feel
free to visit my website at kingdompowernow.org that's kingdompowernow.org and while we're speaking
(42:08):
of kingdom power now follow me across social media @kingdompowernow that's @kingdompowernow
I would love to hear from you let's get a conversation going you can also find a lot of other
points of contact around the web through social media so I'm at kingdom power now I am on bluesky
social now I'm also still available on facebook tik-tok twitter wordpress instagram and beyond
(42:35):
so follow me @kingdompowernow and let's start that conversation also if you are interested in a
completely affordable seminary that is modern and can be done at home check out apostolic covenant
theological seminary acts for short at acts176.org that's acts176.org and if you are in the
Charlotte North Carolina and you are ready to connect with your found family come and join us at
(42:58):
sanctuary international fellowship tabernacle known as sanctuary for short at welcomeinthisplace.org
that's welcomeinthisplace.org and if you have a question that is not answered
on site feel free to reach out and we will be happy to get back to you as soon as we can
and this is Apostle Dr. Lee Ann Marino reminding you in closing conspiracy is not faith it's
(43:21):
opposite of it because it's based in fear so set aside your fear and pick up your faith today
until next time be blessed
thank you for joining us on the kingdom now podcast today i pray it is proven to be a blessing in your life
(43:44):
to learn more about this work ask a question submit feedback advertise with us be a guest or donate
to support this work as our podcast is sponsored by listeners like you visit my website which contains
essential information projects and works for other points of contact around the web at
(44:06):
kingdompowernow.org also if you are in our area and would like to visit sanctuary in the national
fellowship tabernacle visit welcomeinthisplace.org until next time this is Apostle Dr.
Lee Ann Marino reminding you that the kingdom of God is within you and that means the kingdom is now
(44:34):
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Welcome to Kingdom Now, the podcast featuring faith with an edge,
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as we celebrate the Kingdom of God within you.
I am your host, Dr. Lee Ann Marino, apostle, author,
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and all the works that go along with it.
I am excited to share this program with you as we explore the ins and
(01:16):
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Want to learn more? Visit my website at www.kingdompowernow.org
And now, our program, which features a variety of formats here, just for you.
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And powerful insights here for now as we turn the world upside down everywhere we go.
Well, good morning, good afternoon, good evening, happy whatever time of day it is wherever you are.
(02:03):
And to our listeners in the Philippines, we say, "Kamasta."
We hope that whatever time of day it is when you are listening, that you are having a good one.
And I welcome you to this edition of the Kingdom Now podcast, and I am your host,
Apostolic Dr. Lee Ann Marino here as the Spitfire serving as the voice of counterculture Christianity,
where we feature the theme of faith with an edge.
(02:23):
And if you'd like to learn more about the world of counterculture Christianity,
feel free to visit my website at www.kingdompowernow.org
Teaching on movements is always a challenge because when we discuss movements,
we are discussing groups with no centralized authority.
And that means there are often substantial variations between different groups,
(02:49):
even when the bulk of what a group might believe is either the same or very similar.
And this is true nowhere more than with the two movements that I'm speaking of today,
namely the sacred name and Hebrew roots movements.
These two movements have a lot in common, well at the same time in some ways, are also very different.
(03:12):
But because of their similarities, they are often confused for one another.
And it is my hope that through this, we're able to clarify the differences as well as the similarities
and help establish what makes these movements relevant for our times.
Because beyond sometimes encountering adherence online, which is most likely where you're
(03:35):
going to find them on social media, who can be a bit adamant about their beliefs, the sacred name
and Hebrew roots movements actually tend to surface every few years in some major social.
And sometimes even in national events. And for that reason alone, these are movements we should
aspire to understand. So let's talk and start with a little bit of examination about the history
(04:03):
of these two movements. So the major difference in history between these two movements lies in
origins. While the sacred name movement has its origins in denominational religion,
the Hebrew roots movement was a work of independent practitioners who absorbed ideas from both sacred
(04:25):
name and independent sources. So the sacred name movement was historically first.
And it was an outgrowth of the Millerite movement, which once the great disappointment came along,
became what we now know as "adventism." So for those who don't know, let's back up and let's talk
(04:48):
about that first. The Millerite movement is named after a man named William Miller, who believed
he could predict the second coming of Christ through a carefully detailed dating method using
the entire Bible. And this happened in the mid-1800s. I'm not going to get into the details and the
(05:08):
methods he used. You can look it up if you're legitimately curious about it. I'm not going to waste
time on it because no matter how carefully he charted and how cute he tried to be about it, it didn't
happen. And so it wasn't accurate. First his date was 1843. And then again, he picked another date in
(05:29):
1844. And his followers, I'll kind of gather together up on a farm in Western New York State.
And when Jesus didn't return, because as we know, he didn't. The event became known as the great
disappointment. And what happened with the subsequent adherence is someone back to their lives,
(05:55):
some became atheists, some returned to their other churches. And there were still some who believed
that something happened in 1844. It just wasn't the second coming. And these people became what we now
know to be Adventists, the most well-known being the seventh day Adventists, whose beliefs do very
(06:20):
considerably from other Adventists. And from this movement came what we know as the Church of God
Seventh Day, which is a Sabbatarian Adventist group. So Sabbatarian Adventism is Adventism,
meaning that they believe the second coming of Christ is immediately imminent at any time.
(06:43):
So that's the Adventist part. But one thing that's a little unique about Sabbatarian Adventism
is that the beliefs of each of the denominations can vary considerably from one another in some of
their very central beliefs. And we have the Sabbatarian Adventists, the major part of such that you
(07:05):
need to know for the sake of this episode is the Sabbatarian part. It means not just that they worship
on Saturdays versus Sundays, but that they have a different idea about the believer's relationship
with the law or the biblical Old Testament law as well. So Sabbatarian's belief worship on Saturday
(07:28):
is required. It's not an option, but that it's required. As are observances of Old Testament
festivals and varied interpretations of the requirements of following moral law. Most groups believe
the Ten Commandments have relevance above the rest of the law. And while they might not adhere to
(07:50):
the ceremonial law, so the ceremonial law being the issue of sacrificing goats and lambs and
different animals and offering grain offerings and things of that nature, they do believe the law
is relevant for believers in modern times. And before you ask, no, they are not Jewish. This is
(08:11):
entirely removed from Judaism. It's got nothing to do with Judaism as we would understand it today.
It's sacred name or in this example that we're talking about here, it's Sabbatarian Adventism.
It's a totally different thing from Judaism. So the sacred name movement is an outgrowth of this
very, very religious movement. And while it absorbs the major points of Sabbatarianism,
(08:36):
it adds its own unique twist, one that was of note among different groups of its day.
In particular, Jehovah's Witnesses, who are not sacred name but emerged in the same time frame
and do hold to kind of a variation on it. So Jehovah's Witnesses believe the true name of God to
(08:57):
be Jehovah and that there is no other name for God but Jehovah. So that kind of has the sacred name
"esque" feel that they're insisting upon a certain name and that it has to be proclaimed,
but it's a little bit different in the way that they've manifested it through their denomination.
The idea that the Hebrew form of the name of God is the only valid name of God,
(09:24):
and that for people to be true believers they must use this name is very, very central to Sabbatarianism.
Now they don't all agree on what the name is and I think that that's very, very important,
but most use a variation of Yahweh or Yahveh or Jehovah or their own concoction of such and they
(09:48):
often use it in their churches and ministries. And a man by the name of CO Dodd took up the cause of
the sacred name sometime in the 1940s and this popularized the cause of the movement through his
magazine which was called the Faith. So the Hebrew Roots movement is more loosely identified
(10:09):
and actually the sacred name movement can be considered part of the larger Hebrew Roots movement
although Hebrew Roots wouldn't specifically identify with sacred name. So yes, I know that that's where
it gets a little confusing and it's why we use classifications for things. We could say that the
sacred name movement is the more religious of the two. With the Hebrew Roots movement serving as a
(10:32):
larger, more general body of individuals who are interested in things related to the hebraic
understanding of their faith. It's properly classified as syncretism where it's the merging of more
than one religious system together but it's also important to say that the Hebrew Roots movement is
(10:54):
not authentically Jewish nor is its goal to necessarily be such. The goal is to apply a very modern
interpretation or application of the Old Testament within a Christian adaptation. So this larger
group as was defined earlier is interested in keeping the Torah, the Sabbath and the annual festivals
(11:16):
and it includes Messianic Judaism which started in 1916. It's a little bit limited but it's relevant
the sacred name movement of 1937 the worldwide Church of God which started in the 1930s,
Seventh-day Pentecostalism, the Nazarenes, the Hebrew Roots Black Identity movement, independent of
(11:39):
the movement who are often identified as the Hebrew Roots Awakening and other assorted independent
practitioners or groups who may exist in small communities that espouse a concoction of these
different ideas. In more modern times and I would say that it started somewhere around the mid 90s.
(11:59):
The independence of the Hebrew Roots movement started to become more visible and more vocal.
Many of these independent practitioners are who we see online. They often portray the independence
of Hebrew Roots with some of the ideas of sacred name and often believe that their values, ideas
and concepts aren't just those of Jesus or the disciples but go back to the Nazarenes. So the Nazarenes
(12:28):
were an early Jewish Christian sect in 1st century Judaism who were associated with Torah observance
but who exactly they were we don't know much about them. What we do know are found in shades
here and there in quotations from the classification of individuals known as the early Church Fathers.
(12:50):
Now that makes me question how accurate some of what they said was because not everything and not
every quote that the early Church Fathers made was necessarily factual. They might have said it in order
to defend the faith but they really were not always considering that they weren't always honest about it.
The individuals see the Nazarenes though as the original Hebrews and they often tie back all the
(13:16):
way to Abraham. Now the legitimacy of this just out of fact is obviously sketchy because well yes in
the early years of Christianity there were sects of Christian adherents that were more Jewish in their
nature and their focus and that was especially true in the apostolic era. There were for example Matthew
was more of a Jewish leaning than perhaps Paul but there is nothing to suggest that the first
(13:46):
century organizations were anything remotely like the groups we see today and before anybody asks
no there's absolutely no evidence to be speak that these modern day Hebrew roots adherents have
any connection nor correlation to anything people did in the Old Testament times. In fact I'd even say
the New Testament evidence is lacking. Like other movements the Hebrew roots movement incorporates
(14:10):
many other movements into its flock including Pentecostal and Charismatic groups who might be
interested in an Old Testament focus or a lot of times who want to learn a little bit more about
Judaism or they think they want to have more of a Jewish flair for their faith individuals who
are into faith healing and word faith movements. The Hebrew roots and sacred name movements tend to surge
(14:34):
and decline in popularity only to surge and decline again with time. The peak though of the sacred
name movement was probably between the 1960s and 1980s through the worldwide church of God.
Now the worldwide church of God was founded by Herbert Armstrong and that show is that church is
(14:54):
going to get its own program. We're going to do one thing just solely on it by itself because
it really does have the same foundations of other sacred name groups but very much diverged into
its own thing and it rates its own conversational by itself. So what are these different groups believe?
Beliefs do vary as I pointed out earlier the difference between the two movements is basically
(15:20):
the sacred name movement is more religious and more structured while the Hebrew roots movement is
more broad and encompassing of both structure and unstructured perspectives alike. So let's start with
what the movements have in common recognizing once again that sacred name is under the broader heading
of Hebrew roots acknowledging where they are alike and where they deviate. Both movements believe in
(15:45):
observance of the Saturday Sabbath rather than the standard Christian observance of Sunday as
the primary day for gathering or worship. Now let's take a moment before somebody says all right well
is that a legitimate perspective because it is biblical to say that Christians worshiped on
Saturday in the New Testament right? Well no the Bible does talk about taking collections and about
(16:10):
gatherings in meetings every day of the week okay it talks about gathering daily it talks about meeting
on Sundays and the tradition of Christians worshiping on Sunday comes from the earliest of times
because first of all Jesus rose again on the first day and that was Sunday and so basically Sunday
(16:31):
became what we now know is the Lord's day because it was associated with the resurrection but it also
was to make the statement that while all the businesses and shops were open on Sundays because that's
when the pagan cultures were flourishing Christians decided to go on worship and they said you know
what we're gonna put God first and we're going to not engage with this aspect of society and we're
(16:56):
going to do what we know we're supposed to do and we're gonna trust God for the rest and give God the
first part of everything so Christians practiced what we would talk about first fruits what we would talk
about people talk about tithing they more than tithe they gave of themselves in their lives and it
was symbolic of doing that on the first day so these movements Hebrew roots and sacred name
(17:24):
deviate from that practice and they worship instead on the seventh day which is Saturday
they both believe that the Old Testament festivals so the Feast of Passover, unleavened bread,
first fruits, harvest, Feast of Trump its day of atonement and tabernacles should be observed
by believers today the appointed times as listed in Leviticus 23 including the seventh day Sabbath
(17:49):
for shadow the first and second coming of the Messiah and the creators plan for the salvation of the
world so Hanukkah and Purim are regarded as national holidays some celebrate them in some don't
and some see Hanukkah as a christmas substitute the way these holidays are observed does vary some put
(18:10):
a side annual offerings toward travel for specific festivals some are celebrated with larger communities
and some are celebrated only at home or only among a local community many regard holidays such as
christmas and Easter to be pagan observances and feel that they should not be practiced
they both believe in observance of the Torah from modern believers the olden New Testaments are
(18:37):
generally held as sacred books but recognize the Torah or the first five books of the Old Testament
also known as the law as the foundation understanding the rest of the Bible when reading the New Testament
it is generally understood that the New Testament must be interpreted in a way to align rather than
(18:57):
contradict the commandments of the Torah the oral Torah or the oral tradition that might be used
to help expel the Torah is not seen as a regulation to be obeyed so what they're talking about there
is the existence of what Jews would call the Talmud and it's basically the commentary and
(19:23):
interpretation of the law down through the centuries by the rabbis now they would not recognize the
Talmud but in most of these groups what they've done is replace one tradition with another and so
their understanding of passages comes from that new tradition that's established by their founders
(19:43):
or the leaders within the group but they don't see it that way they don't really recognize it for
what it is and both of these movements for the most part I would say are very very literary in nature
what this means is the Hebrew Roots movement though took issue with groups such as the Pharisees who
did embrace the idea of an oral Torah that accompanied and was as authoritative as the written Torah
(20:08):
so sin is seen as breaking Torah Jesus came to fulfill the law but not abolish it
both groups tend to be interested in religious history often to the point of reconstructing it
Hebrew Roots adherents accept an entire history of the early centuries of Christianity that's
inaccurate that never happened and there is absolutely no evidence to be speak any of it and that
(20:33):
is a very universal fast said among all these groups there tends to be somewhat of an interest in
the Hebrew language but it's not often studied in and of itself it's usually in bits and pieces
through the lens of the movement they also both have their own bibles those which often incorporate
their unique doctrine so for example some of them are just the King James version with the Hebrew names
(20:58):
of all the characters inserted while some are more paraphrases that define or interpret passages
to fit specific interests and beliefs so where do these groups disagree there are two major
differences between sacred name and Hebrew roots and these points distinguish the sacred name movement
(21:19):
the first is the emphasis on the Hebrew names for God and Jesus which as a rule they typically do
distinguish the two viewing God as a family or viewing Jesus as subordinate to the Father
and yes this is seen in some Hebrew roots groups as well but not exclusively
(21:41):
so the sacred name movement believes some Hebrew variation of the names of God and Jesus are
essential for salvation and as part of that salvation experience one must use these Hebrew names
so as a result they don't use the name Jesus because it's a great form of Yeshua most use
(22:02):
Yahweh some other variations of it are existing as dependent upon their interpretation
and to be really honest the variations can be really really weird they can be Yehova Jehovah
Jehave Jehave Jehave Jehave Yahve Yahve Yahwah Yahveh Yahoheveh they can all be really really unusual it depends
(22:29):
on how they're looking at it and how they're pronouncing the words and how they're interpreting
the vowels and all that otherwise I would explain the difference between the two movements as one
devoted to the idea of ritual purity which is on the end of the sacred name movement it's more pious
(22:50):
it's less on exploration which is a very heavy aspect of the Hebrew roots movement
and it's more about religious devotion and on maintaining a level of religious expression
for example some have rules about attire or whether or not men can have beards
(23:10):
this means adherents are more focused on personal piety upholding commands and upholding the
various rules of the group which are seen as interpretations of Torah observance there's also
not as much wiggle room for interpretation of doctrine and ideas sacred name teaching also tends
(23:34):
to center around one individual or one central authority whether the founder of a denomination
or the leader of an immediate group who is seen as an authority figure they practice extreme
shining when someone leaves an excommunication for individuals who somehow don't live up to standards
so what relevance do these particular movements have there are not any exact statistics
(24:04):
but estimates range around 200,000 to 300,000 worldwide so it's not huge and it's not invisible but it's
definitely not huge and outside of social media where adherents can be extremely vocal and
extremely aggressive there are groups that are more or less relatively unto themselves so why care
(24:28):
in this vein let's start with some of the theological differences we've seen between these two movements
and Christian understanding it's probably most prudent to start with the fact that these two movements
do see salvation differently than Christians do and the simplest way to explain this is through
(24:49):
the view of understanding of covenants because these movements are more than just some people
interested in Hebrew or understanding Jewish custom in essence they kind of interpret custom
themselves and define it through a different lens Christians understand from the teachings of
the New Testament that Jesus established a new covenant with us one that's not based on the law
(25:15):
the law is there to make us realize we need a Savior that we are sinners so its point is to point to
Him but if we understand the New Testament the law was never meant to be kept it was to make us realize
we needed Jesus so rather than seeing all of salvation history as pointing to Christ these
(25:41):
movements see salvation history as pointing to the law in different applications and dispensations
and it's not that Jesus is absent but almost as if he's kind of there to point back to the law
instead of seeing the law as testifying to him and he fulfilling it and herents of these movements
(26:04):
don't agree about what these different components are there's a lot we don't know when it comes to
biblical history I once had a student who said that they'd never been in a class before where we
don't know was an acceptable answer but when it comes to many things Bible it is because it's true
(26:25):
we do know some about practice we know some about history but we don't know everything because
people didn't keep records like they do today so there are things we just simply don't know
that means some of the personal opinion that it's near impossible to definitively say yes this is
the faith of Abraham or whatever mess these groups tend to emphasize in their practice
(26:48):
unless they're out cutting birds in half and walking between the smoke or engaging in regular sacrifices
they aren't engaging in any sort of thing close to or resembling the religion of Abraham
we can't know exactly what he did because we weren't there and we don't have records of it
we might be able to piece some things together but it's going to look a lot more like paganism than
(27:10):
they might be comfortable admitting there's also the issue that worship and spiritual practice
changed throughout biblical history even in the New Testament there might have been a general
form or pattern of worship but there was more than one expression of worship in New Testament times
so to say that this was some huge kept secret until the 1930s is a total misnomer it's an
(27:36):
American synchristism based in different ideas and spiritual practices based in that time
their historical information is also generally off one of the biggest things both Hebrew roots
and sacred name adherence do is find some sort of justification for their radically different views
and their answer is to modify history so what they tend to do is identify themselves with different
(28:02):
groups of more Jewish believers in the early centuries of Christianity although as mentioned above
there's no evidence to support what they're doing it's an attempt to bridge what I call gap theory
it's an attempt to make something have historical value even though there's no evidence to support it
in the places where there are gaps in historicity and identity the early believers who were more
(28:28):
Jewish in nature weren't sacred name or Hebrew roots adherence they were formerly Jewish believers
who believed Jesus was who he said he was and they struggled to understand who they were now now
that he changed everything about their spiritual world and identity they represented a transition
between the old and the new and there's nothing wrong with that transition and there's nothing wrong
(28:52):
with being somebody who's maybe interested in that aspect of Christian history but there is
something wrong with saying that the New Testament was originally written in Hebrew it wasn't there's
absolutely no evidence to be speak that or that the New Testament originally had all these Hebrew
components to it that were later removed also not true the Jews of the Roman world were most
(29:16):
familiar with Greek and it was the language written and spoken by Gentiles as well thus writing the
New Testament in Greek was more efficient to reach people it was the best way to reach a whole audience
there was no Hebrew conspiracy because it's not the language those people spoke
and wow Jews might have known Hebrew they probably did not speak it in their ordinary lives
(29:42):
there was even a whole push and a whole identity for Jews to become more Greek in their outlook it
was called Hellenization if we understand this then recognizing the name of Jesus in Greek is also
an important thing because that's how people would have known and understood him it doesn't make Jesus
Greek or the New Testament some sort of pagan conspiracy but it makes him Jesus it makes him the Savior
(30:08):
of both the Jew and the Gentile which brings me to my next point Jesus is the Savior of all not just
Jewish people or is might be the case of these movements people trying to be Jewish but not really
making the effort to understand Jewish belief practice or culture yes Judaism has considerably
changed over the years and the product of modern Judaism is from somewhere around the 15th century
(30:34):
with many different modifications since that time but that doesn't change the fact that the sacred
name in Hebrew roots movements aren't Judaism either it's also worth mentioning that Hebrew was
basically a dead language until the 1800s when a past rabbi sought to revive the language in Israel
from 218-800 Hebrew had no function as a spoken language it was more of a ceremonial language
(30:59):
restricted to text and the Bible, Mishnah and Talmud were studied as each Jewish community developed
their own oral traditions for each there were also different Hebrew language mixtures such as
Yiddish and Spanish for example so to identify Hebrew is the sacred set of part languages misleading
it would mean that for almost 2,000 years nobody could call on the name of God to be saved
(31:24):
and the Bible repeatedly encourages us to call upon the name of the Lord and nowhere does it say it
has to be in Hebrew so none of this has any actual validity but it's embraced by those who appeal to
the idea of conspiracy as part of faith and what I mean by this is that if you study many not all but
(31:47):
many religious groups with Adventist and Restorationist roots which both of these groups have
they have a flair for conspiracy at the heart of their core understanding there is a lot of I guess
we could say religious and governmental conspiratory overtone within these groups and that fuels the
doctrinal understanding of the group as much as anything else this is true if you look at for example
(32:12):
the 7th day Adventists as well as Jehovah's Witnesses and all of the sacred name in Hebrew roots groups
because the idea is that there's been some sort of historical conspiracy to hide the name of God
or make sure believers worship on Sunday rather than Saturday or that the government and church
are going to align at some point and force everyone to worship on Sundays or that there will be a
(32:35):
vaccine conspiracy where everyone will be forced to take a vaccine and turn into zombies and be
unable to worship God these are examples of the kind of ideas that create a certain world narration
that are intrinsically part of these denominational views
(32:57):
so it's more than just seeing scripture differently or embracing the idea of Jewish culture into
worship it's an entirely different spiritual worldview this sets the individuals apart from the
rest of the religious community at large when you're not Jewish nor Christian and not claiming such
(33:17):
that isolates these individuals from the greater spiritual body
they are also spiritually separated from one another because they don't all agree on different points
and to them those disagreements are enough to separate so in some instances a group might be
completely unto themselves with this conspiratory and yes apocalyptic tone preparing for however
(33:41):
they perceive the end of the world more than one leader within these communities has predicted
the end of the world more than once or made other grand predictions that never came to pass
which brings me to another point of how these groups are relevant
so violence goes along with sacred name even though people might try to talk out of it
(34:05):
the reality is that a few high-profile national newsworthy crisis
have been either started by or caused by adherence of these movements
and they often also overlook these facts
the siege at Ruby Ridge in 1992 involving the Weaver family
(34:26):
overlapped with both the Christian identity movement and the sacred name movement
for those who don't remember the siege was an 11 day police standoff near Naples Idaho
over an outstanding firearms charge
what most of us don't consider is that in addition to their belief on racial separation
(34:47):
they also believe that God was to only be referred to as Yahweh that they were Israelites
and they adhered to old covenant laws and just to kind of throw this in here for fun
they also refuse to pay taxes
Fritz Springmeier who is best known for his conspiracy-driven books note the theme
specifically the banned bloodlines of the Illuminati and a few other books that try to connect
(35:10):
free masonry to the control of civilization
there's extensive conjecture in it and it connects people and groups and yes free masonry
with things that aren't legitimate i mean he accuses people of being free masons who weren't in
beyond was involved with the sacred name leader and wound up convicted of armed robbery and
(35:30):
aiding and abetting in the use of a semi-automatic rifle
Yisrayl Hawkins founder of the House of Yahweh in Texas
was arrested on both bigamy and child labor charges he was later fined and given probation
other members were arrested for sexual assault of a minor
rumor has that he was preparing to marry his underage stepdaughter and criminal negligence
(35:55):
for performing surgery on one of their children
and the question remains why why would there be a higher rate of this religious
community's ideas overlapping with white supremacy through the christian identity movement
even violence or abuse than a mainline religious community
it goes back to the foundations of the movement as a conspiracy itself that there's this larger
(36:20):
anticipation of something that's not real but becomes a such to these adherents almost as if
living in an alternate reality becomes required for participation
i mean these are people who even see the biblical text we have as a conspiracy
and that can play with your mind after a while
if you accept a conspiracy mindset you must eventually adjust life to that
(36:45):
and it apparently goes Orion some people
so even though it might not seem like much of a difference on the surface
these groups can produce ideas that lead to dangerous thinking in their manner and approach
of concepts the other thing is the vast isolation involved in these groups people don't have any
(37:05):
interaction with anyone else no friends no thoughts no other people always constantly on the
edge waiting for the world to end or the government to come and infiltrate and constantly negative
news that's both scary and intimidating and draws you more to feel like you have to rely on the
group now there's a difference between maybe thinking there's some things here and there on occasion
(37:29):
historically that don't line up versus thinking it's a conspiracy and the difference is the idea
that such things are a continual systematic plot or plan to deceive or control the world by
certain elite people in this case it's the idea that such is both the church and the government
and honestly if you study history you come to learn that the evil of this world and the things that
(37:55):
go wrong aren't that systematic it's not that structured nor organized
and everything that's come down there have been good and bad people there have been honest and
deceitful people and seeing the world through this lens is much healthier and more discerning
and less intimidating than basing your life around conspiracy religion so let's summarize here
(38:18):
any of you who know me know I love religion I think it's an essential and important thing it's part
of civilizations of spiritual understanding and a very part of life itself but not our religion
nor religious devotion is the same and that being said when it comes to the ideology of conspiracy
(38:39):
groups we need to be very careful if you are interested in a group that seems to offer some sort
of uncovering of a hidden conspiracy especially if the conspiracy is thousands of years long
or insists that you have to speak a certain language with a divine name it might be interesting
to investigate but it's definitely not going to lead you to life if a group promises that it's
(39:06):
the restoration of something dating all the way back prior to even New Testament times such as the
original Abrahamic religion questions need to be asked as to how they know and what evidence they
have to prove such claim so consider your life outlook and consider how you want to see the world
and consider the outlook God wants us to have because repeatedly God tells us don't be afraid
(39:32):
because there is no reason to be paranoid when we have God with us he knows who he is
and he knows when we call on him an earnest and he hears us he doesn't make requirements on
specifically what language to call him in or what day of the week we should do it on
likewise he wants our faith to be in him not in a system not in some sort of sense of religious
(39:54):
superiority not in our sense of knowledge but generally and spiritually in him and when we do
that there is no reason to fear there is no reason to see the world through a conspiracy mindset
and no reason to feel like we will be rejected if we go to God in earnest
I thank you for listening to this episode of the program today I'm going to recommend a few
(40:17):
resources for you if you'd like to learn more about church history so I recommend my book series
which is three parts or outlines in church history there's early middle and modern church history
and there are three volumes they're pretty good-sized books they consist of writings that are from
each of those eras and my commentary inserted there in order to kind of summarize what happened
(40:40):
and what was going on so that's outlines in church history volumes one two and three early middle
and modern church history look me up Dr. Lee Ann B. Marino on amazon.com or wherever books are sold
and all of my titles will come up we are well over 35 now and I'm very excited to say as of today
all of the paperwork has been filed and before this episode airs we will start releasing some new
(41:05):
materials so be sure to watch for that once again look me up Dr. Lee Ann B. Marino and you want to
get these new books that are coming out I'm really really excited about all of them also check out
my patheos column at patheos.com/blogs/leadershiponfire that's patheos.com/blogs/leadershiponfire so my
(41:27):
column leadership on fire which is read all over the world is about leadership so it's four leaders
it's for people interested in learning more about leadership it's for people interested in
learning about the ins and outs of it so whether you're called to leadership your training for
leadership you're already a leadership or you just want to learn more about it leadership on fire
(41:47):
is for you and I do cover a lot of the things about different religious groups as well as
different things about history and about christian history so definitely check that out at leadership
on fire also if you would like to learn more about the world of counterculture christianity feel
free to visit my website at kingdompowernow.org that's kingdompowernow.org and while we're speaking
(42:08):
of kingdom power now follow me across social media @kingdompowernow that's @kingdompowernow
I would love to hear from you let's get a conversation going you can also find a lot of other
points of contact around the web through social media so I'm at kingdom power now I am on bluesky
social now I'm also still available on facebook tik-tok twitter wordpress instagram and beyond
(42:35):
so follow me @kingdompowernow and let's start that conversation also if you are interested in a
completely affordable seminary that is modern and can be done at home check out apostolic covenant
theological seminary acts for short at acts176.org that's acts176.org and if you are in the
Charlotte North Carolina and you are ready to connect with your found family come and join us at
(42:58):
sanctuary international fellowship tabernacle known as sanctuary for short at welcomeinthisplace.org
that's welcomeinthisplace.org and if you have a question that is not answered
on site feel free to reach out and we will be happy to get back to you as soon as we can
and this is Apostle Dr. Lee Ann Marino reminding you in closing conspiracy is not faith it's
(43:21):
opposite of it because it's based in fear so set aside your fear and pick up your faith today
until next time be blessed
thank you for joining us on the kingdom now podcast today i pray it is proven to be a blessing in your life
(43:44):
to learn more about this work ask a question submit feedback advertise with us be a guest or donate
to support this work as our podcast is sponsored by listeners like you visit my website which contains
essential information projects and works for other points of contact around the web at
(44:06):
kingdompowernow.org also if you are in our area and would like to visit sanctuary in the national
fellowship tabernacle visit welcomeinthisplace.org until next time this is Apostle Dr.
Lee Ann Marino reminding you that the kingdom of God is within you and that means the kingdom is now
(44:34):
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