"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. The brochure from Lubbock, Texas describes his seminars:
+ From Here to Eternity Bible Prophecy Seminar, which claims to be "for anyone who wants to know the future of planet earth." It uses the book of Revelation to assert that Jesus Christ is not "legally obligated" (a key Rood term) to rapture the church before the global economy collapses, America is destroyed by nuclear attack, and an atheistic global government is established.
+ Archaeological Proofs of God's Hand in History seminar describes unusual and contested archeological finds such as remains of Sodom and Gomorrah, remains of Pharaoh's chariots in the Red Sea from the time of the Exodus, the real mount Sinai, the altar to the golden calf, the rock that Moses struck, and Noah's ark.
+The Feasts of the Lord and the Hebrew Roots of Christianity seminar claims to present Rabbi Shaul's (apostle Paul's) understanding of the Torah, ways which Y'Shua (Jesus) fulfilled the spring feasts described in the Old Testament (OT), and how a Hebrew understanding of the fall feasts makes the book of Revelation understandable.
+ The Mystery of Iniquity: The Legal Prerequisites to the Return of Jesus Christ, a book which claims that the Christian church at large is under " full deception." It claims the Antichrist will be revealed and America destroyed "in our lifetime."
Rood distributes material from these seminars on video and audio tapes through his web site, www.michaelrood.com and at personal appearances. He publishes his audiotapes, videotapes and book under the name Early Church Communications in Two Harbors, Minnesota.
Pictures of Rood show him wearing Mideastern dress-- a long, first-century style robe, Arabic or Hebrew headdress, and long untrimmed beard. He also claims to be a Jew, "We, who are Jews by nature, know..." (Mystery of Iniquity, Chapter 8, also web interview with Sid Roth).
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.
ROOD'S TEACHINGS AND PRACTICES
**Rood predicted in the 1990s that the seventh millennium of earth's existence would begin on sunset, September 11, 1999, which he says is Tishri 1, 6001 on the Hebrew calendar. This would begin the "intermediate events," before the rapture of the Church. He generally interpreted the "intermediate events" to be the seven year Great tribulation which would include collapse of the world economy, world chaos, appearance of the Antichrist, the establishment of a global government, attack on Israel, nuclear attack on America, revolution in the United States, martial law, invasion of America by the armies of Russia, China and other countries, destruction of most of America and the death of most Americans. He summarizes this list in Mystery of Iniquitysaying "America will be smashed by Russia, and Russia will be smashed by God as they attempt to invade Israel" (p.48).
Rood's other web site, www.6001.com, showed a dramatic image of a mushroom cloud under the title "Zecharia's Thermonuclear War." Rood's article "Zacharia's Thermonuclear War" described the destruction of America, 9/11 terrorism, Iraq and related topics. Residents of Two Harbors where Rood moved after leaving San Antonio, Texas, say that Rood persuaded several of his followers to move there also, and that they stockpiled food and weapons to prepare for the American holocaust. He claims that catastrophe would take its greatest toll on coastal population centers, leaving remote Two Harbors generally untouched.
One of Rood's followers, Daniel J. Lee, also described these events in some detail in his article "Doom, General All-Purpose 2001 and Beyond" on the Internet (www.mdcplus.com/web/webmaster/Dan2001gen/html). Lee attributed all the doomsday predictions to Rood.
The specific date of these events is extremely important to Rood. He claims that the current Hebrew calendar is wrong (see below for more on this concept), and that the seventh millennium would occur on Tishri 1, 6001, which he asserted was September 11, 1999. This date was so important to Rood that he named his web site www.6001.com. He was very disappointed when the political catastrophes did not follow this date, but still warns that their arrival is imminent.
Rood's ideas about the end times include a heavy dose of conspiracy theory. In an advertisement for his seminars, Rood wrote, "...Atheist have taken over the corridors of power in Washington.... We are on a headlong plunge into the terror of a plan for a world government who answer to no God, and their power limited by no man. Through the illegal Department of Re-Education, atheists have trashed our constitution and polluted the minds of our children with the raw sewage of evolution...." (Advertisement for seminar on Revelation, Bible Prophecy and the New World Order, Feb 23-25; 1998, reiterated in Mystery of Iniquity, p. 70 under the subtitle "The Fiery Judgement of America").
**Rood constantly criticizes the Christian church at large as being "Babylon," which is full of "pagan traditions" and under "full deception" (web site and Lubbock brochure). He advocates that people leave the Christian church to follow him and his teachings, which his web site calls "journey out of Babylon." One of the tapes by Rood sold on www.michaelrood.com is described as, "The Doctrine of the Nicolaitains 90-minute audio tape defines and exposes the present-day reality of Nicolaitanism as it thrives in the hierarchical structure of the modern 'Church.'"
He specifically denounces tax-exempt status and says he does not believe in 501c3 organizations. However, he apparently has begun using that himself when he asks for donations personally and on his web site. Rood gives donors two options: mail donations to Two Harbors if donors don't want a receipt, or to his foundation in Oregon it they do.
His teaching on "Nicolaitanism calls for speculation, since the book of Revelation refers to but does not describe the doctrine of the Nicolaitans. Rood especially denounces denominational and tax-exempt churches.
Rood poses as a Christian minister and claims to have references from several churches. In fact, most of these references have been shown to be false. For example, Rood attempted to gain followers from Alliance churches in northern Minnesota. The District Office of Alliance churches in that area wrote a letter outlining Rood's false teachings and warning Alliance members to avoid him:
"According to Rev. Misener this group is very deceptive in how they approach churches and individuals. 'At first glance this group appears harmless,' Rev. Misener stated, 'But once you sit down and dig into their doctrinal stands they become pretty destructive. While they call themselves a Messianic Jewish movement similar to Jews for Jesus, they are far from that. They actually teach that unless we return to the observance of the Sabbath on Saturday, and the celebration of the Jewish festivals we are an abomination to the Lord. It's like reading from the Book of Galatians where the Judaisers came in and told the Gentiles they need to observe all Jewish traditions and laws. In fact... this group would not consider evangelicals to be Christians at all. And they are VERY secretive about their belief system.'" (The Alliance Echo, quoted in the newsletter of the Hibbing, MN, CMA church newsletter, Nov. 1998)
The Two Harbors Ministerial Committee also published a flyer warning that Rood's group was aberrational. The churches also discovered that the churches and ministers Rood gave as references were false-- they either did not know Rood or did not approve of his ministry.
**Rood claims that he alone teaches accurately and that following him and his teachings is the way out of deception. His web site offered a package of his teachings to help people "get back to the Lord." It asserted that Rood's teachings would get people "out of Babylon" (www.6001.com/product1, 9-10-99). He promoted his teachings on the Hebrew festivals as "greater... than any available on the planet." He is the one who can reveal "the mystery" that the Christian church is too deceived to recognize. He often uses words like "mystery" and "unknown" to attract others' curiosity and imply that he knows what few others do. He likes to say that his teachings are so different that they are "a Rood awakening" to people.
**Rood repeatedly inflates his accomplishments, ability and importance. In an advertisement for his seminar on Revelation, Bible Prophecy and the New World Order, he claimed that when he was a Marine, the whole Marine battalion on a ship gathered at the same time to hear him speak on the return of Christ which led to "the largest number of Marines since WWII" being baptized at once. His claims to be an ordained Christian minister and Messianic rabbi are also misrepresentations. The Lubbock brochure mentioned above is not the only time he claimed to be a trained minister in a denomination. He said, "I was an energetic exponent of the teachings of my church and theological institutions. I had a... denomination to protect.... Just because a denomination is in the mainstream of modern Christianity...." (Mystery of Iniquity, p. 23). Readers are led to believe that Rood was affiliated with a mainstream denomination and theological institution, when his involvement in a cultic group was actually far from that.
Rood repeatedly claims that respected people in certain comunities approve of his ministry when in fact they do not. Several ministers in the northern Minnesota area report that Rood falsely claimed their support in order to gain a hearing from people. Once Rood spoke at a seminar at which minister and former pro football player Reggie White spoke. Soon thereafter, Rood's web site said that White supported Rood's ministry, when in fact White did not. This claim was soon removed from Rood's web site.
**Counting time, calendars and date setting are very important to Rood. He, Robert Wadsworth and Richard Fike (also ex-followers of TWI) developed an "accurate" Hebrew calendar using sightings of the new moon from Jerusalem, observations of barley (aviv) crops in the Negev of Israel, and astronomy. (www.michaelrood.com/calend). (Because Wadsworth believes that celestial events in the next 20 years are much like those which occurred before Messiah's birth, he believes that Christ will return to earth in 2040 instead of 2010 as he previously believed.)
This calendar is critical to Rood for several reasons: First, it gives him a way to establish a definite date for the "intermediate events" of the collapse of America which precede the second coming of Christ. Second, Rood uses it as a tool of legalism, implying that all Sabbath and festivals observed by Jews are false-- unless they use his calendar. Third, he uses it to assert himself as the source of accuracy regarding the dating of the end times and Hebrew observances, which he says are essential for all believers to do today, as well as the date of Biblical events. For example, Rood's web site offers charts which give specific dates for creation (March 23-29, 001 BC), Gabriel's announcement to Zechariah about John's birth (Sunday, May 23, 4 BC) the birth of John the Baptist (March 21, 3 BC), the birth of Jesus Christ (Wed, Sept 23, 3 BC) and the beginning of the seventh millennium (Sept 11, 1999). Fourth, he uses it legalistically, to require that all observances be done on his definite, minute to minute schedule.
**Rood's emphasis on particular days blinds him to truth. For instance, he says worship on Sundays, and especially sunrise services on Easter, are an abomination to the Lord because the sun god was worshiped on Sunday mornings (Mystery of Iniquity, Chapter 8). He seems to completely miss the fact that Jesus Christ chose to rise from the dead at sunrise on a Sunday. As the apostle Paul mentions, the resurrection was on the Feast of Firstfruits which was a Sunday (1 Corinthians 15). By Rood's theory, people should conclude that God was creating an abomination by placing both the resurrection and the Feast of Firstfruits on the morning of sun god worship! Christian don't worship on Sundays because they honor the sun God, but because God chose Sunday as the day of Christ's resurrection, by which he gives eternal life to His people. From the earliest times, Christians worshiped at sunrise on Sundays (as Roman official Pliny the Younger noted in his famous letter to Caesar). Rood doesn't seem to realize that when Christians worship on Sundays, they worship the true God and read the Holy Scriptures, and never impregnate virgins and kill babies in sacrifice as he says believers in the sun god did.
Rood also seems to miss the fact that celebrating Jesus' birth on December 25, doesn't mean that people are worshiping Saturnalia, anymore than celebrating your sister's birth on December 25 means you're worshiping Saturnalia. And when they recognize Christ's death on Good Friday, no one actually offers sacrifices, or even knows anything about, Dagon the Philistine fish god (if it actually ever existed). Rood also says that the commercialism of Christmas is reason not to celebrate it on December 25, which again shows faulty logic. That's like saying that since July 4 is commercialized, everyone should celebrate Independence Day on some other date. . To Rood, the particular days and times mean far more than the beliefs, practices and faith of the people.
**Rood promotes highly speculative and unfounded ideas, from his date-setting, to his predictions of events of the "tribulation," to his archaeological "discoveries." Contrary to Rood, discoveries of Noah's ark are anecdotal and unproven, the altar of the golden calf does not exist, and the location of Moses' rock and Sinai cannot be confirmed, Wyatt's theories of the ark of the covenant are spurious and no one has ever produced it. It is ironic and revealing that in a day when there are huge numbers of confirmed archaeological finds which confirm Bible events, Rood picks only speculative "finds" which lack convincing evidence.
Martin, Rood, Wierwille of TWI and others have written hundreds of pages about the date of Jesus' birth. Yet, each part of their case is based on speculation, not on facts. The Bible does not explicitly state that the star was a conjunction of Jupiter, or that ancient astronomers recorded its appearance, nor the amount of time between Gabriel's announcement and John's conception, nor the exact length of Mary's pregnancy; nor does it state that the moon and stars alluded to in Revelation 12:1 refer specifically to the time of evening on Tishri 1 between 6:18 and 7:39 p.m. To define things that the Bible does not define is speculation, no matter how logical it sounds.
**Rood's speculation about end time political events has made him a darling of the Prophecy Club and Christians who accept conspiracy theories and paranoia. The Prophecy Club promotes tapes by people who assert US government conspiracy (including complicity in 9/11 terrorism), Bible codes,"idolatry" pervading the Christian Church at large, war on Israel, America as "Mystery Babylon," collapse of world economy, One World Government, a political Antichrist, King James version of the Bible only, God speaking audibly to them, and UFOs' part in coming world events. In this milieu, speculation without evidence is rewarded (and even encouraged, since Prophecy Club fans view evidence against their speculation as extra reason to assume conspiracy). Rood has an ongoing relationship with Prophecy Club, having served as one of its speakers and appeared on panels ironically called "intelligence briefings." The Club sells some of Roods tapes including "How Hanukkah Portrays the Rise and Fall of the Antichrist."
**Rood teaches legalism, demanding that all Christians "keep the Torah." According to him, it is essential that Christians keep the Sabbath and observe O.T. festivals (following his calendar), use O.T. purification rites, etc. To him, it is an abomination to God when Christians do not observe them completely and accurately.
Rood says the "old lie" is that we never achieve perfection: "Do you get frustrated with your efforts and fall back into the old lie that has been told over and over: 'You can never achieve perfection on this earth....'" ("So They Will Be Called Oaks of Righteousness," www.6001.com/Godsword).When Rood asserts that humans can achieve perfection by keeping Torah, he completely misses the words of the apostles who said, "Why do you try to test God by putting on the necks of the disciples a yoke that neither we nor our fathers have been able to bear? No! We believe it is through the grace of our Lord Jesus that we are saved," (Acts 15:10).
Rood's six point statement of faith never mentions Jesus Christ, grace or faith, but mentions commands, obedience and legalism twice each:
"1. GOD is.
2. He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him.
3. They that hunger and thirst after righteousness shall be filled to the point of their hunger.
4. You will be given only as much truth as you will obey.
5. Obedience to the commands of GOD can never be referred to as Legalism.
6. Legalism can only be in reference to strict adherence to the doctrines and commands of men."
The emphasis throughout is on people's own works and obedience, not on God's grace and mercy. Numbers five and six implicitly acknowledge that he has often been accused of legalism. By asserting that legalism is strict adherence to the commands of men, Rood is actually saying that God requires strict adherence to all God's commands, which is plainly legalism even through Rood doesn't admit it.
When Rood addresses the subject of requiring obedience to Old Testament commands in Mystery of Iniquity, he phrases it in such a way that it may appear to be a loving option rather than a legalistic requirement:
"Many times I have been asked, 'Are Christians required to keep these assemblies?' ...Are we looking to do the bare minimums of obedience, or do we desire to aggressively obey out of a heart of love? Does the question reveal a heart that is still at enmity against the law of God?... We who are Jews by nature know.... No one is justified because one keeps the feasts. But do we live in opposition to the Torah because the grace of God covers our sin?" (Mystery of Iniquity, Chapter 8)
He tries to make it sound less legalistic by emphasizing that Christians will do it if they love God. But he repeatedly says that Christians who do not celebrate the Feasts of Leviticus 23 "sin," transgress" are "in opposition" and "enmity" against the "law," and must instead "aggressively obey." Although he frames his answer in a way that sounds less like law, he plainly thinks it is a legalistic requirement, not an option which Christians may choose to do or not do. This is completely different from presenting opportunities to express love which are not required by law.
It is disturbing that the Statement of Faith never mentions central New Testament teachings, such as creation, the humanity and divinity of Jesus Christ, the personality of the Holy Spirit, faith, salvation in Jesus Christ, salvation by grace through faith instead of works, the forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the body, life everlasting, etc.
Rood claims that worship on Sunday is an act of idolatry because in the ancient world the first day of the week was reserved for worship of the sun god and fertility gods. He claims that the true date of Christ's resurrection seldom falls on a Sunday, and that December 25 is not Jesus' birthday, but the birthday of the sun god. Rood denounces celebration of Christmas and Easter as "Satanic" holy days, as the links on his web site make apparent. Chapter 8 of Rood's book Mystery of Iniquity is devoted to this topic.
Rood also requires his followers to follow a "clean" (kosher) diet, and practice fasting.
Since Rood requires obedience to all commands of God, does not center on the grace of Jesus Christ and neglects several central NT teachings, he is radically different from Messianic Jews, who accept the grace of Yeshua the Messiah (Jesus Christ) and believe they are saved by faith without works or the observing of the law. While some may choose to keep elements of Torah prescriptions and Jewish traditions, they do not require them to be carried out as Rood does.
Rood's web site links to an article "The Maiden Moon" by Bruce Brill (www.angelfire.com/nm/hebrewcalendar/paper.htm) on which Rood's email and physical addresses are listed as contacts. This emphasizes the legalism attached to the issue of calendars, citing "...the gravity of celebrating of holidays on the celestially correct day...." In other words, Sabbaths and festivals are profaned by those who celebrate them on technically inaccurate times.
**Rood's speculation has led to false predictions. No cataclysmic events followed his prediction that September 11, 1999 was to be the start of the seventh millennium. Rood also published this prediction on his www.6001.com web site in September, 2002: "... the warning that went forth from Zion concerning the nuclear attack on Israel. Israel has been given the OK to pre-empt Iraq. The brimstone is about to hit the fan.... The repercussions in the US will create pandemonium." Israel did not attack Iraq, Iraq fell to US and coalition forces in 2003, and no pandemonium ensued in America.
Rood said that after Israel's prime minister Ariel Sharon went up to the temple mount September 28, 2000, "I expected it to escalate into a full-blown nuclear confrontation in the ensuing weeks," (Mystery of Iniquity, Chapter 8).These kinds of reckless predictions based on his speculation are typical, and result in a roller coaster of fears and disappointments in his followers.
The Doomsday List cites other false dates and false prophecies Rood has made: See also The Rapture Ready Web site
** Rood attacks pre-tribulation millenialism and devotes much of Mystery of Iniquityto condemning it as "false teaching." "...Jesus prophesied of the secret pre-tribulation rapture heresy and warned us of the 'false prophets' that would be teaching this very doctrine" (P. 42) He believes that when the world plunges in war and turmoil, Christians who believe in the pre-trib rapture will feel betrayed. While many of his Biblical attacks on the pre-trib rature make a lot of sense, his alternative is not credible either.
**Rood has not denounced the teachings and beliefs he held when he was a follower of The Way International (TWI). His biography claims that he is an "ordained nondenominational Christian minister," but does not state that it is The Way Int. which ordained him. By implying that this ordination gives him credibility, and that the ordaining body is credible, he misrepresents his background. TWI taught many nonChristian teachings, including obedience to universal laws (the "laws" of prosperity, believing, etc), that Jesus Christ was a perfect man but not human and divine, that the Holy Spirit is not a personal being, that the filling of the Holy Spirit just amounts to people regaining their own spirit which was lost at the Fall, that many verses of the Bible are untrustworthy because they were altered hundreds of years after they were written, and so forth.
Rood's move to Two Harbors disturbed the community. Some of his followers refer to "the miracle" when Rood was driving truck through the Two Harbors area on Christmas 1995, stopped to worship at a nearby church, and was invited to a resident's home. At the time he was going through a divorce from his wife Sarah. He moved to Two Harbors soon after that and lived in a variety of places, from others' property to an RV. He moved into a vacant building for little or no rent in 1997 and dubbed it the headquarters of Early Church Communications, and for a time lived behind the building in an RV.
Rood promoted his seminars held in a hotel and held studies in a community center. Richard and Linda Fike moved there in May 1998. Later Rood's daughter Leigh.(who had lived in California with her mother and her three sisters) moved to Two Harbors to be with him after high school, where she met and married Eric Fransen. Rood persuaded about ten people to move there to be near him, although they all moved out (except for Rood's daughter Leigh and her husband) before long, once they found that the jobs and ministries that Rood promised never developed. Rood remarried Judith Dithers,
Early Church Communications seemed to virtually shut down in 2003. The only address at which Rood is now doing business in Two Harbors is a P.O.Box at the Post Office. The business phone number is answered by Rood's son-in-law. Fike, who once ran it, moved out of Two Harbors, too. He apparently had some disagreements with Rood, including a disagreement with another leader in the group, John Coughlin, at a Feast held at Grantsburg, Wisconsin, on the issue of eating hot dogs (some seem to be more legalistic about eating kosher than others).
Two Harbors has been disturbed by apparent personality changes in those who followed Rood. One outstanding characteristic is fear, which is mainly due to Rood's continual predictions of the catastrophe which will come to America any day.
CONTINUING A CULT
Michael John Rood was a follower, evangelist, teacher and high level leader in the cult The Way International for over 15 years, beginning in 1972.. Many people who were involved in TWI at that time remember him because he was heavily involved and held highly visible leadership positions.
Two articles from the Washington Post mention and quote Rood. One article describes a TWI meeting in which the leader introduces "'The Rev. Mr. Michael Rood,' The Way's Washington area director-- 'limb coordinator' in Way parlance-- and the honored guest at this twig. A nine-year veteran of the Way, Rood, 29, still displays vestiges of his years as a Marine Corps sergeant." ("Giving Thanks for Array of Blessings," Washington Post, Oct. 13, 1981, p.A11, by Sandra Boodman)
This indicates that Rood began his involvement in TWI when he was only 20, was ordained in TWI and was a high level leader. "Limb coordinators" were in charge of a state (half a state if TWI had many followers there, or more than one state if there were few). Only about 15 leaders at TWI headquarters were above the limb coordinator level. In order to be ordained and a limb leader in TWI, Rood would have had to serve one or more one-year terms as a TWI recruiter ("WOW Ambassador") and graduated from Way Corps training, which included two years working menial jobs at TWI campuses while taking unaccredited courses. The Way Corps and college offered no accredited courses or degrees (in contrast to most religious colleges and seminaries and programs leading to ordination which do include accredited degrees). Rood also claims to have been involved in Capitol Hill Christian Fellowship, a TWI-related group.
The Post article goes on to quote Rood, "'You can't trust anyone these days,' he says in his flat, twangy Grand Rapids, Mich., voice, 'You can only trust God and his word. All the negatives, fears, questions about life. Insecurity complexes-- all that goes' if you believe in The Way, Rood says."
Another article by Boodman, ""'The Way' Recruiters Are Active in D.C., Tidewater," appeared in the same issue of the Post, p. A03 It mentioned firearms training which TWI required Corps trainees to take. Rood explained TWI's rationale: "'It was just a hunter's safety course,' said The Way's Washington area director Michael Rood, a former Marine Corps marksman. 'We teach people how to floss their teeth, do jet-style packing and handle guns.'"
Rood claims he was a leader in Capitol Hill Christian Fellowship, but doesn't say that it was a TWI-related group.
Rood still maintains relationships with other ex-followers of TWI (almost everyone who was in TWI when Rood was has left to form or join splinter groups, which are substantially the same as TWI in teachings and practice). They include Robert Wadsworth who worked with Rood to correct the Hebrew calendar, Bo Reahard, who maintains a Biblical Astronomy web site, Jamie Louis who books some of Rood's tours, and Richard Fike who works closely with Rood. Rood has spoken to gatherings of TWI splinter groups such as Christian Educational Services. He has also attended meetings of splinter groups such as those by Dale Sides of Liberating Ministries for Christ. Rood continues to maintain connections with them because they still have much in common.
Michael John Rood has continued many of the themes and practices which made TWI a cult. Both TWI and Rood: a) disparage the Christian Church as full of deception and pagan practices; b) consider themselves to be the one source of truth, the revealer of the unknown Mystery and the way out of "pagan" Christianity; c) follow the teachings of one Man who can lead them out of deception, d) warned that America would be attacked and destroyed by Communist powers, e) promote highly speculative, unfounded and inaccurate theories, f) devote attention to minute detail on areas of "research" that have essentially little significance, g) criticize celebration of Christmas (TWI replaced it with "Happy Household Holidays), h) 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, i) 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.
However, TWI distinguished between Judeans (those truly of Abramic descent and religion who lived in Israel at the time of Christ) and Jews (those who now claim to be Jews but in fact are not true descendants). TWI blindly followed the assertions in the book The Thirteenth Tribe by Arthur Koestler which claimed that the religion of the Hebrews (Judeans) became more corrupt in the centuries after Jesus Christ was born and in essence ceased to exist as a race and as a religion. Jews today, they asserted, are actually descendants of the Khazars, an Asiatic (from the area of Russia) tribe which converted to Judean religion in the seventh or eight century A.D. and combined the Khazar and Hebrew languages to make Yiddish. As such, modern Jews have no right to the land in Palestine. ("Jew and Judean," in Jesus Christ our Passover, V.P. Wierwille, pp. 435-440)
This unsubstantiated theory fits well with British Israelism, popular in the early 1900s, which claimed that the British were the true descendants of Israel. This has the same effect of dismissing the modern Jewish race and faith.
Rood may maintain the same distinction between Jews and Judeans. He may also hold British Israelist beliefs, since he claims that his name "Rood," is from England and means "cross," (which is true) while also claiming that he is a Jew.
Rood also differs from TWI in that he denounces its theory of seven administrations, which is a repackaging of E.W. Bullinger's ultradispensationalism which asserts that baptism should not be practiced by Christians, and that only Paul's seven epistles are authoritative for Christians today. This is to be expected since Rood requires Christians to keep the Torah. Rood clearly is attacking , TWI/ultradispensational beliefs in Mystery of Iniquity, pp 57, 61, 64-66), yet he, never mentions TWI by name.
Michael John Rood is clearly not a reputable Christian minister and Messianic rabbi as he claims
to be, nor is he a reliable source for accurate Bible teaching.. His speculative predictions about
end time events, archaeology and other topics have led, and will continue to lead, to more
disturbance in the minds of those who accept his theories. His adherence to teachings and practice
learned in a cult, and his legalism draw people away from the grace of Jesus Christ which the New
Testament teaches. People would be wise to neither accept Rood's teachings nor support his
ministry.
Addendum: The bottom of the www.6001.com home page includes a button to submit a request
to be on the site's mailing list. After submission, a "Success" page appears which lists a web site
address to use to be removed from the mailing list. The web site, revfred3.9, redirects to a "live
girls" porn site.
Dr. John Juedes, 2003
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