Masquerading in many cases as Messianic Jews, the Hebrew Roots Movement (HRM) groups are too many to count. I have provided links below to many that I have come across. They seem to be gaining momentum and crawling out of the woodwork, and I can only speculate who is kicking their proverbial anthill.

Hyper-Hebrew groups vary like snowflakes when it comes to their beliefs and doctrines, but I have noticed a theme to which they, for the most part, adhere.

In a nutshell, The Hebrew Roots Movement is one scary beast. Adherents try to pass themselves off as Messianic Jews, but you can see through them pretty easily if you know what to look for.

Here are their teachings that are heresy:

• Jesus was the Messiah but He wasn’t God; He was just a man.
• Intellectually accepting Jesus is enough. One is saved by the keeping of the laws; grace has nothing to do with salvation.
• Many adhere to a sacred name philosophy. When someone claims a “This is the only name for Jesus or God” philosophy, you can pretty much peg them as HRM right there.
• Many HRM groups have rendered their own translation of the Bible because they believe that no one has EVER in the history of mankind done it correctly before.
• Many believe that their leader or leaders represent one or both of the two witnesses of Revelation.

You can find information about most of the groups listed below at the following sites:

Gospelcom.net This is a very robust Christian site dedicated to providing information on cults, sects, fringe groups and various religions.

Here are some sites for HRM cults:

The House of Yahweh  Leading the pack is Buffalo Bill “Yisrael” Hawkins from his compound in Abilene, Texas. He has written his own bible (The book of Yahweh) that teaches that he is one of the two witnesses, and adheres to the sacred name philosophy.  Rick Ross is an authority on this group and has been watching them for years. His site features shocking scoop on this group and its leader. Sadly, his membership is reported to be in the tens of thousands.

Truth Restoration This is another sacred name cult. It teaches that calling the Lord by any other name but YHWH is a ticket straight to the pits of Hell.

Beth Jesus This group in Tampa, Florida does not fit the sacred name description, and as far as I have seen, its members do believe in the deity of Jesus. I include them here because they, too, have written their own bible – the Beth Jesus bible. Similar to the House of Yahweh, Beth Jesus, too, believes that no one has ever correctly translated Scriptures from Hebrew and Aramaic.

Yahweh’s New Kingdom Wow. I don’t know what to say here other than, “Talk about a group of mixed nuts.” I am not sure where to begin. The founder, whom this group says is the messiah, is Dr. Joseph Jeffers. He is in the center of the earth now, but will be returning shortly in a golden spaceship. This group teaches that people don’t die but go to the hollow place in the earth. They also claim that (among others) former President Jimmy Carter and former Vice President Walter Mondale have died and aliens now inhabit their bodies. I’ll warn ya – even though their doctrines include sacred name, two witnesses, denial of deity and all that – this group adds a whole new flavor of weirdness to the mix. I wouldn’t be sipping hot liquids when I read this site if I were you.

Baha’ism claims to be the ultimate fulfillment of Judaism, Buddhism, Islam, Zoroastrianism, Hinduism, and Christianity. While proclaiming the merits of all world religions, Baha’ism also insists that these faiths must now concede to the supremacy of God’s fulfilled revelation in Baha’u’llah.

Baha’i is the world’s second fastest growing religion and is taking college campuses by storm.

A 25-year-old businessman, known as Mirza All Muhammad (1819-1850), announced in 1844 that he was the Bab (“Gate”), the forerunner of the “Promised One” who would be a manifestation of God. Six years later, he was killed. One of his followers, a Persian nobleman named Mirza Husayn Ali, known today as Baha’u’llah (“the glory of God”), came to believe he was the one prophesied by Mirza All Muhammad.

Baha’u’llah declared that he was the promised Madhi (Messiah), a progressive revelation of God onward from Abraham, Moses, Krishna, Buddha, Zoroaster, Jesus, and Muhammad. This is the nine godhead theory that they espouse.

The 12 principles of faith:

1. The independent search for truth
2. The oneness of the human race
3. The unity of all religions
4. The elimination of all prejudice
5. The harmony of science and religion
6. The equality of men and women
7. Universal education
8. A universal language
9. Abolition of extreme wealth and poverty
10. A world court
11. Work as worship
12. Justice with universal peace

The religious practices of Baha’ism are similar to Islam though the two faiths are entirely separate religious systems. The Baha’i faith seriously offends orthodox Muslims in its belief that the line of prophets does not end with Muhammad but includes Baha’u’llah and prophets yet to come.

Worship is held every 19 days at the “19 Day Feast”. The plan of salvation for Baha’i is the striving for the possibility of evolution through spiritual development to attain nearness to God.  Those who don’t reach this level of consciousness are doomed to be separated from God for eternity.