Hebrew Roots

Hebrew Roots is a contemporary Christian religious movement that advocates the return and adherence to first century Christian faith and obedience to the Torah. They refer to Jesus as Yeshua, his Hebrew name. The movement is extraordinarily pro-Israel and often places an emphasis on how many times its members have visited the country. It has 200,000 to 300,000 followers worldwide, most of whom joined in the past 15 years. The majority of Hebrew Roots followers fellowship practice online, and thus the community aspect of the movement is virtual.

In 1994, Dean and Susan Wheelock received their Federal Trademark for the term Hebrew Roots®, after which they began publishing the Hebrew Roots® magazine in April/May 1998, and later the website: hebrewroots.net. However the Hebrew Roots movement began emerging as a distinct phenomenon in the mid-1990s (1993–96). In 1997, Dean Cozzens of Open Church Ministries (Colorado Springs, CO) published a prophecy titled "The Hebrew Movement", which revealed that God had foreordained four major moves for the 20th century, Pentecostalism, Faith-healing, the Charismatic Movement and finally the Hebrew Roots Movement. In this prophecy, the Hebrew Roots Movement is the "final stage of empowerment" before Christ returns.

The movement has been called a group of heretical, non-Christian, and non-Jewish cults.

A common criticism towards Christians is that they do not follow all of the parts of the bible. Torah Roots members take this criticism and hold the fact as they do (even though they don't) as a point of pride. Members are unbelievably confident and despite their soft exterior tend to be very good at making other Christians feel like garbage for not following God's will, regardless of whether they really are or not, usually by subtle "if you disagree with me you are making God angry" intimidation. They still do not follow all of the Torah despite what they claim, usually their excuse is that they follow what they "can".

Christian or Jewish?
Hebrew Roots followers don't identify as Christian, because they view contemporary Christians as strongly influenced by pagan culture, and because they don't refer to Jesus as Jesus Christ, but by other names. They also don't identify as Jewish, viewing Jews' lack of Jesus as their messiah as a travesty. Rootsism regards both the Old and New Testaments as holy books.

Unholy holidays
Members of the movement believe Christian holidays to be thinly veiled paganism. They particularly dislike Christmas, but not as much as Easter, which they believe venerates Semiramis as Ishtar. They say she created a mystery religion wherein the moon was a goddess who would descend into the Euphrates river in a moon egg ovulating on a 28 day cycle when the moon was full. Semiramis became pregnant with the god Thammuz from a ray of light emitted by her son Nimrod, now the sun god Baal.

They believe the holiday Easter derives from a festival for Ishtar set on the full moon that followed the Spring Equinox. It was celebrated by baking cakes to Ishtar, getting drunk, and engaging in sex, orgies, and prostitution in the temple of Ishtar. Women were required to celebrate the conception of Tammuz by lying down in the temple and having sex with whoever entered. The man was required to leave her money. Babies were sacrificed in the honor of these pagan gods and their blood was consumed by the worshipers. The priest of Ishtar would sacrifice infants (human babies) and take the eggs of Easter/Ishtar, as symbols of fertility, and dye them in the blood of the sacrificed infants. The Easter eggs would hatch on December 25th (nine months later), the same day her son Tammuz the reincarnate sun-god would be born.