The False Gospel of ‘A Rood Awakening!'

Sin first arose in this world when Satan asked a simple question of Eve, “Did God actually say ‘You shall not eat of any tree in the garden?’” (Gen 3:1) And really, Eve might not have been sure because she wasn’t around when God gave that command to Adam (Gen 2:16-17). Maybe Adam was holding out on her or hadn’t heard right. Satan’s question was reasonable, in a way. Could she really trust Adam or his story about a command she hadn’t witnessed herself? The serpent was right in front of her to make his case that she would not certainly die if she ate of the fruit.

That’s often the way Satan works in the world. We see it when the tempter tried to get Jesus to take a shortcut to his reign over the world (Luke 4:1–13; Matt 4:1–11). Satan quoted the Bible just enough out of context to try to trick the man who would die on the cross for the sins of the world. Effective lies require enough truth to make them plausible.

We see people playing with words all the time in religions that are adjacent to Christianity. In their eighth Article of Faith, Mormons say, “We believe the Bible to be the word of God as far as it is translated correctly; we also believe the Book of Mormon to be the word of God.” Of course, “translated correctly” means that Joseph Smith and the continuing prophets get to supervise the real meaning of the 66 books of Scripture, including publishing a dictionary of biblical terms that shifts the meanings away from truth. And the Jehovah’s Witnesses will say they believe the Bible, but have issued their own translation (the New World Translation) that adds some words here and there to change significant doctrines like the deity of Christ—they believe he was a created being and not God incarnate. They believe the Bible (wink, wink) once they’ve tweaked it to fix a few “errors” here and there. 

Brief History of ‘A Rood Awakening!’  

Partial affirmation and revision of the Bible is the approach taken by A Rood Awakening! ministries, a version of which was founded in 2001 by Michael Rood with a descendant ministry currently headquartered in Charlotte, NC. There is a lot of biblical content thrown around in his videos and publications, but the basic premise is that the New Testament texts needed fixing and, after 2,000 years of Christian history, Michael Rood has finally figured out the secrets that unlock the true meaning of the text. According to The Washington Post, the former Marine Sergeant was previously the “Washington area director” for The Way International, a small sect whose practices, former members say, included “firearm training, sleep deprivation, psychological manipulation and blind allegiance” to their founder and leader.

Rood’s professional life has had some significant ups. At a high point, Rood and another Hebrew Roots advocate, Nehemia Gordon, influenced NFL superstar Reggie White, who later produced (i.e, funded) some of the A Rood Awakening! videos, in his drift away from the Christian faith in pursuit of secret Hebrew knowledge.

It hasn’t always been smooth sailing in Rood’s ministries, however. He has started and shut down multiple ministries and websites over the years as his focus and location have changed. There has been significant internal struggle within some of his ministries. For example, in 2007, he was locked out by one of his closest followers. There was bad blood due to accusations of financial mismanagement against Rood. Michael Rood filed a federal civil law suit against his formerly devoted follower seeking to regain control of his eponymous ministry. This must have caused turmoil among Rood’s financial supporters, given the appearance of a note on Rood’s website in 2007 trying to explain the controversy from his angle, with a promise that donated funds would not be misused. During this turmoil he made the local news in Grand Rapids, which reported that he was fired by his board for alleged embezzlement, but no criminal charges were filed after negotiations in court.

Rood has a history of making claims about special knowledge that no one has ever discovered. One of his main claims is that there is a special calendar that people should follow, which he has unlocked. In 2000, he claimed he had discovered “remarkable treasures and revelations, including predictions of when Armageddon will begin, samples of brimstones that rained down on Sodom and Gomorrah, the blood of Jesus, and evidence of the location of Noah’s Ark and the Ark of the Covenant.” This refers to Rood’s work with Ron Wyatt, the American nurse anesthetist turned amateur archaeologist who has been accused of stealing artifacts from Turkey. Wyatt’s claims have been repeatedly debunked, since he provides no material evidence consistent with standard archaeological practice.

Rood’s interpretation and support for Wyatt’s legacy have supported the promotion of his own version of end times events. As the Oklahoman reported in 2000, “According to Rood, Wyatt's discovery of what he claims is the Ark of the Covenant is a sign of the ‘end of the age,’ signaling the tribulation described in the Book of Revelation. In ‘The Mystery of Iniquity,’ Rood discusses the significance of the ark's alleged discovery, as well as his recalculation of the Hebrew calendar.” Part of the purpose of these claims has been to sell Rood’s merchandise and tickets to his seminars, but his claims are also an attempt to disprove the Christian faith.

In The Mystery of Iniquity, which is an imaginative elaboration of biblical prophecies, Rood states his desire to undermine Christianity. He writes, “The Church as an institution of man’s endeavor will stand against this exposé.” He wants to “extinguish the false hope of the Christian church.” The book relies on questionable interpretations of church history, Rood’s imagination, and some previously debunked conspiracy theories. For example, in the first chapter, Rood presents outdated accusations that the holidays that many Christians celebrate as Christmas and Easter are really pagan adoptions. Except that we know that these conspiracy theories were promoted and popularized by people like Scottish minister Alexander Hislop to smear Roman Catholicism in the 19th century. Rood’s use of 18th and 19th century theories about Christianity and the Bible is part of a larger pattern intended to confuse his audience.

Setting aside the scandals Rood has been involved in, his anti-Christian message is clear, though he has done significant work to try to camouflage his anti-Christian beliefs with selective omissions of fact and careful reinterpretation of the Bible, particularly the New Testament. He seeks to sound like a Christian with just a little extra special knowledge to fix the problems with Christianity. Rood’s followers generally style themselves as “believers” and not Christians. 

Special Knowledge 

One of Rood’s central claims is that he finally discovered a hidden chronology in the Gospel accounts, wherein (according to the ministry’s description in the Apple Book Store) Rood “reorganizes Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, The Acts and The Revelation in chronological order.” (He teaches that John’s Revelation is actually the fifth Gospel, rather than an example of apocalyptic literature.) Thus, “any apparent contradictions that have bothered you are resolved, and the Messiah’s message to his disciples then and what we can takeaway from it now becomes clear and that much more powerful.” Generations of Christians have worked on these apparent contradictions, but it took Rood’s special knowledge to solve them all.

To do this Rood pulls meaning from the text of the Bible that others have not discovered. That is an impressive feat, given thousands of years of skeptical and faithful scholars of various traditions digging into them. He takes some biblical truths—for example, there are typological ties between Christ’s life and the Jewish festivals—but strings his Messiah/festival theory together to make it the explanation for the whole Bible. Rood’s eloquent presentations, colorful videography, and innovative theories have also been a consistent source of revenue for Rood, whose websites always feature multiple opportunities to purchase his intellectual products for a substantial fee.

Innovative engagement with prophecy has been at the center of Rood’s ministry. In 2001, he wrote, “Want to know the DAY prophetic events WILL take place! (We don’t know the YEAR), but we can know when certain events take place from God’s calendar!” One example of Rood’s unique insight into prophecy was his declaration that “the Day (or millenium) of the LORD” was to begin on September 11, 1999. He was forced to admit his error when that date passed without apparent incident. Yet he stated that his previous timeline “remain[ed] valid except the years need to be slid forward by 6 months” which took the date to “April 5, 2000.” He has argued that though he made incorrect future predictions, including about the fulfillment of specific apocalyptic events, these did not qualify as actual prophecy (just calculations) so he is not, by definition, a false prophet.

Rood has also worked with The Prophecy Club for decades, with videos on their website as recently as 2017. That organization exists to “provide information on current events and trends, and how they relate to Bible prophecy now and in the future.” Like Rood, they also sell merchandise, such as UFO conspiracy theory videos explaining how “technology is poised to generate a deception using the discoveries at Area 51, including advanced aeronautics, data-control systems, simulation technology, mind-control weaponry all under the guise of nonlethal weapons systems.” Special knowledge about the Bible and conspiracy theories seem to be the main point of connection between the ministries, as there is little theological agreement.

Using his own special knowledge, Rood claims that he presents his “gospel” according to what he calls the “CKJV,” the “Corrected King James Version,” in which Rood has “corrected errors introduced by translators who were unfamiliar with the land, language and culture of first century Israel.” Rood markets The Chronological Gospels because, he says, “Without the correct sequence and time there is no cause and effect. . . The plain text is seldom understood.” Rood has taken the King James Version of the Bible (not the 1611, but a later update), shifted its contents around and changed words to resolve apparent difficulties and support his theories. There seems to be a special status given to the King James Version, with Rood retaining “thee” and “thou” language for deity. Conveniently, the KJV is public domain, saving the effort of actually translating the text.

Rood’s revision of the New Testament is necessary, he argues, because different English translations handle textual questions differently. He claims to have resolved these challenges by referring to his deeper understanding based on his knowledge of Hebrew, because he claims the Gospels were originally written in Hebrew. Rood concludes his video about “the gospel” by asserting that only Jewish people can understand the New Testament. Oddly, however, actual Messianic Jews seem to hold Rood and his speculations at arms length. 

Biblical Conspiracies 

In working through the supposed differences between “the Greek Jesus” and “the Hebrew Yeshua,” Rood argues, along with some progressive scholars, for a late dating of the Gospels “at the end of the first century.” However, even agnostic Bart Ehrman argues for dating the Gospel of Mark as “sometime around the year seventy or so.” Rood’s dating again illustrates a pattern of reliance on 18th–19th century scholarship, much of which fed into Protestant liberalism, and has since been rejected by many Christian and non-Christian biblical scholars.

More significant than an argument for the dating of the Gospel accounts, however, is Rood's assertions that the Gospels were actually written in Hebrew and then translated into Greek. This is where his supposed ability to correct the Bible to fit his theories gets its strength. Again, here is an example of something that seems like clever scholarship that is really just a demonstration of ignorance and conspiracy thinking. There are no early Hebrew manuscripts of the New Testament. The so-called Hebrew language “Ur-Gospel” hypothesis (a precursor and parallel to the Q theories for the Gospels) was a proposal from German higher critical scholars (founders of modern theological liberalism), which has been discarded even by non-Christian New Testament scholars. There simply isn’t enough support even for secular skeptics seeking to debunk Christianity to believe it.

In support of his claim of an original Hebrew Gospel, Rood carefully reinterprets an ambiguous statement by an early church writer, Papias, that did lead a few people in the early church to assume that Matthew had written in Hebrew. The extant examples of early Hebrew passages of the Gospels, however, are in Jewish anti-Christian polemical works—they translated portions of the New Testament into Hebrew to debunk it to their Jewish followers. The earliest complete Hebrew manuscript of Matthew is from the 14th century, contrary to Rood’s undocumented claims.

Rood’s conspiracy theory about a Hebrew Bible is a fringe idea that contemporary scholars generally don’t engage with because, like arguments that Jesus isn’t a historical figure, there isn’t enough evidence for the conspiratorial position to have a rational discussion. Until recently, there haven’t been enough people willing to accept the “mythical Christ” theory absent supporting facts. A central feature of conspiracy thinking, however, is that the limited evidence for and argument against a theory is actually proof of a cover-up. Conspiracy thinking and secret knowledge is at the heart of Rood’s teaching and ministry.

These technical textual questions may seem like a weird rabbit trail to follow, but they are near the center of the Rood errors. The Rood Awakening! statement that “The Bible, in its original language, is infallible” takes on new meaning when you realize that he believes the truthfulness of the Bible resides in an imaginary Hebrew text that only he has the keys to unlock. At the heart of The Chronological Gospels is Rood’s claim to be able to fix the otherwise unsolvable problems in the thousands of extant Greek New Testament manuscripts without having anything to base his fixes on beyond his own hypotheses. In essence, Rood’s claim is that he’s got secret knowledge to solve the mysteries of the New Testament that no other believer in thousands of years has been able to understand, even generations of Messianic Jews who knew Hebrew and Jewish culture very well. Rood is the sole gatekeeper of truth for A Rood Awakenings! and his Hebrew Roots followers, not the Bible. As Rood’s lawyers asserted in his 2007 lawsuit, “A Rood Awakening could not exist without Michael Rood.” His personality is at the heart of the movement. 

False Gospel

The obvious absence of references to the Trinity and no reference to Jesus’ deity in the A Rood Awakening! statement of faith are not incidental. A Rood Awakening! ministries teaches a false gospel because it denies that Jesus is, indeed, “God of God, Light of Light, very God of very God; begotten, not made, being of one substance with the Father, by whom all things were made.” Christ’s deity is essential to his propitiation for our sins. Had Jesus not been divine, he would not have been able to live the perfect life, without sin. The gospel requires Christ’s deity.

A denial of the divinity of Jesus relies on reading the Shema woodenly (Deut 6:4-9), thus rejecting the central Christian teaching about the nature of God, evidence for which abounds in the Gospel accounts, Pauline letters, and the earliest Christian writings and archaeological artifacts. It also requires rejecting or redefining the proclamation to Mary in Matthew’s Gospel, that her son should be called “‘Immanuel’ (which means, God with us” (Matt 1:23). That itself is a fulfillment of a prophecy of Isaiah (Is 7:14). Rood’s version of the man we call Jesus (or Yeshua, since the anglicized pronunciation seems to be a stumbling block to him) was not God with us, but merely “the living embodiment of the Word (the Bible).” The deity of the Holy Spirit is also notably absent from the A Rood Awakening! statement of faith.

In the most basic sense, Rood does not worship the same God a Christian does. He recognizes his departure from “the faith that was once for all delivered to the saints” (Jude 3), but he believes that every Christian for two millennia must be wrong instead of him. Thus he has written a New Apostle’s Creed to counter the summary statement of important biblical teaching generally affirmed by orthodox Christians. Rood teaches that Jesus is the prophet who fulfills Deuteronomy 18, and is the Messiah, but also claims that obedience to the Law (the Torah) is required for Gentiles to be accepted by God. This is not the gospel presented in the New Testament and understood by Spirit-filled Christians throughout history. He makes reference to atonement and faith in Messiah, but they mean different things for him than the Bible teaches. Redefinition is at the core of Rood’s teaching.

Screenshot from YouTube on the A Rood Awakening! page.

In fact, Rood offers what Paul described as a “different gospel” in Galatians. One of Paul’s major concerns was requiring obedience to the Law for acceptance by God, which is central to Michael Rood’s belief in Torah compliance for becoming grafted into the stump of Jesse. Though Rood is careful to distance himself from Pharisaical traditions, his teaching has more in common with the Judaizers Paul dealt harshly with throughout his life.

Like many smooth-talking teachers, Rood always has an answer to objections, but the answer will always require beginning with Michael Rood’s assumptions about the Bible and the way to find truth. Like Pilate, he leads you to wonder, “What is truth?” (John 18:38)

Rood is an eloquent speaker and has been practicing his craft for many years. It is no surprise that many enjoy his ability to rattle off references and put a unique spin on the biblical text. His teaching is entertaining. There is no question that many of Rood’s followers are earnest; they hit the YouTube comments section hard any time anyone contradicts their beloved teacher. But Rood teaches a message that is intended, through carefully talking around and redefining terms, to deceive people and lead them away from salvation. Just like Satan when he tempted Eve and Jesus himself, so Michael Rood’s message begins and ends with Satan’s slippery question, “Did God really say?”