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Regarding Scott Johnson
The Extreme Axis of the
Messianic and Hebrew Roots Movements
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Shalom in Christ Jesus,
Today not only is there the
endless barrage of hideous wolves in sheep's clothing leading the church astray
and maligning the truth, but we have watchman that are not creating confusion
and congestion making the work of the true pastors, teachers, prophets and
watchmen all the more difficult. Here is a case in point.
Related teachings:
The New Galatians
Watchmen Who Are Not Watchmen
BE/\LERT!
Scott Brisk
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Regarding Scott Johnson:
The
Extreme Axis of the Messianic and Hebrew Roots Movements
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MORIEL MINISTRIES - By Jacob
Prasch - July 16, 2009
First of all, I and Moriel
and others such as Dr. Arnold Fruchtenbaum have warned multiple times about the
extreme axis of the Messianic and Hebrew Roots Movements, which in fact is not
a movement but a series of strains - some biblical, some unbiblical. For
instance, Moriel and I were among the very first to warn against Peter Michas
as being utterly heretical. But not all are, by any measure, alike. Anyone like
Scott Johnson stereotyping them all into the same category tells me
automatically that he himself does not understand what he is criticizing. It
would be like calling all Southern Baptists racial segregationists (which is
simply untrue).
Secondly, Romans 11 uses the
term "reza" - "root" (singular), not "roots" (plural). Christians should
understand the Sitz im Leben of the text. One cannot understand the Gospels or
Old Testament in depth beyond a certain point if one does not grasp the
cultural milieu. One cannot understand why the New Testament handles the Old
Testament as it does (especially not with Western Hellenistic
grammatical-historical exegesis alone), unless one understands it as 1st
Century Jewish literature. (The New Testament quotes the Old the same way as
The Dead Sea Scrolls do.) We need no rabbinic commentary anymore than we need
papal encyclicals, patristic literature, or the writing of the Reformers to
understand Scripture doctrinally.
But as with Josephus,
certain apocryphal writings, Qumran documentation, etc. there are
extra-biblical sources of scholarly value in grasping the literary and
historical character of the text that is constructive for exegesis. We read
Greek classics not to learn Greek philosophy but to more accurately comprehend
the precise meaning of Greek terminology, syntax, and vocabulary in the New
Testament manuscripts. The same is true for Hebraic literature. This is called
scholarship, or academic theology - a sphere of biblical study where Scott
Johnson misrepresents himself as having an expertise, but in fact really knows
nothing, and his rambling proves it. Scott Johnson and Peter Michas are in many
respects two of a kind. They are both veneers capable of sucking in only the
untaught, undiscerning, the naive and the gullible.
For sure, Caballah is occult
and Talmud is mostly rubbish with elements of truth in it (much the same as
Calvin's Institutes or a Roman Catholic Catechism). But to dismiss all
messianic scholarship that approaches the biblical texts within the theological
context they were written, which is Hebraic, reflects the very brand of
ignorance and arrogance towards the natural branches that Romans 11 warns
against. From an academic perspective, moreover it dismisses Scott Johnson as a
pseudo-scholar.
Additionally, Replacement
Theology is unbiblical and a false doctrine. If you have an olive tree
independent of its root, your tree is dead.
It is absolutely true that
Sabbatarian legalism and bondage to Mosaic Law is unscriptural and that
rabbinic Judaism is a corruption of the Old Testament. However, Scott Johnson
is as steeped in error on one extreme as the proponents of these errors are on
the other. Visiting his material on the Internet, he is essentially a charlatan
and a conspiracy theorist. He seems to have an affinity for that ridiculous
scare mongering Y2K proponent R. C. Sproul. He also makes fanciful predictions
of national I.D. cards that were seemingly compulsory in May 2008 but did not
materialize. If he was wrong then, why should anyone take him seriously now? He
is plainly a man who plays the sad clown. Like so many, he was burned by
hyper-Pentecostalism and it seems to be that basis which drives him, and not
the Holy Spirit.
Mr. Scott Johnson does not
seem to be aware of the distinction between Midrash as a rabbinic body of
literature (such as the Midrash Rabba and Midrash Bereshith), and Midrash as a
hermeneutic plainly used by St. Paul and Jesus, twice mentioned in the original
Hebrew text of Chronicles and Kings. (It says "midrash" but the KJV
mistranslates the Masoretic as "treatise"). Like most of those he opposes,
Scott Johnson generally does not provide any level of comfort that what he is
talking about is backed by any real level of knowledge on the subject.
His citation of Colossians
against Hebrew Roots is another case in point displaying his prima face
ignorance and inability to handle exegesis of a text in an inductive context.
Is his doctorate real? I doubt he knows Greek or Hebrew well and there are even
mistakes in his English grammar. That doesn't bother me but it raises questions
about the authenticity of his doctorate as originating from an accredited
institution. Like hyper-Pentecostals, ultra-Calvinists like James White and
others, there seems to be no end to those who are good at producing phony
doctorates.
Posted on the Moriel Website
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