ROOD'S TORAH ILLUSION

Michael Rood addresses his newsletter "Dear Torah Fans" and dresses like a Mid-Eastern rabbi, leading his followers to think he's a true Torah teacher. But this Torah illusion masks the fact that Rood is mainly a salesman who uses doomsday scare tactics to sell his DVDs and seminars.

A good example of Rood's Torah illusion is his November 2009 newsletter titled The Warning Has Already Sounded. His Torah fans may not notice that Rood does not quote the Torah even once in the four page, 2,000 word letter. Once in a while he uses a word from the Torah like "Ark of the Covenant" or a Biblical word like "Solomon's temple," but this is only part of a pitch to sell his DVDs such as The Great Secret of Solomon's Temple.

Rood promotes his Hanukkah seminar in December in Texas, even though Hanukkah is never mentioned in the Torah or any of the Old Testament. He does offer one Bible quote, Isaiah 26:20-21, but only to claim that "enter into your chambers" means to "quarantine yourselves" with your emergency drinking water during the economic collapse and bloodletting.

Moses would not recognize anything in Rood's letter, and certainly would not have used a title like "Torah fans" to refer to obedient servants like Yeshua.

Since Rood offers no Torah to his Torah fans, what does he feed them? The whole letter is full of the fear-mongering common in the Prophecy Club circuit he toured for years.

Rood uses the most inflammatory and irrational language he can muster to frighten people about a coming end-times catastrophe. He incites fear of flu vaccination by claiming it'spart of a plot to cause "population reduction." Vaccinations are "hybrid virus cocktails of swine... flu," whoare used by "gullible 'extras' who will willingly inject pig pus into their veins." Never mind that there are no pig products at all in vaccinations, much less pus.

Rood calls health care "sick care" and claims that medicines are "deadly brews" sold by "witches" and "drug sorcerers." Since Rood frequently complains about his health, it wouldn't be surprising if he takes a few witches' brews himself.

Rood tries to frighten people into dreading "global economic collapse" and a war which he says will kill two-thirds of Israel's inhabitants. He commands them to "stock your pantry while securing an emergency and hygienic water supply NOW." "The beginning of martial law is the bloodiest," he warns.

It's obvious Rood is more interested in frightening people and selling DVDs than teaching them Torah or comforting them with Yeshua's promise, "so do not worry, saying, ''What shall we eat?' or 'What shall we drink?'... But seek first His kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well." (Matthew 6:31,33).

GOOD ADVICE FROM ROOD

Rood does give one piece of good advice. He warns people about those who use "self-serving false prophecy," although he doesn't see that he's doing this himself. Rood himself makes an explicit false prophecy when he predicts "the thermonuclear destruction of Damascus in the fall of 2010." He prophesied this earlier in a November 7, 2006 letter. Expect him to start backpedaling on this false prophecy in fall of 2010, and come up with a new date that winter to keep people in a buying frenzy.

False prophecy is one of Rood's favorite things to do. Rood's former web site "Countdown to the Seventh Millennium" (www.6001.com) prophesied "Zechariah's Thermonuclear War" (the home page of the site sported a fantastic picture of a nuclear explosion). Rood insisted that Zechariah's vision of a woman in a lead-covered basket was actually a nuclear SCUD missile which would begin worldwide nuclear war in 2001. He emphasized that this was not his speculation, but a clear prophecy from YHWH.

If you're looking for true prophecy, Torah or any balanced teaching of Scripture, don't look to Rood. Michael Rood offers only a Torah illusion.

Dr. John Juedes, 2009

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