This webpage is one portion of a much longer profile of the ministry of Michael Rood on this Field Guide website. Click here to go to Michael Rood and His "Rood Awakenings".  

 

 Below is an unabashedly candid, subjective, and opinionated "snapshot" of my experience at one of Michael Rood's "Rood Awakening" lectures, most of it written shortly after the event and updated in December, 2001. Since that time I have read hundreds of pages of material by Rood and listened to many hours of his tapes in order to confirm the concerns which I had after this first Very Rood Awakening. Comments added for this current webpage appear in brackets. [ ]

 

 

On Wednesday evening, May 2, 2001, my husband George and I entered the small auditorium at Kellogg Conference Center of Michigan State University in East Lansing, Michigan, to listen to a presentation by Michael Rood which Rood whimsically titles "A Rood Awakening." The theater-style room with fold-down seats and a stage appeared to have a seating capacity of about 400. By the time the meeting started, I estimate there were about 150 or so in attendance.

There was a table on the left side of the stage, holding a lap-top computer and a pile of books. A projector in the middle of the room was evidently connected by cable to the computer, and thus pictures and Power-Point slides could be sent from the computer to a screen at the back of the stage.

It was a very diverse crowd in attendance. There were both teens and senior citizens and every age in between. Most were dressed in typical casual clothes, but I saw at least two men with Jewish-style accessories such as shawls with fringe.

Michael Rood appeared on stage promptly at 7, looking much like he does in this picture.

 

He had on what appeared to be a regular white dress shirt and dress slacks, but wore over them a tunic sort of overshirt of rough material with fringe, with a rope tied around the waist. He did not have the usual headcovering of skull cap or some such which a typical Jewish rabbi would be expected to be wearing. This is not surprising, since Rood is not Jewish, either by birth or by conversion, even though people frequently refer to him as a "Messianic Jewish Rabbi."

 

He mentioned this night that he grew up in Greenville, Michigan, a small town about an hour from where I lived.  His original religious upbringing would have been in some standard Protestant denomination. There is nothing wrong, of course, in choosing to wear any kind of clothing one wishes. However, I am quite convinced that Rood chooses to present himself at such gatherings in this "historical/ethnic" garb in order to give the subconscious impression of a "prophet/teacher" of Biblical proportions. He styles himself as "Messianic Rabbi Michael John Rood" which I am quite sure gives most of his readers and listeners the impression that he is a bona-fide Jewish rabbi who converted to belief in Jesus as Messiah.

This would tend to lead some to believe that he would thus have some sort of "inside information" on understanding the Old Testament which would give him superior insight to that of just a plain old Christian/Protestant Bible teacher. After listening to him, however, I am fully convinced that he is just a self-taught Bible student who is convinced he has stumbled on Astounding New Truth hidden for the past 2000 years, and has thus dubbed himself a "rabbi" in order to lend to himself a credibility that he might not otherwise have.

Again, there is nothing wrong with being self-taught in Bible study. I just happen to feel that the pseudo-Jewish/Biblical trappings are being used for psychological manipulation of his audiences.

 

 

[Rood later went one step further in using this sort of gimmick, presenting himself on his website in an outfit vaguely reminiscent of a High Priest's robes. In fact, by going to his Rood Store, you could order for yourself --for only $525 -- an identical bright blue "tallit" with golden trim and a golden rope belt. That didn't include his long white under-robe and "headpiece" (a golden pill-box style hat), though.]

 

 

From the moment he started his spiel, he was mocking other teachers and ministries. One of his earliest comments was that whenever someone told him they were a Christian, he immediately put his hand "firmly over" his wallet. The implication was that most all Christian ministries were just out for your money. He was quick to point out that he, on the other hand, charged no admission fee to his meetings and, in fact, paid out of his own pocket for the parking fees for this conference. He held up free parking passes, and noted he would be distributing them at the end of the meeting. In fact, he joked, "I have to pay you to listen to me." He kept up this ridicule of other ministries for quite some time, and slipped such comments in at various other points in his message.

This rang somewhat hollow, though, when it came to the "half-time break" at about 9 PM. He spent perhaps fifteen minutes or so just before the break hyping one by one all of the books and tapes he had brought along to sell to the crowd. His recommendation, if you could only afford to buy one of the items, was to make it the four-tape set of videos that had a price tag of $75.

Again, he is perfectly free to sell his wares, and for any price he wishes ... but it was just so blatantly at odds with his earlier comments about the money-grubbing of other ministries. In fact, I shouldn't have been surprised--but was--when, in addition to the sales spiel about the tapes and books, they passed around offering plates at the end of the meeting. He put those "free parking" passes in the offering plates, and noted you could take one out when it came by. But the implication was obvious that if you left your pass in the plate ... and added to it a generous offering ... that would really bless his ministry.

I had wondered how he had gathered this audience. It became obvious from some of his comments that there had been regional meetings arranged in the fall of 2000 in conjunction with his appearances on the Prophecy Club radio program. At that time he was dogmatically predicting a major Mid-East war to begin in October. One such meeting had been held in East Lansing, and a couple of small home-fellowship groups had formed in the area as a result. Thus there was a mailing list to use to arrange for another such appearance this spring--in spite of the fact that all of his prognostications had failed miserably.

 

We were sitting near the rear of the auditorium, off to one side, so that I could watch the audience for their reactions to his presentation. It was painfully obvious that most were accepting this teacher wholeheartedly as their guru, and that most had been studying his books and tapes for some time and were in full agreement with his every nuance of opinion.

For instance, there was one young teen-age couple sitting right in front of us. For a time, I wondered if they were even listening to him at all ... they were very amorous the whole time, snuggling and kissing and pressed cheek to cheek most of the time! But at one point Rood made a particularly outrageous comment, which I considered totally ludicrous. And the young man pulled back from the girl, looked her in the eye and exclaimed with great enthusiasm, "Wasn't that AWESOME!" And then they went right back to snuggling.

 

At the half-time break, many went up on the stage to confer with Rood personally. I went down to the edge of the stage to listen to the comments. I noted that they didn't ask him questions such as "what do you think" or "is it possible that." They phrased their questions like this: "Michael, WHEN will the Times of the Gentiles end?"

And his answers weren't along the lines of "I've been studying that and here's what I think." They were mostly, "Get my book/tape on that and you'll have the answer" or "I'll be covering that in the second half of the seminar." And when he covered the answers in the second half, his comments were seldom couched in terms of conjecture, but rather bombastically "This is how it is."

And even though the meeting was scheduled to be from 7-11 PM, he was still talking beyond midnight ... and hardly anyone had left the auditorium. They were obviously starved to hear every word he had to say, no matter how little he backed up any of it with any hard facts or clear scriptures.

 

That was what I found the most disturbing. He made many, many dogmatic statements and highly unusual, controversial claims, but gave almost no substantiation for any of it.

He spent a large part of the first half of the seminar showing pictures of alleged archaeological finds in the Middle East, I believe most of them the results of the work of the late controversial archaeologist Ron Wyatt. Wyatt had claimed to have found just about every significant Biblical spot and item of importance, including Noah's Ark, the spot of the crossing of the Red Sea, Sodom and Gomorrah, and the Ark of the Covenant. And Rood obviously accepts Wyatt's every claim, in spite of the fact that many such claims have been seriously challenged by other experts.

Yet Rood dismissed every such challenge with just a sneer, claiming in essence that all Protestant groups and denominations were just out to repress Wyatt's claims since he wasn't a member of their group. (Wyatt was a Seventh Day Adventist.) Wyatt's most controversial claim was that he had been led under mysterious circumstances to a tunnel under Jerusalem, and had followed it to a secret chamber in which he saw the Ark of the Covenant and other Temple treasures.

He also claimed that the crucifixion occurred directly above this secret chamber, and directly over the Ark stored there. He further claimed that when the earthquake occurred at the time of the death of Jesus, a crack was opened in the ground from the foot of the cross down to the chamber. And, as a result, the blood from Jesus' side dripped down that crack and fell on the Mercy Seat on the Ark. Wyatt claimed to have seen the actual blood, and to have scraped some of it off and brought it back with him.

However, there is no substantiation for any of this ... either the location of the ark, Wyatt's alleged viewing of it, the claims about the earthquake and blood, and so on. Wyatt claimed he "forgot" how to get back to where the Ark was, and there has never been any credible investigation of his claims for the "blood" he supposedly found. (There have been rumors that the scrapings were tested and found to have only "one set of chromosomes"... indicating the virgin birth of Jesus. But there has never been any public claims of this.)

None of this deterred Rood in the slightest. He told all of these stories as if they were undeniable facts. And he ridiculed anyone who would doubt any of it.

 

[Rood's ministry website was linked at the time directly to the website continued by the inheritors of Wyatt's projects. It is no longer, but the video offerings on his site indicate he’s not changed his mind about any of this.] Rood added many, many more details about the location of the Ark, yet without offering any sources for his information either. He claimed that the Israeli government knows the location, but is afraid to go back in and get it. And he projected diagrams on the screen showing its location. [Rood's comments that all criticism of Wyatt's claims were merely based on religious envy rang hollow when the definitive critique of Wyatt's works was later published … written by two loyal Seventh Day Adventists. Click here for an investigation of Wyatt's claims.]

He also showed diagrams for the location of Solomon's Temple on the current temple mount. His claim was that the Holy of Holies was directly over the current location in the courtyard of the Dome of the Rock of the cupola known as the "Dome of the Spirits." There are a number of Bible teachers and archaeologists who have speculated that this is, indeed, the location. But there is hot debate over the matter, and Rood gave no explanation of what evidence convinced him of the location. As with most of his claims, he just stated this as undisputed fact. And his supporters in attendance didn't seem to require from him any more than his unsubstantiated dogmatic claims.

His most unusual claim was his elaborate description of just how the Ark was removed from the Temple at the time of Jeremiah. I had noted a video tape offer on his website about this matter:

"Obscure passages in the Biblical record, ancient extra-Biblical accounts, some on-site investigation, and a meeting with a prestigious Temple-site expert were the keys that unlocked the Great Secret of the Temple of Solomon. Learn the secret that the high-level Masons wished they understood! Do not watch this presentation unless you are ready to have your mind blown."

Since I really didn't want to spend $25 to have my mind blown, I was pleased to find that he was willing to share this secret at the seminar. I'm not sure just what extra-biblical accounts and which prestigious expert he consulted, as he never told any of that. He just dove immediately into describing an elaborate diagram of the Indiana-Jones-style story of the Hiding of the Ark at the time in history when the first Temple was destroyed.

 

Simplifying a long explanation ... he claims that the two huge brass pillars in front of the temple were hollow, and filled with sand. When the Levites realized the threat of capture of the Ark, four of them dashed to the Holy of Holies and stood on some protrusions on the four sides of a square section of floor behind the Ark. The pressure of their weight on a hidden mechanism connected to these trigger points tripped a mechanical device that ran all the way to the front of the temple and tripped another device that opened trap doors at the bottom of the pillars. This dumped all the sand in the pillars into a hidden passage under the temple.

The sand landed on the end of a l-o-o-o-o-ng lever that reached back to the area under the Holy of Holies. As the lever raised at that end, it pushed up a box-like little room (just like an elevator) into the Holy of Holies. (The pavement in the room concealed the top of this elevator.) The Levites would have then rushed the Ark and other temple treasures into the elevator, and tripped another hydraulic control that let the elevator back down into the passage. The top of the elevator would once again look like a seamless part of the floor in the Holy of Holies. And the Levites would be free to whisk the Ark away down a series of tunnels to a place outside the city walls where it rests to this day ... undisturbed by anyone other than Ron Wyatt.

 

This makes a great yarn, and no doubt Spielberg or Lucas could make a dynamite version for film. But Rood gave absolutely no evidence for any of this. Nor did he state it as speculation or plausible conjecture. Again, he just mocked any alternative theories on the location of the Ark. Could this possibly all be the "Gospel Truth" about what happened to the Ark? Certainly. But given Rood's track record on many other matters, I have no reason to give the story any more credence than dozens of other alternative speculations by other self-styled experts.

 

Rood's whole presentation was very wide-ranging. He covered the meaning of the annual Holy Days--his explanation is pretty much in line with most other teachers, including various Protestant commentaries, on the symbolism. But once again, he mocked almost every other teacher and group as being misled, and implies he is one of the few who understand this symbolism and that thus you ought to get your insight from him.

 

He had an unusual take on the "Times of the Gentiles." As nearly as I could follow, he twists the word "goyim," usually understood to be "Non-Israelite nations," to rather mean specifically Israelite nations of the northern Ten Tribes (in other words, "Not Judah").

He also had a somewhat nebulous take on the identity of the "lost" tribes of Israel. He seemed to think that they were hidden in nations all over the world (rather than some sort of British Israel idea). And the implication was that if you are drawn by his teachings, you are likely either a descendant of one of the Lost Tribes ... or, if you were obviously not because you were an Afro-American or some such, that was OK, as Israel had a mixed multitude that came up with them out of Egypt.

 

One of his stranger theories was something he called the "Prophecy of Solomon's Laver." I never was quite sure just what prophetic date he was trying to establish, but he was doing it based on the fact that an ancient mikveh bath (a container for ritual cleansing) contained the amount of water of 5760 chicken eggs. And thus you could use the number of eggs to determine some ending point for a prophecy. Uh, yeah. ;-)

 

He seemed to have adjusted his prophetic scenario slightly so that now there would  be a nuclear war, which he darkly and strongly hinted would be in the current year of 2001, and after that the Ark of the Covenant would be brought out of hiding and used in a restoration of the temple. He showed a picture of the Dome of the Rock, and suggested we "take a good look" because it "may be the last time you get to see it." The obvious implication being that he expected it to be blown up in 2001. [Like every other prediction he has made since 1998, by a whole decade later none of this has ever panned out. But that hasn’t slowed down folks buying his recordings.]

 

Although he didn't give specific details about what his prophetic scenarios meant for people who went along with them, I was left with the distinct impression that he urged his serious followers to be ready to leave the United States, for the ultimate destination of the land of Israel. The implication was that physical Israel would all be restored to the Middle East as a homeland, and that thus True Believers would be ending up there.

How this fits with the idea of the Return of Christ, the resurrection or "change in the twinkling of an eye" of the Saved, and a "spiritual" reward for believers in Jesus wasn't clear to me. His closing remark was "I'll see you 'over there' when the smoke settles." That surely sounded like he believed that he and his followers would be in Palestine after his predicted nuclear holocaust. But since he doesn't believe that the nuclear war is the End, but rather only the beginning of the end, it sounded as if he was expecting to be there as a physical being, not a resurrected saint.

 

We ran into one couple at the mid-meeting break who had been in the same Worldwide Church of God congregation as we were back in the 1970s. We hadn't seen them in over 20 years. We chatted with them for an extended time after the lecture concluded, and it was obvious that they had substituted Rood for Herbert Armstrong as their personal guru.

Even though they were in their 70s and the wife was barely able to walk with two canes, they indicated they were seriously considering leaving the country based on Rood's warnings. They didn't seem to be sure just where they would go, but mentioned Belize (a small Central American country which seems to appeal to American tax resistors and so on.)

I have no idea if Rood was actually recommending detailed evacuation plans that included such places or not. But it surely sounded to me uncomfortably like a variation on the old "Fleeing to Petra" theme of the Worldwide Church of God. (For details on the theory of Petra and the Tribulation in the WCG, see the section of this Field Guide regarding the WCG.)

Add to this the fact that he was encouraging his followers across the nation to leave their past church affiliations and form small fellowship groups ... which, of course, were to be fed by listening to tapes by M J Rood. From my own experiences and from reading the history of many such movements that form around the teachings of one influential teacher, I believe this to be a recipe for much heartache.

 

At one point in the evening, after making some particularly outlandish claims, Rood made a comment that I noted down in my notebook word for word.

"Some of you are feeling really creepy."

Yes, indeed, I was. Although looking around, I don't think he was referring to too many others. This was not a crowd of dabblers who had only recently heard of him and his ideas and might think they were creepy--or goofy. They appeared to be mostly committed supporters.

Perhaps they will someday have their own real "Very Rood Awakening."

 

I hope their faith in God and Jesus Christ survives through the disillusionment, and that they hang on to any useful Biblical truth they learn as a result of Rood's teachings. For, as with most modern false prophets, he does indeed teach some Biblical truth.

 

 

Unless otherwise noted, all original material on this Field Guide website
is © 2001-2011 by Pam Dewey.

Careful effort has been made to give credit as clearly as possible to any specific material quoted or ideas extensively adapted from any one resource. Corrections and clarifications regarding citations for any source material are welcome, and will be promptly added to any sections which are found to be inadequately documented as to source.

 

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A Very Rood Awakening:

Listening to the teachings of Michael John Rood