What We Believe.
From the time of the Apostles until our present day, Christians have laid out doctrine (beliefs) in brief, definitive statements. As those who know God, we believe it is necessary to set forth in a concise fashion the cornerstone truths of our faith as guided by Scripture. Our Statement of Faith summarizes essential Christian beliefs, shows unity in Messiah, and guards us from error.
Statement of Faith
The Scriptures
We believe that the Scriptures, the entire 66 book canon of the Old and New Testament, are inspired by God through His Holy Spirit and are therefore without error in their original giving. They are God’s final and complete revelation to mankind in which His plan of salvation is unfolded, and they are the only absolute and final authority for all matters of belief and practice.
God
We believe there is only One true God, Who created all things. He is infinite in all of His attributes. He had no beginning and He is without end. We believe He has revealed Himself in a plurality which is a mystery, but is nonetheless to be received as a matter of faith. Yet though He has revealed Himself in plurality, He is infinitely One. We believe that in the Scriptures God reveals Himself as Father, as Messiah, and as the eternal Spirit of God, and in the mystery of the Godhead, these three are distinct yet equal in eternal, divine attributes and are one God. We believe God is sovereign in all of His works, and that there is no other sovereign equal to Him. In His sovereignty, He is bringing all things to their proper end according to His omniscient plan.
Jesus (Yeshua)
We believe that Jesus is the Messiah promised to us by the prophets of Israel, and that He is eternal, without beginning and without end, and that He is YHVH in the flesh. We believe that through the mysterious work of the Holy Spirit, Jesus was conceived and born of the virgin Miriam. We believe that He came at the appointed time in history, that He died on the cross as the perfect sacrifice for sins, and that He rose on the third day in fulfillment of the Scriptures. We believe He arose bodily from the dead, and later ascended triumphantly into the heavens where He intercedes for His people as their High Priest at the right hand of the Almighty. We believe that according to His own word and the words of Scripture, He will return again at the appointed time and will gather together all who are truly His. He will reign upon the earth in Jerusalem from where He will teach the Torah and all who are His will walk in His ways.
The Holy Spirit
We believe that the primary work of the Holy Spirit is to glorify our Lord, Jesus the Messiah. He does this by convicting men, regenerating those who are chosen, gives them faith to believe, indwells them, guides them, instructs them, and empowers them to live holy and righteous lives in accordance with God’s holy Torah (God’s revealed teaching in righteousness). We believe the Holy Spirit empowers those He makes alive to serve others in ways they could not do in their own strength, and enables them to carry out the evangelism of the nations in fulfillment of the Abrahamic promise that all the families of the earth would be blessed.
Mankind
We believe that God created mankind in His own image, and that He created them without sin. Adam and Eve rebelled against God, sinning against Him, and as a consequence, all who come from them are born sinners and are therefore under God’s wrath and subject both to sin and death if left to their own dispositions and designs. We believe that God created Adam as a biological male, and Eve as a biological female, and that both have equal dignity which is granted to them immediately from God their Creator Who created them in His image. Furthermore, that the human race, made up of male and female, are all descendants from Adam and Eve, and bear the same image of God in their respective biological gender in which each person is born. Therefore, to reject one’s biological gender is to reject the work of the Creator and even more, implies that God has erred in His creative work. Such an assertion is blasphemy, for God is good and all that He does is good, and He makes no mistakes.
Salvation
We believe that the death of the Messiah Jesus was a substitutionary death, meaning that He paid the penalty of sin for all whom God has chosen unto salvation. Faith in Jesus and His work of salvation (His death, His resurrection, ascension, and intercession) are the only basis for sinners to gain a righteous standing before God. This right standing before God is granted to the elect through God’s sovereign grace, applied by the work of the Holy Spirit through the application of the Gospel contained in the Scriptures. We believe that the means and method of salvation have been the same in all eras, that is, by faith in God’s Messiah. All, regardless of their nationality, gender, or station in life, who are called by God’s sovereign grace, and who are therefore granted faith to believe, become members of God’s covenant family forever. All who are the children of God share equally in all the privileges and responsibilities of the covenant into which He has brought them.
Israel
We believe that the physical descendants of Jacob, the nation of Israel, are forever the chosen people of God, and that they therefore enjoy the temporal benefits of the covenant made with the fathers, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and may enjoy the eternal benefits of the covenant if they turn to God in faith, accepting His Messiah as the means of their eternal salvation. We believe that within the nation of Israel, there has been, in every generation, a faithful remnant, comprised of the physical descendants of Jacob and those chosen from the nations, who demonstrate genuine faith in the Messiah, and live righteous lives as a result of the Spirits work in writing the Torah upon their hearts. Though the nation of Israel as a whole has rejected Jesus as the Messiah, God has not rejected them, and will, in the last days, bring about their revival in faith, so that all Israel will be saved. We believe that Israel has always been the focus of God’s redemptive work, and that those chosen from the nations who come to faith in the Messiah join Israel as God’s covenant people, sharing in the same covenant privileges and responsibilities.
God’s Teaching (Torah)
We believe that the Torah (the first five books of the Bible, often referred to as ‘the Law’ in our times) is the foundation of all subsequent revelation, and is the touchstone of all proper faith and practice. We believe Jesus came to establish the Torah in the hearts of all His people, and that when properly understood, the Torah consistently points to the Messiah, and teaches us of Him. We believe the Torah reveals God’s pattern of righteous living for all of His people in all times and in all circumstances. Since the word “Torah” has a basic meaning of “teaching,” all of the inspired Scriptures (66 books) comprise the complete Torah revealed to mankind through God’s prophets and apostles.
End Times
We believe that Jesus physically resides in the presence of the Almighty where He intercedes for His people, and that He will return again with power and glory to bring history to its close according to His wise plan. When He returns, the nation of Israel will see Him for who He is, and will receive Him as the true Messiah, mourning their sins, and turning to God in repentance. We believe that those who have died will be resurrected at the coming of the Messiah, those of genuine faith to a life of blessedness in the very presence of God, but those who did not believe to judgment and everlasting torment, along with Satan and his workers. We believe that when Jesus returns, He will reign upon the earth for a millennium, and that He will rule from Jerusalem where the Temple will once again be the central location of worship. It is then that the Torah will go forth from Zion and the word of the Almighty from Jerusalem.