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General Information

The Statement of Faith below contains most of the important doctrines. Other doctrines are indexed through one of the following links.

Statement of Faith

Yeshua (Jesus) is both the son of God and is God, yet is also a man. He was born of a virgin, lived a sinless life, yet died a sinner's death to pay the penalty for sin, and was raised from the dead after being in the grave for three days and three nights, as prophesied in [Matthew 20:40]. He then became the first and only person to ascend into Heaven.

Anyone who denies that Yeshua is the son of God [1 John 4:15], or denies that he came in the flesh [1 John 4:2-3], or denies that he is the Messiah [1 John 2:22] is not part of the Body of the Messiah and is a false teacher. Those who deny that Jesus is God are in error, but are still apart of the Body. The doctrine that a person must accept the doctrine of the Trinity in order to be considered part of the Body of the Messiah is false doctrine.

Salvation, and forgiveness of sins, comes only through Faith in Yeshua the Messiah. It cannot come from prayer, repentance, baptism, or obedience to God's Law. However, nobody who rebels against God's commandments has any salvation until they stop their rebellion. Obedience to God's commandments proves that your faith is genuine [James 2:14-26]. Also, trinitarian baptism was added to Scripture and is rejected as a false practice. Baptism is to be done only in the name of Yeshua (Jesus).

The Law of God and the Law of Moses are the same thing. It is called the "Law of Moses" because God gave his Law through Moses, not because it came from Moses. The Law of God is also known as "God's Law" or "the Law" (Paul uses this phrase to refer to other laws as well) or "Torah". The doctrine that the Law of Moses and the Law of God are separate is heresy, and has the sole purpose of justifying rebellion against God's Law.

Any interpretation of the teachings of the Apostles or of Jesus that involves them nullifying any or all of the commandments in Torah is rejected as false teaching. Likewise, any teaching that makes obedience to God's Law to be in opposition to the doctrine salvation by grace through faith in Yeshua (Jesus) is heresy and rejected as a justification for idolatry/willful sin. Jesus and the Apostles taught obedience to God's Law. And on numerous occasions, Paul specifically warned against using faith and grace as an excuse to refuse to keep God's Law.

The whole Bible, starting in Genesis, is the final authority in all matters. The Bible contains the written record of the Word of God, but is not itself the Word of God, since the Bible is material and the Word of God is immaterial. The doctrine of Biblical Inerrancy is unbiblical and incorrect, and the Bible is not an "all or nothing book". Inerrancy is only required where a book within the Bible claims to be quoting God directly or giving a historical account of something that God did.

Genesis is the foundation of Torah and the rest of the Bible, and is the foundation of the Gospel Message of Yeshua the Messiah. Only if Genesis is a truthful account of creation does the rest of the Bible stand. And only if Genesis is a truthful account of creation is the Gospel of any use. The rest of Torah is also foundational because sin only exists if God's Law is still in full force. For sin is the transgression of God's commandments. And where there are no commands to transgress, there is no sin. Where there is no sin, there is no penalty for sin. And where there is no penalty, there is no need for salvation. Torah and the writings of the Prophets point towards Yeshua and the Gospels prove that God's promises of salvation have been fulfilled. But the Gospel writings, like Genesis, must be truthful eyewitness accounts in order to be of any value.

The Deuteronomy 13 Test and the Deuteronomy 18 Test are the first tests for distinguishing between true and false teachers. Deuteronomy 18 warns against those who speak in the name of other (false) gods while Deuteronomy 13 warns against those who lead people to serve other gods either by blatantly advocating for idolatry, or through deceiving people into not obeying God's Law. Deuteronomy 13 also defines loving God as keeping his Law and idolatry as rejecting his Law. If anyone fails any of these two tests, then what they believe concerning the deity of Jesus is irrelevant, for such people, by definition, are leading people to serve false gods.

Yeshua did not come to do away with the Law of God or in any way make it so that God's Law is not in full force. On the contrary, he warned many times against setting aside the commandments of God, such as in Matthew 5:17-20 and Mark 7:6-13. And commanded us to live on every word that comes from the mouth of God [Matthew 4:4]. Those who claim that Christians don't need to keep the Law fail the Deuteronomy 13 Test and lead people into idolatry, which is serving/worshiping other (false) gods. Furthermore, the division of the Law into "moral", "civil", and "ceremonial" laws is heresy and exists solely to justify rebellion against God. The only correct way to divide God's Law is into commands for how to love God, and commands for how to love others [Matthew 22:36-40]. The commands concerning how to love God are falsely labeled as the "ceremonial law" in order to justify rebellion.

God's name is not "Yehovah" or "Jahovah". That name originated by putting the vowel points of the Hebrew word "adonai" (literally means "lord") onto the tetragramaton. The scribes deliberately put the wrong vowel points on the name of God to remind the reader to never say God's name, lest they "accidentally mispronounce" it, thereby "profaning the name of God". Of course, this means if the reader does pronounce the name according to the vowel points, then he/she is doing exactly that. The correct name of God is probably Yahweh. The name "Yahovah"/"Jahovah" is rejected as a profaning of God's holy name. Furthermore, any name for God that cannot be spelled with "YHWH" in that order with exactly two or three vowels between those letters is rejected as the name of another (false) god. Using "adonai" (a title) as a substitute for God's real name is unacceptable. Nevertheless, Yahweh is correctly referred to as "the Lord".

The name of Jesus in Hebrew is "Yeshua", which is a contracted form of the word "Yehoshua". "Yehoshua" is Hebrew for "God saves" or "God is salvation". Therefore, using "Yehoshua" to refer to the Messiah is acceptable, but "Yeshua" is preferable when using his Hebrew name. All other "Hebrew names" used to refer to our Lord are rejected as the name of another (false) god. It does not matter if you refer to the Lord by his Hebrew name, or by his name in your native language. For example, usage of either "Yeshua" or "Jesus" to refer to the Lord are equally acceptable.

Only the holidays listed in Torah are acceptable to use to honor/worship God, and only in the manner instructed in God's Law. Extrabiblical holidays (and extrabiblical additions to biblical holidays) used to honor/worship God are idolatry by definition and only dishonor God. Extrabiblical holidays for other purposes (eg: birthdays) which do not involve worship of any god are okay. What is not okay, is adapting a pagan holiday for any purpose. Valentine's Day, Good Friday, Easter, Halloween, Christmas, and the Sunday Sabbath are all pagan holidays, along with anything that originates in the Catholic Church.

The Image of God and the Likeness of God are separate concepts and are not to be conflated. The former refers to what the human form looks like (as the word "image" always refers to a visual representation) while the later refers mankind being like God in other ways. The conflation of the Image of God with the Likeness of God, and the nullification of the literal meaning of "the Image of God", is a serious error and is one of the primary reasons why the pornography industry exists. The other primary reason is the satanic lie that the human body is inherently "obscene", "indescent", or "inappropriate" and must therefore be hidden from the view of others, especially from children or members of the opposite gender (save between spouces). Like everything else that God created, the human form is very good and is supposed to be seen by others (for images are made to be seen). The doctrine that the Image of God was in any way lost or marred by The Fall is heresy. Furthermore, there is no biblical general mandate for clothing. Making what God did in Genesis 3:21 into a mandate is reading into the text. And the phrases "uncover/see someone's nakedness" is a Hebrew Idiom which always refers to a male-to-female sexual relationship. And it never refers to someone seeing or causing another person to be naked, with the exception of Genesis 9:23, where the literal meaning is used in addition to the idiomatic meaning.

The doctrine of the Afterlife is heresy. From the beginning [Genesis 3:19], God has made it clear that when a person dies, that person returns to dust. The righteous do not go to Heaven when they die, nor do the wicked burn in Hell when they die. Both return to dust until the first or second resurrections. The first resurrection will be at Yeshua's (Jesus) second coming, where the righteous will be raised to eternal life. And the second resurrection will come after the Thousand-Year Reign of Yeshua, where the wicked will be raised to give an account of all of their sins, then be thrown into the Lake of Fire where they will perish. The doctrine that the wicked burn forever in eternal, conscience torment is a heresy which has tainted the translation of Scripture, particularly the book of Revelations. Yeshua promised a resurrection and eternal life for those who believe in him, not Heaven.