Doctrinal Statement -
Congregation of SHEMA YISRAEL
WE BELIEVE:
1. THE HOLY SCRIPTURES
That the Bible consists of the Tenach (the Torah, the Prophets, and the Writings) and the writings commonly known as the Brit Chadasha, the New Covenant. It is the only infallible, inerrant, and authoritative word of God. We recognize its divine inspiration and accept its teachings as our final authority in all matters of faith and practice.
2. GOD
That the unity of God is taught in the Shema. God is one – echad: a united one, a composite unity, eternally existent in plural oneness. He is a personal God who created us; and He exists forever in three Persons: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
A. God the Father is the King of the Universe, immortal, invisible, the only wise God, without beginning and without end. He is Spirit. He sent His Son, Yeshua the Messiah, and draws people to Him.
B. God the Son is Yeshua – Jesus, the Messiah. He possesses both Divine and human natures. He was born of a virgin. The Son is God and is worshiped as God. He has always existed. He is the Passover Lamb who takes away the sin of the world. We believe in His sinless life and His perfect obedience to the Torah; His atoning death, burial, and bodily resurrection; His ascension into heaven; and His personal return in power and glory to this earth in order to consummate the prophesied purposes concerning His kingdom.
C. God the Holy Spirit is a person, possessing all the attributes of Deity. He was active in the creation of the universe and continues to be active through His providence. He convicts the world of sin, righteousness, and judgment; He regenerates, sanctifies, immerses, indwells, seals, empowers, illumines, guides, teaches, and gives gifts to all believers.
3. MAN
That man was created in the image of God but through disobedience fell and became separated from God. All men are born with a sinful nature. Man’s only hope for redemption is by having faith in Messiah Yeshua. This results in salvation and regeneration by the Ruach HaKodesh, which is the new birth. We believe that Yeshua died for our sins; that all who believe in Him are made right with God, not by any of their own works of righteousness, but by Messiah’s perfect righteousness and atoning blood, and that there is no other name under heaven by which we must be saved. Salvation has always been by faith; and that works of law, or righteous acts, have never saved anyone.
4. RESURRECTION AND JUDGMENT
A. In His promised coming in the air to receive Messianic Believers to Himself.
B. In the bodily resurrection of both the just and the unjust: the just to everlasting life, and the unjust to eternal death and separation from God.
5. ISRAEL
That the election of Israel is irrevocable. We believe in the physical and spiritual restoration of Israel. A great miracle in our day has been the re-establishment of the state of Israel according to prophecy.
6. MESSIANIC JUDAISM
That Jewish people (physical descendants of Abraham through Isaac and Jacob, whether through patrilineal or matrilineal descent) who place their faith in Messiah Yeshua, continue to be Jewish according to the Scriptures. Gentiles who place their faith in Yeshua are grafted into the Jewish Olive Tree of faith becoming spiritual sons and daughters of Abraham.
That all of God’s word to Israel is still valid. We believe that “Biblical Judaism” is the faith of first-century believers, which we seek to practice. We believe that the Holy Days given by God to Israel with their fulfillment in the Messiah Yeshua are still valid and are worth observing.
We acknowledge that the New Covenant Messianic Community (the Church) is composed of both Jews and Gentiles who have received Yeshua the Messiah as the promised Redeemer. The “middle wall of partition” has been broken down, and now we worship the God of Israel together.
Doctrinal Statement - Congregation Shema Yisrael