- I believe in the One True God – the Creator of the heavens and the earth – the Heavenly Father whose Hebrew title “Elohim” conveys His complex unified plurality. I have learned and come to know Him by His personal name which He preserved through His written Word and the Hebrew language: YHWH (pronounced by many as “Yahweh” or “Yahovah” or “Yahuah”)
- I believe YHWH created man and woman perfectly – in His image – for the purpose of relationship with Him and stewardship over His creation. However, they fell to temptation and disobedience, bringing sin into the physical creation, causing separation between mankind and the Holy Creator, and setting humanity at need for redemption from the consequence of sin which is death.
- I believe YHWH sent His Son, who is fully God and also became fully man, at the fulcrum of all history, born of a virgin, to walk a sinless life, and to ultimately purchase mankind’s redemption by bearing and conquering sin through his own death and resurrection. I have learned and come to know the Son – whom many call Jesus Christ – by the Hebrew pronunciation of his name – Yahushua the Messiah – which is rich in meaning and intertwined with His Father’s name Yahuah.
- I believe Yahushua ascended, days after his resurrection, sat down at the right hand of His Father in the Heavens and sent the Holy Spirit of YHWH – who has been active throughout all human history as recorded by the Scriptures – to guide, direct, empower, and teach his followers all truth.
- I believe we are redeemed – delivered – “saved” – restored to relationship with YHWH the Father – by grace through faith, evidenced by our confession that Messiah died for our sins, that He was raised from the dead, and that He is King of our life through our repentance of sin. I believe true repentance and forgiveness, with the empowerment of the Holy Spirit result in the good fruit of actively living out YHWH’s loving instructions found in His Word for righteous behavior.
- I believe the entire Scriptures in the original transmitted languages – from Genesis to Revelation – is the inspired Word of God and that the “whole counsel of Scripture” is applicable to our lives. I believe the guidance of YHWH’s Holy Spirit is critical to the process of learning and understanding His Word and how to apply it. I also believe we are far removed from the original cultures and mindsets through which it was expressed, and that it is important to explore those for a deeper understanding. I believe our Heavenly Father, like any good dad, expects us to obey His “house rules” as an expression of our respect, honor, and love for Him who gave us the free gift of adoption through his Son’s atoning ransom.
- I believe YHWH’s “house rules” apply to all His people and are designed to protect and bring life and blessings to His children. I believe that these “house rules” – called “torah” in Hebrew which simply, literally means “instruction” or “teacher” are found throughout His whole Word, and have been maligned by Satan through the same tactic of deception he used against the first woman: “did God really say…? does God really mean…?” Our ancient enemy’s strategy is the same now as it was then: to kill, steal, and destroy by tricking mankind to abandon the instructions – the “torah” – of their Creator who loves us and knows how He designed us and the universe in which He placed us.
- I believe that there is one “people of God” – YHWH’s children – and that He invites all men and women to enter into His Family through Yahushua His Son who is the only Way, Truth, and Life. I believe that receiving adoption into YHWH’s family through the shed blood of Messiah results in a complete spiritual identity transformation: from death to life, from the “old man” to the “new man.” Eph 2:19 describes this “new man” as being: “no longer strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens with the saints, and members of the household of God” who were previously “…without Messiah, excluded from the citizenship of Israel, and strangers from the covenants of promise.”
- I believe that YHWH’s Covenants of Promise are eternal and that they operate on a physical and spiritual level. However, I believe this does not mean that the spiritual replaces the physical. I believe that the “church” has not replaced “Israel,” but as Romans 9 and 11 describe – believers in Messiah are grafted into the “seed of Abraham.” I believe it is a Biblical position to love and respect the Jewish people and to recognize the prophetic significance of what YHWH is doing in our generations in the physical land of Israel today. I believe the provision of adoption into God’s Family through Messiah is the same for all people: Jew or Greek, American or Canadian ☺ and all true believers are part of the Body of Messiah, brothers and sisters, co-heirs of the promise.
- I believe there is a constant battle around us in heavenly places, which manifests in physical realities. I believe this will only continue to intensify in the coming years, and one of the primary battlegrounds is our culture, which is being driven headlong towards abandoning all standards of righteousness. Good is already being called evil, and evil is already being called good. I believe in the sacred nature of marriage as established by YHWH in Genesis to be between one man and one woman. I believe that we should love the things that God loves and hate the things that God hates. Homosexual acts, crossdressing and gender manipulation, idolatry, witchcraft, abortion: these are some of the things which YHWH directly calls abominations in His own words, and yet they are being aggressively normalized by our culture. I believe we should hold abominable that which is abominable to our King, while at the same time loving people who are slaves to sin with the hope they will choose deliverance through Messiah; even as He loves us first while we are yet sinners. I believe we cannot truly have fellowship with any who claim the same faith yet deliberately choose to walk in unrepentant sin rather than striving against it, as Scripture teaches.
- I believe Yahushua will physically return to the earth, at that time the dead in Messiah will be raised to life in heavenly bodies, those who remain at his return will also be changed, and He will establish his physical Kingdom on earth and will reign forever and ever. In His Kingdom, the torah will go forth from Jerusalem as the prophets of YHWH foretell, and all His children will reign with Messiah in perfect unity, understanding with singular clarity all the things through which we wrestle today, striving against deception and our own limited view as “in a mirror dimly.” I believe we must share this Good News – the hope of salvation and the ultimate victory of our King – with all who will listen.
- I believe that Scripture is the ultimate Authority upon which I should base my life behaviors and perspectives, and I desire to always remain teachable and willing to make adjustments in every case where I learn that my position does not square with the Word of YHWH. All of these statements of faith are based upon my years of knowing and walking with my Redeemer, experiencing His miraculous hand in my life, and studying his loving Word. I believe I can faithfully give a response for the hope that is in me through the sound Biblical support for my positions and faith. That said, I am also completely confident that I have an eternity of learning yet ahead of me!
– Andrew (2017)