Faith

We believe YHWH is a singular and indivisible Uncreated Being called YHWH ("Yahweh") who brought the entire actual and potential universes into being by the force of His Miltha (Manifestation/Word) emanating from His Mind and into spoken force and power. (Psalm 33:6). YHWH reveals Himself in Exodus 3:14-16 as "Ehyeh Asher Ehyeh", which affirms His exclusive status as Self Existing and Eternal One without End, existing simultaneously in all realities that are, ever have been, ever will exist or ever could be.

We believe Mashiyach is given power and validity as a human office with divine aspects and ramifications attached. Mashiyach is greater than his ancestor Dawid because, unlike Dawid, Mashiyach is an eternal and global ruler given authority directly from YHWH Himself (Daniel 7:1-14).

In talking about the human side of Mashiyach, we affirm that he was literally and completely a human being, not the appearance of flesh only. Mashiyach was fully human in order to suffer, bleed and die for our benefit (Isaiah 53:8-12, Zechariah 12:10), and he did nothing in terms of either miracles or teachings that his Father YHWH had not previously commanded or revealed to the prophets of Israel. (John 6:32, 10:18, 12:49; 14:21, 24, 31; 15:10).

Most assuredly, YHWH Himself did not die on an execution stake, for then all the Universe would have ceased. Instead, it was Y'shua's purely human will and nefesh (soul/life force) that died (Matthew 26:34, Mark 14:34), so that it could be resurrected by his Father YHWH three days later (John 2:19-22, Acts 9:21; Romans 4:24, 7:4, 8:11; 2 Corinthians 5:15; Galatians 1:1; Colossians 2:12; 1 Peter 1:21).

We believe the divine side of Y'shua haMashiyach is a matter of Tanakh prophecy and that his divinity is wholly separate from his human life-force and personality and yet this same divine occurrence is identical as a reflection/image of the exact representation of the one divine nature of YHWH; this image is not a separate nature but a branch/occurrence of the One (Aramaic John 5:26, Colossians 1:16-20, Hebrews 1:1-5).

The Netzari faith rejects the notion of a Trinity or the term of Tri-unity, that proposes three separate divine "persons", for to posit separated divine natures - even while suggesting they agree one hundred percent of the time - is idolatry and a direct violation of the First and Second Commandments given at Sinai (Exodus 20:1-6, Deuteronomy 5:6-10).

We believe the nature of "Godhead" is revealed in Tanakh, specifically Isaiah 53:1 as the "arm of YHWH." Mashiyach as YHWH's saving and forgiving arm comes in YHWH's own Name (Exodus 6:6, 23:20-22; John 17:11) and is directly representative of his relationship to His Father. An arm has no separated will from the body but moves under direct command, as do the rest of the limbs, of the mind. In the same way, it is an error to posit that the divine side of Y'shua is a separate entity from the Divine Mind of His Father YHWH, although Y'shua clearly also had his own human will, as well (Matthew 26:39).

We believe that the Hebrew Tanakh, commonly and erroneously referred to as the "Old Testament" is current, binding, authoritative, and infallible. There is no conflict whatsoever between Tanakh and the Renewed Covenant, and we believe further that the Renewed Covenant also sheds much light on how Tanakh is best understood (called "fulfilled" in many areas). The Torah therefore has not passed away one yodh, as Y'shua himself said (Matthew 5:17-19, Luke 16:16-17) since the heavens and earth are still here. Details on how to observe Torah in light of Y'shua's teachings. We maintain that the essential message in terms of doctrine and proper practice has been preserved and can be ascertained to a high degree of certainty.

Netzarim believers are advocates for proving all Renewed Covenant teachings through the prism of Hebrew Tanakh and applying timeworn Hebraic understandings to all the source texts mentioned.

We believe that the promises YHWH made to the Twelve Tribes of Israel include Judah, and furthermore, that Judah is blessed of YHWH (Genesis 49:11, Zechariah 8:23, Luke 15:11-32, John 4:22, Romans 11:1-29). Conversely, while we can neither confirm nor deny any individual's belief that they are blood descendants from one of the Ten Northern Tribes taken into Assyrian captivity in 722 BCE, we can and do most certainly affirm that it is incumbent upon every human being, regardless of lineage, to embrace both Torah observance and the identity of Y'shua as YHWH's Mashiyach.

We further believe that the Renewed Covenant was first directed to Judah and Israel, and then to anyone else who joins with them (Jeremiah 31:31-34, Ephesians 2:11-13, Hebrews 8:8). The tribe of Judah is the root that supports the nations as well as the other Tribes of Israel (Genesis 49:11), not the other way around. If individual members, Jewish or Gentile, natural or wild branches are broken off, it is for violating Set Apart standards with no ethnic considerations given, since YHWH is no respecter of persons for those who violate His covenant (Leviticus 18:28; 20:22-27, Romans 1:16; 2:9-10, 10:12; 1 Corinthians 12:13, Ephesians 6:8, Colossians 3:11).

We believe that the tribe of Ephraim (literally and spiritually speaking), though nearly defunct at one time (Isaiah 7:8, Hosea 5:3-14, 9:16), will join with the rest of the nations (Jeremiah 31:9, 18-20; Ezekiel 48:5-6, Hosea 11:8-12) to become part of the One House of Israel according to One Kingdom of Elohim. This process necessarily includes both Gentiles coming into the Judah Gate (Zechariah 8:23) and former Israelites who have lived among the nations and are returning to their tribal inheritance, both physically and spiritually (Ezekiel 36:24-27). Finally, righteous Gentiles who have no Israelite blood whatsoever, will also be counted as priests and Levites (Isaiah 66).

We believe in the literal existence of both heavenly and demonic spiritual forces, and that these same forces greatly influence good and evil effects in the physical world. Such an admission does not deny physical realities, but considers possible causes of aforesaid effects beyond bodily processes alone, for man does not live by the body and its physical needs alone (Deuteronomy 8:3), Y'shua exorcising demons from people, attempts to suggest that a metaphoric exclusivity applies to Aramaic terms such as shaida and dewa to the insane, and divorced from negative spiritual forces completely, are erroneous and fully renounced.

We further believe that the first command from YHWH to humanity includes the disciplined observation of the Earth, which is necessary to righteously "subdue" (steward) it (Genesis 1:28). Rav Shaul's command in 1 Thessalonians 5:21-22 to "explore everything... hold fast to the good and fly from everything evil" reflects this same method, even as we are taught in Psalm 19:1 that "the heavens declare the glory of Elohim; the skies proclaim the work of His hands." Therefore as the modern sciences explore YHWH's handiwork, evidence of YHWH as the Great Designer is being progressively revealed.

The first mention in any ancient literature of a round Earth - a sphere or khoog in the original Hebrew - is contained in Isaiah 40:22. The heavens themselves, or the face of the deep, is also described in Proverbs 8:27 as having a circular character most like an orbit. It is notable that the order of Genesis of simpler life in the seas coming before land animals and culminating with man's creation is mirrored in what modern day biologists have pieced together from the fossil record. Further, in order for life to be tov meod (very good) it must also have within itself the ability to adapt to its environment that was also created by YHWH; or, if YHWH permits, to go extinct from the planet.

We of the Netzari faith observe the Seventh Day weekly Shabbat and YHWH's annual feast celebrations. Some Netzari communities hold that "the morrow after the Sabbath" (Leviticus 23:11) for putting the sickle to the grain is 16 Nisan - a premise that is also held by the Pharisees. Other Netzari hold that this Shabbat refers to the weekly Shabbat during Chag haMatzah (Feast of Unleavened Bread); therefore, First Fruits always falls on the first day of the week (Sunday). We follow the latter reckoning.

We believe the Great Feasts of YHWH contain extensive spiritual and prophetic elements that can and will be accessed only by observance of these Kadosh Moedim (Set Apart Appointments).

Isaiah 29:9-16 and Daniel 12:1-4 demonstrate that there is a new hidden knowledge that is coming to humanity towards the End of Days. This is not, though, so much an addition to canonical texts as it is a better understanding of what has been revealed before (Luke 24:44, 1 Corinthians 13:12).

Certainly, to a large degree, the "sealed book" mentioned by Isaiah can well be said to be that of the Aramaic Peshitta, which was in a dialect that the prophet could not read. On the other hand, the "sealed book" is also a teaching referenced partially, but not necessarily fully expounded in Set Apart Writ (Matthew 13:11, Luke 8:10, Colossians 2:1-3).

We of the Netzari faith are of one mind that the way to access the hidden knowledge is through living a moral faith-based existence coupled with serious study and reverence for the sacred texts. It is from this solid foundation that deeper insights and clarifications of the plain Word emerge, but these always enrich and never contradict that same Word.

We of the Netzari faith remain steadfast to the decree that we are not to add or take away from the Set Apart Text, as YHWH has clearly warned us (Revelation 22:18-19).

Daniel 12:1-4 along with a key statement by Y'shua in Luke 14:14, makes it clear that there is a separate resurrection of first the righteous and then the wicked. The plain meaning of these passages then tells us with great force that the judgment of the human nefesh, or soul, is not something that happens immediately after a person's death, but is deferred until the Last Day.

Obviously if even an extremely righteous man like Samuel was not taken up to his eternal reward immediately upon his death but "slumbered" in the earth, the same must be said of the rest of us. See 1 Samuel 28:7-15. More details of this principle are also provided in Isaiah 26:12-19.

Finally, as the Living Miltha/Word himself, Y'shua haMashiyach maintains this teaching with full force into our own day. See John 6:39-54; 11:23-27; 12:46-50.