Affirmations, Beliefs, and Concerns

Biblical Life Assembly is convinced that God is presently restoring the Hebraic foundations of Christian faith to believers and faith communities internationally. We desire the BLA to be a resource for nurturing the work that the Holy Spirit is facilitating by bringing to this emerging renewal community the scholarship of a wide range of counselors who offer historically accurate, biblically sound positions. We offer for your consideration the following affirmations, beliefs, and concerns.

Please note, these Affirmations, Beliefs, and Concerns represent an ongoing effort on the part of an international team of Christian scholars and spiritual leaders to provide theologically sound and historically accurate understanding for the emerging international, transdenominational community that is restoring the Hebraic foundations of faith on which Jesus and the apostles established the church. This document has been adopted by Biblical Life Assembly as a solid foundation for ongoing research and development and should not, therefore, be viewed as a creedal statement.

Affirmations

1. We affirm that ethical monotheism is the cornerstone of all biblical faith: that the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, the God of the prophets, and the God of the apostles is the one true God.
2. We affirm that fully within the context of biblical monotheism, the fullness of God was made flesh in the person of Jesus (Yeshua) who was and is both the divine Messiah and the risen Lord for all humanity.
3. We affirm that God manifest as the Holy Spirit is entirely in the context of biblical monotheism.
4. We affirm the divine inspiration, full authority, and trustworthiness of the Holy Bible as the Word of God. These inspired writings are the Hebrew Scriptures (commonly called the Tanakh or the Old Testament) and the Apostolic Scriptures (commonly called the New Testament).
5. We affirm that, in order to interpret the Holy Scriptures rightly, we must do so with the utmost care, respect, and scholarly integrity, considering the linguistic and grammatical context of the text itself and the history and cultures of the biblical peoples.
6. We affirm that all have sinned and fallen short of God’s glory and that salvation and inclusion among God’s people has always been and will always be solely by God’s redemptive initiative through believers’ trusting acceptance of his mercy and loving kindness.
7. We affirm that New Covenant faith is inherently and essentially centered in Jesus the Messiah and that believers are justified before God solely by grace through their faith in Jesus as Lord and Messiah, through his death and resurrection.
8. We affirm that justification by faith is confirmed by and is demonstrated through a living faithfulness expressed in deeds of love, justice, and mercy by which believers manifest their love for God and for their fellow man.
9. We affirm the absolute inclusion in one family of all those who believe in the God of the Bible.
10. We affirm the kingdom of God as a present reality advancing toward a future culmination.
11. We affirm that the church is called to be the witnessing body of Jesus and that, in word and in deed, believers are responsible to fulfill the Great Commission that Jesus gave to the church by being witnesses to all nations, sharing both faith and truth with everyone.
12. We affirm that God’s continuing commitment to the Jewish people, the physical descendants of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, who are scripturally called Israel, is a testimony to his divine constancy, covenant faithfulness, and steadfast love.
13. We affirm the expectation of the Messiah’s return and the advent of the Messianic Age in the world to come
14. We affirm the resurrection of the dead and final judgment.

Beliefs

1. We believe that the Holy Spirit is producing among us a work of biblical restoration, returning the church to its Hebraic foundations in order to go forward in understanding of biblical truth, faith, and practice. This restoration is manifest in intimate relationship with God and in loving interpersonal relationships with fellow believers and with society in general.
2. We believe that the goal of the Hebraic roots restoration community should be to educate, edify, and expand Christian life and understanding, helping produce strong, informed, mature, and committed Christians, dedicated to holy living.
3. We believe that this is an outworking of biblical discipleship, the breaking forth of God’s kingdom in the lives of believers who follow the Scriptures.
4. We believe that the most important feature of the Hebraic roots restoration is its effort to help believers become more like Jesus Christ by imparting to them a clearer understanding of their Hebrew Lord.
5. We believe that restoring the Hebraic foundations of the Christian faith is and effort that is in continuity with the historical church, the movement begun by Jesus and the apostles. We, therefore, consider this restoration to be a work of renewing existing faith communities and corporate structures, returning them to original Christianity as modeled by Jesus and his disciples.
6. We recognize Christianity’s historical and theological emergence from the matrix of biblical Judaism as a confirmation of the continuity of biblical faith.
7. We believe that the divine instruction of the Torah (the Pentateuch or Law) is foundational for the faith of Jesus and the apostles; therefore, we recognize its continuing relevance and value for the church’s Christocentric existence, and we encourage Christians to study and celebrate it within the context of the New Covenant.
8. We recognize the value of extra-biblical sources, including early Jewish and rabbinic literature, as tools for clearer understanding of the concepts of the Hebrew Scriptures, of biblical Judaism, and of the teachings of the New Testament by providing the textual, historical, social, and political context in which the Holy Scriptures were written.
9. We recognize the value of the writings of the Greek and Latin fathers of the church which contain information that helps us understand the development of historical Christianity and the efforts that these early Christian leaders made to contextualize it for the Gentile world.
10. We recognize the value of those biblically centered doctrinal and creedal statements that faithful church leaders have devised through church history to advance God’s purposes in the earth through affirmations of faith.
11. We believe that biblical faith prioritizes the family as the primary institution for spiritual nurture and development in holy living.
12. We believe in promoting the unity of the Spirit throughout the Christian community by encouraging pluriformity and cohesion in the midst of diversity.
13. We believe that God permits and even designs diversity in manifestations of biblically rooted practices. This liberty permits full and free expression among believers of all nationalities, cultures, denominational affiliations, and socio-economic environments.
14. We believe that the restoration of our Hebraic heritage offers great flexibility for expressions of faith and worship, including options of Jewish music, liturgy, dance, the arts, and the celebration of biblical festivals.
15. We believe that recovering the Hebraic worldview and mindset helps to enrich the Christian experience by replacing unhealthy tendencies toward dualism with a healthy biblical holism that underscores the spiritual nature of every aspect of life.
16. We believe that restoring Christianity’s Hebraic heritage is a call to study and scholarship, both of which are considered among the highest forms of worship in Jewish tradition.
17. We encourage collaborative religious and historical scholarship with Jewish scholars both in Israel and in the international Jewish community.
18. We believe that ongoing dialogue between spiritual leaders of the Christian and Jewish communities is essential to the health of both.
19. We recognize and affirm Christianity’s debt to the Jewish people for our understanding of God, for our Scriptures, for our Messiah, and for our salvation through the Jewish Jesus.
20. We encourage Christian support and cooperation with the international Jewish community wherever possible.
21. We believe that the Jewish people have a God-given right to complete self-definition and self-determination, free from political, economic, social, or religious coercion, intimidation, or persecution.
22. We recognize the biblical and historical right of the Jewish people to live in their ancient homeland.
23. We value the land of Israel as an important resource for enhancing understanding of the history, culture, and language of the Jewish people from ancient history until the present and for expanding Christian understanding of Jesus and the earliest church within the context of their Jewish ancestors, contemporaries, and descendants.
24. We believe that the church must repent for its historical Judaeophobia, anti-Judaism, and anti-Semitism, which sponsored and encouraged systematic and unrelenting persecution of the Jewish people that culminated in the Holocaust.
25. We believe that in the spirit of truly biblical repentance, the church must continue to take the initiative to rebuild positive relations with the international Jewish community.
26. We believe that the church must renounce, both corporately and individually, both theologically and practically, all forms of racism, ethnic prejudice, class discrimination, and gender bias.

Concerns

1. We are concerned about, and opposed to, any action that would promote separatism, sectarianism, elitism, or exclusivity among the community that is restoring the Hebraic roots of Christian faith.
2. We are concerned about, and are strongly averse to, any effort, conscious or otherwise, that would promote the emergence within the Hebraic roots restoration community of a new hierarchy as the sole authority for teaching and practice.
3. We are opposed to any effort that would encourage the development of a denomination or any other hierarchically structured or administrated organism within the Hebraic roots community.
4. We caution all believers against Christian triumphalism toward the Jewish community in attitudes of arrogance and superiority and in teachings of supersessionism, the theology that asserts that Christianity has replaced Judaism and that Christians have replaced Jews in the economy of salvation.
5. We are opposed to the expression of any arrogance or judgmentalism by those who are restoring the Hebraic roots of their faith against Christians who do not embrace these concepts.
6. We are opposed to all manifestations of legalism, the idea that status before God is either gained or maintained by works of obedience to written or tacit systems, whatever their source may be.
7. We are opposed to all forms of Judaizing, including efforts to encourage Christian acceptance and practice of Torah or Jewish customs as means of either achieving or maintaining salvation or acceptance before God.
8. We caution Christians against any attachment to Jewish customs or cultural practices that would prompt them to think that their faith is made superior to that of other Christians by their adoption of such.
9. We are opposed to efforts designed to transform Christians into Jews through whatever means with the view that becoming Jewish somehow elevates one’s status before God.
10. We caution those who seek to restore the Hebraic roots of the Christian faith to recognize the danger of attempting to establish genetic connections with Israel as a means of asserting their inclusion in the covenants of Israel. With the apostles, we affirm that Christian chosenness as children of Abraham is predicated solely upon faith in Jesus as Messiah.
11. We emphasize the following as some of the warning signals to Christians that they may be departing from the foundations of earliest Christian faith:
    1. Questioning the deity, the sinless humanity, or the resurrection of Jesus.
    2. Questioning the messiahship of Jesus.
    3. Questioning the inspiration and authority of Paul’s writings.
    4. Asserting the primacy of the Torah as being more inspired or authoritative than the Apostolic Scriptures.
    5. Asserting that the study and application of rabbinic writings are as important as or more important than studying and practicing the Holy Scriptures.
    6. Deeming the attempt to become more Jewish by engaging in Jewish practices and using Judaica to be a higher goal of Christian living.
    7. Believing that the seven Noachide laws are a basis of salvation.
    8. Thinking that one’s sins may be atoned by any means other than the death and resurrection of Jesus as set forth by the Apostolic Scriptures.
    9. Assuming combative, arrogant, or polemic attitudes and engaging other believers in controversy over the minutiae or the esoterica of Judaica.
    10. Separating from the mainstream of the Christian community and developing an accompanying “persecuted-for-the-truth” mentality.
    11. Thinking that the Kabbalah (Jewish mysticism) may be a key to greater spirituality for Christians.
    12. Thinking that believers have the power to effect the kingdom of God solely through human betterment.
    13. Believing in a manifestation of divine immanence that minimizes the transcendence of God and is similar to monism’s emphasis on the god within.
12. We recommend that all Christians maintain biblically founded, historically recognized, and morally accountable support of Israel, both the Jewish people and their land, while also maintaining a biblical and just view of other peoples living in the land of Israel.
13. We recommend that Christians be cautious and respectful in their use of symbols and objects that are distinctive to the Jewish people and their faith so that the Jewish community is not exploited or offended.
14. We encourage all those who have gained insight and enrichment through learning about the Hebraic foundations of Christian faith to share their understanding with others with great modesty and humility that demonstrates the loving kindness of God toward others.