our statement of faith

Holy to YHWH Movement Statement of Faith

We believe God created us in His image

We believe God created man in His image and likeness, giving them dominion: Genesis 1:26-31 ESV “Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.” So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.”

God’s only commandment: Genesis 2:16-17 ESV “And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, “You may surely eat of every tree of the garden, but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.””

Man disobeys God: Genesis 3:6-7 ESV “So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate, and she also gave some to her husband who was with her, and he ate. Then the eyes of both were opened, and they knew that they were naked. And they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves loincloths.”

 

We believe sin altered God’s plan for us

We believe sin (our disobedience) separates us from God’s presence, favor and leads to death: God created the garden of Eden and fellowshipped with Adam and Eve in the garden. After the fall man hides from the presence of God: Genesis 3:8-10 ESV “And they heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God among the trees of the garden. But the Lord God called to the man and said to him, “Where are you?” And he said, “I heard the sound of you in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked, and I hid myself.” Man’s sin and shame caused him to hide from God’s presence.

The consequences of their disobedience altered God’s plan for man: Genesis 3:16-19 ESV “To the woman he said, “I will surely multiply your pain in childbearing; in pain you shall bring forth children. Your desire shall be contrary to your husband, but he shall rule over you.” And to Adam he said, “Because you have listened to the voice of your wife and have eaten of the tree of which I commanded you, ‘You shall not eat of it,’ cursed is the ground because of you; in pain you shall eat of it all the days of your life; thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you; and you shall eat the plants of the field. By the sweat of your face you shall eat bread, till you return to the ground, for out of it you were taken; for you are dust, and to dust you shall return.””

Adam and Eve were removed from the garden: Genesis 3:23-24 ESV says, “therefore the Lord God sent him out from the garden of Eden to work the ground from which he was taken. He drove out the man, and at the east of the garden of Eden he placed the cherubim and a flaming sword that turned every way to guard the way to the tree of life.”

Cain, Adam’s first-born son took the life of his brother, Abel, and after God confronts him and punishes him it says in Genesis 4:14 ESV “Behold, You have driven me today away from the ground, and from Your face I shall be hidden, I shall be a fugitive and a wanderer on the earth, and whoever finds me will kill me.” And in verse 16 it reads “Then Cain went away from the presence of the Lord and settled in the land of Nod, east of Eden” Yet, another example of sin separating man from the presence and favor of God.

Humanity’s wickedness continued to grow, Genesis 6:5-7 ESV “The Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intention of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. And the Lord regretted that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him to his heart. So the Lord said, “I will blot out man whom I have created from the face of the land, man and animals and creeping things and birds of the heavens, for I am sorry that I have made them.”  

 

We believe God’s redemption plan for humanity

Despite how evil God’s creation would become, God made a way to save us. God’s salvation plan for us would be carried out through Abraham, a descendant of Noah. In Genesis 12:3 ESV God says to Abraham (Abram) “I will bless those who bless you, and him who dishonors you I will curse, and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.”

To fulfill His promise to Abraham, God established a covenant with Abraham, then with his son Isaac, and Isaac's son Jacob, who fathered the twelve tribes of Israel. God later extended this covenant to the nation of Israel through Moses, whom He appointed to deliver the Israelites from years of slavery in Egypt and lead them to a land flowing with milk and honey.

From the time they left Egypt until they reached the promised land, God taught the Israelites how to maintain a relationship with Him and with others by giving them the Ten Commandments and His laws. By obeying these laws, the Israelites would receive God's blessings and promises, but disobedience would bring evil and trouble upon them. (Deuteronomy 28).

The nation of Israel’s path to redemption was through obeying God’s laws and ritual purification through animal sacrifice (the old covenant).

However, God promised Abraham, that through him we would all be saved, in Galatians 3:8 ESV says, “And the Scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, preached the gospel beforehand to Abraham, saying, “In you shall all the nations be blessed.”

Our path to redemption, including that of the nation of Israel, would be fulfilled by the coming King prophesied by God's prophets in the Old Testament:

• 2 Samuel 7:12-13 ESV God says to David, “When your days are fulfilled and you lie down with your fathers, I will raise up your offspring after you, who shall come from your body, and I will establish his kingdom. He shall build a house for my name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever.”
• Isaiah 7:14 ESV “Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign. Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel.”
• Isaiah 9:6 ESV “For to us a child is born, to us a son is given; and the government shall be upon his shoulder, and his name shall be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.”
• Isaiah 53:5 ESV “But he was pierced for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his wounds we are healed.”
• Zechariah 9:9 ESV “Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion! Shout aloud, O daughter of Jerusalem! Behold, your king is coming to you; righteous and having salvation is he, humble and mounted on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey.”
• Micah 5:2 ESV “But you, O Bethlehem Ephrathah, who are too little to be among the clans of Judah, from you shall come forth for me one who is to be ruler in Israel, whose coming forth is from of old, from ancient days.”

These are just a few of the many scriptures that prophesy about the coming King, through whom both Jews and Gentiles can receive redemption. He became our sacrificial lamb and established a new covenant, rendering the old one obsolete: Hebrews 8:13 ESV “In speaking of a new covenant, he makes the first one obsolete. And what is becoming obsolete and growing old is ready to vanish away.”

So, who is our redeemer?

 

We believe Jesus is our redeemer

We believe Jesus is the Word John 1:1-5 ESV “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made. In him was life, and the life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.”

We believe the Word became flesh John 1:9-14 ESV “The true light, which gives light to everyone, was coming into the world. He was in the world, and the world was made through him, yet the world did not know him. He came to his own, and his own people did not receive him. But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God, who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God. And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.”

We believe Jesus is the Son of God sent by God to save us. John 3:16-17 ESV says, “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.”

We believe Jesus is the only way to God John 14: 6 ESV “Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.”

In Acts 4:10-12 ESV reads “let it be known to all of you and to all the people of Israel that by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom you crucified, whom God raised from the dead—by him this man is standing before you well. This Jesus is the stone that was rejected by you, the builders, which has become the cornerstone. And there is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.”

We believe Jesus died and was resurrected as written in Matthew 27-28, Mark 15-16, Luke 23-24, and John 19-20. After His resurrection, Jesus was witnessed by many, in addition to the aforementioned verses, Jesus appeared to His disciples in John 21, Acts 1:1-2, and Paul shares his and the disciples’ testimony of seeing Jesus in 1 Corinthians 15:1-8.

We believe Jesus was crucified for our sins 1 Peter 3:18 ESV “For Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh but made alive in the spirit,”

We believe all have sinned Romans 3:9-10 New Living Translation (NLT), “Well then, should we conclude that we Jews are better than others? No, not at all, for we have already shown that all people, whether Jews or Gentiles, are under the power of sin. As the Scriptures say, “No one is righteous— not even one” and in verse 23 “For everyone has sinned; we all fall short of God’s glorious standard.”

We believe our sin leads to death Romans 6:23 ESV “For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life through Christ Jesus our Lord.”

We believe Jesus saves us from the wrath of God John 3:35-36 reads “The Father loves the Son and has given all things into his hand. Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life; whoever does not obey the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God remains on him.”

We believe Romans 10:9-10 ESV “because, if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved.” And 1 John 1:9 ESV “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness”

 

We believe God loves us

We believe God is Love 1 John 4:8 ESV “Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love” And in verse 16 it reads, “So we have come to know and to believe the love that God has for us. God is love, and whoever abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him”

We believe God first loved us 1 John 4:19 ESV “We love because he first loved us”

We believe God proved His love for us by redeeming us 1 John 4:9-10 ESV “In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him. In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins.” And in Romans 5:8 it reads, “but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us”

We believe He has chosen us Ephesians 1:3-5 ESV “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him. In love he predestined us for adoption to himself as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will,”

We believe we are God’s children 1 John 3:1 ESV “See what kind of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God; and so we are. The reason why the world does not know us is that it did not know him.”

God’s redemption plan showcases His unwavering love and commitment to restoring us, and He made it all possible through Jesus Christ our Lord and Savior! To God be the glory, the honor and the praise, forever and ever. In Jesus’ name. Amen

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