Keren Ohr Messianic Synagogue, Inc.

Statement of Faith

GOD

We believe that the Shema, “Hear O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one” (Deut. 6:4), teaches that God is echad (a united one, a composite unity, eternally existent in plural oneness). We believe that He is a personal God who created us and that He exists forever in triunity: Father, Son, and the Ruach HaKodesh (Holy Spirit).

THE MESSIAH

We believe in the Son of God, called Yeshua (Jesus). His name literally means salvation! He is God and is worshiped as God, having existed eternally. He is the promised Messiah of Israel, as foretold by the prophets, the root and offspring of David.

The Scriptures promised two “comings” of the Messiah. His first coming (born of a virgin) was to make an atonement for sin (the Passover Lamb of God). His second coming will be to receive the believers to Himself. This second coming will coincide with Israel’s spiritual redemption and national restoration. The Messiah will take his place in Jerusalem and restore the Davidic Kingdom which will last forever.

MAN

We believe man was created in the image of God, but through disobedience fell from his first state and became separated from God. Therefore, according to the Scriptures, all men are born with a sinful nature. Man’s only hope for redemption (salvation) is through the atonement made by the Messiah Yeshua.

SCRIPTURE

We believe that the scriptures, consisting of the Tanakh (Holy Scriptures) and the later writings commonly known as the B’rit Chadashah (New Covenant), are the only infallible 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.

ATONEMENT

We believe that through the blood of Yeshua, we are granted atonement for our transgressions (Leviticus 17:11). We are all sinners (have all transgressed) and are set right by faith as a gift of his grace through the redemption that is in Messiah Yeshua (Romans 3:23 – 24).

RESURRECTION & JUDGMENT

We believe in the resurrection of both the redeemed and the lost: the former to everlasting life and the latter to eternal separation from God, a state of everlasting punishment.

ISRAEL IN PROPHECY

We believe in God’s end-time plan for the nation of Israel, and for the world. A central part of Messianic Judaism is the belief in the physical and spiritual restoration of Israel.

As taught in the Scriptures, the greatest miracle of our day has been the re-establishment, or rebirth, of the State of Israel according to prophecy.

MESSIANIC JUDAISM

We recognize that Jewish people (physical descendants of Abraham through Isaac and Jacob, whether through the mother’s or the father’s blood-line) who place their faith in Israel’s 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. We believe that a Jewish person does not stop being Jewish at the acceptance of Messiah Yeshua as Messiah, and that a Gentile person does not stop being a gentile when graphed into the Jewish olive tree of faith.

We observe and celebrate the Jewish Holy Days given by God to Israel, with their fulfillment in and through the Messiah Yeshua. We believe that true “Biblical Judaism,” the faith of first century believers, which we seek to practice, acknowledges the continuity of faith in the one true God, revealed throughout the Scriptures, and ultimately manifested in God’s Son, Yeshua the Messiah. We believe that salvation has always been “by faith,” and that works of law, or righteous acts, have never saved anyone.