Core Beliefs

• At Maranatha Messianic Fellowship, we believe in the gospel that Jesus’ earliest disciples heard, and what the last several decades of historical studies have clarified about this first century Jewish apocalyptic message.

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• The true gospel, as taught by Yeshua (Jesus) and the apostles, is the the good news about the God of Israel's coming reign. This will be literally on earth, literally in Jerusalem, on a literal throne, where His law will go forth with an iron scepter. This gospel is proclaimed in Jesus' life, death, and resurrection; the victorious guarantee of God's fidelity to the work of consummation. It is the fullness of mutual blessing as the outcome of God's economy with Israel, the nations, and all creation.

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• We strive to emulate the faith and practice of the earliest community of Yeshua’s disciples, in which Jews and Gentiles worshiped the God of Israel together in a Jewish context. The basis for our theology is the Bible, as understood from within its historical, cultural, and theological Jewish context.

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• We believe the Bible is the inspired word of God. All Scripture is profitable for doctrine, reproof, correction and instruction in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work. (2 Timothy 3:16-17). As a result, any listing of specific beliefs will fall utterly short in that we accept the teaching of the Bible as our primary source of belief.

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• We believe in God the Father, the maker of heaven and earth, who made all things seen and unseen through His son Jesus Christ, who was with God and was God before He ever came to earth in the flesh and who now sits at the right hand of God in heaven and the Holy Spirit, the promised comforter, guide, spirit of truth and gift of God (Genesis 1:1-2:7; Colossians 1:16-17; John 1:1-3; Philippians 2:5-11; Mark 16:9; John 14:26; John 16:13; Acts 2:38).

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• We believe that mankind was made in God’s image, but all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. Sin is defined as breaking God’s law, the penalty of which is death. It is sin that has separated us from God (Genesis 1:26-27; Romans 3:23; 1 John 3:4; Ezekiel 18:4, 20; Romans 6:23, Isaiah 59:1-2).

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• God sent Jesus, who was born of a virgin, who lived a sinless life, who had the sins of the world laid upon Him through His beating, who died as a sacrifice to pay the penalty of death for the sins of the world that whoever would believe in Jesus would be forgiven and saved. We are reconciled to God by Jesus’ death and saved by His life. Our salvation is not by works, but by grace through faith (John 1:1-14; Matthew 1:18-25; Hebrews 4:14-16; Isaiah 52:13-53:12; Hebrews 9:23-28; Hebrews 10:10-12; 2 Corinthians 5:21; Acts 13:38-39; Ephesians 1:7; John 3:16, Romans 5:6-19; Ephesians 2:8-10).

 

 

• Those who believe in Jesus should confess their sins and recognize that they are in need of His sacrifice for sins, that He died and rose from the dead after three days and that He is now their Lord. As a result of this confession, those who believe in God are called to give their life for Him, to turn from their sinful ways, to be baptized in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit and receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. As a result, those who believe in Jesus are justified and made righteous in the sight of God. Believers in Jesus reckon themselves as dead to sin and alive to God, no more living as slaves to sin, but as slaves to righteousness (1 John 1:8-10; Acts 2:22-39; Ephesians 4:17-5:10; Colossians 3:1-17; Romans 10:8-13; Romans 4:1-8; Romans 4:20-25; Romans 5:1-21; Romans 6:1-23, Titus 2:11-14; 1 Peter 4:1-3).

 

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• Those who believe in Jesus and receive the Holy Spirit are made part of the church of God, the body of Christ. The believers become the children of God by being baptized into His name and receiving His Holy Spirit. As a result, they become brothers to Jesus, heirs of God and joint-heirs with Jesus Christ. The individual members and the church as a whole are empowered by the Holy Spirit to live a holy life, to proclaim the good news of Jesus Christ and the coming kingdom of God and to serve one another as the Spirit produces fruits and gives spiritual gifts to each member (Romans 8:5-17; Romans 15:13-19; Matthew 28:18-20; Mark 16:14-20; Acts 1:4-8; Galatians 5:22-23; Hebrews 2:4; Romans 12:3-8; 1 Corinthians 12:1-31).

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• The basic doctrines of the church include repentance from dead works, faith toward God, baptisms, the laying on of hands, the resurrection of the dead and eternal life with Jesus or eternal judgment in gehenna. (Hebrews 6:1-2; Acts 2:38; 2 Corinthians 7:9-12; Hebrews 11:6; John 3:36; Mark 16:16; Acts 2:38-39; John 1:28-33; Acts 1:4-5; Acts 19:5-6; Acts 6:6; Acts 8:14-17; Acts 13:2-3; Daniel 12:2-3; 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18; 1 Corinthians 15:12-58; John 5:25-30; Ecclesiastes 12:13-14; Acts 17:30-31; Romans 2:1-16; 1 Peter 4:1-5; 2 Corinthians 5:10; Matthew 25:46)

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• Those who believe in Jesus Christ are new creatures, having God’s laws written on their hearts and in their minds, who live a new life of obedience to the teachings and commandments of God. The saints keep the commandments of God, including the two great commandments, the Ten Commandments and the teachings of God contained through the Bible. The essence of this way is love, which is defined as having benevolent care and concern for others. If you love Jesus, you will keep His commandments; this is what matters to God (2 Corinthians 5:17; Hebrews 8:7-12; Matthew 5:1-7:29; Romans 6:15-23; Matthew 19:17; Exodus 20:1-17; Deuteronomy 5:1-21; Matthew 22:37-40; Romans 13:8-10; Galatians 5:13-14; Revelation 14:12; 1 John 5:3; 1 John 3:22; 1 Corinthians 13:1-13; John 14:15; 1 Corinthians 7:19).

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• We believe God wonderfully and immutably creates each person as male or female, and that these two distinct, complementary genders together reflect the image and nature of God (Genesis 1:27).  We believe that God created marriage to be exclusively the union of one man and one woman (Genesis 1:28, 2:24-25; Mathew 19:4-5) and that sexual conduct is only proper within those bounds.

 

• We believe in the distinct gender roles and functions as prescribed by the apostolic writers to the church. This includes many apostles/writers prescriptions including Paul. The rationale provided for these prescriptions are based on an appeal to creation and the divine headship order that God designed; which is Father, Son, Man, Woman, Child. These are universal prescriptions for the whole church and not only for specific cities or cultures. We must be careful not to let our zeal for knowledge of the culture obscure what is actually said. To subordinate Paul’s and other apostle’s stated reason to our speculatively conceived reason is to slander the apostles and turn exegesis into eisogesis. Men and women are indeed equal in value, but have distinct roles and functions. Though these gender roles and functions are and will continue to become ever increasingly counter-cultural, they are to still be obeyed today:

 

• Men are to be self-controlled, worthy of respect, sound in love etc. Women are to teach what is good to the younger women, love their husbands, submit to husbands, keepers at home etc. Men/husbands are to submit to Jesus as the head over them while women/wives are to submit to men/husbands in everything as the head over them as the creation order lays out. Husbands are not to be harsh to their wives. Women are prohibited from teaching men or to have authority over men in Christ’s Church. Women are told to teach other women, and children. There are some very rare exceptions & possible exceptions for women teaching/judging men, see Acts 18 & Judges 4. These rare exceptions & possible exceptions should certainly never be used as justification for casting aside the explicit universal commands.

(1 Timothy 2:8-15; Titus 2:1-8; 1 Corinthians 11:1-16; 1 Corinthians 14:30-40; 1 Peter 3:1-7; Colossians 3:18-19)

 

• We maintain in our fellowship, as scripture prescribes, a plurality of elders (presbuteros). These elders are scripturally qualified men. The primary responsibility of the elders are to oversee (episkopos) the fellowship by encouraging them with sound teaching, and refuting those who contradict it. Elder is the role while overseeing is the positions primary function. There is no “head pastor” role in our fellowship, but rather a plurality that oversee, teach etc.

(Titus 1:5-9; 1 Timothy 3:1-7; 1 Peter 5:1-4; Acts 14:23; Acts 20:17; Genesis 50:7; Numbers 22:7; Exodus 12:21; Ezekiel 7:26; Matthew 21:23; 1 Corinthians 11:1-16)

 

Maranatha Messianic Fellowship’s Core Beliefs do not exhaust the extent of the fellowship’s beliefs.  The Bible itself, as the inspired and infallible Word of God that speaks with final authority concerning truth, morality and the proper conduct of mankind, is the sole and final source of all that we believe.