We are not part of any denomination. Instead, we call ourselves followers of “The Way” because this is what the early church in the book of Acts called themselves. In Acts 24 when speaking to Felix, the Roman governor of Judea, Paul says this:

“But I confess this to you, that in accordance with the Way, which they call a sect, I do serve the God of our fathers, believing everything that is in accordance with the Law and is written in the Prophets.” Acts 24:14

So we live according to the law and the prophets as followers of the way. Why? Because the Messiah said not one jot or tittle would pass from them until heaven and earth passed away. That brings us to the next topic. 

Yah (the name of God) is the Most High. (Psalm 68:4)  This is the Father. We see this clearly displayed in the law and the prophets (Isaiah 63:16, Malachi 1:6, Malachi 2:10, Deuteronomy 32:6, Isaiah 64:8). He sent His Son Yeshua to fulfill a mission to lay His life down for His people. Yeshua says the Father is greater than I (John 14:28).  He says He does nothing without the Father in mind (John 5:30).  He says that the Father is the only true God (John 17:3). The Father gives all authority in heaven and on earth to His Son (Matthew 28:19). But even after the millennium reign with Yeshua as King over Israel, He gives the authority back to the Father (1 Corinthians 15:4).

Yeshua has many titles in the Scriptures. We believe He is the Son of the Almighty, the Good Shephard, Our High Priest, The King of Kings, & the Messiah. We believe Yeshua was in heaven with the Father before taking on flesh and becoming just as His brethren, so that He could become a faithful High Priest. (Hebrews 2:17) We believe Yeshua was born of a virgin (Matthew 1:22-23) and that He lived a perfectly obedient life. He was blameless, spotless, without blemish (1 Peter 1:19) and redeemed His people from the one who had the power of death, that is the devil (Hebrews 2:14). He defeated sin and death (Romans 5:12-21) and Peter says that the grave couldn’t hold him (Acts 2:24). He came to destroy the works of the devil (1 John 3:8).  He will be the King of all nations when He returns and tabernacles with His people. Most importantly, He is our savior and without Him we cannot inherit eternal life (Romans 6:23)!

Salvation is a free gift that came from the Most High through His Son Yeshua. Paul makes this very clear for us.This free gift is called grace. (Ephesians 2:8-9) We are not able to resurrect ourselves to eternal life. Only through our faith in Him and trusting in the perfect obedience of His Son Yeshua can anyone receive their glorified, resurrected bodies and dwell with the Most High for eternity. All of us sin and fall short of the glory of God (Romans 3:23) and death awaits us because of the fall that took place in the garden, but the Father sent His Son to lay down His life for His sheep and defeat sin and death on our behalf. On that last day that Marsha spoke of (John 11:24), our Messiah and King will call out to His people and it won’t be just Lazurus coming out of the grave this time. It will be all of His sheep! HalleluYAH!!

Deuteronomy 8:3 says that man does not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of Yah. Yeshua then reiterates this point when He has an encounter with the devil. We believe that the 66 canon are Scripture that was inspired by the work of the Holy Spirit in the men who wrote the books. What about the other books that many call “Deuterocanical” or “Apocrypha”? We believe the best way to test these books is to put them up against the 66. If they clearly contradict them then it’s probably best to stay away. Some are very interesting and give us an understanding of what people of that day may have been thinking in regards to things in the Bible, but others are divinely inspired by the same Spirit that helped write the canon of 66 books that most of us have known our whole life. The early church and even some denominations today still reference many of these books and a lot of them were quoted by the new testament authors. Our simple take is to test them yourself, but use the books we have always had to see if they pass the test. 

Let’s keep it really simple. There are 4 main differences between what we believe and what you may have been taught your entire life. They are as follows:

• We believe the 4th commandment (the Sabbath) is still something we should be keeping today. (Exodus 20)

• We celebrate the appointed times of Yah (the LORD) that He gave to His people. (Leviticus 23)

• We eat according to the diet that the Creator gives in His word.  (Leviticus 11)

• We wear tassels as a reminder of the commandments. Think WWJD bracelets, but found in the pages of Scripture. (Number 15)

Now keep in mind what we referenced above with the words of Yeshua. He said not one jot or tittle will pass from the law until Heaven and Earth pass away. (Matt 5:17-20)  Ask yourself, have those passed away? We don’t believe they have. So we let this basic, easy to understand passage help us to better interpret other Scriptures that could be a little harder to understand. We do not believe that any of the other apostles, including Paul, are going to ever contradict this teaching from Yeshua. 

We believe the Sabbath day is eternal. It was instituted at creation when God rested on the 7th day (Genesis 2:1-3) and sanctified it. From beginning to end, this day is always shown to be extremely important to the Most High. Nehemiah calls it “evil” when people profaned it. (Nehemiah 13:17) Not777hing has changed. The Creator wants us to follow His example and rest as He did. (Hebrews 4:10) Yeshua also kept the Sabbath and He gathered with others, reading the Scriptures, when doing so. (Luke 4:16) And this is what we do as well. The Sabbath is a day of rest, but it’s also called a “Holy Convocation” (Leviticus 23:3) which is a “Kodesh Miqra” in Hebrew. “Kodesh” is holy or set apart. “Miqra” means assembly or convocation, and the root word is “Qara” which means call forth or read. It’s a day where you gather together and you read the Scriptures, which is why Yeshua did just that. 

What about the work part? Sabbath means “to cease” and work is defined as your occupation. So whatever you do for a living during the week is to stop on the Sabbath. Just like Yah tested the Israelites in the wilderness when telling them not to gather manna on the 7th day, He is testing us to see if we will trust in Him that He will provide for us even when we give Him a day that we couldn’t be making money. In a culture where the world tells us to never stop, the Most High says come rest with me for a day. What a blessing it is!

In Genesis 1:14 God says “Let there be lights in the firmament of the heavens to divide the day from the night; and let them be for signs and seasons”. The Hebrew word for “seasons” in this verse is “Moedim.” Without knowing this, we might think the seasons being referenced are what we have always known (Winter, Spring, Summer, Fall), but it’s actually so much more amazing than that. You see this same Hebrew word is used in Leviticus 23:2 which says “Speak to the children of Israel, and say to them: “The appointed times (moedim) of Yah, which you shall proclaim to be holy convocations, these are MY appointed times.”

So when the Creator made the sun, moon, and stars He had these times in mind. He put a clock in the sky to be able to know when they are. 

You may have been told these were just for the Jews, but notice He doesn’t say these are the Jews appointed times, He says they are HIS appointed times. These times will be kept in the kingdom when Yeshua returns (Luke 22:14-16, Ezekiel 45:21-25, Isaiah 66:22-23) and even nations like Egypt will be required to keep them or they will be punished. (Zechariah 14:16-19) Have you ever heard that before?! The appointed times are as follows: 

The Passover (Pesach)

The Feast of Unleavened Bread (Matzot)

First Fruits (Bikkurim)

Pentecost (Shavuot)

The Day of Trumpets (Yom Teruah)

The Day of Atonement (Yom Kippurim)

The Feast of Tabernacles (Sukkot)

And the beautiful thing about all of these is that they all point to Yeshua and what He has done in His life, death, and resurrection and what He will do when He returns and sets up His kingdom. These times will absolutely blow you away and open up the Scriptures for you like never before.

We believe in eating Biblically clean animals as outlined in Leviticus 11 and Deuteronomy 14. Not only does the Bible teach that eating unclean animals is an abomination to the Most High, but science also proves that they are extremely unhealthy for us. The Father wants His people to live healthy lives, and so He gave specific instructions on what we can and cannot eat. The animals that are unclean like pigs, shrimp, donkeys, horses, and vultures are not bad animals. They just have a different purpose. Some, like the donkeys and horses, are for travel and others, like the pigs, shrimp, and vultures are for cleaning up their respective areas. They are basically the garbage disposals that Yah made for His world. 

This is a tough one for many Christians who have been told they can eat pigs, shrimp, and oysters because “Peter had a vision” or “Jesus declared all foods clean”. We aren’t going to break these texts down verse by verse here, but we would invite you to go read those chapters in their context. In a nutshell, Peter’s vision was a way to show him that the gentiles were going to share in the Holy Spirit and receive the Gospel message just as the Jews did. There were man made laws by Judaism that said Peter couldn’t fellowship with them, but God was breaking that wall down by giving this vision to the apostle Peter. Now, when God told Peter to kill and eat, he said that nothing unclean had ever touched his lips. If Jesus declared all foods clean in Mark 7 then why didn’t Peter get the memo? The reality is that Yeshua was discussing man made traditions again here because the Pharisees were teaching that people had to wash their hands before eating bread, which the disciples were not doing. Nothing in the context is about eating pigs. They’re eating bread! Then, Yeshua condemns them and says they lay aside the commandment of God for the tradition of men. Now ask yourself this, if He says something like that, and that He didn’t come to abolish the law, then why would He be abolishing the commandment of God by telling people they can eat whatever they want just a few verses later? Context is key to understanding many of these verses. 

The command is only mentioned once in Scripture and it’s found in Numbers 15:37-41 : 

“Again the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, “Speak to the children of Israel: Tell them to make tassels on the corners of their garments throughout their generations, and to put a blue thread in the tassels of the corners. And you shall have the tassel, that you may look upon it and remember all the commandments of the Lord and do them, and that you may not follow the harlotry to which your own heart and your own eyes are inclined, and that you may remember and do all My commandments, and be holy for your God. I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, to be your God: I am the Lord your God.”

These are for you and not for others. They are to remind you of the commandments so that you don’t turn to the left or to the right. They are also an amazing way to witness to people who are curious about them and give the opportunity to present the gospel. Yeshua wore these and the woman who had been bleeding for 12 years was healed when she touched them. (Matthew 9:20-22)