Fundamental Beliefs Of
The Nazarene Hebrews

Yahweh

   The Eternal Being, as revealed to us in the Hebrew Scriptures, has identified Himself to us through the personal name, YHWH (pronounced Yahweh or Yahuweh). Like mankind, whom He created "in His image, according to His likeness" Yahweh is composed of 1) soul or being,  2) spirit or character, and 3) body, substance, or the form in which He chooses to manifest Himself toward us. Yahweh is NOT a trinity (i.e. three spirits, gods, or personalities), but ONE ELOHIM composed of numerous complimentary aspects which are ECHAD (united, woven, or joined together) in accordance with the shema passage of Deuteronomy 6:4. "Hear O Israel, Yahweh (singular) your Elohim (plural), Yahweh is ECHAD (unified, united, a composite unity)."   Yahweh identifies His soul or deepest being to us as the "Father of Creation" or "Husband of His people, Israel", and that from whence all else proceeds.

Yahushua

   Yahshua is the Miltha (word, body or substance aspect of Yahweh) which was brought forth or revealed, first as His Right Hand or Arm at work in Creation, and later as the incarnate Word or breath of His mouth embodying a uniquely conceived "Son", in order to accomplish Israel's Restoration upon repentance and redemdemption from the curse of Adam.  As Mashiyach ben Yosef and the suffering servant of Isaiah 53, Yahshua is the Messiah, Messenger of YHWH's Presence, and bears the Name of the Father under heaven, whereby men must be saved.

Ruach HaKodesh

   Is the Spirit or Character of Yahweh, and pictured allegorically throughout Tanakh as a feminine or motherly aspect of Elohim.  Also synonymous with "Wisdom" or the "Bride" pictured throughout the Proverbs, it is through the soul or being of Yahweh (Fatherly aspect) and the wisdom or spirit of Yahweh (Motherly aspect) that the Son (bodily manifestation or substance of Yahweh) was figuratively "conceived" in the beginning, and eventually "brought forth" through the womb of an undefiled, unmarried young woman (ALMAH in Hebrew, or virgin) as foretold by the prophet in Isaiah 7:14.

Names and Terminology

   Ex 20:3,5,7 says "You shall have no other mighty ones against my face...you do not bow down to them or serve them... [and] you shall not bring the Name of Yahweh your Elohim to naught, for Yahweh will not hold him guiltless who brings His Name to naught." (Hbr. Txt.)  Although suppressed by religious leadership, research reveals that the names "Jesus", "Lord", "God", and "Christ" are historically INACCURATE, and were never found in the Hebrew Scriptures, but were instead borrowed from false religions and the names of idols which the Roman Emporer, Constantine, merged with Christianity.  The True Names, preserved in the Hebrew and Aramaic languages and original manuscripts, are Yahweh/Yahuweh, meaning "The One Who Exists" or "Eternal Being", and Yahshua, meaning "Savior Yahweh" or "Eternal Salvation".  Other Hebrew titles replaced by Constantine are Elohim (meaning "Mighty One or Deity"), Adonai (meaning "Sovereign or Master"), and Mashiyach or "Messiah", (meaning "Divinely Annointed).  Ex 23:13 says to "be circumspect and make no mention of the names of false deities, neither let them be heard from your mouth."  Zeph 3:9 "For I will purify the lips of the nations, that all of them may call on the Name of Yahweh."

The Creation

   Both the heavens and earth were created by Elohim to be perfect in the beginning (Gen 1:1, Ezek 28:15), and at some point afterwards, probably as a result of shatan's rebellion when he was cast to earth from heaven (Isa 14:12-15, Ezek 28:16b-18, 1 Adam/Eve 13:2-5, Rev 12:7-10), the earth's perfection became formless, dark, and empty (Isa 45:18, Gen 1:1 Hbr Txt).  At this point, Yahweh renewed the surface of the earth through His miltha or substance (Psa 104:29,30), manifested to us as the Light at the dawn of Creation (Gen 1:3), and later as the anointed Mashiyach, bringing forth life upon the earth in a period of six literal days, and afterward resting on the seventh (Gen 1 and 2).  Shatan however, taking occasion of human impropriety, again succeed in marring that perfection by initiating Adam and Chawah (Eve) to the mysterious knowledge of evil, which he indicated would cause them to become as Elohim, in whose image they were already created!  Thence stained by sin and sequential death, yet still supportive of human, plant, and animal life in a less glorious form, the earth has maintained this present, slowly deteriorating state of existence for nearly 6,000 years while all creation groans in anguish, awaiting the final restoration of Romans 8:18-23).

The "explosive" and "progressive creation" theories along with their athiestic relative "evil-ution" upon which they are ultimately based, ignore the fossil record and laws of natural process, refusing to acknowledge human inadequacy, questioning the credibility of the Torah and denying Elohim's sovereignty; professing themselves to be "elohim" on the top of the evolutionary ladder and possessing the keys of intelligence and invention to create. Yahweh's command in Eden however was that all life forms reproduce after their own kind (Gen 1:11-12,21-28). The Torah furthermore condemns the mixing/genetic mutating of plants and animals (Lev 19:19, Deut 22:9) and the book of Jasher records that it was the children of Qayin in their worship of shatan which first taught the mixing of plants and animals (Jasher 4:18 cf. Lev 19:19, Deut 22:9), which leaves no room for Darwin's delusion in the Hebrew faith.

The Hebrew Scriptures

   Were inspired of Yahweh for the instruction of humanity (2Tim.3:16), and the Apostolic writings (erroneously known by christiandom as a "new testament") as do not take precedence over the Torah (five books of Moses), nor is the Torah complete without the Mashiyach who is manifested to us through the apostolic writings, and who appeared as a bodily manifestation of the Torah and perfect Torah-submission (see Mt 5:17, Jn.15:10).  Just as a manual is required for proper assembly and use of an instrument, the Scriptures in their entirety (all 80+ books, including the 14 "intertestament" or erroneously called "apocryphal" books), are necessary for the best usage of the earthly life which Yahweh has given, and the resurrection which awaits at the end of days (Psa.119:130).

   The "intertestament" books, recorded and preserved by the Hebrews, and including portions of Esther and Daniel,  Ben Sirach, Wisdom of Solomon, Psalm 151, 2nd and 3rd Ezra, 1-4 Maccabees, Tobit, Judith and others, were deemed uncanonical upon the destruction of the second temple and subsequent formation of Rabbinical Judaism at Yavneh, in major part due to their direct  Messianic prophecies.  Preserved however by the Jewish Septuagint (compiled cira. 300 B.C.E.), in part by the Dead Sea Scrolls, and afterwards by the Nazarenes along with other manuscripts such as the "Evangel According To The Hebrews", they were finally claimed by the Slavonic, Greek Orthodox, and Roman Church, upon the latter's extermination of the major remaining sects of the Nazarenes.

   We hold that the original Mosaic, Prophetic, and Apostolic manuscripts were fully inspired and error free in their original form, and that the Apostolic writings were authored in some dialect or derivative of Hebrew, which today is most correctly represented by the Eastern Aramaic Peshitta.   All subsequent manuscript translations and revisions by men, including the Masoretic and Septagint texts, are each subject to and contain certain errors and omissions.  Several translations which make considerable attempt to restore the accuracy of the original texts are "The Word of Yahweh", "The Scriptures", and the "Aramaic English New Testament" (included on our page of related links).  While we believe in no such thing as a "completely inspired translation", we do believe that "in the mouth of two or three reliable witnesses every word will be established."  (Deut 19:15, Matt 18:16, 2 Cor 13:1)   Our responsibility, therefore, is to "search the Scriptures daily, verifying these things are so" (Acts 17:11) and "studying to show ourselves approved, disciples that need not be ashamed, correctly interpreting the word of truth." (2Tim 2:15)

The Torah

   The Torah is a teacher (Gal.3:24,25), given by Yahweh to reveal His Mashiyach, and the principles taught by the Torah remain true and are never intended to be replaced or disregarded (Deut 4:2, Mat 5:18, Rev 22:19).  We experience redemption and restoration with Yahweh by believing and obeying the teachings of Yahshua, who is the favour and essence of the Torah, and not by our own works and desires (Eph. 2:8-10).  While our submission to Torah does not earn our salvation, it enhances our belief in Yahshua, the one who saves (James 2:18) and who says in Jn 14;15 "If you love me, you will keep my commandments."   Yahshua did not come to abolish the Torah, but to show us true Torah submission by fulfilling or performing its requirements. (Mt.5:17).

1. Shabbat, meaning "seventh" (Exod 16:26) and referring to cessation of all labor (Exod 20:11).  Observed evening to evening as commanded in Lev 23:32 and indicated in Gen 1:5-31 and Psa 55:17, Shabbat occurs on a consequtive, non-interrupted seven day cycle which commenced at the onset of Creation (Exod 31:16) and which all generations are sequentially instructed to "COUNT" or "REMEMBER" (Exod 16:23-28, 20:8) in honor of Yahweh's rest after the six days of creative activity (Exod 31:17).  This seven-day cycle was never lost, as verified by Yahshua's example (Mk 6:2, Lk 4:16, 6:6, 13:10) and that of the disciples (Lk 23:56, Acts 13:42-44, 15:21, 16:13, 17:2, 18:4) who observed the same sabbath as the other Jewish sects of the day, although it was later abandoned by Christianity.  Shabbat, on the other hand, was meticulously maintained throughout history, as evidenced by over 100 languages throughout the world, including the most ancient known to man (view list) which all use "sabbath" to describe the same seventh day.  Equally conclusive is the shabbat observance of the Ethiopian Falashas and the Berber and Lemba Tribes of South Africa which they retained after assimilating from Israel some 500 years before the incarnation of Yahshua. Indeed, "for Moses of old time has in every city them that preach him, being read in the synagogues every sabbath day." (Act 15:21) 
       As the first of all commandments, Shabbat is Scripturally independant of the heavenly bodies and charted instead on a cycle of days which were enacted by the Creator before the existence of the planetary phases or formation of the lunar and solar cycles. Exclusivly singular in its method of determination, as well as in the stringecy of requirements and repercussions for disregarding it (Ex 35:3, Lev 23:3, Num 15:32-36, Jer 17:22), Shabbat rests on a higher pedastal than the annual Moedim or "appointed gatherings observed by visual/lunar signal", and was identified poetically by the Hebrew sages as the "queen of the week" and described in the Tanakh as the first covenant sign of Yahweh's people (Ex 31:16, Isa 56:6).  For more information see "Sabbath and Sunday in the Scriptures" and "Why Shabbat was NEVER Determined by the Lunar Cycle".
   
2. The First Crescents or lunar signals, commencing with the Creation of the Moon on day #4, are days on which regular work and travel is permitted (Haggai 1:1,2,8,12; 2 Ezra 5:57), and whose purpose is not as a feast or prophetic foreshadowing, but as Yahweh's indicator of Hebrew months which determine the timing of the seasonal Moedim (Gen 1:14) and beginning of the Hebrew year.  The Crescent commencing the cycle occurs in proximity to the time of equal daylight and darkness in Israel (called "teshubah hayah shaneh" or "turn of the year" in Hebrew [Ex 34:22], and "vernal equinox" at the equator where it occurs several days later than in Israel).  Affirmation of the new year on earth,  per Ex 9:31, 12:2, 13:4 however, is by observing the presence of almost-ripe (abib) barley which is required during Pesach at the offering of the wave sheaf (see this article and this book) for more detail on the proper exegesis and usage of the abib barley from the Hebrew text.
3. Pesach / Chag haMatzah (seven-day Feast of Passover and Unleavened Bread - Deut 16:1-8, Mat 26:17-19, 1Cor 5:7-8) memorializes Israel's departure from Mitsrayim and redemption from the death of the firstborn, and directs our attention to cleaning up the grey areas in our life (pictured by leaven) and Yahshua's vicarious sacrifice as the "Lamb which takes away the sins of the world" (Jn 1:29).  Rest from regular work is commanded on the first and last days of the Feast.  Note: Although many consider Passover/ULB an eight day occasion based on an alternate interpretation of Lev 23:5,6 we observe only a seven day feast with unleavened bread commencing on the 14th at the same time as the Passover sacrifice based on Exodus 12:14-19, Matt 26:17, Mk 14:1,12, Lk 22:1,7. For more information see " Why Passover/Unleavened Bread is a Single 7-day Feast" and for an excellent treatis on the historical evidence of the same, refer to the Festivals and Sacred Days of Yahweh Vol. 1 from www.yahweh.org.
   
4. Bikurrim or Firstfruits (non-sabbath) entails the offering of the abib barley on the first day of the week during Pesach (Lev 23:10,11), and recognizes Yahshua as the firstfruit of the resurrection (Luke 24:1-7).
   
5. Shavuot or the Feast of Weeks (Deut 16:9-12, Acts 2:1, 20:16), also known as Pentecost, commorates the giving of the Torah at Sinai, anointing of the Ruach haKodesh (or the Spirit of Yahshua) on the apostles (Acts 2:1-13), and the future outpouring of Yahweh's Spirit on all flesh (vs. 14-21).
   
6. Yom Teruah (Sounding of Shofars or "Day of shouting" - Lev 23:23-25) calls to attention Israel's military victories and aquisition of the Land of Israel, and ancitipates Yahshua's Kingship and reclaiming of the Birthright of Jacob in the anticipated Messianic age (Mat 24:30,31, 1Th 4:16,17, Rev 11:15-17).
   
7. Yom Kippur - Day of Covering or Atonement of transgression - A High Sabbath and commanded 24 hour fast for prayer and repentance, involving the affliction of the soul or life as a reminder of our indebtedness to Yahshua's sacrifice. (Ex 30:10, Lev 23:26-32, Acts 27:9, Heb 9:12,25-28)  No work or food preparation is permitted.
   
8. Sukkot (the Feast of Tabernacles) is commanded in Lev 23:33-43; Deut 16:13-15, was observed by Yahshua in John 7:37,38, Paul in Acts 18:20,21, and prophetically will be kept by all nations in the Messianic age (Zech 14:16-19, Hosea 12:9).  As we dwell in tents or temporary dwellings for these eight days we recollect Israel's 40-year nomadic wanderings in the wilderness and Yahshua's birth in a "sukkah" (mistranslated from the Greek as a "manger") when there was no room at the inn.  As the suffering servant He pitched his tent among us as one rejected with no place to lay His head, yet the last day of this Feast, known as "the Master's day" or the "Great and awesome Day of Yahweh" mentioned in Revelation anticipates His return to restore the Tabernacle of David, as He calls everyone whose names are written in the Lamb's book of life to come rejoice under His chuppah or wedding canopy.
   
9. Chanukkah (meaning "dedication") commemorates several dedications of the Temple, including those recorded in Num 7:84a, 2Chron 7:5,8,9, Ezra 6:16,17 and 1 Mac. 4:56–59, the latter following the victory of the Maccabees over the Selucid King, Antiochus Epiphanes.  Although observance is not commanded in Torah, and is therefore optional, Psalm 30 in the Hebrew is titled "A Song for Chanukkah", and the occasion was also used in making Messianic parallels by Yahshua who was present in the Temple during it's observance (Jn 10:22-36).  The signifigance of these parallels in any event should be noted, including Simeon's prophetic blessing ("a light to lighten the gentiles and your people Israel") during Yahshua's dedication in the Temple at Jerusalem (Luk 2:22-32), His identity as the "Temple made without human hands" (Mark 14:58, Rev 21:22), symbolism between the "suffering servant" of Isaiah 53 and the elevated "servant candle" in the center of the traditional chanukkah menorah (representive of the lampstand of Lev 24:2-4), Yahshua's conception as the "light of the world" (Jn 8:12, 9:5) which also would have occurred during this feast, the duel parallel between the virgin conception and acronym on the Chanukkah dreidle (A Great Miracle Happed There), and finally the call to dedicate our lives through Yahshua as the temple or dwelling place of Yahweh's Spirit (1Cor 3:16, 6:19).
10. At present we remain undecided on our stance about Purim, an occasion which although mentioned in Tanakh (Est 9:26-32), yet not as a command of Yahweh or in association with the temple service, was instituted instead in the diaspora of Babylon under a setting of less-than-Torah-observant circumstances. The lack of divine command in itself makes Purim at best "optional", yet when considering observance, one must also address the failure of the Purim account in directing praise to the Name of Elohim, and the absence of Messianic parallels which are encompassed by all the other annual Feasts.
    

Health and Dietary Restrictions

   Yahweh has created all edible plants, herbs, and fruits, as well as certain animals for food, and other animals and poisons which are not food and were never intended to be eaten (Gen 2:17).  The guidelines for edible meats found in Leviticus chapter 11, are for our own health and well being, and it benefits us to observe the healthy standard which Yahweh, in His infinite love and wisdom has provided.  These laws, like the rest of the Torah, were not merely "ceremonial", and were nowhere cancelled out by Yahshua.  The bracketed words [whereby he made all foods clean] in some versions of Acts 10:15 are inappropriately ADDED, and do not exist in any manuscripts, although even if they did, pigs and poison were not created as FOODS, and are not FOODS today, even if they are defiantly eaten.  Quite to the contrary, Acts 10:28 makes clear that Peter's vision was not about what we eat at all, but about not degrading and denouncing gentiles whom the rabbis at one time claimed were reincarnated as unclean animals.

   YHWH also forbids the consuming of blood (Deut. 12:16,23), the slaughtering of a dam and it's young on the same day (Deut 22:6,7), and the cooking of a kid in its mother's milk (Exodus 23:19, 34:26, Deuteronomy 14:21).  Likewise, an animal must not be eaten which dies of itself (Lev 22:8) both to prevent disease, and because the blood remains in the meat.

   We reject as unnatural and satanic the practices of cloning, mixing, artificial insemination, unnatural altercations, and genetic engineering (cf. Jasher 4:18, Lev 19:19, Deut 22:9).   We also reject on moral grounds most methods of Western Medicine, including routine immunizations, chemical pharmaseuticals as drug sorcery (Gal 5:19-21, Rev 22:14), non-emergency altercations, organ transplants, routine physical/sexual examinations, sterilizations, hospital births, abortion, "end of life options" (euthanasia), etc. and OPPOSE government mandates on "Health Care CONform-ity" as unscriptural and unconstitutional.  Reversely, we believe in, and refuse to incriminate the responsible and Scripturally intended use of natural remedies and beneficial, medicinal herbs.

Circumcision

   We follow the ruling of the Elders in Acts 15:19-21 and that of the the apostle Sha'ul in 1 Cor 7:18,19 and Romans 2:25-29 who says "For circumcision verily profiteth, if you observe the Torah: but if you are a breaker of the Torah, your circumcision is made uncircumcision. Therefore if the uncircumcised keep the righteousness of the Torah, will not his uncircumcision be counted for circumcision? And will not uncircumcision which is by nature, if it fulfil the Torah, judge you, who by the letter and circumcision transgresses the Torah? For he is not a Yahudi, which is one outwardly; nor is circumcision outward in the flesh: But he is a Yahudi who is one inwardly; and circumcision is of the heart, in the spirit, and not the letter; whose praise is not of men, but of YHWH."  Circumcision, as a sign like water immersion or the wearing of tzit-tzit has never been a method of earning salvation, but a reminder to "circumcise the heart" and obey the entirety of the Torah (Deut 10:16; 30:6; Ezek 36:26).

  As far as this affects the observance of Pesach, it is imperative to understand that the Seder meal and emblems are not the "Passover" itself, but a memorial as seen by the Messiah's words in Luke 22:19 and 1Cor 11:24,25, and Yahshua is the actual Passover which has been sacrificed (1Cor 5:7).   Therefore the question important to ask is: Was circumcision practiced before Abraham?  If so, why are the Scriptures silent, and if not, was Adam able to partake of Yahshua's sacrifice as the "Lamb slain from the foundation of the world" (Rev 13:8b), or is he excluded from the Messianic benefits?  Similarly, why were no generations of Israel circumcised in the wilderness (Josh 5:5) yet from Num 9:1-14 we know that the Passover continued to be observed, and even find those mentioned who were unable to partake because they were unclean with a dead body, yet we find no mention of anyone unable to participate because they were uncircumcised? The topic can actually become quite controversial, involving the question of whether flaying of male genitals was ever Yahweh's explicit desire considering the unavoidable contradictions it presents with other requirements in the Torah's moral code (cf. Lev 21:5, Deut 14:1, 23:1, Jer 44:8; Rom 2:27, Gal 5:12), or if we may in fact be missing information from (or even reading information which was inserted into) the original texts?  We do not profess to have definitive answers, and therefore whether one can benefit from or partake of Yahshua's sacrifice if they are uncircumcised is an issue which each one must resolve according to conscience, not for another, but for themselves.  "Therefore seperate (disfellowship/divide asunder under guise of presiding judgment) no individual before the appropriate time, when Yahshua comes, who both will bring to light the hidden things...and will make manifest the counsels of the hearts: whereupon every man will have praise of Elohim." (1Cor 4:5)  "For Elohim does not judge as man; for man observes the outward appearance, but Yahweh observes the intentions of the heart." (1Sam 16:7b)

Modesty

   It is priestly for a man to keep his hair trimmed or bound, as indicated by Ezek 44:20: "They shall  not shave their heads nor let their hair grow long / hang loose, but they shall keep their hair carefully trimmed / bound", and to retain the beard or facial hair which YHWH gave to him.  Shaving of the beard (balding or destroying the corners -- Lev 19:27) is against nature and against Torah.  Likewise, a woman's hair is to be retained for her husband, and not to be cut as a man's, extravagantly decorated, displayed, or flaunted to others (Isa 47:2,3, 1 Cor 11:6,10,15). While not as definitive on the requirements of men and women's headcoverings, we do find indications of such in Tanakh and the Jewish spiritual writings which are supported by the Apostles, both as symbolic and for reasons of modesty (see "Men and Women's Headcoverings" for more info).

   Tight and transparent articles of clothing, low necklines and dresses or skirts without ample length are clearly forbidden in Torah as "uncovering of nakedness" and unchastity in attempting to attracting attention which is inappropriate (Isa 3:16, Isaiah 47:2,3, Jer 13:22,26, Ezk 16:7-10, Prov 7:10, 25, Hermas 90:8-11, 1Tim 2:9, Titus 2:5). Similary, we find prohibitions on cross dressing or a woman wearing masculine-syled garments and vic-a-versa, (Deut 22:5)thereby blurring the distinction between the sexes (

Marriage and Betrothal