In
Blog,
John's Blog | on
December, 17, 2017 | by
Ministry Team
Torah Chai’s understanding of Messiah, the Father and the Spirit
In a recent email, we were asked whether our doctrine includes the Trinity or Oneness. For others with the same question, we are posing our answer.
We don’t have a short answer because we’ve found labels rather restrictive in nature. It may be better to explain our belief about the Father and the Son.
First off, let’s start with the concept of the New Covenant. To have a new covenant, one of the parties to the original covenant has to die. Since the covenant given at Mt. Sinai (Horeb) was a marriage covenant (Jeremiah 31:32), the bridegroom was the party of the first part after the Fathers (God and Moses) crafted the agreement/contract (Ketubah). Paul, in Romans 7, says the “law of the husband” (KJV) ends with the death of the husband and enables the divorced wife to return without being an adulteress.
Rom 7:3 So then if, while her husband liveth, she be married to another man, she shall be called an adulteress: but if her husband be dead, she is free from that law; so that she is no adulteress, though she be married to another man.
Rom 7:4 Wherefore, my brethren, ye also are become dead to the law by the body of Christ; that ye should be married to another, even to him who is raised from the dead, that we should bring forth fruit unto God.
We understand, first, believers are grafted/adopted into one of the two houses listed as
recipients of the New Covenant…either the House of Israel or the House of Judah (Jeremiah
31:31; Hebrews 8:8). We believe also the House of Israel was divorced by God and removed
from the land.
Jer 3:8 And I saw, when for all the causes whereby backsliding Israel committed adultery I had put her away, and given her a bill of divorce;
We therefore see Yeshua as Messiah who was the earthly party to the first covenant in which God identifies Himself as the bridegroom (above). Therefore, Yeshua had to die in order to remove the first covenant (of marriage) in order to be able to fulfill the prophecy of his reuniting all the tribes (at his return). This enables Him to do so without breaking the statute in Deuteronomy 24 where a divorced wife cannot be taken back (which Paul alludes to above).
As for the function of the Holy Spirit, Paul, in several letters, indicates he taught “the law of faith” (Torah) by the Spirit. Yeshua, says the “comforter” will help them remember everything He taught. And, He continues, He taught them what he received from the Father. The references concerning the Holy Spirit mainly seem to refer to the teaching of Torah both in Paul’s letters and in Yeshua’s statement.
To summarize, one needs to ask, does this fit into “oneness” or “trinity”? We don’t try to label or become staunchly doctrinal, but simply study what the scriptures say in their original context without private interpretation.