Jehoshua is on the throne of David in New Jerusalem and He is the King of a New Israel
There is always a temptation to list a laundry list of beliefs but in true Anabaptist spirit only a few are needed to spotlight. This is because as Anabaptists we believe in freedom of conscience. There are definitely some core doctrines that are mandatory but in terms of many of the other things discussed by Christians these things should be left to the conscience of the individual believer.
For any Anabaptist, the schleitheim confession is the standard. Anabaptists in the 16th century and even today have come to various conclusions about scriptural matters. Seventh Dat Anabaptists look to the Swiss brethren and the Sabbatarian Anabaptists as their spiritual ancestors. We are not descendants of the modern Anabaptist groups such as the Mennonites, the Hutterites, Amish, Church Brethren and others. We also glean from other Anabaptist groups such as the Unitarian Anabaptists of Adam Pastor fame and the Polish brethren. While modern Anabaptists have somewhat grafted themselves back into the Protestant movement we as Seventh Day Anabaptists remain separate from the Protestants who are even more apostate then they were in the 16th century. Also, in true Anabaptist spirit we have decided to take the faith more fully into the Apostolic Church model. This means we have and will continue to drop any doctrines that were not believed nor taught by the Apostles. The 16th century Anabaptists did a great work and came closer to anyone else in restoring the Church to it's early purity. This means that we deny the trinity doctrine. Many Anabaptists, namely in Poland, rejected the trinity and the preexistence of Christ. Adam Pastor, a well known leader in the Anabaptist movement, also denied the above two doctrines. These were the Unitarian Anabaptists who believed in many of the same things the other Anabaptists did but believed that the Father alone was the true God. Oswald Glait and Andreas Fischer were Anabaptists that restored the Sabbath. They had a fellowship in East Central Europe but eventually they were wiped out due to persecution. Many Anabaptists already restored the doctrine of soul sleep and denied the immorality of the soul. For Anabaptists, the Kingdom of God was going to come to earth so they denied the dying and going to heaven as a disembodied soul as well as any type of rapture doctrine. The bodily resurrection was the hope of Anabaptists. The Anabaptists sought to bring the church back to its primitive roots, while the reformers were content to go back to Augustine, a 5th century Catholic theologian. This was a problem with the Anabaptists since they believed the Church compromised its integrity at the council of Nicea and had not been the same since. While the cause of the Anabaptists was noble they were only content in bringing the Church back to a pre-Nicene format. What these early Anabaptists failed to realize was that even the pre-Nicene Church had been heavily compromised in doctrine by that time and their failure to recognize this led them to keep some of the errors of "Orthodoxy". Ironically, the early Anabaptists kept the doctrine of the trinity even though that was a product of the council of Nicea, the very council they pinpointed as the downfall of true Christianity. The reformers were content to bring the Church back to Augustine the 5th century Catholic monk. The early Anabaptists were content to bring the Church back to the pre-Nicene era (before 325 AD). Both felt that this was bringing the Church back to apostolic Christianity. This is where the small but eventually influential Sabbath keeping Anabaptists come in. Andreas Fischer and Oswald Glait felt that the mainline Anabaptists were not going back far enough in their efforts to return the Church to it's early purity. They felt that going back to the pre-Nicene era wasn't enough and that they needed to skip over the whole "Church father" era and return the Church to 1st century doctrine. This naturally led this group of Anabaptists to validate the Seventh Day Sabbath as still binding for the new covenant Church. This also led to a rejection of the trinity doctrine as Fischer-Glaidt group emphasized that Jehoshua was the Messiah of God. In other words, these were Unitarian Anabaptists. There was already significant fellowships of Unitarian Anabaptists such as the "Polish brethren" and Anabaptists from Transylvania. The Fischer-Glaidt contingent was just another branch of Unitarian Anabaptism. They appeared to deny the preexistence of the Messiah as their other Unitarian Anabaptist brethren did, since they emphasized the humanity of the Son of God. Adam Pastor was another well known Unitarian Anabaptist who denied preexistence as well. It is also noteworthy that many Anabaptists, whether Sabbath keepers or not held to the doctrine of soul sleep. John Calvin even wrote a tract against the Anabaptists for their belief in soul sleep. King James even had two Anabaptists put to death on the stake for their soul sleep doctrine. The Sabbath keeping wing of the Anabaptists was short lived due to persecution, however their influence was not. This is where we as Seventh Day Anabaptists come in. The Seventh Day Anabaptists are not a denomination but rather a movement, a very loose knit one at that. It would be un-Anabaptist like to start a denomination or some type of hierarchal type Church organization. This leads me to speak of the fundamentals of Seventh Day Anabaptism. While we honor our forerunners in the Anabaptist movement, we are not against coming to different understandings of certain doctrines that may be the opposite of what they believed. We are pretty much in line with the Sabbath keeping Anabaptists of Andreas Fischer and Oswald Glait such as being non trinitarian and obviously Sabbath keepers. Also, Like all Anabaptists the sermon on the mount is our core doctrine which in the bible is called the doctrine of Messiah. We also hold to the schleitheim confession of 1527 which is the historic statement of faith of the Anabaptist movement. Now with that brief synopsis, I will discuss the core beliefs of the Seventh Day Anabaptists. 1) We believe in one God who is the Father alone. Jehovah God is a singular person who is the Father alone. He is eternal and corporeal and can never die, nor be tempted and is not a man nor can ever be a man. 2) We believe that Jesus is of the seed of David and is God's Messianic King and only begotten Son. Jehoshua is the Messiah of Jehovah God. He is the seed of David, born from both Joseph and Mary. He was begotten as God's Son and anointed King of Israel at His baptism. 3) We believe that the Holy Spirit is the power, presence and personality of Jehovah given to us through the agency of His Son Jesus. The Holy Spirit is the very power, presence and personality of Jehovah God. It is sent to the church through the agency of His Son Jehoshua, thereby it is called both the Spirit of God and Spirit of Messiah. 4) We believe in the 10 commandments including the Seventh day Sabbath. We believe in the 10 commandments as Jehovah's eternal law and that it is binding on new covenant believers including the Sabbath day. True believers will have the 10 commandments written on their hearts. 5) We believe that in the new covenant, believers are under the law of Christ summed up in the sermon on the mount. We believe that new covenant believers are under the law of Jehoshua which is summed up in the sermon on the mount, also known as the doctrine of Messiah. We believe that Jehoshua gives us the perfect example in how to keep Jehovah's royal law (10 commandments) and is our primary and ultimate teacher. 6) We believe that the bodily resurrection and/or translation gives believers immortality and deny the natural immortality of the soul. 7) We believe that the Kingdom of God will come to earth and be consummated. This will usher in the new heavens and new earth with New Jerusalem as it's capital. We believe that the millennial reign of Jehoshua Messiah covers the new covenant Church age, from His ascension to His second advent. We believe in the second advent of Jehoshua Messiah at the last day when He will resurrect the dead saints and then translate the living ones. We believe that the saints judgment and the marriage supper of the Lamb will take place in New Jerusalem in heaven subsequent to the second advent and before the outpouring of Gods wrath. We believe that the saints will accompany Jehoshua to the earth when He pours out His Father's wrath where all unbelievers will be destroyed. All the unbelieving dead will then be resurrected to face judgment. We believe in the great white throne judgment, in which all unbelievers will stand before the Messiah and be judged according to their deeds. They will not be found in the Lamb's book and then be cast into the lake of fire where they will be annihilated and cease to exist. We believe that the Messiah will renew this earth and heavens into paradise, hence the new heavens and new earth. New Jerusalem will be the capital city of the eternal earth and heavens. We believe that the Sabbath and New moons will be days of corporate worship to Jehovah God. 8) We believe in the baptism of Jesus which was His anointing as King of Israel, His earthly ministry, death, shed blood for atonement, resurrection and ascension into heaven where He was enthroned on the throne of David. We believe in the death, burial, and resurrection of Jehoshua Messiah. He shed His atoning blood (death) and conquered the grave (resurrection) then ascending to heaven, offering Himself as the first fruits of the resurrection to Jehovah God and sprinkling His blood on heaven's mercyseat. We believe that 40 days after His resurrection, Jehoshua ascended to heaven and was enthroned as King of Israel on the throne of David, thereby fulfilling the covenant that God made with David. We believe that this is when the Kingdom of Jehoshua Messiah was inaugurated. 9) We believe that the word of God is His decree, commandment, doctrine which was made flesh in the ministry of Jesus. Jesus is now properly the Word of God as He embodies the character and perfection of Jehovah God. 10) We believe in autonomous local fellowships, we deny the universal Church doctrine. We believe in the Priesthood of all believers and that we are kings and queens under the Davidic Kingship and Melchizedek priesthood.
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