We are panentheistic, messianic Christians and Jews who believe in God the One and Threefold. As old-apostolic panentheists we also believe that we all are part of God. This is because God is all that exists and all that exists is God, while He is even far more (transcendent) than all he has ever created, including you and including us. What's the consequence? We believe that we can feel what God "wants" through our intuitions and our emotions. So we believe that above all, even above any holy book, there is one thing that is more important than any religious law: Love. We are certain that God is love and love is God. Therefore, we apodictively believe in the Holy Bible, God the Father, Jesus Christ as the Messiah and the Holy Spirit as the matrix of reality: We consider the Messiah to have been a human "avatar" in which God the Father Himself incarnated to teach humanity. The “New Thought Movement” had also an important impact on our theology.
As an old-apostolic society, we do see ourselves as Christians, albeit in the form of a Messiah-believing branch of Judaism. So we are closer to Judaism than pretty much any other group of Christians. We consider ourselves followers of those Jews who recognized the reality of Christ as the incarnation of God in His own creation. Therefore we believe in the already accomplished return of Jesus Christ. He already came again through the incarnation of God Himself into His creation in the body of Jesus Christ. So in every human being the essence of Christ shall come to birth. Thus, people do not need to expect a new coming of Christ, Christ wants to work and create through the people.
A growing part of our members define old-apostolic as messianic jewish. As we don’t believe in labels we respect this movement in our Church. Messianic Jews believe like all Christians that Jesus is the messiah, and accept the Old Testaments as well as the Gospels of the New Testament. Salvation in Messianic Judaism is achieved only through acceptance of Jesus as one's savior. Believers of Messianic Judaism considers their faith as a jewish sect while some protestant scholars accept Messianic Judaism as a form of Christian Evangelical Protestantism. The belief in Jesus Christ as the Messiah is considered by all Jewish religious movements to be the most defining distinction between Christianity and Judaism, and as such most traditional Jews consider Messianic Judaism as a part of Christianity. The Supreme Court of Israel rejected the claim of messianic Jews as being part of the jewish world, and instead consider Messianic Judaism to be a form of Protestant Christianity. That’s why we have an issue with the current concept of Israel, despite being radical zionists.
The “Jerusalem Church” is considered to be the first community of early Christianity. It was formed in the holy city after the crucifixion of Jesus. It proclaimed the resurrection of Jesus Christ, forgiveness of sins and Jesus' teachings to the Israelites and all other peoples. So this early church, a Messianic Jewish sect, consisted mainly of "disciples," men and women, whom Jesus of Nazareth had already called to be his followers in Galilee and who had accompanied Him on His way to Jerusalem. The transition period from Messianic Judaism to Christianity is the base of our faith.
