CMFI Position on the Relationship of the Church to Israel, The Jews, and The Torah

December 2012

CMFI affirms the prophetic purposes of God for Israel & The Jews including the restoration of national Israel and Jerusalem as its capital to facilitate the return of Christ (Luke 21:24, Zechariah 12:1-10, Matthew 23:39 etc.).

CMFI denounces both replacement theology (supercessionism) on one extreme and dual covenant theology on the opposite extreme as fundamentally unscriptural and false. We accept that spiritually and theologically scriptural Christianity is a Hebraic faith that is the messianic successor to the Torah yet a better covenant, as it is described in the book of Hebrews.

In accordance with the New Testament teachings and Old Testament prophecies the Torah is rendered inoperative, but has been fulfilled by Christ who is the aim of the Torah. Biblical Judaism has not existed since the 70 AD destruction of the temple as predicted by Daniel, by Jesus and by The Epistle to the Hebrews.

Jewish believers and their spouses are free to observe festal and other Jewish observances as can still be observed from the Torah for reasons of culture and of testimony to unsaved Jews. Such observances are however never obligatory, especially for non Jews. CMFI rejects as false teaching any assertion that Torah observance or pursuance is compulsory for either salvation or sanctification although Jewish believers may see it as an expression of devotion within their cultural identity.

It is of value and importance however that in accordance with the epistle to the Hebrews, Christians of all ethnic backgrounds doctrinally comprehend the messianic fulfilment of the Levitical sacrificial system, the messianic typology of the Torah, and the prophetic meaning of the Hebrew Holy Days. The study of Hebrew language is as much an advantage in the study of The Old Testament as Greek is of value for the study of the New, and both testaments constitute the inspired Word of God and are both of divinely inspired Judaic authorship. It is also of obvious value to understand the First Century Jewish cultural setting of Gospel narratives.

Jewish believers are both the faithful remnant of national and ethnic Israel and the natural branches of the Christian church, the Body of Christ where Jew and non Jew are spiritually united in Christ.

Proposal for inclusion in Statement of Faith:

CMFI rejects as false teaching any assertion that Torah observance or pursuance is compulsory for either salvation or sanctification although Jewish believers may see it as an expression of devotion within their cultural identity.