WHY "BEIT ECHAD"?
The mission of Aleph Omega Ministries is to promote the "One New Man in Messiah." Since our Messianic fellowship in North West England is our practical out-working of this mission, the name Beit Echad became an obvious, almost perfect choice. This is especially clear when you unpack the word Echad in Hebrew.
Echad in Hebrew means "one," but like many Hebrew terms it carries an important connotation that is lost in its plain English translation. Specifically, it connotes a composite unity, as opposed to a singular unity. The word in Hebrew for a singular unity or singularity is yachid. Every time Jews pray the prayer known as the Shema, they are affirming the oneness of the Almighty, specifically as a composite entity. That is, He is one God with multiple "components" or dimensions, you might say.
Mainline Christianity calls this composite unity the "Trinity" but here again the Hebraic understanding is a bit more nuanced. Judaism has always viewed the Almighty in diverse ways, and His various appearances in the Tanach and the Prophets attests to His many-sided nature. For an in-depth understanding of this concept, we will be launching a series of very comprehensive teachings under the general title of "Messianic Encounters" on its own website. Please sign up to our newsletter to receive more information and an announcement when the site is online.
Modern rabbinic Judaism utterly rejects the notion of a composite G-d because, on the surface, this concept threatens their notion of "monotheism." However, this is a relatively new development, mostly a reactionary one, and it is at odds with traditional Judaism, which saw no problem with a multidimensional or composite G-d whose nature is perfectly captured in the term echad versus yachid.
Echad in Hebrew means "one," but like many Hebrew terms it carries an important connotation that is lost in its plain English translation. Specifically, it connotes a composite unity, as opposed to a singular unity. The word in Hebrew for a singular unity or singularity is yachid. Every time Jews pray the prayer known as the Shema, they are affirming the oneness of the Almighty, specifically as a composite entity. That is, He is one God with multiple "components" or dimensions, you might say.
Mainline Christianity calls this composite unity the "Trinity" but here again the Hebraic understanding is a bit more nuanced. Judaism has always viewed the Almighty in diverse ways, and His various appearances in the Tanach and the Prophets attests to His many-sided nature. For an in-depth understanding of this concept, we will be launching a series of very comprehensive teachings under the general title of "Messianic Encounters" on its own website. Please sign up to our newsletter to receive more information and an announcement when the site is online.
Modern rabbinic Judaism utterly rejects the notion of a composite G-d because, on the surface, this concept threatens their notion of "monotheism." However, this is a relatively new development, mostly a reactionary one, and it is at odds with traditional Judaism, which saw no problem with a multidimensional or composite G-d whose nature is perfectly captured in the term echad versus yachid.
Back to the point...
The point of this background is to explain why our fellowship, the practical outworking arm of Aleph Omega Ministries, is called Beit Echad where Beit means house. It should be clear that we are actually describing the essential (but all too often unrealized) unity of the Body of Messiah (or Christ, for our non-Jewish friends). Our is to be a "House of Unity" - just like the body is made up of many parts to form a whole.
The human body is a great analogy. We tend to think of its parts in a bigger sense -- for example, the head, the arms, the feet, etc. However, biologically speaking, it is actually composed of a much larger number of very tiny "cells."
Our goal is to create not one big, top-down, hierarchical fellowship (as is common) but rather many close-knit cell groups under this concept of Beit Echad. As we are all to be under the "headship" of Yeshua, we trust that each cell group will find its specific calling under His leadership. This was in fact the model of the early body of believers.
The focus of these groups will be to prepare ourselves to become the 'One New Man' Jew and Gentile believers. This involves the study and application of the Torah as the foundation of all Scripture using a Messianic Parashah that includes the Gospel and Epistles linked to the Torah and HafTorah weekly readings.
The human body is a great analogy. We tend to think of its parts in a bigger sense -- for example, the head, the arms, the feet, etc. However, biologically speaking, it is actually composed of a much larger number of very tiny "cells."
Our goal is to create not one big, top-down, hierarchical fellowship (as is common) but rather many close-knit cell groups under this concept of Beit Echad. As we are all to be under the "headship" of Yeshua, we trust that each cell group will find its specific calling under His leadership. This was in fact the model of the early body of believers.
The focus of these groups will be to prepare ourselves to become the 'One New Man' Jew and Gentile believers. This involves the study and application of the Torah as the foundation of all Scripture using a Messianic Parashah that includes the Gospel and Epistles linked to the Torah and HafTorah weekly readings.
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Growth of Beit Echad
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