Yahweh’s Restoration Ministry is one of many denominations of the Yahweh religion. Last week, we explored some of the things members believe in based on biblical references. Today, we are looking at some of the their practices based also on biblical references.
Yahweh’s Restoration Ministry is saying that for true repentance to be achieved, a person, who must be at least 20 years old, has to be baptised into the “saving name of Yahshua”, the Messiah. Baptism is by way of being submerged once, backway, into water. It is through this submersion that he or she becomes a new person, “free of our old carnal nature”.
As for the Adventists, the Sabbath is the seventh day of the week and commemorates the creation by “Yahweh’s mighty hand”. The weekly Sabbath is a relationship between Yahweh and His people, “setting them apart from the common world”. No form of work, including cooking, must take place on the Sabbath, nor should there be any commercial activity. It is a day to pray and meditate on Yahweh’s “will and to forsake our own wants and desires”.
Believers observe the Passover memorial, which begins at dusk at the start of the 14th day of Abib (month of green ears of barley). The Passover represents two significant events: the death of the firstborn of Egypt and the passing of the death angel, and the Crucifixion. It is a memorial day on which work might be done.
There is no sacrificial lamb, but there is the consumption of the symbolic Matzoth (unleavened bread, representing Yashua’s body) and unfermented grape juice (the blood of Yashua). The Feast of Unleavened Bread lasts from the 15th day of the month of Abib to the 21st. The first and last days of this seven-day observance are regarded as high days on which Yahweh must be worshipped. No leavened bread must be kept in homes or be eaten.
The Feast of Weeks (Shavuoth in Hebrew) or Pentecost is the third of the seven annual observances. This feast is to be calculated from within the Feast of Unleavened Bread. The count starts from the day after the weekly Sabbath that falls within the Feast of Unleavened Bread until seven weeks have been completed. On this day, the gathering of worshippers receives “the outpouring of the Holy Spirit”.
The Feast of Trumpets is another High Sabbath, a memorial of blowing trumpets, that falls on the first day of the seventh biblical month. Then there is the Day of Atonement, on the 10th day of the seventh biblical month. On this day, no work is to be done, and believers must abstain from food and drink. The Feast of Tabernacles or the Feast of Ingathering starts on the 15th day of the seventh biblical month and lasts to the 21st. It is a seven-day feast that has a ‘High Day’ on the 15th day of Tishri.
To converts, marriage is a lifelong union between one man and one woman, and people should only remarry upon the death of a spouse. And since marriage should be between only one man and one woman, homosexual and polygamous marriages and unions are forbidden, likewise the eating of unclean food.
During worship, all women must have their heads covered while all men are to leave their heads uncovered. Only men are permitted to speak before the assembly of believers, and women must remain silent during formal worship. Giving tithes is a biblical practice to which all believers must be committed. A tithe is 10 per cent of a person’s income, and a second tithe is to be set aside to “insure sufficient means to attend His Feast”.
A check with other denominations revealed that they have similar beliefs and practices, but there are also significant differences to the point where some denominations are wary and suspicious of one another’s doctrines and teachings.