Introduction
Beliefs, in the religious context, are defined as a formulation of creeds which a certain group may agree upon as a common religious attitude. They serve to define a group of people as separate the distinct from another group with a different set of beliefs. Beliefs are specific and easily articulated.
Beliefs are different from faith in many ways. Beliefs may become group possessions, but faith must be personal. Beliefs can be suggested to a group, but faith can rise up only in the heart of the individual. Beliefs are limiting and binding; faith is expanding and releasing. Beliefs fixates, faith liberates.
Beliefs are statements about something. In religion, beliefs are statements about God and about things related to God. They consist of ideas about who God is, what He purposes, what He wants, what He expects, and what He will do. Beliefs are descriptive of ideas. Whereas faith is an experience of the ideal of God – the relationship to His eternal essence, the heart motivation of a worshipful attitude toward God. Beliefs are known, faith is lived.
Though beliefs are not the same as faith, beliefs are on the pathway to faith: knowledge leads to beliefs; beliefs lead to actions; and actions create the experiences from which a living faith is derived. So, in spite of its weakness, beliefs can foster religious unity and fraternal support if they support divine ideals rather than human ideas.
As we have published many times, we are not seeking followers, nor are we seeking to establish a new sect – there are enough sects of Christianity, but not enough spirit-oriented Christians. We do, however, believe it will be beneficial to share with our readers the fundamental beliefs held by the authors of this site so as to provide a clearer picture of who we are. To that end, we developed a Statement of nine beliefs upon which the information on this website is based. This Statement is also published in the section Who We Are.
We propose that if Christianity can agree on a few fundamental beliefs, we can build a united God-oriented society of spiritual brothers and sisters who will have the credibility necessary to attract the remainder of mankind to the glorious worship of our Father in heaven.
