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We believe the following articles of belief are consistent with the teaching of Scripture and fundamental to Christian evangelical orthodoxy. Anyone wanting to engage in networking or joining in discussion with us does not have to agree with our articles of belief. However, anyone who wants to become a member of Thinking Matters must signal their agreement with these documents, without mental reservation. Only members will be allowed to start new groups in the Thinking Matters Network.

The Bible

• We believe that the Bible, comprised of the Old and New Testaments, is completely inspired by God, fully truthful in all it affirms, sufficient in its revelation of His will for mankind, and final in its authority over all we believe and do.

God

• We believe that there is one God, eternally existing in three Persons: the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, each of the same substance, power, dignity, and glory.
• We believe that God is infinite in all his perfections. These include his goodness, manifesting as love, mercy, justice and wrath; and his exhaustive knowledge of all things, past, present, and future, including all human thoughts, acts, and decisions.
• We believe that God is the creator and sustainer of all creation, that He is supreme over it, and that He alone is worthy to receive all glory and adoration.
• We believe that Jesus Christ is the eternal Son of God. He is God incarnate, both fully human and fully God: one Person in two natures.

Humanity

• We believe that God created human beings, male and female, in his own image. In the fall, Adam distorted that image —for himself and all his progeny—by sinning against God. As a result, all people are alienated from God and justly condemned by him.
• We believe that the principal need of humanity is reconciliation with God. Because sin has corrupted us in every aspect of our being, this is only possible by God’s own power and undeserved favor towards us.

The Gospel

• We believe that Jesus is the promised Messiah of Israel, conceived through the miraculous work of the Holy Spirit and born of the virgin, Mary. He lived a sinless life, was crucified, was resurrected bodily from the dead, ascended into heaven, and now intercedes for us before God as our High Priest and Advocate.
• We believe that salvation is accomplished completely in Christ’s substitutionary death on the cross as a propitiation for God’s righteous anger and judgment against sinners. Therefore, the only ground for reconciliation with God is what Christ did on the cross, which we appropriate by faith: our sin imputed to him and his righteousness to us.

Christian Life

• We believe that a life of conversion and genuine character change is the evidence and fruit of salvation. This new spiritual life is alone the supernatural work of the Holy Spirit, who renews, indwells, and empowers believers to be imitators of Christ.
• We believe that being a disciple of Jesus means serving him as Lord at all times in every aspect of our lives: secular as well as spiritual, public as well as private, in deeds as well as words, always reaching out as he did to those who are lost, to the poor, to the sick, to the hungry, to the oppressed, to the socially marginalized, being faithful stewards of creation and our fellow-creatures.

The Church

• We believe that the one, holy, universal Church is the body of Christ and the corporate dwelling place of God’s spirit. The Church is composed of all who have been united with Christ through faith, gathered from every tongue, tribe, people and nation, and called to both proclaim the good news of Jesus Christ and bear witness to God’s inaugurated kingdom.

Future Hope

• We believe in the bodily return of Jesus Christ and the final consummation of his kingdom. At his return, he will exercise his role as final Judge and establish his rule over all creation, in fulfillment of the Father’s gracious purpose, for the glory of God.
• We believe in the bodily resurrection of all people at Christ’s return: the unjust to everlasting punishment, and the just to everlasting blessedness in the presence of God in the new heaven and the new earth.