Institute of Religious Science
First Church of Religious Science

A today teaching for today's world
Revealing Each Individual's Spiritual Magnificence

The Reverend Wade Adkisson, Pastor

What We Believe

Declaration of Principles

by Ernest Holmes

We believe in God, the Living Spirit Almighty; one, indestructible, absolute, and self-existent Cause. This One manifests itself in and through all creation but is not absorbed by its creation. The manifest universe is the body of God; it is the theological and necessary outcome of the infinite self-knowingness of God.

  We believe in the incarnation of the Spirit in everyone and that all people are incarnations of the One Spirit.

  We believe in the eternality, the immortality, and the continuity of the individual soul, forever and ever expanding.

  We believe that the Kingdom of Heaven is within us and that we experience this Kingdom to the degree that we become conscious of it.

  We believe the ultimate goal to be a complete emancipation from all discord of every nature, and that this goal is sure to be attained by all.

  We believe in the unity of all life, and that the highest God and the innermost God is one God.

  We believe that God is personal to all who feel this Indwelling Presence.

  We believe in the direct revelation of Truth through the intuitive and spiritual nature of the individual, and that any person may become a revealer of Truth who lives in close contact with the Indwelling God.

  We believe that the Universal Spirit, which is God, operates through a Universal Mind, which is the Law of God; and that we are surrounded by this Creative Mind which receives the direct impress of our thought and acts upon it.

  We believe in the healing of the sick through the power of this Mind. We believe in the control of conditions through the power of this Mind.

  We believe in the eternal Goodness, the eternal Loving-kindness, and the eternal Givingness of Life to all.

  We believe in our own soul, our own spirit, and our own destiny; for we understand that the life of all is God.