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Mission Statement

The mission of Spirit and Truth Fellowship is to be a church where sincere skeptics are welcomed in an atmosphere of mutual respect so that they can consider the possibility that God exists and understand what it means to have a relationship with Him.

Who is a "Sincere Skeptic?"

A skeptic is a person who demands proof in order to believe in something. A basic tenet of scientific method is that theories must be able to be tested, so members of the scientific community are essentially trained to be skeptics. Skepticism of Christian beliefs is not limited to the scientifically-minded. One of Jesus' own disciples—Thomas—was a skeptic.

"The other disciples therefore said unto him, We have seen the LORD. But he said unto them, Except I shall see in his hands the print of the nails, and put my finger into the print of the nails, and thrust my hand into his side, I will not believe" (John 20:25 KJV).

Thomas was given the opportunity to eliminate all of his doubts when the resurrected Jesus appeared to him and showed him the physical evidence of his crucifixion. But today, the biblical standard for belief is the eyewitness testimony of first-century Christians that was written down and transmitted to us as the New Testament Bible. Near the time of his death, Jesus prayed "for them also which shall believe on me through their word," (John 17:20 KJV) and later he said to Thomas, "blessed are they that have not seen, and yet have believed" (John 20:29 KJV). Skeptics are usually quick to point out that eyewitness testimony is considered to be the least reliable form of evidence, so belief truly becomes a matter of faith.

A sincere skeptic is a skeptic who faces with an open mind the decision about whether or not to believe in the resurrection of Jesus Christ in the absence of physical evidence. The sincere skeptic is not cynical, neither does he replace reason with sarcasm.

What do me mean by "Mutual Respect"?

For hundreds of years, representatives of the church founded by Jesus Christ have been at odds with the scientific community. Spirit and Truth Fellowship is intended to be a Christian counterculture whose members and supporters do not judge science as innately contrary to scripture. Where science and the Bible do not appear to agree, the failure is neither in the data nor in the verses but in our understanding of how the two fit together.

Mutual respect requires a commitment on the part of both sincere skeptics and sincere Christian believers to recognize that the other desires to understand truth. Jesus said,

"To this end was I born, and for this cause came I into the world, that I should bear witness unto the truth" (John 18:37 KJV).

Both skeptic and believer should agree that science is the pursuit of truth about the natural world, and the study of scripture is the pursuit of truth about God. Generally, it is a mistake to allow one discipline to cross over into the domain of the other discipline, although there can be exceptions. For example, the skeptic should respect Genesis 1:3, "And God said, Let there be light: and there was light." The Christian should respect the science that seeks to understand how gas and dust in the early universe formed galaxies, stellar nurseries, systems of planets, and eventually light from the first solar ignition.

Mutual respect does not mean tolerance. No one wants to be "tolerated" for what they believe! Jesus did not teach tolerance, but love. "By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another" (John 13:35 KJV).




Spirit and Truth Fellowship / contact@spirit-and-truth.net