Inventory of Religious Concepts (IRC)

Man is ultimately responsible to God.

God is like a father, longsuffering, merciful, just, and infinitely kind.

God is the Great Companion who shares with us the travail and tragedy of the world.

God knows our thoughts before we utter them; He is acquainted with all our ways.

There is a spark of God in every man to which His Spirit can speak directly.

We were made to have fellowship with God and our hearts will be restless until they rest in Him.

There is a divine purpose which directs all events for the ultimate good of mankind.

The chief end of man is to glorify God and enjoy Him forever.

"I believe in God the Father Almighty, maker of heaven and earth."

I humbly bow before the glory and majesty of God.

I believe that men working and thinking together can build a just society without any supernatural help.

Belief that in the end God's purposes will be achieved tends to destroy man's sense of social responsibility.

The idea of a personal God is an outworn concept.

We live in a universe which, in so far as we have any reliable evidence, is indifferent to human values.

Belief in God as a personal force, or being, in the universe is not consistent with a scientific view of the world.

"God" is only a symbol of man's ideals.

I can make sense of the world without thinking of any mind higher than man.

The term "God" is a symbol no longer helpful in man's quest for the good life.

Whether there is or is not a God is a matter of indifference to me.

The attempt to believe in God is sign of a person's failure to accept responsibility for his own life.

I believe a mature person should feel a sense of guilt when he fails to serve the needs of men.

There is a fundamental process at work in the world, often symbolized as God, which, though it is related to human purposes, far transcends the mind of man.

God is the symbol of man's assurance that the universe supports his struggle for the larger social values.

God is the personality-producing force in the world.

God is the name given to the underlying, integrating reality of life.

God is that power in the world which works for righteousness.

Whatever obstructs or perverts the growth of quality or meaning in the world is "sin."

I believe that what is most needed today is a spiritual discipline-a way of sensitizing our inner lives to the work of God in the world.

We are all members of one another-Russian, German, American; rich and poor; black and white.

A person developing the quality of life seen in Jesus is realizing the essential purpose of Christianity regardless of his conception of the Bible or the "nature" of Jesus.

I believe God sent His Son Jesus Christ to be the Saviour of the world.

Man by nature is prone to evil rather than good.

I believe the sacrament of baptism is an essential part of the Christian life.

God is triune: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

Man by nature is lost and in need of a saviour.

The Christian church is a divine-human society which God has ordained for the redemption of mankind.

Our hope of immortality rests upon our belief in the Lord Jesus Christ.

Man is saved by the free gift of God's grace.

Regular participation in the Lord's Supper or Holy Communion is to me essential.

I believe in the guidance of the Holy Spirit.

We need to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ to be saved.

Jesus Christ is seated "at the right hand of God the Father Almighty: from thence He shall come to judge the quick and the dead."

Jesus was born of the Virgin Mary in a manner different from all other human beings.

There is a personal Satan.

All who have not accepted Jesus Christ as their personal Saviour are eternally lost.

Hell, in addition to being a description of experiences in this life, is also a form of existence in a future life.

"On the third day Jesus Christ rose from the dead"; after appearing to various persons and groups, He ascended into heaven.

I believe the theory of evolution tends to destroy a true religious faith.

We will be able to know our friends in the future life.

Christ offered himself a perfect sacrifice upon the Cross to take away the sins of the world.

Jesus walked on water and raised the dead.

One's interpretation of any part of the Bible should be made in the light of the findings of Biblical or literary criticism.

The Biblical story of creation is probably based on one of the early Babylonian myths.

All the miraculous deeds of Jesus recorded in the Gospels are reliable history.

The actual time, place, and circumstances of Jesus' birth were predicted in the Old Testament.

The Biblical story of creation is a divine revelation of what actually occurred.

The Biblical writers were endowed with a divine wisdom that enabled them to foretell specific events in the distant future.

We may be reasonably certain today that man evolved from the lower forms of animal life.

All the miracles in the Bible are true.

The Bible contains some books which are definitely inferior from a religious standpoint to some contemporary religious writing.

Man has no right to question the truth of God's Word, which is clearly revealed in the Bible.

The writings of Plato, Aristotle, Dante, and Shakespeare are as inspired as the writings of Moses and Paul.

The Bible in the original manuscript was infallible, i.e., without error.

The "fall of man" in the story of the Garden of Eden is a myth symbolizing the problem of good and evil in the world.

We should attempt to understand and explain, rather than accept on faith, all biblical "miracles."

If I believed that any part of the Biblical record was unreliable, I could no longer have confidence in its moral and spiritual teaching.

The story of Moses contains legendary material.

Many of the sayings in the Gospel of John are interpretations reflecting the mind of the early church rather than reports of what Jesus actually said.

The four Gospels (Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John) contain some legendary material.

The entire account of Jesus' teachings as recorded in the Gospels presents what he actually said.

The work of the church could be just as effectively done by the schools and social agencies.

In general, I consider church attendance a waste of time.

I believe that most people can grow spiritually just as well without going to church.

To me, the church is the greatest single agency for good in the world.

I feel that the work of the church deserves my time and money.

The church deals with platitudes and is afraid to follow the truth.

It is difficult for a person to be honest and still endorse what the church teaches.

I believe the foreign missionary enterprise is one of the most effective means we have for developing a world brotherhood.

In so far as I find it possible, I support the church.