WHEN asked what Christian Quest believes, our reply must be that an organization cannot have beliefs. People have beliefs, and their beliefs are based on varied perceptions according to their own life experience. An organization can be a powerful vehicle for a few people to enforce their beliefs upon many people, as is the case in authoritarian groups and societies. Or an organization can serve to unite people of common interest and cause for the advancement and mutual benefit of all, while promoting positive development of their individuality as being in the image of God.

    Christian Quest is an international community of people who share in study of the Scriptures and other educational resources, seeking to learn about our infinite Creator and His Son, and to understand His revealed message and purpose for humanity. Thereby, we strive to live by the biblical principles and morals, to the best of our understanding, leaving judgment to the One whose right it is in matters of interpretation.

    Our unity is our faith in Jesus Christ as redeemer of humankind through his sinless life, death and resurrection. By this, according to His promise, we have hope of everlasting life in His Kingdom of righteousness. Realizing that our relationship with God through Christ is personal, He alone being our mediator, we are not subjects to the authority of any human organization or hierarchy. Christian Quest, rather than an organization to be served, is an organization to serve -- facilitating Christian fellowship among friends in shared communion. As such, we have no official membership aside from a mailing list for our Bible study journal, The Good News, which is distributed to friends and supporters of CQ worldwide.

    We hold the Bible to be sufficient for defining God and His purpose, and therefore have not embraced any doctrines nor creeds of men apart from the Scriptures, believing that such have served only to cause divisions in the Church, which is the body of Christ, which we hold to be not human organizations, but all people who "believe on Him" and serve in that faith.

    Our goal is that through our collective association and study, what is important will shine through to our hearts and minds. In areas where the scriptures are not explicit, lending to varied interpretations, we must not be dogmatic. Christian Quest is primarily a Biblical study fellowship, not for enforcing interpretations, but leaving it for each person to yield their own conscience to the holy spirit. If God is not explicit, we must not be adamant. Therefore, we have different ideas about some of the nonessentials, but in respect for our differences we have unity without conformity.

    We seek to understand the Bible record throughout all of its phases in light of the circumstances, customs and the culture of the Jewish people in the sequence of time when the accounts were written. We believe our Creator is revealed not only through inspirations of the Bible, but also by our own conscious existence and all that we can observe with awe of His magnificent universe and creation itself. Therefore, the Bible and true scientific discovery are not at odds, but complement one another in revealing God, each serving to enlighten the other, one for knowledge and one for faith, so that together they light the way, as a flame and candle serve together to light a path in darkness.

    With the foregoing having been said, we offer these general statements of belief as guidelines for faith:

• The Bible contains the inspired Word of God, wherein a story unfolds through a nation of people, Israel, dramatizing God's plan for redemption and his purpose for the salvation of mankind.
  
  
• The purpose of the Bible, as brought forth and preserved through the one nation of people, Israel, was to bring focus of the whole world upon the One sent to redeem mankind.
  
  
• That one sent was Jesus (or Yeshua), the Messiah, Jehovah's only begotten Son through whom "all nations will be blessed."
  
  
• By his sinless life, death, and resurrection, we are justified and have the opportunity for everlasting life in righteousness.
  
  
• All who profess faith in His saving grace are invited to express their faith by water immersion, which symbolizes death in sin and resurrection to life (Rom. 6:4; Eph.4:5; Col. 2:12; 1Pet.3:21), and by sharing the emblems of bread and wine that signify his body and blood sacrifice which redeemed us for life. (John 6:51-58)
  
  
• We are under the divine commandments of love. This means to love God, ourselves, our fellow humans, the earth and all its creatures. To love calls for action of doing good whenever it is in our power; to help the sick and share with the needy; and tell the good news about Messiah and His Kingdom.