Fillmore Wings Beliefs

Welcome!

I am often asked, What did Charles and Myrtle Fillmore believe and teach? It can be difficult to answer because Charles Fillmore wrote many books and Myrtle Fillmore wrote many letters.

There are, however, two documents in which their beliefs were laid out in a concise form and were consistently published for over six decades: The Correspondence School Lessons, published from 1910 into the 1970s and the Statement of Faith, published from 1921 until 1982. They define what the Fillmores believed–and never regretted proclaiming–and what they demanded their ministers teach.

This volume contains six of the 18 Correspondence School Lessons addressing what is known in Christianity as theology and in philosophy as metaphysics. It is supplemented by the Statement of Faith–given when the Fillmores needed to establish clarity about their teachings in response to criticism from both fundamentalists and liberals.

Besides learning what the Fillmores believed, students of this volume can expect increased clarity in our mental perceptions, a deeper understanding of people and everyday events, and a more focused life purpose.

Rev. Mark Hicks, Publisher and General Editor, Fillmore Wings

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Introduction to Fillmore Wings Beliefs

In 1910, twenty years after their founding of Unity, the Fillmores found themselves in midst of a great disagreement between Christian liberals and Christian Fundamentalists. Orthodox Christian beliefs were losing ground to the effects of science and rationalism. Science had replaced belief in God’s revelation with scientific and historical explanations. Rationalism had replaced belief in God’s active participation in human affairs with logic and principle.

The Liberals and Fundamentalists responded differently. Fundamentalists resorted to teaching the infallibility of the Bible and it’s authority over modern discoveries. Christian liberals embraced what modernity had to say and recognized their new understandings as simply new revelations of Truth. To truly understand the context in which Unity found it’s most rapid growth and the issues it addressed, I recommend William Hordern’s A Layman’s Guide to Protestant Theology, 2nd edition, chapters 2-4.

At almost the same time, around 1910, the Fillmores published the twelve chapters of their first book, Christian Healing, and they published the twelve lessons of the Correspondence School program. The chapter titles of the book are identical to the lesson titles of the correspondence program. They were not to publish another book of their own authorship (or any authorship except Emilie Cady) for another 20 years. These documents should be considered the same work, one focused on a general audience and the other on the training of teachers and ministers.

These works should also be considered the Fillmore response to their critics–Liberal and Fundamentalist alike. They offer an explanation of God’s active participation in human affairs that is congruent with scientific discovery and historical truth. To the Fillmores, God is not a person, but is personal; Jesus is not the essence of God, but God’s perfect essence of humanity; human beings are not depraved or separated from God, but are God’s beloved creation; our thinking is not private, but made powerfull by its oneness with God mind; affirmations are not selfish, but are signs of God tugging at the human heart; the Word of God is not Jesus, nor Scripture, but the spiritual human being.

The Fillmores continue to have their critics today. Like the Fillmores, we need to respond with prayer, faith, imagination, will, understanding, forgiveness, and love–the topics of the six lessons that follow these we are about to explore–Fillmore Wings Practice. We can do that as we read these lessons. Here’s how ...

As you read The True Nature of God, think about our notions of theology; as you read Christ, the Only Begotten of God, think about cosmology; as you read Man, the Image and Likeness of God, think about anthropology; as you read The Formative Power of Thought, think about cosmology; as you read Affirmations and Denials, think about soteriology; as you read The Word, think about pneumatology, eschatology, and the goodness of all expression.

Become conversant with Charles and Myrtle Fillmore’s beliefs and how they relate to these traditional Christian beliefs. Become an advocate for the Fillmores. Start a study group. Engage with those who are looking for a better way. Give the world Fillmore Wings.

–Rev. Mark Hicks, General Editor

Table of Contents

• Welcome
• Introduction
• Fillmore Statement of Faith
• Lesson 7. The True Character of God
• Lesson 8. Christ, The Only Begotten
• Lesson 9. Man, Image and Likeness
• Lesson 10. The Formative Power of Thought
• Lesson 11. Affirmations and Denials
• Lesson 12. The Word

Fillmore Statement of Faith

It was in April 1921 that Charles Fillmore made the daring decision to publish a Statement of Faith. He did so “in response to many requests for our attitude toward certain tenets of the Christian religion.” To counter misperceptions about Unity, Charles Fillmore’s 32 statements of faith declared that “we do believe all that is taught by the church” and that “we believe all the doctrines of the Christian church, spiritually interpreted.”

What is important here is that Charles Fillmore recognized the threat of being misperceived and therefore he took bold steps to address the ambiguity about Unity’s beliefs. His Statement of Faith placed Unity squarely in the Christian camp and unambiguously explained Unity’s unique interpretation of the tenants of the Christian faith.

Greg W. Neteler's Unity Statement of Faith is best commentary available today about the Statement of Faith. Rev. Neteler has graciously granted permission to reprint his book. Our anticipated date for republishing is Summer 2026. Go here for links to a short summary of each of the 32 statements. Links to each statement are also provided further down where the text reads "We believe..."

Go here for more information about the Statement of Faith: www.truthunity.net/statement-of-faith. We now refer to this statement as the Fillmore Statement of Faith because Unity ceased publication of the Statement of Faith in 1982.

FILLMORE STATEMENT OF FAITH

Extracted from Unity Magazine, April 1921

1. We believe in God, the one and only omnipotent, omniscient, and omnipresent Spirit-Mind.
2. We believe in Christ, the Son of God, in whom is imaged the Ideal Creation, with perfect Man on the throne of dominion.
3. We believe in Christ Jesus, the Son of God made manifest in Jesus of Nazareth; who overcame death, and who is now with us in his perfect body as the Way-shower in regeneration for all men.
4. We believe in the baptism of the Holy Spirit, whose law of love is perpetually establishing the Divine Plan in man and in the universe.
5. We believe in the supremacy and the eternity of the Good, as the one and only reality of man and of all things visible and invisible.
6. We believe in the twelve Disciples, the twelve Powers of Man, going forth into mind and body with authority to teach, preach, heal, and wholly save man and the world from sin, sickness, and death.
7. We believe that “God is Spirit,” as taught by Jesus, and that all of his Spirit is with us at all times, supplying every need.
8. We believe that Divine Intelligence is present in every atom of man and matter, and that the “more abundant life” promised by Jesus is flooding the world and quickening the minds and bodies of men everywhere.
9. We believe that the original “authority and dominion” given to man was over his own thoughts, emotions, feelings, passions, and that in the lawful exercise of this authority he will harmonize all discords within and without, and restore the kingdom of God in the earth.
10. We believe in the creative power of thoughts and words, that they do accomplish that whereunto they are sent, and that all men are held accountable for their lightest words.
11. We believe that, through indulgence in sense consciousness, men fell into the belief in the reality of matter and material conditions. We believe that the “kingdom of God” can be attained, here and now, by overcoming the world, the flesh, and the devil, through Jesus Christ.
12. We believe in the atonement that Jesus reestablished between God and man, and that through him we can regain our original estate as Sons of God.
13. We believe that the prayer of faith shall save the sick, resurrect the body from “trespasses and sins,” and finally overcome the last enemy, death.
14. We believe that Jesus Christ, the Son of God, is alive and in the world today. We believe that the “more abundant life” promised by Jesus, is poured into the race stream as a vitalizing energy, and when accepted in faith, purifies the life-flow in our bodies and makes us immune to all diseased thoughts and germs.
15. We believe that sense consciousness may be “lifted up,” as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness,” and all men be again restored to paradise through faith, understanding, and practice of the Divine Law, as taught and demonstrated by Jesus Christ. “And I, if I be raised on high from the earth, will draw All to myself.” (Emphatic Diaglott.)
16. We believe that the Holy Mother, the Divine Feminine, is now being restored to her righteousness, and that she will reign equal with Jehovah in the heavens and the earth.
17. We believe that we live, move, and have our being in God-Mind; also that God-Mind lives, moves, and has being in us, to the degree of our consciousness.
18. We believe that the body of man is the highest formed manifestation of Creative Mind, and that it is capable of unlimited capacity in expressing that Mind. “Know ye not that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit?”
19. We believe that through conscious union with Jesus in the regeneration, man can transform his body and make it perpetually healthy, therefore immortal, and that he can attain eternal life in this way and in no other way.
20. We believe that the “blood” of Jesus represents the consciousness of eternal life; that the “body” of Jesus represents the consciousness of incorruptible substance. We believe that these are original elements in Being and that they can be appropriated by all who through faith and understanding attain the Christ standard of spirituality.
21. We believe that spirit, soul, body, are a unit, and that any separation of these three is transgression of the Divine Law. We believe that the death which came into the world through the Adamic man was death of the body, and that the restoration of the lost Eden is already begun, in the demonstration over the death of the body, as shown in the resurrection, by Jesus.
22. We believe that the separation of spirit, soul, body, caused by death, is overcome by rebirth of the same spirit and soul in another body here on earth. We believe the repeated incarnations of man to be a merciful provision of our loving Father for the final restoration of the whole race to a deathless estate through Christ.
23. We believe that the kingdom of heaven or harmony is within man, and that through man the law and order existing in Divine Mind are to be established in the earth—symbolized in the book of Revelation as the New Jerusalem descending out of the heavens upon the earth.
24. We believe that the “second coming” of Jesus is now being fulfilled; that his spirit is flashing from the east even unto the west, and that all men will feel its quickening.
25. We believe that the Great Commandment given by Jesus in Matthew, is the foundation of the law of life to be established in the earth between men.
26. We believe that Jehovah God is incarnate in Jesus Christ, and that all men may attain the same perfection by living the righteous life.
27. We believe that the Word of God is the thought of God expressed in creative ideas and that these ideas are the primal attributes of all enduring entities in the universe, visible and invisible. The Logos of the first chapter of the Gospel of John is the God Idea or Christ that produced Jesus, the perfect Man. We believe that the Scriptures are the testimonials of men who have apprehended the Divine Logos, but that their testimony should not be taken as final.
28. We believe that all life is sacred and that man should not kill nor be a party to the killing of animals for food; also that cruelty, war, and wanton destruction of human life will continue as long as men kill animals for food.
29. We believe that the misuse of the generative function is responsible for the majority of human ills. Therefore, we believe that purity and control of sex are essential to health and the final overcoming of death.
30. We believe in the final resurrection of the body through Christ. We believe that we do free our minds and resurrect our bodies by true thoughts and words, and that this resurrection being carried forward daily, will ultimate in a final purification of the body from all earthly errors. Through this process, we shall be raised to the consciousness of continuous health and eternal life here and now.
31. We believe all the doctrines of the Christian church, spiritually interpreted.
32. Almighty Father-Mother, we thank thee for this vision of thy omnipotence, omniscience, and omnipresence, in us and in all that we think and do, in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen!

[The foregoing “Statement of Faith” is condensed from Unity literature; it covers nearly all the points of doctrine that have been formulated up to date.

We have considered the restrictions that will follow a formulated platform, and are hereby giving warning that we shall not be bound by this tentative statement of what Unity believes. We may change our minds tomorrow on some of the points, and if we do, we shall feel free to make a new statement of faith in harmony with the new viewpoint. However, we are assured that there will be no change in fundamentals; the form of words may be clarified and the inner and outer meaning of the Truth may be more clearly set forth.

However, the foregoing is the best we have to offer at this writing, and it is made in response to many requests for our attitude toward certain tenets of the Christian religion.

It has often been claimed that we do not believe in Christ, the atonement, and several other of the sacred doctrines of Christianity. A careful perusal of the foregoing will convince any one that we do believe all that is taught by the church, and also that our faith is bulwarked by an understanding of the underlying spiritual laws upon which the church bases its doctrines.

Those who want a detailed exposition of what we teach should write to us for the literature that more fully explains the doctrine epitomized in a certain paragraph, always giving the number. Regular readers of our periodicals and our literature, as printed in books and tracts, will at once recognize that they have gleaned, it may be in fragmentary and scattered study, a concept of the various points set forth in this “Statement of Faith.”—EDITOR.]