Lyrically, the album focused on the concept of faith implied by the album's title, "Beyond Belief", with radio singles entitled "Creed", "Love" and "Prayer", as well as the title track and "I Am on the Rock". Musically, the band embraced a hard rock sound reminiscent of Def Leppard, as described by "CCM Magazine": "Petra has certainly moved more and more toward a big, arena rock sound in the past few years (the most obvious fruit of their association with the Elefantes), and "Beyond Belief" is, if not completely Kansas-inspired, certainly on par with some of the best arena rock music around." The band also, for the first time, drew from a handful of local non-accredited artists such as John Wayfield (percussion), Adam Lawson (keyboards) and Mark Strumford (guitar) during the album's recording.