OUR BELIEFS

The Holy Bible was written by men divinely inspired and is God’s revelation of Himself to man. It is a perfect treasure of divine instruction. It has God for its author, salvation for its end, and truth, without any mixture of error, for its matter. Therefore, all Scripture is totally true and trustworthy. It reveals the principles by which God judges us, and therefore is, and will remain to the end of the world, the true center of Christian union, and the supreme standard by which all human conduct, creeds, and religious opinions should be tried. All Scripture is a testimony to Christ, who is Himself the focus of divine revelation.

Exodus 24:4; Deuteronomy 4:1-2; 17:19; Joshua 8:34; Psalms 19:7-10; 119:11,89,105,140; Isaiah 34:16; 40:8; Jeremiah 15:16; 36:1-32; Matthew 5:17-18; 22:29; Luke 21:33; 24:44-46; John 5:39; 16:13-15; 17:17; Acts 2:16ff.; 17:11; Romans 15:4; 16:25-26; 2 Timothy 3:15-17; Hebrews 1:1-2; 4:12; 1 Peter 1:25; 2 Peter 1:19-21.

There is one and only one living and true God. He is an intelligent, spiritual, and personal Being, the Creator, Redeemer, Preserver, and Ruler of the universe. God is infinite in holiness and all other perfections. God is all powerful and all knowing; and His perfect knowledge extends to all things, past, present, and future, including the future decisions of His free creatures. To Him we owe the highest love, reverence, and obedience. The eternal triune God reveals Himself to us as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, with distinct personal attributes, but without division of nature, essence, or being.

A) God the Father

God as Father reigns with providential care over His universe, His creatures, and the flow of the stream of human history according to the purposes of His grace. He is all powerful, all knowing, all loving, and all wise. God is Father in truth to those who become children of God through faith in Jesus Christ. He is fatherly in His attitude toward all mankind.

Genesis 1:1; 2:7; Exodus 3:14; 6:2-3; 15:11ff.; 20:1ff.; Leviticus 22:2; Deuteronomy 6:4; 32:6; 1 Chronicles 29:10; Psalm 19:1-3; Isaiah 43:3,15; 64:8; Jeremiah 10:10; 17:13; Matthew 6:9ff.; 7:11; 23:9; 28:19; Mark 1:9-11; John 4:24; 5:26; 14:6-13; 17:1-8; Acts 1:7; Romans 8:14-15; 1 Corinthians 8:6; Galatians 4:6; Ephesians 4:6; Colossians 1:15; 1 Timothy 1:17; Hebrews 11:6; 12:9; 1 Peter 1:17; 1 John 5:7.

B) God the Son

Christ is the eternal Son of God. In His incarnation as Jesus Christ He was conceived of the Holy Spirit and born of the virgin Mary. Jesus perfectly revealed and did the will of God, taking upon Himself human nature with its demands and necessities and identifying Himself completely with mankind yet without sin. He honored the divine law by His personal obedience, and in His substitutionary death on the cross He made provision for the redemption of mankind from sin. He was raised from the dead with a glorified body and appeared to His disciples as the person who was with them before His crucifixion. He ascended into heaven and is now exalted at the right hand of God where He is the One Mediator, fully God, fully man, in whose Person is effected the reconciliation between God and man. He will return in power and glory to judge the world and to consummate His redemptive mission. He now dwells in all believers as the living and ever present Lord.

Genesis 18:1ff.; Psalms 2:7ff.; 110:1ff.; Isaiah 7:14; Isaiah 53:1-12; Matthew 1:18-23; 3:17; 8:29; 11:27; 14:33; 16:16,27; 17:5; 27; 28:1-6,19; Mark 1:1; 3:11; Luke 1:35; 4:41; 22:70; 24:46; John 1:1-18,29; 10:30,38; 11:25-27; 12:44-50; 14:7-11; 16:15-16,28; 17:1-5, 21-22; 20:1-20,28; Acts 1:9; 2:22-24; 7:55-56; 9:4-5,20; Romans 1:3-4; 3:23-26; 5:6-21; 8:1-3,34; 10:4; 1 Corinthians 1:30; 2:2; 8:6; 15:1-8,24-28; 2 Corinthians 5:19-21; 8:9; Galatians 4:4-5; Ephesians 1:20; 3:11; 4:7-10; Philippians 2:5-11; Colossians 1:13-22; 2:9; 1 Thessalonians 4:14-18; 1 Timothy 2:5-6; 3:16; Titus 2:13-14; Hebrews 1:1-3; 4:14-15; 7:14-28; 9:12-15,24-28; 12:2; 13:8; 1 Peter 2:21-25; 3:22; 1 John 1:7-9; 3:2; 4:14-15; 5:9; 2 John 7-9; Revelation 1:13-16; 5:9-14; 12:10-11; 13:8; 19:16.

C) God the Holy Spirit

The Holy Spirit is the Spirit of God, fully divine. He inspired holy men of old to write the Scriptures. Through illumination He enables mankind to understand truth. He exalts Christ. He convicts us of sin, of righteousness, and of judgment. He calls us to the Saviour and effects regeneration. At the moment of regeneration He brings every believer into the Body of Christ. He cultivates Christian character, comforts believers, and bestows the spiritual gifts by which they serve God through His church. He seals the believer unto the day of final redemption. His presence in the Christian is the guarantee that God will bring the believer into the fullness of the stature of Christ. He enlightens and empowers the believer and the church in worship, evangelism, and service.

It is our understanding that the empowerments of the Spirit are not to be seen as a list where each believer only has a few “gifts” they receive when becoming a Christian. Instead, they are to be viewed as some of the many ways the Spirit may empower believers in various ways and circumstances throughout their life. In other words, we should desire for God to use us to love and encourage others through the power of his Spirit, and eagerly ask Him to do it in any way he sees fit.

Genesis 1:2; Judges 14:6; Job 26:13; Psalms 51:11; 139:7ff.; Isaiah 61:1-3; Joel 2:28-32; Matthew 1:18; 3:16; 4:1; 12:28-32; 28:19; Mark 1:10,12; Luke 1:35; 4:1,18-19; 11:13; 12:12; 24:49; John 4:24; 14:16-17,26; 15:26; 16:7-14; Acts 1:8; 2:1-4,38; 4:31; 5:3; 6:3; 7:55; 8:17,39; 10:44; 13:2; 15:28; 16:6; 19:1-6; Romans 8:9-11,14-16,26-27; 1 Corinthians 2:10-14; 3:16; 12:3-11,13; Galatians 4:6; Ephesians 1:13-14; 4:30; 5:18; 1 Thessalonians 5:19; 1 Timothy 3:16; 4:1; 2 Timothy 1:14; 3:16; Hebrews 9:8,14; 2 Peter 1:21; 1 John 4:13; 5:6-7; Revelation 1:10; 22:17.

Human beings are the special creation of God, made in His own image. He created them male and female as the crowning work of His creation. The gift of gender is thus part of the goodness of God’s creation. In the beginning mankind was innocent of sin and was endowed by his Creator with freedom of choice. By their free choice Adam and Eve sinned against God and brought sin into the human race.

Through the temptation of Satan mankind transgressed the command of God, and fell from our original innocence whereby our posterity inherit a nature and an environment inclined toward sin. Only the grace of God can bring men and women into His holy fellowship and enable us to fulfill the creative purpose of God. The sacredness of human personality is evident in that God created men and women in His own image, and in that Christ died for man; therefore, every person of every race possesses full dignity and is worthy of respect and Christian love.

Genesis 1:26-30; 2:5,7,18-22; 3; 9:6; Psalms 1; 8:3-6; 32:1-5; 51:5; Isaiah 6:5; Jeremiah 17:5; Matthew 16:26; Acts 17:26-31; Romans 1:19-32; 3:10-18,23; 5:6,12,19; 6:6; 7:14-25; 8:14-18,29; 1 Corinthians 1:21-31; 15:19,21-22; Ephesians 2:1-22; Colossians 1:21-22; 3:9-11.

All human beings are created by God to bear His image. They are the crowning work of His creation worthy of love, dignity, and respect regardless of matters like age, race, gender, or class.

Because of sin which began in the Garden of Eden in Genesis chapter 3, the image of God in people is distorted but not lost. All people have disobeyed God willfully through sin; thus inheriting both physical and spiritual death and the need for redemption. All human beings are born with a sin nature and into an environment inclined toward sin. Only by the grace of God through Jesus Christ can they experience salvation.

Jesus is both fully God and fully human. He was born of a virgin, lived a sinless life, died on the Cross as a substitute for mankind, was raised from the dead, ascended into heaven, and will one day return. Salvation comes only through Jesus Christ, the only mediator between God and man. No other religion, belief, or person can reconcile God and man. He alone can provide forgiveness and eternal salvation.

Salvation comes only through a faith relationship with Jesus Christ, the Savior, as a person repents of sin and receives Christ’s forgiveness and eternal life. Salvation is instantaneous and accomplished solely by the power of the Holy Spirit through the Word of God. This salvation is wholly of God by grace on the basis of Christ’s life, death and resurrection, not on the basis of human works. It is a free gift from God to all who repent of their sins and place their trust in Jesus.

Genesis 3:15; Exodus 3:14-17; 6:2-8; Matthew 1:21; 4:17; 16:21-26; 27:22-28:6; Luke 1:68-69; 2:28-32; John 1:11-14,29; 3:3-21,36; 5:24; 10:9,28-29; 15:1-16; 17:17; Acts 2:21; 4:12; 15:11; 16:30-31; 17:30-31; 20:32; Romans 1:16-18; 2:4; 3:23-25; 4:3ff.; 5:8-10; 6:1-23; 8:1-18,29-39; 10:9-10,13; 13:11-14; 1 Corinthians 1:18,30; 6:19-20; 15:10; 2 Corinthians 5:17-20; Galatians 2:20; 3:13; 5:22-25; 6:15; Ephesians 1:7; 2:8-22; 4:11-16; Philippians 2:12-13; Colossians 1:9-22; 3:1ff.; 1 Thessalonians 5:23-24; 2 Timothy 1:12; Titus 2:11-14; Hebrews 2:1-3; 5:8-9; 9:24-28; 11:1-12:8,14; James 2:14-26; 1 Peter 1:2-23; 1 John 1:6-2:11; Revelation 3:20; 21:1-22:5.

We believe in the sovereignty of God’s grace in saving sinners. We affirm that God chose us in Christ before the foundation of the world, not on the basis of foreseen faith but unconditionally, according to his sovereign good pleasure and will.

We teach that through the work of the Holy Spirit, God will draw those he has chosen to faith in his Son, our Lord Jesus Christ. We teach that we were dead in our trespasses and sins (Ephesians 2:1), but God, being rich in mercy, made us alive in Christ by his grace (Ephesians 2:4-5).

We believe that those who have been saved by God’s grace through faith, and because we cannot earn our salvation through anything we do, we also cannot lose it by anything we do. However, scripture is clear that believers are to persevere and not turn from following Christ. We believe that God’s sovereignty in salvation neither diminishes the responsibility of people to believe in Christ nor marginalizes the necessity and power of prayer and evangelism, but rather reinforces and establishes them as the ordained means by which God accomplishes his ordained ends.

John 1:12-13; 6:37-44; 10:25-30; Acts 13:48; 16:30-31; Romans 3:1-4:25; 8:1-17, 31-39; 9:1-23; 10:8-10; Ephesians 1:4-5; 2:8-10; Philippians 2:12-13; Titus 3:3-7; 1 John 1:7,9

A New Testament church of the Lord Jesus Christ is a local congregation of baptized believers, associated by covenant in the faith and fellowship of the gospel; observing the two ordinances of Christ, governed by His laws, exercising the gifts, rights, and privileges invested in them by His Word, and seeking to extend the gospel to the ends of the earth. Each congregation operates under the Lordship of Christ. In such a congregation each member is responsible and accountable to Christ as Lord. 

Men and women are together the recipients of spiritual gifts designed to empower them for ministry in the local church and beyond. Therefore, women are to be encouraged, equipped, and empowered to utilize their gifts in ministry, in service to the body of Christ, and through teaching in ways that are consistent with the Word of God. At New City we welcome and encourage women to lead and use their gifting through leading community groups, serve teams, and staff positions

While both men and women are gifted for service in the church, the office of pastor/elder/overseer is limited to men as qualified by Scripture.

The New Testament speaks also of the church as the Body of Christ which includes all of the redeemed of all the ages, believers from every tribe, and tongue, and people, and nation.

Matthew 16:15-19; 18:15-20; Acts 2:41-42,47; 5:11-14; 6:3-6; 13:1-3; 14:23,27; 15:1-30; 16:5; 20:28; Romans 1:7; 1 Corinthians 1:2; 3:16; 5:4-5; 7:17; 9:13-14; 12; Ephesians 1:22-23; 2:19-22; 3:8-11,21; 5:22-32; Philippians 1:1; Colossians 1:18; 1 Timothy 2:9-14; 3:1-15; 4:14; Hebrews 11:39-40; 1 Peter 5:1-4; Revelation 2-3; 21:2-3.

Christian baptism is the immersion of a believer in water. It is an act of obedience symbolizing the believer’s faith in a crucified, buried, and risen Savior, the believer’s death to sin, the burial of the old life, and the resurrection to walk in newness of life in Christ Jesus.

We teach believer’s baptism by immersion. Meaning, that baptism is meant for people who are knowingly able to place their faith in Christ. Baptism is the next step for anyone who becomes a follower of Christ. Ideally, baptism takes place soon after conversion. For those that were baptized as infants, we believe that believer’s baptism is still an important step for you to publicly declare what your parents hoped for you as a child. 

The Lord’s Supper is a symbolic act of obedience whereby members of the church, through partaking of the bread and the cup, memorialize and remember the death of Jesus and anticipate His second coming.

Matthew 3:13-17; 26:26-30; 28:19-20; Mark 1:9-11; 14:22-26; Luke 3:21-22; 22:19-20; John 3:23; Acts 2:41-42; 8:35-39; 16:30-33; 20:7; Romans 6:3-5; 1 Corinthians 10:16,21; 11:23-29; Colossians 2:12.

Believers can, and do, differ on how God created the universe and the timeline in which it happened. While these things are not unimportant, one’s view of how God created is not a litmus test as to whether someone is a believer or not.

At New City, we teach and believe that faithful believers can differ as to how God created (i.e. age of the earth, how long it took, etc.). That being said we also affirm and teach the following:

• God is the Creator of all things
• A literal, specially created Adam and Eve, who are the head of the entire human race
• Due to the sin of Adam and Eve, evil and brokenness entered our world, and God’s creation now is not what it once was.

Genesis 1:1; Genesis 1:26-27; Genesis 3

We believe that God will bring the world to its appropriate end in His own time and in His own way. At that time, Jesus Christ will return personally and visibly in glory to the earth. Christ will judge both the saved and the unsaved. Those who have trusted Christ will receive a glorified body and dwell forever with the Lord.

Faithful Christians differ on the time and manner in which Christ will return. New City Church would prefer to be on the welcoming committee, not the planning committee. Regardless of when and how Jesus returns, our mandate as followers of Christ is unchanged. We are to live faithfully with the hope and prayer that God would allow us to bring as many people into a saving relationship with him until he returns.

Matthew 24:36-44; 1 Thessalonians 5:1-2; Revelation 19:11-16

We teach and believe that marriage is a divine institution established by God himself as a lifelong relationship between one man and one woman and reveals the relationship between Christ and the Church. Any sexual relationships outside the covenantal marriage of one man and one woman lay outside God’s design for marriage and sexual relationships. 

Divorce is a departure from God’s purpose for marriage. However, divorce is morally justified, and is not sin in God’s sight, if the other spouse has committed adultery or has abandoned the marriage and all attempts at reconciliation have failed. In such cases where divorce is morally justified, it is allowed by God but not required, and, if possible, reconciliation and attempting to preserve the marriage should be the first choice. But when a divorce has occurred for one of these reasons, then the marriage no longer exists, and the spouse who obtained a divorce because of such a reason is viewed as a single person in God’s sight and is free to marry someone else.

Remarriage: When a sexually immoral relationship has brought about a divorce, or abandonment of the marriage vows by the spouse has occurred, the party innocent of adultery and/or abandonment has biblical grounds for divorce, and may remarry (Matt 5:32). Persons who remarry after being divorced not on biblical grounds are guilty of adultery (Matt 5:32). We would not encourage anyone to marry someone guilty of adultery or abandonment, nor anyone who obtained divorce without biblical grounds (Mark 10:11-12; Matt 19:9).

If a person divorces not on biblical grounds and the former spouse remarries, that remarried spouse has committed adultery and has ended the original relationship. The innocent, unmarried spouse may remarry (Matt 5:32; 19:9). If a divorce occurs outside of Biblical grounds, the church would still consider that marriage in effect.

If after being divorced, one of the original, married spouses dies, the living spouse is free to remarry (Rom 7:2; 1 Cor 7:35).

Children, from the moment of conception, are a blessing and heritage from the Lord. Parents are to demonstrate to their children God’s pattern for marriage. Parents are to teach their children spiritual and moral values and to lead them, through a consistent lifestyle example and loving discipline, to make choices based on biblical truth. Children are to honor and obey their parents. 

Marriage is created by God and matters to God, so it must matter to us as well. Lastly, we are all sinners in need of grace. If you entered into your current marriage, or previously divorced in an unbiblical manner, it is clear that God wants you to stay married, and your current marriage is not somehow less important nor less legitimate than any others.

Genesis 2:18; Genesis 2:24; Matt 5:32; 19:9; Romans 1:26-27, 32; 1 Corinthians 6:9; Ephesians 5; Rom 7:2; 1 Cor 7:35