What we believe in
CITY VIEW CHURCH CORE THEOLOGICAL BELIEFS AND IDENTITY
GOD
The self-revealed God of Scripture is three in one. There is only one God who eternally exists in three divine co-eternal persons, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. These three persons are equal in glory, power and honor. We reject all forms of subordinationism, mutualism or anti-Trinitarian thought. We affirm God’s absolute aseity, simplicity, impassibility, and immutability. We believe that Jesus Christ is fully God and fully man.
MAN
We believe that all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. Therefore, man is born with original sin and his identity in Adam is one of sin, guilt, and moral corruption. In man’s sinful state, men and women are in bondage to their fallen will. In his fallen state, man can do no good in the eyes of a holy God. Despite being fallen, man is still created in God’s image and owes God everything. Man’s ultimate value and purpose is realized solely in Christ through redemption and consummation. Man exists for God’s glory.
We believe that God created man in His image, and in a covenant relationship from the beginning. From the moment of his creation, man’s knowledge of God and fellowship with God were con-created and not supernaturally added to man’s original and natural state (as Roman Catholicism teaches). God created man in His image, male and female as the image of God. Man is not the byproduct of random chance and evolution, or subject to the “progress” of evolution, but a direct byproduct of the creative power of God. God created man in His image to be both body and soul. God created man, both male and female for the purpose of reflecting God’s glory in the covenant of marriage. We reject all forms of homosexual unions, and other unbiblical perversions of marriage. Marriage is strictly between one man and one woman in a covenant for life. We reject all forms of confusion regarding the biblical categories of male and female. As God’s image, man was created with great dignity and worth, the nature of man cannot be changed into something beyond that nature.
We reject any scientific claims concerning changing or enhancing the nature/essence of man through technology of any kind. Being created in the image of God means that man was created for a great eschatological purpose beyond this world. God’s image will be perfected in heaven alone as Christ through the Spirit glorifies His resurrected people.
SALVATION
Salvation is the work of God, and a gift of God to sinful man. Salvation is received by grace through faith, and we believe in monergestic regeneration. God is sovereign in every aspect of man’s salvation from beginning to end. Faith is a gift of God imparted to us in regeneration. We believe in the Reformed doctrine of the ordo of salutis. We believe in the Doctrines of Grace. We reject that obedience at any stage of the Christian life is the ground of our justification and final glorification.
REVELATION
We believe the Bible is the byproduct of divine revelation. We believe in the inspiration, inerrancy, an absolute sufficiency of the word of God for all time. We believe in the unity of the Old and New Testaments as the holy Scriptures. We reject all forms of ongoing revelation, inspired tradition, or a liberal approaches to the doctrine of divine revelation. All of Scripture is Christian Scripture and is organically connected and theologically harmonious. Scripture is the final authority in the church of God and for the Christian worldview.
THE CHURCH
We believe the Church of Christ consists of elders and deacons who stand beneath the authority of God’s word and faithfully equip the body of Christ for ministry. We believe it is the duty of the elders to faithfully and humbly lead and shepherd the church of God under Christ’s authority. We believe in the ministry of the local church to impart the means of grace to God’s elect by preaching the word of God, faithfully preaching the gospel of Jesus Christ, enforcing church discipline, and dispensing the sacraments of baptism and the Lord supper. We believe the apostles and prophets are the foundation of the church. We affirm Reformed Cessationism. The charismatic sign gifts have ceased with the close of the apostolic age. We reject all forms of ongoing revelation and believe Scripture is sufficient for all matters that pertain to life and practice in the church and for the Christian life.
THE CONSUMMATION
We believe in the literal, visible, impending and bodily return of Jesus Christ to this earth. We believe that Jesus Christ will consummate the eternal kingdom of God and usher in the new heavens and the new earth. We believe biblical eschatology is both already and not yet. We believe the return of Jesus Christ will terminate the present evil age, destroy the Antichrist system, deliver His people, result in the judgment of the living and the dead, and usher in His everlasting kingdom. We reject all forms of Christian Reconstructionism; Christ alone will renew the world, not the church. He is preparing a place for us, we are not preparing a place for him through cultural change. The eschatological mission of the church is evangelistic not political. We affirm, historic Reformed Amillennialism and pilgrim theology, and reject both dispensational Premillennialism and theonomic Postmillennialism in all of its forms. We believe the return of Jesus Christ is the blessed hope of the church. Maranatha!
REFORMED THEOLOGY
We believe in the historic doctrines of the Reformed faith. We have substantial agreement with the Reformed confessions of the faith (especially the Westminster Confession, and the London Baptist Confession 1689). We affirm the Five Solas of the Reformation, the Doctrines of Grace, and Reformed Federalism (Reformed and Baptistic Covenant Theology). We explicitly affirm the distinction between the Covenant of Works and the Covenant of Grace, the distinction between the Law and the Gospel. We affirm Redemptive Historical Hermeneutics. RHH affirms the Christ-centered nature of Scripture, the typological purpose of Israel, and the unity of the elect church of God throughout all ages.
Soli Deo Gloria
We are also in substantial agreement with the great creeds and confessions of the Reformed Faith: