What We Believe
The Bible
The Scriptures, both Old and New Testaments, are the inspired and infallible revelation of God to man and the authority of faith and conduct. City Post Church accepts the Bible as the revealed will of God, as the all-sufficient rule of faith, and standard for daily living. The Bible, all sixty-six books, is Holy Scripture and the inspired true Word of God. It is fully authoritative and our only absolutely trustworthy guide for life and faith. (2 Timothy 3:15-17; 1 Thessalonians 2:13, 2 Peter 1:21, 2 Peter 1:20-21; Mark 13:31; John 8:31- 32; John 20:31)
The One True God
The one true God has revealed Himself as the "I Am," the Creator and Redeemer of mankind. We believe God eternally exists in three persons called the Trinity which is comprised of God the Father, God the Son (Jesus) and God the Holy Spirit. (Isaiah 43:10,11; Genesis 1:1; Ephesians 4:5-6) As our creator and redeemer, he has revealed himself to be perfectly good, righteous, just, and loving.
The trinity
We believe that there is one true, good, and living God who is of one substance, power, and eternal purpose yet eternally existing in three persons: God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. We believe that the Trinity is without division of nature, essence, or being (1 John 5:7; Matthew 3:16-17; 2 Corinthians 13:14). The Father is of none, neither begotten, nor proceeding; the Son is eternally be gotten of the Father; and the Holy Spirit eternally proceeding from the Father and the Son (John 15:26; Galatians 4:6). The persons of the Trinity are equal in every divine perfection. They execute distinct but harmonious functions in the work of creation, history, providence, and redemption. God the Trinity possesses all life, glory, goodness, and blessedness in and of Himself. (Genesis 1:1, 1:26; John 1:1, 1:3, 4:24, 5:26; Matthew 28:19; Acts 7:2; Romans 1:19-20, 9:5; Ephesians 4:5-6; Colossians 2:9.)
WHO IS Jesus?
We believe in Jesus Christ, God’s only begotten eternal Son, very God of very God, and the image of the invisible God. He took upon Himself our nature; being conceived by the Holy Spirit and born of the Virgin Mary and manifested in a body of flesh. He lived a sinless life, performed many signs and wonders, and taught the words of eternal life. He offered Himself as a penal substitutionary, atoning sacrifice for sinners. He was physically crucified, suffered, bled, died, and was buried. By the blood of His cross, He secured for us eternal redemption and made a way for life everlasting (Matthew 1:18- 25; Luke 1:26-38; Romans 9:5; John 1:1-18, 8:46-47, 20:28, 20:30-31; 2 Corinthians 5:21; Galatians 3:13; Ephesians 1:7).
Salvation is found in and through Christ and Him alone. It is only because of His shed blood that we may approach the throne of grace and receive par don for our sins from the Father. Christ was raised from the dead on the third day and appeared to His disciples in His resurrected body. He later ascended into heaven where He now sits at the right hand of the Father and is perpetually interceding for the saints. He awaits the time when the Father will send Him personally back to earth to a final resurrection of His people and to judge His creation to usher in the final portion of redemptive history. He is due from angels, men, and every other creature whatever worship, service, or obedience He is pleased to re quire of them. At His appearing, every knee will bow, and every tongue will confess that Jesus is Lord.
Acts 1:11; 1 Corinthians 15:1-28; Hebrews 7:25, 9:28; 1 Peter 2:21-23; Matthew 20:28; Romans 5:6-8, 6:9-10; 8:34; 1 Timothy 3:16; Revelation 5:12-14
what went wrong?
Man was created good and upright; however, man voluntarily transgressed and fell, and thereby, is spiritually dead in sin and away from God. (Genesis 1:26-27, 2:17, 3:6; Romans 5:12-19) Instead of trusting that God had their good in mind, the first humans trusted their own judgment and disobeyed God, bringing pain, destruction, and death into the human experience. We, their children, carry on their sinful legacy with our own rebellion against God, bringing suffering to ourselves and others and separating us from unity with God.
The Salvation of Man
Man's only hope is through the shed blood of Jesus Christ. Salvation is by faith through grace, not of works, and demonstrated in repentance leading to a relationship with Jesus Christ. (John 3:3; Romans 12:13-15; Ephesians 2:8; John 14:6)
Baptism & Communion
We believe that following faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, the new believer is commanded by the Word of God to be baptized in water by full immersion in the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit. We believe in a unique time of communion in the presence of God when the elements of bread and grape juice (the body and blood of Jesus Christ) are taken in remembrance of Jesus’ sacrifice on the cross. (Mark 16:16; 1 Corinthians 11:23-26)
the Holy Spirit
We believe in the Holy Spirit, eternally one with the Father and Son, who convicts and convinces the world of sin, of righteousness, and of judgment (John 16:8). Through illumination He enables men to understand truth. The Holy Spirit is the divine agent by whom believers are born into the kingdom of God. As our abiding helper, the Spirit effectually calls, sanctifies, empowers, baptizes, indwells, guides, teaches, and equips all believers for service and witness. The indwelling of the Holy Spirit guides, governs, and protects the child of God from spiritual defeat and oppression (Ephesians 6:11-18). He enables believers to live in union with Christ and God the Father.
John 14:16-17, 14:26, 15:26-27, 16:9-14; 1 Corinthians 12:13; 1 Corinthians 2:10-11, 3:16, 6:19; 2 Corinthians 3:6; Galatians 5:22-26; Titus 3:5; Romans 8:9, 12-13; Ephesians 6:11-18
Sanctification
The act of separation from that which is evil and dedicating oneself to God and that which is good, upright, and morally pure. (Romans 12:1, 2; 1 Peter 1:16; Hebrews 12:14)
The Church and Its Mission
The Church consists of all who have trusted in the Lord Jesus Christ for their eternal salvation and is the spiritual body of Christ. This includes all the redeemed of the ages, believers from among all peoples from every tribe, tongue, and nation. The primary purpose of the church is to worship God and glorify Him by building up believers and effectively reaching the world with the gospel of Christ. We believe that Christ is the King, the High Priest, and a holy prophet of the church (Acts 3:22-23; Hebrews 4:14; 8:1). God ordained the ministry of the local church to include taking the gospel of Jesus Christ to a lost world and thereby accomplish His redemptive purposes among all peoples. The local congregation is a gathering of believers who are associated by the new covenant in the faith and fellowship of the Spirit; observe the ordinances of Christ; are governed by His laws; and exercise the gifts, rights, and privileges within them by the power of the Word and the Holy Spirit. Its only proper officers are elders and deacons, whose qualifications, claims, and duties are defined in the epistles to Timothy and Titus.
(Matthew 16:15-19; Acts 2:41-42, 2:47, 5:11-14, 6:3-6, 14:23, 14:27, 15:1-30, 16:5, 20:17-32; 1 Corinthians 3:16, 7:17, 9:13-14, 12:1-31; Colossians 1:18; 1 Timothy 3:1-15, 4:14; Titus 1:5-9; 1 Peter 5;1-4; Revelation 2-3, 21:2-3 )
Marriage, gender, and sexuality
The Bible teaches that marriage is a covenant between one man and one woman, in a single exclusive union, by which their status changes from two individuals to one flesh as God joins them together. This covenant creates a new family such that their lifelong, primary, human loyalty is now to one another before anyone else. It is an earthly covenant between one man and one woman that God created and sanctioned to image the unbreakable, heavenly covenant between Christ and His church, therefore intended not to be broken by anything but death. From Genesis to Revelation, the authority of Scripture witnesses to the nature of biblical marriage as uniquely bound to the complementarity of man and woman.
Regarding gender, God fearfully and wonderfully created each person as male or female. These two, distinct, complementary genders together reflect the image and nature of God. Regarding sex, God created sex as a gift to be enjoyed within the covenant of marriage. We believe that God has commanded that no intimate sexual activity be engaged in outside of this marriage covenant. We believe that the exercise of sexual expression outside the biblical definition of marriage in any manner is contradictory to God’s design for sexuality and marriage.
(Genesis 1:26-17, 2:15-16; Psalm 139; Matthew 5:27-32, 19:3-12; Romans 1:26-27; 1 Corinthians 6:9-11, 6:18, 7:2-5; Ephesians 5:21-33; Hebrews 13:4; 1 Timothy 1:10)
what is a christian?
A Christian is a forgiven and redeemed follower of Christ, indwelled by the Holy Spirit, dedicated to obeying God’s Word and growing more like him.
Hope and Second Coming
We believe in the personal and visible return of the Lord Jesus Christ to earth and the establishment of His kingdom. We believe in the resurrection of the body, the final judgment, the eternal felicity of the righteous, and the eternal punishment of the unredeemed. (Matthew 16:27; Mark 14:62; John 14:3; Acts 1:11; Philippians 3:20; 1 Thessalonians 4:15; 2 Timothy 4:1; Titus 2:13; 1 Corinthians 15:2; 2 Thessalonians 1:7-10; Revelation 20:4-6, 20:11-15.) The resurrection and rapture of all Christians dead and alive to meet Christ in the air is the Blessed Hope. The Second Coming of Christ includes the rapture and a return to earth by Christ with His saints for a thousand-year reign. (Romans 8:23; 1 Corinthians 15:51-52; Zechariah 14:5; Matthew 24:17, 30)
The Final Judgment
There will be a final judgment at which all men will be judged. (Matthew 25:46; Mark 9:43-48; Revelation 19:20)
The New Heaven and Earth
All of God's children will reign forever in a new heaven and a new earth. (2 Peter 3:13; Revelation 21, 22)