What we believe at Hilltop Community Church

Statement of Beliefs

Hilltop upholds a Biblie-based statement of beliefs and faith. We turn to the scriptures as God’s Word on truth, doctrine, morality, and most importantly the nature of God and how we should live with Him. While the world around us increasingly turns to relative truth, we maintain that God’s absolute truth is revealed through the scriptures and the person of Jesus. Most graciously, God has manifested Himself in the person and work of Jesus Christ offering salvation and life to anyone who repents and believes in Jesus as Lord and Savior.

We believe that the Bible, consisting of all the 66 books of the Old and New Testaments, is the infallible, verbal, inspired Word of God. We believe the Bible is without error in the original manuscripts and is the complete revelation of God’s will for the salvation of individuals and is the Divine, final authority for every age and every life.

We believe in one God, Creator of all things, infinitely perfect and eternally existing in three Persons: Father, Son and Holy Spirit. We believe that God, by His sovereign choice and out of His love for mankind, sent Jesus into the world to save sinners. We believe that Jesus Christ in the flesh was true God and true man, God the Son and the Son of God, that He was conceived of the Holy Spirit and born of a virgin, that He lived a sinless life, that He died upon the cross, the just for the unjust, as representative and substitutionary sacrifice for our sins and that He rose bodily from the grave the third day according to the Scriptures. Later He ascended to the Father’s right hand where He is Head of the Church and intercedes for believers and from where He is coming again personally,
bodily and visible to this earth to set up His kingdom of righteousness and peace. We believe that the Holy Spirit is a Person, is God and possesses all the Divine attributes. His ministry is to glorify the Lord Jesus Christ. He convicts individuals of sin, righteousness, and judgment and at the moment of salvation He regenerates, indwells, baptizes and seals all believers. As He places believers into the Body of Christ, He also gives them spiritual gifts, to be used in love and for the purpose of edifying the Body and winning non-believers. He also fills and empowers the believer in response to confession of sin and yieldedness.

We believe that man was originally created in the image of God. Through disobedience to God, the first man sinned, thereby incurring not only physical death but also spiritual death, which is a separation from God. Now all human beings are born with sinful natures and are separated from the life of God therefore all human beings without Christ are under
just condemnation without defense or excuse.

We believe that the Lord Jesus Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures and that all who believe in Him are justified on the grounds of His shed blood. We believe that all who receive by faith the Lord Jesus Christ are born of the Holy Spirit and thereby become children of God, a relationship in which they are eternally secure. We believe that such salvation with its forgiveness of sins, its impartation of a new nature and its hope of eternal life, is entirely apart from good works, baptism, church membership, or man’s effort and is of pure grace. We believe that true salvation will result in a Christian desiring to grow in spiritual maturity through obedience to the Word of God and faith in the indwelling of the
Holy Spirit.

We believe that the true Church is composed of all such persons who through saving faith in Jesus Christ have been regenerated by the Holy Spirit and are united together in the Body of Christ. We believe that Jesus Christ is the Lord and Head of the Church and that every local church has the right under Christ, to decide and govern its own affairs. We believe the local church is a body of believers in Christ who gather to build believers to maturity through worship, instruction, fellowship, service and who scatter to proclaim salvation through Jesus Christ. We believe that water baptism and the Lord’s Supper are ordinances to be observed by the Church during this present age. They are, however, not to be regarded as a means of salvation.

We believe in the personal, premillennial and imminent coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. This is the believer’s blessed hope and is a vital truth, which is an incentive to holy living and faithful service. We believe that there will be a time of judgment of the whole earth known as the Tribulation. This period will be climaxed by the return of Christ to the earth at which time Satan will be bound, the curse will be lifted from the earth and Jesus will reign for 1000 years. We believe in the bodily resurrection of the dead: of the believer to everlasting blessedness, fellowship and joy with the Lord; of the unbeliever to judgment at the Great White Throne Judgment and because of his or her persistent rejection of Christ in this present life, everlasting conscious punishment, separated forever from God.

The Authority of the Bible

The church’s mission is to proclaim the truth expressed in the 66 books of the Bible, both Old and New Testaments. This statement does not exhaust the extent of our faith. The Bible itself, as the inspired and infallible Word of God that speaks with final authority concerning truth, morality, and the proper conduct of mankind, is the sole and final source of all that we believe and proclaim (2 Timothy 3:16-17). For purposes of church doctrine, practice, policy, and discipline, our Elders are the church’s final interpretive authority on the Bible’s meaning and application.

Statement of Faith on Biblical Marriage and Sexuality

 What We Believe, Proclaim, and Practice

Adopted 2015

  • We proclaim that the term “marriage” has only one meaning: one man and one woman joined by God in a single, exclusive union, as delineated in the Bible (Genesis 2:18-25; Matthew 19:4-6). The church building shall only be used, and the pastors shall only conduct marriage ceremonies consistent with this definition, since doing otherwise would be unbiblical and inconsistent with the message of the church.
  • We proclaim that God intends sexual intimacy to occur only between a man and a woman who are married to each other. We also proclaim what God has clearly commanded in the Bible: no intimate sexual activity should be practiced outside of a marriage between a man and a woman (Proverbs 5:16-23; Ephesians 5:1-10; Hebrews 13:4).
  • We proclaim that any form of sexual immorality is sinful and offensive to God (Matthew 19:3-9; Mark 7:18-23; Romans 1:18-32; 1 Timothy 1:8-11).
  • To all involved in such behavior, we proclaim the good news of the gospel. God offers redemption and restoration– a brand-new life and lifestyle — to all who confess and forsake their sin, seeking His mercy and forgiveness through Jesus Christ (1 Corinthians 6:9-11; 2 Corinthians 5:17; cp. John
    8:1-12).
  • At Hilltop Community Church, we stand ready to counsel and help anyone struggling with sexual immorality and temptation. God’s grace, mercy, and power are available to all who call upon Him (Acts 2:21; Romans 6:1-14; 10:9-13).
  • It is imperative to the church’s message that all persons employed by the church or serving as volunteers in any capacity agree to this statement on Marriage and Sexuality and conduct themselves accordingly, with the help of God. Any employee or volunteer who does not agree to or abide by
    this Statement may be dismissed.
  • We proclaim that every person must be afforded compassion, love, kindness, respect, and dignity. Hateful and harassing behavior or attitudes directed toward any individual are to be repudiated and are not in accord with the Bible nor the message of the Hilltop Community Church (Matthew 6:14-15; 7:1-5, 12; Colossians 4:6; 1 Peter 3:8-17).