“Nothing makes a man so virtuous as belief of the truth.” 

- C.H. SPURGEON

Matthew 22:36-40

"Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?" And he said to him, "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the great and foremost commandment. And the second is like it, You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments hang the whole Law and Prophets."

__________________

When asked what the greatest commandment from God was, Jesus' answer spoke of the most important thing; the number one priority in the Christian life being our loving God with every bit of ourselves. He then spoke of our need to love our neighbor as ourselves. These two commands being from Christ himself are the two things that drive everything we do. 


This drives us to love God, love others, and serve the world.

Here's a more detailed look at what you'll hear being taught at hillside.


THE HOLY SCRIPTURES (bibliology)


We teach that the canon of the Holy Scriptures consists of the 39 books comprising the Old Testament and the 27 books comprising the New Testament. These Scriptures are fundamental and essential as they are from God Himself and therefore are the only acceptable source for Christian truth. The Holy Scriptures are the very Words of the Living God and therefore hold absolute authority, are absolutely infallible, are unchanging, and without error in any way. They are the standard and the plumb line by which all teaching or truth claims are measured for accuracy and/or authority. The Scriptures are the manual given for the establishment of all Christian conduct and comportment, as well as all Christian doctrine and study. They are unified and uncontradictory. The Holy Scriptures tell mankind the story of God from the very mind of God.

2 Tim. 3:15-17, 2 Pet. 1:21, 1 Cor. 14:37, Ps. 12:6, Pr. 30:5, 2 Sam. 7:28, Jn. 17:17



GOD ALMIGHTY (Theology)

THE HOLY TRINITY

We teach that God is one almighty and transcendent being consisting of and to be known as three distinct persons. He is one God, the trinity. His word has revealed Himself to us as God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. There are no other gods but the one true and triune God as He is revealed in Holy Scripture. Scripture being the plumb line for all doctrine, leaves no room for any other view within Christian orthodoxy than that of the trinitarian view.

Gen. 1:26, Mt. 3:16-17, Mt. 28:19, Eph. 4:4-6, Re. 1:4-5


GOD THE FATHER

We teach that God the Father is the principle and first person of the Trinity, that He orders and carries out all things according to His good pleasure, His perfect will, and His merciful grace. He is the creator of all things. He is the only absolute authority in the universe, and He rules completely. He is sovereign with respect to creation and salvation. His fatherhood is to be understood in two distinct ways. He is the Father of all creation and therefore all of mankind. Secondly, He is the spiritual Father to the elect saints past, present, and future. He has decreed all things and upholds all things for His own glory. He is not to be understood as the author of sin nor does He approve of it.

1 Cor. 8-6, Ge. 1:1-31, Eph. 3:9, Ps. 103:19, Ro. 11:36, Eph. 4:6, Ro. 8:14-15, 2 Cor. 6:18, Eph. 1:4-6, Eph. 1:11, 1 Chr. 29:11, Hab. 1:13, Jn. 8:38-47, Jn. 1:12, Ga. 4:5, Heb. 12:5-9


GOD THE SON

We teach that God the Son is Christ Jesus and the second person of the Trinity. He is coequal and coeternal with God the Father. Christ Jesus has always been and was not created. Rather, God the Father created all things through the Son, by whom all things continue to exist and operate. God the Son, being completely and absolutely God, became completely and absolutely man. God the Son was born of a virgin according to Holy Scripture and the purpose of His incarnation was to reveal God through imaging Him perfectly, to redeem believers, and to rule over the Kingdom of God. Jesus accomplished the redemption of believers through the voluntary shedding of His blood as the ultimate sacrifice and atonement for sin and His subsequent literal, physical resurrection from the dead. God the Father will judge all of mankind through God the Son.

Jn. 10:30, Jn. 14:9-10, Jn. 1:3, Col. 1:15-17, Heb. 1:2, Phi.2:5-11, Col. 2:9, Mic. 5:2, Jn. 5:23, Is. 7:14, Mt. 1:23-25, Lk. 1:26-35, Jn. 1:1, Ps. 2:7- 9, Is. 9:6, Heb. 7:25-26, 1 Pet. 1:18-19, Jn. 10:15, Ro. 3:24-25, Ro. 5:8, 1 Pet. 2:24, Mt. 28:6, Lk. 24:38-39, Ac. 2:30-31, Ro.4:25, Ro. 8:34, 1 Jn. 2:1, Jn. 5:22-23, 1 Cor. 3:10-15, 2 Cor. 5:10, Mt. 25:31-46, Re. 20:11-15


GOD THE SPIRIT

We teach that God the Spirit, the third person of the Holy Trinity, gives and takes life to and from all creatures. God the Spirit similarly gives new life to the believer. The Spirit is the Person within the Trinity that conceived Christ Jesus in the womb of Mary by His own power and not through any other means. The new birth of the elect is a work of the Spirit Himself. God the Spirit is the same Spirit that was moving over the surface of the waters in the beginning of creation. He is understood to be one and the same Spirit who, like the Father and Son, spans from eternity past to eternity future. God the Spirit is known throughout both the Old and New Testaments as one who gives the saints power to work alongside God the Father. He empowered Christ Jesus for ministry and service. He sanctifies and leads the believer and convicts the world. It is through the Spirit of God that the presence of God is evidenced in both places and persons. It is the work of the Spirit to give assurance to the elect of God.

Ps. 104:30, Job 34:14-15, Jn. 3:5-8, Gen. 1:2, Jn. 6:63, 2 Cor 3:6, Acts 10:44-47, Titus 3:5, Mt. 1:18, Lk. 1:35, Nu. 27:18, Deut. 34:9, Jud. 3:10, Jud. 6:34, 1 Sam. 11:6, Mt. 3:16, Lk. 3:22, Lk. 4:1, Lk. 4:14, Jn. 3:34-35, Acts 1:8, Rom. 15:19, 1 Cor. 2:4, Jn 16:8-11, 1 Cor. 6:11, Lk 3:16, Gal. 5:22-23, 2 Cor. 3:18, 1 Cor. 12:3, 1 Jn. 4:2, Jn. 15:26, Isa. 30:1, Mk. 1:12, Acts 8:29, Acts 10:19-20, Acts 11:12, Acts, 13:2



MANKIND (anthropology)

MANNER AND PURPOSE OF CREATION

We teach that Mankind was directly created by God in His image both in the beginning, as well as each individual thereafter. In creation and design God chose to make mankind both male and female and in no other form and having no other option. Bearing the image of God means every individual has immeasurable worth. God creates life at the very moment of conception and has known and planned for each individual long before conception happens. Man’s chief end and purpose is to glorify God. In creation mankind was at first without the stain of sin. There was no nature of rebellion toward God.

Ge. 1:26-27, Ge. 2:7, Ja. 3:9, Ps. 139:13-16


THE FALL

We teach that that Adam (the first man) sinned against God Almighty and at that moment the creation was broken. That act brought the cursed nature of sin on mankind and each individual thereafter bears the sin nature from the beginning of life. Man became and is now utterly lost and corrupt; completely spiritually dead in sin; unable to move toward God and without a desire to do so. Man cannot in any way recover what was lost at the fall. Mankind became and remains completely without hope in and of itself. Christ Jesus being the only exception to these things.

Ge. 2:16-17, Ge. 3:1-19, Jn. 3:36, Rom. 3:23, Rom. 6:23, 1 Cor. 2:14, Eph. 2:1-3, 1 Tim. 2:13-14, Ps. 51:5, 1 Jn. 1:8, Ps. 14:1-3, Jer. 17:9, Rom. 3:9-18, Rom. 3:9-18



SALVATION (soteriology)


We teach that due to the complete spiritual deadness of man referenced above, there is no hope for redemption from our sin, nor reconciliation with God apart from God Himself acting to redeem and reconcile. Man, of his own volition, will never truly seek God or comprehend the depraved nature within himself unless God opens his eyes and heart to such things. Salvation of man is wholly of God. It is by His marvelous grace and on the basis of the shed blood of Christ Jesus that any are saved. Salvation, being owned by God, is in no way something to be earned or kept by the works of man. It is, therefore, because of God’s mercy and grace through Christ that the Christian experiences Regeneration, Justification, Assurance, Security, Sanctification, and ultimately Glorification. The salvation of man is an already but not yet kind of salvation. We who are Christ’s have been saved from the penalty of sin, we are being saved from the power of sin, and we will ultimately be saved from the very presence of sin. We teach and affirm what the reformers and the writers of the Holy Scriptures before them set forth; that the salvation of any man or woman is per Scripture alone, by Grace alone, through Faith alone, in Christ alone, and to the Glory of God alone.

Jn. 1:12, Eph. 1:3-7, Eph. 2:7-8, 1 Pet. 1:18-19, Titus 1:1, Titus 3:5, Jn. 5:24, 2 Thess. 2:13, 1 Thess. 1:4, 1 Thess. 5:9, Rom. 3:10-12, Rom. 4, Rom. 5:1-2, Rom. 9:10-18, 1 Cor. 6:11, 1 Cor. 15:1-2, Gal. 1:3-5, Gal. 1:14-16, Gal. 3:2-3, Gal. 5:1, Phil. 1:6, Col. 1:13-14, Col. 1:21-22, Col. 1:27, Col. 3:12, 2 Tim. 1:9



CHRIST’S CHURCH (ecclesiology)


We teach that the Church is made up of those who have experienced the salvation of God from their sins. There is a distinction between the visible Church and the invisible Church. That is all persons who profess faith in Christ (visible) and those who have been truly converted by the saving power of God through Christ (invisible). The Church is also both local and universal. Because the Church is made up of those whom God has chosen it has been made with purposes. The chief purposes of the God’s Church are to worship and exalt God Himself, to build up and aid in the sanctification of one another, and to join God in his mission to evangelize the world. We, the Church, are meant to worship God, equip and serve one another, and to proclaim the good news of Jesus Christ to the world. These are the three main purposes of both the individual Christian and the collective community of the Church. We, the Church, gain our identity from the Trinity. God the Father is our Father, therefore we are the family of God. God the Son is our King, therefore we are His servants which was perfectly exampled by Him. God the Spirit is our Equipper and empowers us in witnessing to the lost by the proclamation of the Gospel in word and deed. The Church is the Bride of Christ and it eagerly awaits the glorious day of consummation when we are made complete in His presence.

Mt. 13:24-30, Mt. 7:21-23, Jude 4, 1 Jn. 2:3-11, Heb. 12:23, Acts 14:23, Acts 20:17, 1 Cor. 10:31, 1 Cor. 6:20, Jn. 4:23-24, Rom. 12:10, 1 Thess. 3:12, 1 Pet. 1:22, Rom. 15:7, Col. 3:16, 1 Cor. 12:25, Gal. 5:13, Gal. 6:2, Eph. 4:2, Eph. 4:32, Phil. 2:3, Heb. 3:13, Heb. 10:24, Mt. 28:18-20, Mt. 4:19, Acts 5:28, Acts 17:6, Eph 4:11, 1 Pet. 3:15, 1 Pet. 2:9



RESTORATION (eschatology)


We teach that at an undisclosed time in the future Christ Jesus, our King, will return in bodily form as the unmistakable King of all. Though the timing of this is an impossible mystery, it will not be a surprise to those in Christ in the same way it will surprise the unbeliever. At the glorious appearing of Christ both believers and unbelievers will be resurrected for the day of judgement in which Christ Himself will be the judge and will separate the children of the light from the children of the night. All those who are not regenerated by God (unbelievers) will suffer eternal punishment and torment in hell along with Lucifer and his armies. We, the invisible Church will enjoy life eternally under the rule and reign of our God in His presence with incalculable joy in the new Earth.

1 Thess. 5:23, 1 Thess. 5:2-5, 2 Thess. 1:9-10, 1 Cor. 15:20-24, 1 Cor. 15:51-52, Mt. 24, Rom. 11, Mt. 25:31-46, Rev. 19:11-16, Rev. 20:11-15, Rev. 21:1

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