Grace Orthodox Presbyterian Church

Our Beliefs We are group of Christians committed to faithfully teaching and living the will of God as taught in the Bible. We believe that without the knowledge of who God is, and who we are, we cannot glorify Him and enjoy Him forever as we were originally created to do. Although our church is part of a larger group of churches (the Orthodox Presbyterian denomination), we rely on scripture alone as our final authority. Historically, our church has its origins in a group of churches that, despite repeated attempts to “reform” the Church of Rome from unbiblical practices, emerged almost 500 years ago. Our church, as well as other churches originating from this movement, are commonly referred to as a “reformed” churches. One of the distinctions of a reformed church is that we believe that the purpose of the Bible (from Genesis to Revelation) is to show how God restores His people through the life and sacrifice of Jesus Christ, this is also referred to as “covenant theology”. For a more in-depth description about: what a reformed church is, the doctrines of grace and covenant theology, click on the links below. What is a Reformed Church? What are the Doctrines of Grace? What is the Covenant Theology? Five Basic Questions Answered
An Introduction to Reformed Theology	What is the Gospel?
The Church's Purpose We believe that God instituted the church so that both believers and unbelievers can hear His word proclaimed faithfully. Thus, the church is composed of imperfect people who desire to know God and how we are to bring Him glory. Church is not a place where we are told what we should and should not do (i.e., a list of rules and regulations), rather it is a place where we are taught how the broken relationship between God and mankind is restored, in the completed and perfect work of Christ. The local church serves as a place where we witness how God reconciles people to Himself and transforms lives. Guilt, Grace and Gratitude We believe that three broad “themes” summarize what the Bible teaches; our guilt, His grace and our gratitude. Because of our sinfulness we stand guilty before God, deserving death. However, because God is slow to anger and patient with man, He tolerated our sinfulness for a time and sent His son to pay for our sinfulness. By doing this, He demonstrated His graciousness toward us in spite of our sin. We respond to His grace with gratitude, by loving Him and those He has created. God’s grace is our theme, our hope and our confidence. Who is God? We believe that God is a Spirit, infinite, eternal, and unchangeable, in His being, wisdom, power, holiness, justice goodness, and truth. We believe in the three persons of God, God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit, commonly referred to as the Trinity. These are just a summary of the beliefs to which we hold to as members of the Orthodox Presbyterian Church. We believe that these beliefs are taught in God’s word to us, the Bible, and are summarized in the Westminster Confession of Faith and the Shorter Catechism of the Westminster Confession of Faith. We believe that without the knowledge of what the Bible teaches about God, man, and sin, we cannot tell others about the good news of Jesus Christ.	How did God create man? We believe that God created man after His own image, in knowledge, righteousness and holiness, with dominion over the creatures. We believe that after God created mankind, Adam and Eve enjoyed a perfect relationship with Him. What happened when man sinned? We believe that sin entered the world when Adam and Eve disobeyed God by eating from the tree of knowledge of good and evil. As a result, Adam and Eve fell from the estate in which they were created and with them all of mankind. Because man was no longer righteous and holy, he was no longer able come into the presence of God as he was initially created to do. How we are made acceptable in God’s eyes? We believe that because God is holy and man is sinful, man no longer enjoys perfect fellowship with God. We believe that because sin resulted in death, both spiritual and physical, man was not and is not able to restore this relationship. We believe that the only way that man is once again made acceptable in God’s eyes is revealed to man in the Bible, through the promised redeemer, Jesus Christ. We believe that this is the primary focus of the Bible, from Genesis to Revelation.

For more information: graceopchurch@gmail.com | (419) 271-3934