Westminster Orthodox Presbyterian Church
Our Reformed Heritage
Scripture Alone, Grace Alone, Faith Alone,
Christ Alone, All To God's
Glory Alone
Christ Alone, All To God's Glory Alone
We are the heirs of the Reformation and its recovery of the faith of the apostles. We agree with the historic creeds of the church as to who God is. The Reformation did not "reinvent" or "restore" the church. God had promised to preserve His church (Matthew 16:18), and He had, but as with the church even in the days of the apostles, there was corruption. There is always a temptation to accomodate the truth of God's Word to our culture, and that manifested itself in the Middle Ages with innovations such as purgatory, transubstantiation, and indulgences. These and a host of other novelties stressed personal merit at the expense of the merit of Jesus Christ's sacrifice on the cross. As Paul had done with the churches he planted, the Reformers sought to reform the church of their day according to God's Word. The Reformers joined hands with earlier believers such as Augustine, Chrysostom, and Irenaeus in turning to the Bible to reform their faith and life. As their heirs, we accept the Bible as our only infallible rule of faith and practice.
From this foundation, we affirm that we are, by nature, rebels against God. As Paul says in Romans 3:10-11: "There is none righteous, no not one: there is none that seeketh after God." People love to imagine a God who doesn't judge, but none of us naturally want to recognize a God who condemns our selfishness and sin. The Bible makes clear that, whether we recognize Him or not, this is Who God is. The seriousness of our sin and the love of God can both be seen in the crucifixion of Jesus. God is just and could not simply ignore our guilt, yet He loves us and refused to simply leave us to our punishment. God the Father pours out His wrath on His Son, Jesus, who has taken our place, and He is the one Who sent Jesus for this purpose. He is just and the justifier of those who bow to Him.
In acknowledging that Christ is our king, we abandon any claim to worthiness. We believe we are delivered from the wrath of God only by His love to us, a love based on no merit of our own. In 1 Corinthians 1:27, Paul says that God has actually chosen the weak and foolish of the world, not those who are strong and wise. So it is because of His love, and not our worthiness, that we are saved from God's wrath. Likewise, we believe this love is received by faith alone. This is not mere mental assent, but trust and surrender. It is effective not because of some inherent power of our faith, but the power of whom it is in, Jesus Christ.
Some people claim they can have faith without a change of conduct. We believe that faith is the gift of God (Ephesians 2:8); it is the work of the Holy Spirit in us (Galatians 3:2-5); and this same Holy Spirit sanctifies as well as justifies (Galatians 5:22-25). A "faith" that does not lead to some change of life is not the work of the Holy Spirit, and thus not a true faith. Therefore we are saved from the wrath of God by grace alone through faith alone in Jesus Christ alone - - not by good works, but unto good works. Since all these things are God's gifts, all glory in redemption is His and His alone.
What is the Reformed Faith? - An OPC publication
A brief and untechnical statement of the Reformed Faith by B.B. Warfield
An Expostion of the Westminster Confession of Faith by Robert Shaw
For a basic view of our OPC denomination
For a detailed view of our OPC denomination
A Monk Named Luther - (Foreign Site)
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