Our Beliefs

Orthodox Presbyterians believe that God is known through Jesus Christ. By his Spirit he has caused an infallible witness to this revelation to be preserved in the Bible and to be believed in the Church.

Our teaching and preaching demonstrate how the Bible, from beginning to end, points us to the kingdom of God inaugurated through the life, death, resurrection and ascension of Jesus Christ.

Until Christ returns to judge the living and the dead at the end of the age the Church proclaims salvation in his name.

The five "Alones", described below, are statements that since the 16th and 17th centuries have been used to distinguish sound doctrines from misunderstandings taught in our day. They underlie our   confessional statements.


Scripture Alone

We believe that the Bible is the Word of the true and living God, the only infallible rule of faith and practice. We affirm the completeness, finality, and sufficiency of the revelation of God given to us in the Bible.   Now that the Son of God has come, who is in himself the fullness of truth, nothing may be added to him but only confirmed in him according to the written testimony concerning him.

Christ Alone

We believe that the Bible, from Genesis to Revelation, concerns Jesus Christ our salvation. Through the Bible God directs our whole attention to Christ, and in him enables us to speak and to walk worthy of the calling with which we have been called. Not now to us and not ever to us, but forever to his name give glory, to the glory of God the Father.

Faith Alone

We believe that God has made a single way by which sinful people like ourselves are brought near to him. That way to God is only by grace through faith in Christ. It is by God's gifts alone, and not from us, that our hearts, soul, mind and strength are directed toward the glory and joy prepared for us in Christ Jesus, who is our living hope.

We rely for our acceptance with God (our "justification") only upon the sufficiency of the sacrifice of Christ's holy and wholly obedient life, on the cross, according to the Scriptures. After Christ died, bearing the penalty of our sins, he was afterward raised from the dead obtaining for us the forgiveness of our sins, and he ascended to the Father, giving to us the same Spirit who raised him from the dead. Now, he forms our faith so that we are no longer subject to the threat of the abyss of hell that is the reward earned by hostility toward God. God raises us up from out of that death, which is sin and its penalty, to rescue us from out of that permanent estrangement from Him, to reconcile us to Himself by making us partakers forever of His very life which is in Christ.

Because he has loved us perfectly, we trust in him to more and more provide us the peace which surpasses understanding, Our confidence rests on his faithfulness, so that we are assured that our understanding, our obedience, and our very selves will finally be perfectly wed to the Truth of God, in love, when he comes again to receive us to himself.

Grace Alone

We affirm the doctrines of total depravity, unconditional election, definite atonement, irresistible grace, and perseverance of the saints.  

In other words, we believe that far more than merely making salvation possible for us to achieve, God himself accomplishes salvation. Therefore, we do not merely leave it to the hearers whether they will believe our announcement or not, that forgiveness and life are available in Christ. Rather, we pray to God for his enemies, asking that he would grant them faith and repentance, forgiving them and giving them a change of their hearts. After all, this is the love that God has shown to us, although we do not in any way deserve this mercy.

For the Glory of God Alone

We believe that the triune God deserves all honor, trust, thanks, worship and love, for salvation just as for creation.

In summary, the theme of each of these five points is an acknowledgment that, just as all things have their existence from God, so also salvation is owing entirely to God, and we worship him accordingly.

First Orthodox Presbyterian Church — Portland, Oregon
Regular Schedule: Address:

Sunday School:   9:30am
Sunday Morning: 10:30 am
Sunday Evening: 6:00 pm

8245 NE Fremont Street
Portland, Oregon 97220

Phone: 503-253-0695
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