What is the Orthodox Presbyterian Church?

                What does the word “orthodox” mean? The word “orthodox” comes from the Greek words ortho which means “straight” and dox which refers to “teaching.” The beliefs and teachings of the OPC line up with God’s Word.

                What does it mean to be Presbyterian? The word “Presbyterian” comes from the Greek word presbyteros which means “elder.” Historically, Presbyterian churches are distinguished by their close adherence to scripture’s teachings on church polity, doctrine, and worship. We believe that scripture teaches that a church ought to be governed by elders (1 Timothy 3:1-7; Titus 1:5-9). We hold to a high view of scripture as laid out in the Westminster Confessions. We apply the Reformed principles of worship to our services: the regulative principle of worship and the dialogical principle of worship.

                The history of the OPC may be learned by looking at it in the context of church history and in the context of American Presbyterianism.

                What is the one common thread that runs through the history of the OPC in the context of church history? The OPC wants to be as scriptural and faithful to God as possible.

                If we see a continuity in the story of God’s people from the Old Testament to the New Testament, we can say that Adam and Eve were the first church. God put them in the garden of Eden and provided everything they needed. God tested Adam and Eve to see if they would obey Him and find their full satisfaction in Him. So He told them not to eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil in Genesis 2:16-17. But Satan tempted them to be their own point of reference for truth and knowledge apart from God. Adam and Eve ate of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, because they desired to be independent from God and to be their own judge of what is good and evil. Thus began the origin of sin and the rebellion of mankind from the supreme authority of God. But God showed them much grace even in His punishment of the man and the woman. God promised the Seed of the woman (Christ) would have victory over the seed of the serpent (Satan) in Genesis 3:15 and Galatians 3:16.

                Jesus Christ came and died on the cross for the penalty of the sins of the elect. He also lived a perfect life while here on earth to earn righteousness on behalf of the elect. Jesus Christ trained leaders for the church and promised them the Holy Spirit. At Pentecost, God’s people received the promised Holy Spirit and preached the gospel with much conviction and power. Thousands were added to the church from that time onward. In spite of persecution, they continued.

                After centuries of dispute, the Western ("Catholic") church split from the Eastern ("Orthodox") church in 1054 over theological and political disagreements in what became known as the Great Schism, or now, the East-West Schism.               

                Theologically, they divided over the doctrine of the Trinity. In the late 6^th century, the western church added the filioque clause to the Nicene Creed, which stated that the Holy Spirit proceeded from both the Father and the Son. The eastern church believed that the Holy Spirit proceeded only from God the Father.

                Politically, the Roman Empire split into two halves – the western half continued as the Roman Empire and the eastern half became the Byzantine Empire. The heads of the two churches became established in Rome and Constantinople, or modern-day Istanbul. Michael Cerularius, the patriarch of Constantinople, criticized the western churches. Leo IX, the pope of Rome, excommunicated Cerularius. Despite the name, the OPC is part of the Western church.

                The Protestant Reformation took place 1517-1555. Why are these two dates chosen for the period of the Reformation? On Oct.31, 1517, Martin Luther posted his 95 theses on the door of the church in Wittenberg. On Sept.25, 1555, the Peace of Augsburg was signed by King Charles V and an alliance of Lutheran princes which ended the religious struggles in the Holy Roman Empire and allowed each prince and city-state to choose between Roman Catholicism or Lutheranism. Citizens were allowed to move between the city-states according to their religious preferences.

                What led to the Protestant Reformation? During the Middle Ages, religion became focused on rituals, superstitions, ignorance, relics, icons, and a growing hierarchy headed by the Pope at Rome. Scripture was not being taught to God’s people. The priests created a system of rituals and works for salvation. During the 1500’s, men like Martin Luther, John Calvin, and others reformed the Church by teaching the common people what God’s Word said. Scripture was translated into the common languages of the people. Thus the Protestant Reformation began which focused on God’s Word and that salvation is by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone. These beliefs and practices of the Reformation undergird the OPC.

                Eventually, Protestants divided over church government, the nature of the sacraments, and worship. Lutherans did not distance themselves from the Roman Church as much as the Reformed or Calvinists did. The OPC falls under the Reformed/Calvinist branch of the Reformation.            

                What led the church to produce creeds and confessions of faith? False teachings infiltrated the church throughout its history. The church had to set down its beliefs in confessional statements to teach what God’s Word said against these heresies.

                The Apostles’ Creed seems to be written to combat Gnosticism, which teaches that Jesus only had the appearance of a man and did not really suffer and die on the cross but only appeared to do so. People in the Middle Ages believed that the twelve apostles each wrote one of the twelve statements of the creed on the day of Pentecost while still under the influence of the Holy Spirit. It is based on several scripture passages such as Matthew 28:19 and Ephesians 4:9 and appeared in written form circa A.D. 180. Early versions appeared in the early church fathers. Around A.D. 200, Irenaeus described a creed written in Greek that had been used by the church for a long time. Around A.D. 220, a Latin version appeared in the writings of Tertullian. In A.D. 400, Augustine had a nearly identical creed. In A.D. 390, the name “Apostles Creed” appeared for the first time in a letter entitled Symbolum Apostolicum (Symbol or Creed of the Apostles), which was written to Pope Sircius stating, “Let them give credit to the Creed of the Apostles, which the Roman Church has always kept and preserved undefiled.” In 710-714, the earliest appearance of the current version appeared in De singulis libris canonicis scarapsus ("Excerpt from Individual Canonical Books") by St. Priminius.

                The Nicene Creed was written and adopted by the first ecumenical council in Nicea in A.D. 325. It is the most commonly used confession of faith by the Anglicans, Lutherans, Roman Catholics, Eastern Orthodox, and Protestants.

                The Canons of Dordt were written in 1618-1619. In the 1600’s, Jacob Arminius and his followers started teaching things that compromised what the Reformed churches taught. They did not feel that God was completely sovereign in salvation. In 1618-1619 at the Synod of Dordt, the teachings of Arminianism were condemned and countered with what became known as the five points of Calvinism. These were  written in the Canons of Dordt. The OPC firmly rejects Arminianism and continues to emphasize salvation by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone by the sovereign work of God.    

                The Westminster Standards (1643-1649) are composed of the Westminster Confession of Faith, Westminster Larger Catechism and Westminster Shorter Catechism and are the foundation of Presbyterian churches in English-speaking countries. The Westminster Standards set forth a "presbyterian" form of church government. They rejected the "episcopalian" form of government in which the church is ruled by bishops in a hierarchy and the "congregational" form of government in which each congregation is independently ruled by its members. Each congregation of a Presbyterian church is governed by a session, consisting of elders ("presbyters") and its minister(s). Each congregation chooses its own elders, who are accountable to regional and national assemblies of ministers and elders. When immigrants from Scotland, Ireland, and England came to America, they established Presbyterian churches. They made slight revisions to the Westminster Standards. During the Civil War, the Presbyterian Church in the USA split. The OPC came out of the Northern Presbyterian Church. The OPC adopted the revised Westminster Standards as its confessional statement of belief and practice.

                What is the one common thread that runs through the history of American Presbyterianism? It can be traced to an ongoing dispute over subscription to the Westminster Confessions.

                How strictly must Presbyterian ministers subscribe to the WCF? The sides were divided between “loose subscription” and “strict subscription.” The New Side were pro-revival and soft on subscription to the Westminster Confessions, while the Old Side were cautious about the revivals and were strong on subscription. The New Side ministers declared that some ministers were unconverted due to their dead ministries so they wanted pastoral candidates to give a testimony of their conversion experience, while the Old Side ministers said that it was not required since they were church members already.

                In 1741, a split occurred between the New Side ministers and the Old Side ministers when the Old Side declared that the Presbytery of New Brunswick (the only Presbytery with a New Side majority and with Tennent’s Log College graduates) was no longer part of the Synod of Philadelphia.

                In 1758, the Old Side and New Side reunited. The Old Side acknowledged that the Great Awakening was a “blessed work of God’s Holy Spirit” and that the revivals fostered piety and that pastoral candidates would have to demonstrate an “experimental acquaintance” with the gospel. The New Side acknowledged the need for strong subscription and the legitimacy of the authority of church officers.

                In 1837, a split led to the Old School and New School Presbyterians. The New School were located in New England and the newly settled Midwest and were social activists. The Old School were mostly Scotch-Irish in the mid-Atlantic and the South and held to strict subscription. During the Civil War, another split occurred between the Old School in the South and the Old School in the North.

                After the Civil War in 1869, Old School and New School reunited, although the Old School in the South (known as Presbyterian Church in the US, or Southern Presbyterian Church) remained separate until 1983.

                In 1920, the Philadelphia Plan was being considered at the first general assembly of the Presbyterian Church in the USA. It was a plan to unite 18 Presbyterian denominations. J.Gresham Machen, one of the chief founders of the OPC saw that this Philadelphia Plan would mean a sacrifice of theological integrity to achieve unity. It would mean that subscription to the Westminster Confessions would only be required at the denominational level and would not be practiced by the local churches. For these reasons, J. Gresham Machen and other conservative Presbyterians were opposed to this plan.

                In 1922, Harry Emerson Fosdick, a liberal Baptist minister began preaching regularly at First Presbyterian Church in New York and accused conservatives of being intolerant. He said that the virgin birth, the inspiration of scripture, the atonement, and the second coming of Christ were open to interpretation, so liberals and conservatives should be tolerated.                           

                In 1923, his sentiments were echoed in the Auburn Affirmation which stated that the Bible is not inerrant and that the General Assembly cannot impose doctrinal tests of orthodoxy upon the Presbyteries.  Up to that time, every candidate seeking to be ordained in the PCUSA had to affirm the five tests of orthodoxy: the inerrancy of the Scriptures, the virgin birth and deity of Jesus, the substitutionary atonement, the bodily resurrection of Jesus, and the authenticity of Christ’s miracles. A group led by Robert Hastings Nichols (a history professor at Auburn Theological Seminary) and Henry Sloane Coffin, challenged the right of the General Assembly, to impose the Five fundamentals as a test of orthodoxy without the concurrence of a vote from the presbyteries. The Affirmation was circulated and signed by 1274  PCUSA ministers before being presented to the General Assembly in 1924. J. Gresham Machen and other conservatives said that such views went against scripture and the confessions.

                In 1929, Princeton Seminary reorganized its board to allow a liberal majority and appointed liberal professors who were friendly toward modernism and who signed the Auburn Affirmation. This forced J. Gresham Machen and a few other professors to leave and found Westminster Theological Seminary later that year.

                In 1933, Machen and other conservatives formed the Independent Board for Presbyterian Foreign Missions. In 1934, the General Assembly of the PCUSA condemned this action and deposed Machen and others of their pastoral licenses.

                In June 1936, Machen and others formed the Presbyterian Church of America, but were sued for making their name too similar. In 1939, they changed their name to the Orthodox Presbyterian Church. The OPC was founded for three main reasons: to maintain the authority of Scripture, to maintain a strict subscription to the Westminster Confessions, and to maintain a liberty of conscience.

                The OPC believes Scripture teaches Reformed theology. It is also called covenant theology, because it teaches that God established covenants that govern his dealings with men. The covenant of redemption states that the three persons of the Godhead made a pact before the creation of the world to save certain people. The covenant of works state that God made a covenant with Adam, that if he were to obey God perfectly, he would have life and blessings. But Adam disobeyed, leading to the need for someone who can perfectly obey. The covenant of grace, operating in both Old and New Testament times, states that God graciously provides salvation to his people through Jesus Christ, the Mediator of the covenant.

                Dispensationalists refer to covenant theology as supersessionism or replacement theology, because they think that covenant theology teaches that God has abandoned his Old Testament promises to the Jews and that He has replaced the Jews with Christians as His chosen people here on earth. But covenant theology actually teaches that Jesus Christ has fulfilled all the OT promises and that the church contains both believing Jews and Christians in an organic union. God has one plan of salvation for all people by faith in Jesus Christ as the Old Testament believers are grafted into the New Testament church.

                There were many who believed in covenant theology. Among the early church fathers were Irenaeus and Augustine. Among the Reformers were Huldrych Zwingli, Johannes Oecolampadius, John Calvin, Heinrich Bullinger, Zacharius Ursinus, and Caspar Olevianus. In the seventeenth century, there were John Owen, Johannes Cocceius, Francis Turretin, and Herman Witsius. It is also found in Jonathan Edwards and Herman Bavinck. Among the Princeton theologians were Charles Hodge, A.A. Hodge, B.B. Warfield, Geerhardus Vos, and J. Gresham Machen. Today in the United States there are Michael Horton, Meredith Kline, J.I. Packer, Richard Pratt, and others who teach at Reformed seminaries.

                The OPC believes that the spiritual gifts of speaking in tongues, prophesying, and miraculous healings ceased at the end of the Apostolic Age (from the day of Pentecost when the Holy Spirit came upon the apostles and when the last book of the Bible was written or when the last apostle died) since they served the purpose of laying the foundation of the church as taught in 1 Corinthians 13:9-10 and Ephesians 2:20.

                When we look at the history of the OPC in the context of church history and American Presbyterianism, two things stand out. In the context of church history, we see that the OPC comes from a lineage of Christians who tried to maintain scriptural integrity. In the context of the history of American Presbyterianism, we see that the OPC fought to be faithful to the confessions. John P. Galbraith stated that the OPC is grounded in the belief “that God’s Word is Truth,” and that “the Westminster Confession of Faith and Catechisms interpret that Truth most truly.”

                Most Presbyterian churches subscribe to the Westminster Confession of Faith and Catechisms, but the different Presbyterian denominations differ in how closely they adhere to the WCF. The OPC takes on its character from maintaining its roots in scripture and its strict subscription to the Westminster Standards.

* For further studies in the history of the OPC, read Fighting the Good Fight written by Darryl Hart and John Muether.