The Orthodox Presbyterian Church (OPC) is a

confessional A confessional is a box, cabinet, booth, or stall in which the priest in some Christian churches sits to hear the confessions of penitents. It is the usual venue for the sacrament in the Roman Catholic Church and the Lutheran Churches, but sim ...

Presbyterian Presbyterianism is a part of the Reformed tradition within Protestantism that broke from the Roman Catholic Church in Scotland by John Knox, who was a priest at St. Giles Cathedral (Church of Scotland). Presbyterian churches derive their nam ...

denomination located primarily in the United States, with additional congregations in Canada, Bermuda, and Puerto Rico. It was founded by conservative members of the Presbyterian Church in the United States of America (PCUSA), who objected to the rise of Liberal and Modernist theology in the 1930s. The OPC is considered to have had an influence on

evangelicalism Evangelicalism (), also called evangelical Christianity or evangelical Protestantism, is a worldwide interdenominational movement within Protestant Christianity that affirms the centrality of being " born again", in which an individual exper ...

far beyond its size.

History

The Orthodox Presbyterian Church was founded in 1936, through the efforts of

John Gresham Machen John Gresham Machen (; 1881–1937) was an American Presbyterian New Testament scholar and educator in the early 20th century. He was the Professor of New Testament at Princeton Seminary between 1906 and 1929, and led a revolt against modernist ...

. Machen was formerly a PCUSA minister, and in the 1920s and 30s, PCUSA had begun ordaining female deacons and elders. Machen had a longstanding distrust of

liberalism Liberalism is a political and moral philosophy based on the rights of the individual, liberty, consent of the governed, political equality and equality before the law."political rationalism, hostility to autocracy, cultural distaste for c ...

in Christianity, as typified by the

Auburn Affirmation The Auburn Affirmation was a document dated May 1924, with the title ''"AN AFFIRMATION designed to safeguard the unity and liberty of the Presbyterian Church in the United States of America"'', authored by an eleven-member ''Conference Committee'' a ...

. He and others founded Westminster Theological Seminary in 1929 in response to a liberal re-organization of Princeton Theological Seminary, and in 1933, Machen formed the

Independent Board for Presbyterian Foreign Missions The Independent Board for Presbyterian Foreign Missions (IBPFM) is a small Presbyterian mission organization, which early in its history became an approved agency of the Bible Presbyterian Church. Founded in 1933 by J. Gresham Machen, the IBPFM pla ...

, due to concerns around tolerance of liberal theology on the Presbyterian mission field.

Machen's efforts were met with opposition. In 1935, the PCUSA General Assembly deemed Machen's Independent Board unconstitutional, and gave the associated clergy an ultimatum to break their ties with it. When Machen and seven other clergy refused to disavow the Independent Board, they were suspended from PCUSA ministry. In light of these events, and the continuing rise of liberalism in the PCUSA, Machen and a group of conservative ministers, elders, and laymen met in

Philadelphia Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the sixth-largest city in the U.S., the second-largest city in both the Northeast megalopolis and Mid-Atlantic regions after New York City. Sinc ...

on June 11, 1936, to form what they then called 'The Presbyterian Church of America' (not to be confused with the Presbyterian Church in America, or PCA, which formed in 1973), with Machen as the first moderator. Other key figures at this time include

Ned B. Stonehouse Ned Bernard Stonehouse (March 19, 1902 - November 18, 1962)
at Westminster Theological Seminary was a renowned

J. Oliver Buswell James Oliver Buswell, Jr. (January 16, 1895 – February 4, 1977) was a Presbyterian theologian, educator and institution builder. Education Buswell was born in Burlington, Wisconsin. He received an A.B. from the University of Minnesota (1917), a ...

, and Edward Joseph Young. Machen died shortly after in January of 1937. Later that year, a faction led by Carl McIntire broke away to form Bible Presbyterian Church, affirming total abstinence from alcohol and

premillennialism Premillennialism, in Christian eschatology, is the belief that Jesus will physically return to the Earth (the Second Coming) before the Millennialism#Christianity, Millennium, a literal thousand-year golden age of peace. Premillennialism is base ...

. In 1939, after PCUSA filed a lawsuit against the fledgling denomination for its name choice, the denomination adopted its current name, the Orthodox Presbyterian Church. In 1961, the OPC published the popular Trinity Hymnal. Since its founding, the OPC has produced numerous influential figures, including Scottish theologian John Murray, Dutch theologian

Geerhardus Vos Geerhardus Johannes Vos (March 14, 1862 – August 13, 1949) was a Dutch-American Calvinist theologian and one of the most distinguished representatives of the Princeton Theology. He is sometimes called the father of Reformed Biblical Theology ...

, American theologians Richard B. Gaffin, Jr. and

Meredith Kline Meredith George Kline (December 15, 1922 – April 14, 2007) was an American theologian and Old Testament scholar. He also had degrees in Assyriology and Egyptology. Academic career Kline received his AB from Gordon College, Th.B. and Th.M. ...

, historian D.G. Hart, and presuppositional theologians

Cornelius Van Til Cornelius Van Til (May 3, 1895 – April 17, 1987) was a Dutch-American reformed philosopher and theologian, who is credited as being the originator of modern presuppositional apologetics. A graduate of Calvin College, Van Til later received ...

and

Greg Bahnsen Greg L. Bahnsen (September 17, 1948 – December 11, 1995) was an American Reformed philosopher, apologist, and debater. He was a minister in the Orthodox Presbyterian Church and a full-time Scholar in Residence for the Southern Californi ...

Doctrine

The Orthodox Presbyterian Church traces its doctrinal beliefs to the

Reformation The Reformation (alternatively named the Protestant Reformation or the European Reformation) was a major movement within Western Christianity in 16th-century Europe that posed a religious and political challenge to the Catholic Church and in ...

, and particularly the theology of the French Reformer

John Calvin John Calvin (; frm, Jehan Cauvin; french: link=no, Jean Calvin ; 10 July 150927 May 1564) was a French theologian, pastor and reformer in Geneva during the Protestant Reformation. He was a principal figure in the development of the system ...

. After his death, Calvin's doctrines were developed and set forth by a 17th-century assembly of British theologians in the

Westminster Standards The Westminster Standards is a collective name for the documents drawn up by the Westminster Assembly (1643–49). These include the Westminster Confession of Faith, the Westminster Shorter Catechism, the Westminster Larger Catechism, the Directo ...

(which include the

Westminster Confession of Faith The Westminster Confession of Faith is a Reformed confession of faith. Drawn up by the 1646 Westminster Assembly as part of the Westminster Standards to be a confession of the Church of England, it became and remains the " subordinate standard" ...

, and the Westminster Larger and Shorter Catechisms). The OPC thus holds to the Westminster Standards (with the American revisions of 1788) for doctrine and practice. The OPC provides the following summary of its doctrine: John Calvin - Young

* The

Bible The Bible (from Koine Greek , , 'the books') is a collection of religious texts or scriptures that are held to be sacred in Christianity, Judaism, Samaritanism, and many other religions. The Bible is an anthologya compilation of texts of a ...

, having been inspired by God, is entirely trustworthy and without error. Therefore, we are to believe and obey its teachings. The Bible is the only source of special revelation for the church today. * The one true God is personal, yet beyond our comprehension. He is an invisible spirit, completely self-sufficient and unbounded by space or time, perfectly holy and just, and loving and merciful. In the unity of the Godhead there are three "persons": the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. * God created the heavens and the earth, and all they contain. He upholds and governs them in accordance with his eternal will. God is sovereign—in complete control—yet this does not diminish human responsibility. * Because of the sin of the first man,

Adam Adam; el, Ἀδάμ, Adám; la, Adam is the name given in Genesis 1-5 to the first human. Beyond its use as the name of the first man, ''adam'' is also used in the Bible as a pronoun, individually as "a human" and in a collective sense as " ...

, all mankind is corrupt by nature, dead in sin, and subject to the wrath of God. But God determined, by a covenant of grace, that sinners may receive forgiveness and eternal life through faith in Jesus Christ. Faith in Christ has always been the only way of salvation, in both Old Testament and New Testament times. * The Son of God took upon himself a human nature in the womb of

the virgin Mary Mary; arc, ܡܪܝܡ, translit=Mariam; ar, مريم, translit=Maryam; grc, Μαρία, translit=María; la, Maria; cop, Ⲙⲁⲣⲓⲁ, translit=Maria was a first-century Jewish woman of Nazareth, the wife of Joseph and the mother of ...

, so that in her son

Jesus Jesus, likely from he, יֵשׁוּעַ, translit=Yēšūaʿ, label=Hebrew/Aramaic ( AD 30 or 33), also referred to as Jesus Christ or Jesus of Nazareth (among other names and titles), was a first-century Jewish preacher and religious ...

the divine and human natures were united in one person. Jesus Christ lived a sinless life and died on a cross, bearing the sins of, and receiving God's wrath for, all those who trust in him for salvation (his chosen ones). He rose from the dead and ascended into heaven, where he sits as Lord and rules over his kingdom (the church). He will return to judge the living and the dead, bringing his people (with glorious, resurrected bodies) into eternal life, and consigning the wicked to eternal punishment. * Those whom God has

predestined Predestination, in theology, is the doctrine that all events have been willed by God, usually with reference to the eventual fate of the individual soul. Explanations of predestination often seek to address the paradox of free will, whereby Go ...

unto life are effectually drawn to Christ by the inner working of

the Spirit The Spirit is a fictional masked crimefighter created by cartoonist Will Eisner. He first appeared June 2, 1940, as the main feature of a 16-page, tabloid (paper size), tabloid-sized, newsprint comic book insert distributed in the Sunday editio ...

as they hear the gospel. When they believe in Christ, God declares them righteous (justifies them), pardoning their sins and accepting them as righteous, not because of any righteousness of their own, but by imputing Christ's merits to them. They are adopted as the children of God and indwelt by the Holy Spirit, who sanctifies them, enabling them increasingly to stop sinning and act righteously. They repent of their sins (both at their conversion and thereafter), produce good works as the fruit of their faith, and persevere to the end in communion with Christ, with assurance of their salvation. * Those whom God has

unto death are ignored by God. God does nothing to prevent them from sinning nor does he help them obtain salvation. The fate of the reprobate are to lead sinful wicked lives and suffer eternal damnation upon death. * Believers strive to keep God's moral law, which is summarized in the Ten Commandments, not to earn salvation, but because they love their Savior and want to obey him. Good works are a gift prepared by God for his people. God is the Lord of the conscience, so that men are not required to believe or do anything contrary to, or in addition to, the Word of God in matters of faith or worship. * Christ has established his church, and particular churches, to gather and perfect his people, by means of the ministry of the Word, the sacraments of

baptism Baptism (from grc-x-koine, βάπτισμα, váptisma) is a form of ritual purification—a characteristic of many religions throughout time and geography. In Christianity, it is a Christian sacrament of initiation and adoption, almost inv ...

(which is to be administered to the children of believers, as well as believers) and the Lord's Supper (in which the body and blood of Christ are spiritually present to the faith of believers), and the disciplining of members found delinquent in doctrine or life. Christians assemble on the Lord's Day to worship God by praying, hearing the Word of God read and preached, singing psalms and hymns, and receiving the sacraments. While there is unity on the fundamentals of the Reformed Faith, OPC pastors and presbyteries teach a range of doctrines on the biblical creation accounts, from

framework A framework is a generic term commonly referring to an essential supporting structure which other things are built on top of. Framework may refer to: Computing * Application framework, used to implement the structure of an application for an op ...

and analogical interpretations to

young earth Young Earth creationism (YEC) is a form of creationism which holds as a central tenet that the Earth and its lifeforms were created by supernatural acts of the Abrahamic God between approximately 6,000 and 10,000 years ago. In its most widespr ...

. There is similar variability in terms of

eschatology Eschatology (; ) concerns expectations of the end of the present age, human history, or of the world itself. The end of the world or end times is predicted by several world religions (both Abrahamic and non-Abrahamic), which teach that negati ...

Demographics

At the 2022 General Assembly, the OPC reported 576 ministers and 32,255 members. The OPC has 17 Presbyteries across Canada and the United States: Central Pennsylvania, Connecticut and Southern New York, the Dakotas, Michigan and Ontario, Mid-Atlantic, Midwest, New Jersey, New York and New England, Northern California and Nevada, Northwest, Ohio, Philadelphia, South, Southeast, Southern California, Southwest, and Wisconsin and Minnesota.

Race

In the early 1970s, the General Assembly commissioned a 'Report of the Committee on Problems of Race', which stated that the OPC was a "largely white" denomination, due to losing "the allegiance of blacks during the ecclesiastical discrimination against blacks in the post-civil war period" and ecclesiastical "neglect" of minority groups. The report recommended more outreach to minority and urban areas. As of 2019, there is one black minister in the OPC. The OPC also has at least 6 Asian ministers, 3 Middle Eastern ministers, and 8 South American ministers.

American politics

OPC ministers have a variety of political views. Carl Trueman, an ordained minister in the OPC, has authored ''Republocrat: Confessions of a Liberal Conservative'' (pub. 2010).

was also a key figure in the Christian Reconstructionism movement, with an emphasis of applying God's law to contemporary civil and legal matters.

Abortion

The 39th General Assembly, meeting in 1972, adopted a statement on abortion that included the affirmation that "voluntary abortion, except possibly to save the physical life of the mother, is in violation of the Sixth Commandment (Exodus 20:13)."

Military

In 1993, the denomination petitioned then President

Bill Clinton William Jefferson Clinton ( né Blythe III; born August 19, 1946) is an American politician who served as the 42nd president of the United States from 1993 to 2001. He previously served as governor of Arkansas from 1979 to 1981 and agai ...

to continue to disallow homosexuals to serve in the military. According to the petition, "homosexuality is a reproach to any nation. It undermines the family, and poses a substantial threat to the general health, safety and welfare of our citizens." The petition claims that AIDS and "other diseases" are spread particularly through homosexual conduct. The 68th General Assembly in 2001 declared that women serving in combat positions in the military is contrary to the Bible.

Immigration

In 2006-2007, a study committee formed by the General Assembly created a report that concluded that "the church should never turn its back on fellow brothers and sisters in Christ, whether they are legally or illegally in the country. We should be willing to see to the spiritual and physical needs of anyone who comes to the church." The report nonetheless recommended that illegal immigrants "repent" of their illegal activity.

Crime

In 2019, Escondido Orthodox Presbyterian Church received media attention due to one of its members, John Earnest, perpetrating the

Poway synagogue shooting The Poway synagogue shooting occurred on April 27, 2019, at Chabad of Poway synagogue in Poway, California, United States, a city approximately north of San Diego, on the last day of the Jewish Passover holiday, which fell on a Shabbat. Armed w ...

. Its pastor, Zach Keele, condemned the shooting as an "act of evil."

Governance

The Orthodox Presbyterian Church has a

polity. The offices of the church and corresponding duties can be found in the OPC Book of Church Order.

Session

A Session consists of the ministers and ruling elders of an individual congregation. The duties of the Session include overseeing public worship, the administration of

Baptism Baptism (from grc-x-koine, βάπτισμα, váptisma) is a form of ritual purification—a characteristic of many religions throughout time and geography. In Christianity, it is a Christian sacrament of initiation and adoption, almost inv ...

and The Lord's Supper, the addition, removal, and discipline of members, and keeping records of membershipBCO pg. 17

Presbytery

All of the members of local congregations and its ministers are organized by geography into a regional church, and the presbytery serves as its governing body.BCO, pg. 20 The presbytery is composed of all of the ministers and ruling elders of the various congregations in the regional church, and presbytery meetings are to consist of all ministers and one ruling elder from each respective session.BCO pg. 20 The duties of the presbytery include overseeing evangelism and resolving questions regarding church discipline. The presbytery also takes candidates for ministry under its care, and examines, licenses and ordains them. It also, if necessary, can remove a minister.

General Assembly

The OPC's General Assembly is the supreme judicatory,BCO pg. 25 and as such, it is to resolve all doctrinal and disciplinary issues that have not been resolved by the sessions and presbyteries.BCO pg. 23 The other duties of the General Assembly include organizing regional churches, calling ministers and licentiates to missionary or other ministries, and reviewing the records from the presbyteries. It also arranges internship training for prospective ministers, and oversees diaconal needs. The General Assembly meets at least once a year, and is to have, at maximum, 155 voting commissioners, including the moderator and stated clerk of the previous General Assembly, and ministers and ruling elders representing their respective presbyteries.

Women in ministry

The OPC does not ordain women as pastors, elders, or deacons. At least one congregation allowed women to serve as unordained deaconesses, but that congregation has since closed.

Missions

There are 38 mission works and eight active foreign mission fields in the OPC today: in China, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Haiti, Quebec, Uganda, Ukraine, and Uruguay. One of the OPC's goals is that "indigenous Reformed churches be established which will provide fellowship and instruction, and make the gospel known in its own culture and in others". The OPC's Committee on Home Missions and Church Extension also serves to help sustain and plant congregations in the United States and Canada. Their duty is to aid presbyteries in planting congregations, finding pastors, purchasing property and church buildings, and assisting home missionaries.

Ecumenical relations

In 1975, the OPC became a founding member of the

North American Presbyterian and Reformed Council The North American Presbyterian and Reformed Council (NAPARC) is an association of several Presbyterian and Reformed churches in the United States and Canada. The Council meets annually. It lists biblical inerrancy as its basis, along with the Si ...

(NAPARC). Through NAPARC, the OPC enjoys fraternal relations with the PCA, the Reformed Presbyterian Church of North America, the

Reformed Church in the United States The Reformed Church in the United States (RCUS) is a Protestant Christian denomination in the United States. The present RCUS is a conservative, Calvinist denomination. It affirms the principles of the Reformation: ''Sola scriptura'' (Scripture ...

, the Associate Reformed Presbyterian Church, the United Reformed Churches in North America, the Canadian and American Reformed Churches and several other confessional Continental Reformed and Presbyterian Churches in the United States and Canada. The OPC is also a member of the International Conference of Reformed Churches (ICRC), which includes Reformed & Presbyterian denominations from across the globe. Outside NAPARC and ICRC, the OPC has relations with the Africa Evangelical Presbyterian Church, the

Reformed Church in Japan The Reformed Church in Japan is a confessional Calvinist denomination in Japan. It was formerly a member of the World Communion of Reformed Churches, but it chose to suspend its membership. Origin The Reformed Church in Japan was formed in 1946 ...

, the

Presbyterian Church in Japan The Presbyterian Church in Japan is a conservative Reformed denomination in Japan, founded by American missionaries in the mid-1900s. History In the years after World War II, Japanese missionaries and the forerunner of the Presbyterian Church i ...

and the Presbyterian Church of Brazil.

References

External links

The Orthodox Presbyterian Church: official websiteGreat Commission Publications
{{Authority control Presbyterian denominations in Canada Presbyterian denominations in the United States Christian organizations established in 1936 Presbyterian denominations established in the 20th century