So, you ask, what is an Orthodox Presbyterian?
Orthodox Presbyterian speaks to our ‘story’ within Presbyterianism.
The Orthodox Presbyterian Church (OPC) traces its roots back to the Protestant Reformation of the 16th century, but its official formation was on June 11, 1936, in Philadelphia. It was formed in the context of turmoil and soul-searching controversies within the Presbyterian Church in the USA (PCUSA) in the 1920-30s.
As modernity and theological liberalism began to manifest themselves within the PCUSA, Presbyterian minister and theologian J. Gresham Machen led the charge to preserve historic Christianity, producing tracts, books, and sermons calling for a return to theological orthodoxy (lit. “right teaching”) within Presbyterian ranks. Machen’s call for fidelity to the Reformed tradition and the historic Christian faith eventually resulted in him being deposed from office by the PCUSA.
Machen and those who had supported him, determined to form a new church that would remain faithful to the Presbyetrian tradition, Reformed theology, and ultimately to Scripture.
The Orthodox Presbyterian Church is a denomination committed to the Bible as the inspired, infallible, and inerrant Word of God, and the Westminster Standards (the Westminster Confession of Faith, the Westminster Larger Catechism, and the Westminster Shorter Catechism) as faithful summaries of the Bible.
Our identity as Orthodox Presbyterians means that we are Christians in the Presbyterian tradition who are committed to following that “pattern of sound words” (cf. 2 Tim. 1:13) revealed in Scripture, without equivocation or compromise to the latest religious opinions. We believe that the Word of God stands over the word of man. In that way, the ’spirit’ of Machen lives on in the OPC, and at Christ Covenant today.
