Beloved,
It won’t come as a surprise to you, but we are a congregation in the Orthodox Presbyterian Church. As a pastor in the OPC, I enjoy watching peoples’ responses to the O-word when I tell them the name of the denomination I minister in.
Last fall I was at Covenant College, and one of you introduced me to one of your professors: “Mrs. so-and-so, this is Nick Thompson, the pastor of Cornerstone Orthodox Presbyterian Church.” Immediately, an uncomfortable expression came over her face and she said quite solemnly and matter-of-factly, “Orthodox Presbyterian? Well, that sounds formal.” It took some serious self-control not to respond in a sarcastic, smarty-pants manner!
Her understanding of the word orthodox is not uncommon. Orthodoxy equals formality. Orthodoxy equals smells and bells (thanks to the incense and icons of the Greek Orthodox Church). While I do get a good laugh at seeing people’s reaction to the O-word, I also find myself tempted to forgo the word or to wish our denomination was named something different. It is so easily misunderstood and so easily becomes a hurdle rather than a help.
What does orthodox actually mean?
Etymologically, it comes from two Greek words that simply mean “straight thinking” or “straight believing.” Orthodox has nothing to do with formality; it has everything to do with faith. Orthodox has nothing to do with incense waving; it has everything to do with the inscripturated word. Orthodox has nothing to do with icons; it has everything to do with ideology. To say we are orthodox simply means that we are a church devoted to straight (as opposed to crooked) teaching about God from His word. We cherish the straightforward, uncompromising proclamation of the whole counsel of God. We seek the promotion and protection of the great doctrines of the faith revealed in the Scriptures. We are a people devoted to the book of God and are willing to die for the truth therein!
Though it certainly comes with baggage and misunderstanding, orthodox is a quite fitting name for our denomination. For we were birthed out of the heresy that had infected the PCUSA. Ministers were no longer required to espouse the basic doctrines of the Christian faith. You could be a presbyterian pastor while rejecting the inherency of Scripture and the exclusivity of the gospel, along with the virgin birth, substitutionary atonement, bodily resurrection, and second coming of Christ. The anti-supernatural humanism of the mainline church was not merely crooked. It was the promotion of an entirely different religion altogether (hence, the title of Machen’s classic Christianity and Liberalism). The Orthodox Presbyterian Church came into existence through a fierce war with unbelief and unorthodoxy. And that fight against heresy was fueled by the conviction that straight thinking and believing about God is foundational for the Christian life, the Christian Church, and the Christian mission.
That is why our first core principle as a church is God-centered Theology. We must begin with God, and our thinking and speaking about Him. Machen said of the apostle, “Christianity for Paul was not only a life, but also a doctrine, and logically the doctrine came first.” That is vital. Straight thinking/believing leads to straight living/walking. Yes, Christianity cares profoundly about worship and piety and mission. But those things go terribly wrong when our doctrine goes wrong. Worship becomes idolatry. Piety becomes moralism. Mission becomes social justice.
We need sound teaching. We need true belief. We need, like the early church, to be devoted to the apostolic doctrine (Acts 2:42). In other words, being orthodox is not optional. It is foundational.
We will be thinking more about this in the next couple of weeks as we explore this first core principle together. But let me encourage you not to blush when you tell people you are a member of the Orthodox Presbyterian Church. For sound doctrine is the bedrock of a flourishing life and a flourishing church.
Yours in Christ,
Pastor Nick
