The OPC's Polluted Horizons

https://www.opc.org/nh.html?issue_id=288

I was more than a little disturbed when perusing the January 2021 New Horizons, the magazine of the Orthodox Presbyterian Church. As I have explained in the past as a former member of that faction I used to pick a copy every month from the back table of the auditorium and over the years I still keep tabs on the OPC and some of the people I used to know within its ranks.

New Horizons has always been somewhat imponderous in terms of theological content and yet it remains something of a bellwether – at least in terms of the denomination's Establishment. There are certainly other factions within the OPC that turn up their nose at New Horizons and the people involved with it and yet they are a minority and I think by now many have made a slow exodus from the denomination – finding homes in other groups like the PCA and the growing number of micro-denominations.

The first article was dominated by a strong undercurrent of psychology being combined with middle class values and concerns. Functionally in denial of the Sufficiency of Scripture there was also a feminist undertone which dovetailed with the values of professionalism overshadowing both the expectations of Christian life and piety – and in terms of how problems within the Church are dealt with.

We see an inept psychological evaluation rendered by someone incompetent and Biblically unqualified to do so. However these tasks have been falsely rendered in clinical terms, relegated to trained 'professionals' when the Scriptures identify elders imbued with spiritual wisdom derived from the Scriptures as the means by which such problems must be addressed.

We see a frustrated workaholic husband and father who probably needs to get a new job and live a different kind of life but is unable to do so because he is shackled by the world's expectations – the same middle class thinking that permeates his church circles. Money, wealth in general, and status are cast in moral terms. It is the ethos of mammon-worship which dominates the Evangelical world and in particular the somewhat high-brow circles of conservative Presbyterianism.

The true moral judgment (in terms of the Scripture) is that men like this are ethically compromised and being unfaithful but all too often (in conservative Reformed circles) the man who does not make a considerable income and provide the upper middle class kind of lifestyle for his family is viewed as derelict and morally deficient.

The article was frustrating. If you don't like dog hair, then get rid of the dog.

We see the author abuse Scripture and then what are we left with? Call a hotline? Is this person serious? The fact that this article appeared in a church publication is an indictment of the OPC.

Her thinking and this issue represent what I call SAT – the Sociological Accommodationist Triad – feminism, psychology, and divorce. These forces often seem to work in concert and they have invaded the Church – even conservative denominations and churches. As a result these bodies have 'grown soft' with regard to their influence and in many respects have incorporated their assumptions into their thinking. The OPC is no exception.

And yet they are able to convince themselves of their conservatism by continually moving the goalposts and judging themselves by the standard of the culture which is always (to no one's surprise) in a further degenerate state. So because feminism in the culture at large is worse, then their embrace of 1970's and 1980's feminism is rendered okay. Because the culture has gone off the rails with regard to marriage and divorce, the rather flippant attitude seen in many Reformed circles with regard to ending marriages can still seem conservative. And because psychology is in complete meltdown, the fact that groups like the OPC have nevertheless embraced the pseudo-science (and its anti-scriptural premises) can seem stable and respectable. But this is not the case.

The entire New Horizons issue was a mess and represents the assumptions of this triad.

With regard to the Iranian woman, the story is tragic and yet all too common. But what a sad commentary that divorce is presented as the solution.

And where to begin with regard to the so-called Christian legal advice? It was a theological debacle to be sure and in terms of Christian doctrine – it was sinful. It was rooted in worldly thinking about money, power, and protecting not the flock – but institutions. It was maddening and disgusting.

And what can I say? A New Testament Christian that would turn to a military chaplain for counsel is a fool – a person who has devoted their Christian 'ministry' to an institution a Christian should not be part of. And once again, his thinking (on almost every level) represents syncretism – the sham that is Christian Worldview and a denial of Scriptural sufficiency as God's revelation for the Church to survive as a pilgrim people in exile – in the realm ruled by the prince of the power of the air.

Once again this testifies to the fact that growing numbers of individuals, denominations, and ministries (so called) that were once deemed as conservative, and even ultra- conservative are compromised and compromising.

The Church (broadly speaking) is in desperate need of reform. I hope as people reach the breaking point they will consider this. Sadly at present it seems as if those who recognise these trends at work in denominations like the OPC are instead being affected by an even greater error – Christian Trumpism. And their exodus is a case of jumping out of the poison swamp into the cesspool.

What breaks my heart is that this kind of corrupt thinking is being exported and (even as we speak) is affecting churches from Europe to Asia to Latin America.