Replies

I am connfused on the last topic of your post. I understand that there is an argument over OPC doctrine within the church, and it appears to be centered around Van Til and his apparent view that justification is by faith plus works.

And in fact, those fighting against the "errors" they see in their OPC church, such as the man you quote, have issued proclamations against this wrongward direction in the leadership.

But that wrongward direction appears to be more toward the Catholic view. For example, the OPC condemnation proclamation contained this:

We repudiate the expressions of the doctrine of justification contained in the North American documents "Evangelicals and Catholics Together" and "The Gift of Salvation," and the European document, "The Joint Declaration on the Doctrine of Justification," all written and endorsed by those who, in the interest of organizational unity, are willing to compromise between the Roman Church-State and the Reformation. In these documents Rome actually concedes nothing, while the Biblical and Reformed doctrine of justification by faith alone is either abandoned or ignored.

I looked through your list of reasons why OPC was a non-christian cult, and find I disagree with most of your opinions. I don't believe babies, even unborn babies, are automatically saved. I believe God chooses who He will save, and I believe in original sin, and that no one can come to the Father, except through Jesus.

I find it perverse to argue that aborted babies all get to go to heaven. Heaven is for all eternity, as is Hell. If you tell me that aborted babies all go to heaven, while born babies have a good chance of going to hell, why wouldn't we abort ALL the babies? What's 70-90 years of life on earth compared to eternity? And why scripture teaches that all babies are saved?

It seems odd that you would dismiss a church as "anti-christian" for not believing that the babies of non-christians have a better chance (i.e. 100% chance) of getting into heaven than the older children of good Catholic families, but that is where the argument leads, if you insist that all babies go to heaven.

I also believe a man is damned or saved by the wishes of God. If God chooses some vessels to honor, and some to dishonor, that is His choice, and Paul makes this clear.

I agree with your rejection of the idea that the OPC (or the OPC and PCA, as you have somehow decided to lump a mainstream conservative church in with your rants about the OPC) are not the sole recipients of eternal life. I don't know that the OPC teaches that; I am sure they must teach that they are the "right" beliefs, just as the Catholic Church teaches that they are the "right" Church.

I mostly disagree with your complaint about Prayer. Since I believe Jesus is God (and don't see your argument about the OPC discussion of the trinity to either contradict my beliefs, or suggest that their is a hierarchy of greater and lesser gods), I can say that you should pray only to God, and sidestep the question of whether you can pray to Jesus, as opposed to 'In Jesus Name'.

I don't know if OPC teaches solely from Paul and Calvin and Manchin. I know that my PCA church pastor preaches through many books of the Bible, we are working through Leviticus now. I have a hard time believing the OPC pastors ignore all scripture except the post-gospel writings.

My point is that I disagree with most of your list of "anti-christian" things, and it appears that the big argument against the OPC church, it's big error, seems to be in slipping into a "faith plus works" doctrine, and trying to find common ground with Catholicism on justification. Obviously there are other big issues in the church, maybe Alex can discuss them at more detail since I'm not OPC.