From 1970 to 1989, Dr. Knight served as Professor of New Testament at Covenant Theological Seminary in St. Louis, Missouri, then the denominational seminary of the Reformed Presbyterian Church, Evangelical Synod (RPCES). The 38th General Assembly of the OPC elected Dr. Knight to serve as Moderator in 1971. In 1976, Dr. Knight transferred his ministerial credentials into the RPCES, and he later came into the Presbyterian Church in America (PCA) as part of the “Joining and Receiving” action taken in 1982. From 1989 to 1994, Dr. Knight served as Dean of the Faculty at Knox Theological Seminary in Fort Lauderdale, Florida.

Dr. George William Knight, III, passed into glory on Monday, October 11, 2021 at his home in Lake Wylie, South Carolina. He was 89 years old, having been born on December 16, 1931 in Sanford, Florida. He is survived by his wife of 69 years, Mrs. Virginia Knight (Sergeant), their children George W. Knight, IV (Mags), Margaret A. Clifford (Ron), Jennie K. Rotherham (Simon), and Hugh Knight (Trish), and numerous grand and great-grandchildren. He is preceded in death by his son Vann Marshall Knight (1955-2013).
A graduate of Westminster Theological Seminary and the Free University of Amsterdam, Dr. Knight was ordained as a Teacher of the Word by the Presbytery of Philadelphia of the Orthodox Presbyterian Church (OPC) in 1961. Later that year, he accepted a call as Pastor of Immanuel Presbyterian Church (OPC) in West Collingswood, New Jersey, a position which he held until 1965. From 1965 to 1970, Dr. Knight served as stated supply of Covenant Presbyterian Church (RPCES) in Naples, Florida. From 1970 to 1989, Dr. Knight served as Professor of New Testament at Covenant Theological Seminary in St. Louis, Missouri, then the denominational seminary of the Reformed Presbyterian Church, Evangelical Synod (RPCES). The 38th General Assembly of the OPC elected Dr. Knight to serve as Moderator in 1971. In 1976, Dr. Knight transferred his ministerial credentials into the RPCES, and he later came into the Presbyterian Church in America (PCA) as part of the “Joining and Receiving” action taken in 1982. From 1989 to 1994, Dr. Knight served as Dean of the Faculty at Knox Theological Seminary in Fort Lauderdale, Florida.
In 1994, the Knights moved to Matthews, North Carolina, and Dr. Knight accepted an invitation to teach as Adjunct Professor of New Testament at Greenville Presbyterian Theological Seminary (GPTS) in Greenville, South Carolina. At the same time, Dr. Knight transferred his ministerial credentials back to the OPC, and he took up a stated supply position at Matthews Presbyterian Church (OPC). He later accepted a call from the congregation as Teacher of the Word when the congregation called Pastor Nathan Trice in 1996. From 1993 to 1995, Dr. Knight served as President of the Council on Biblical Manhood and Womanhood (CBMW), and he was a frequent contributor to the organization’s publications over the years. In 1995, Dr. Knight served as President of the Evangelical Theological Society (ETS). In 2004, he moved from Matthews Presbyterian Church (now Resurrection Presbyterian Church) to serve as Teacher of the Word at a daughter congregation, Redeemer Presbyterian Church (OPC) in Charlotte, North Carolina. From 2005 to 2012, Dr. Knight served as Chairman of the Board of Trustees at GPTS.
Dr. Knight authored many books and articles (for a variety of academic and church publications). Some of his most notable books include The New Testament Teaching on the Role Relationship of Men and Women, Baker Book House 1977 (revised and republished as The Role Relationship of Men and Women: New Testament Teaching, Moody Press 1985); The Faithful Sayings in the Pastoral Epistles, Baker Book House 1979; Prophecy in the New Testament, Presbyterian Heritage Publications 1988; and Commentary on the Pastoral Epistles (NIGTC), Eerdmans 1992. Among his many essays and articles for both academic and church publications is an important work on church government, “Two Offices and Two Orders of Elders,” published in Pressing Toward the Mark: Essays Commemorating Fifty Years of the Orthodox Presbyterian Church, OPC 1986. He has also authored a number of pamphlets treating topics of New Testament theology, church government, and the doctrine of the Holy Spirit.
Dr. Knight is much beloved by the Greenville Presbyterian Theological Seminary community. We grieve, but not as those without hope. Rather, we grieve and rejoice in the gospel for which Dr. Knight earnestly and faithfully contended over many years. While statements of appreciation and admiration could be multiplied to fill many volumes in honor of Dr. Knight, the following three remembrances from his closest colleagues among the Faculty and Board of Trustees are included here.
I have great respect for Dr. Knight. After I had served as Chairman of the Board at Greenville Seminary for a number of years, Dr. Knight joined us. His great experience as Professor of New Testament at Covenant Seminary and Dean of the Faculty at Knox Seminary made it clear that he was the man to be our Chairman, so he and I switched places. He stayed in our home on numerous occasions, and since he was a graduate of Davidson College, he and my wife also had similar memories of that institution.  He was a most gracious, godly man whom I was honored to be able to call my friend.Mr. John Van Voorhis, Esq.Trustee Emeritus
It was a privilege beyond measure to have known and worked with Dr. Knight on the Board of Greenville Presbyterian Theological Seminary. Having known him as a world class scholar was intimidating. However as I came to know him better, I came to know a man possessed of gifts and graces belonging to another world. Dr. Knight was full of the fruit of the Holy Spirit, and his character magnified the work of Christ in him. Holding his convictions strongly, he lived out those convictions with a gracious lovingkindness that endeared him to all who had the pleasure of working with him. Pastor Jeff KingswoodTrustee
Dr. Knight was the finest example of a godly, Christian gentleman I have ever known.  He combined a firm commitment to the truth of the Reformed faith with a wonderful gentleness and patience. He was a brilliant scholar with a pastor’s heart. His contribution to the nature and development of Greenville Presbyterian Theological Seminary was inestimable. As Chairman of the Board, he exercised a profound influence corporately and more importantly as a wise counselor and friend.Joseph A. Pipa, Jr., PhD, DDPresident EmeritusProfessor of Systematic & Applied Theology
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While Article I of the Chicago Statement rejects that the church, tradition, or otherwise holds equal or greater authority than Scripture, it’s helpful to note that neither does it affirm a view of “solo Scriptura” e.g. no authority but the Bible. Even as the authoritative source of doctrine and practice, Scripture has ordained secondary means of authority, such as church, parents, governments, even tradition (2 Thess. 2:15) to offer guidance in the interpretation and application of its teachings. In fact, the Chicago Statement’s very existence and endurance speaks to the need and gift of these secondary means to help teach and guide us.

“Need evangelical summit.” R.C. Sproul scrawled in his notebook. “May fail but must try it.”
As Dr. Sproul penned these words, he captured a tense moment in twentieth-century church history. Throughout evangelicalism bubbled a threat against the orthodox understanding of the inerrancy of Scripture. But was this really such an urgent issue that over two hundred evangelical leaders needed to gather to draw a line in the sand? What made a boring theological term that many evangelicals could not even define something worth dividing over?
The key to this crisis can be found in the opening article of the statement:
We affirm that the Holy Scriptures are to be received as the authoritative Word of God. We deny that the Scriptures receive their authority from Church, tradition, or any other human source.
It might seem odd that a statement on inerrancy opens with a comment on authority. But that is because the issue of inerrancy is ultimately an issue of authority. For if God is the author of Scripture (2 Tim. 3:16-17) and God cannot lie (Heb. 6:18), then it follows that if the Scriptures err, then God is a liar, and its contents are not trustworthy. And if we cannot trust the contents of the Bible as God’s authoritative truth, then we are of all people most to be pitied for we have no hope of the resurrection in Christ and no basis for faith and practice.
It seems simple enough, but our relativistic and pluralistic culture often bucks against authority or cringes at the idea that there might be something out there that overrides “our truth.”  When someone’s personal preference is confronted by the authoritative Word of God, we have two choices. 
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It’s been said that the gospel is offensive enough without our adding to it. We should make every effort to assure that if someone is offended, it is an issue which needs to be worked out between them and God. It should not be due to our own lack of willingness to get out of the way.

I don’t remember the movie, just this one scene. Some crazy general had put together an unbeatable army. With bags of confidence they were being transported, in clandestine fashion, via big silver oil trucks through the snow. A demonstration of their force was about to be unleashed.
Turns out the snow was over ice; thin ice hiding a deep lake. They never made it to the field of battle. The trucks, and the indomitable, well-trained soldiers inside, crashed through the glassy, frozen veneer to repose insignificantly on the bottom of a nameless body of water. The power was never delivered.
We are often reminded of the power of God in that great flagship passage which ignited the Reformation.
For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God to salvation for everyone who believes, for the Jew first and also for the Greek. 17 For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith; as it is written, “The just shall live by faith” (Romans 1:16, 17).
The gospel is the “power of God.” In this gospel “the righteousness of God is revealed.” Of course, all of this assumes that it is actually delivered. Later Paul will write that “faith comes by hearing” (Romans 10:16b). The apostle will appeal to the very poetic words of Isaiah and Nahum that we might appreciate “How beautiful are the feet” (Romans 10:15) of those who bring this message. Again, this beauty and power assumes the truck makes it to the battlefield—the battlefield for the souls of men and women.
What is the thin ice on which the beautiful feet might unwittingly slip (or crash through)? As we rumble down the road of evangelism, are we reformed Christians aware of attributes in our own personalities which might unnecessarily impede a listening ear, losing a redemptive opportunity or potential convert?
At times I do enjoy the poetic tones of the King James Version. Other times those 1611 words just don’t fit well into the 21st century vernacular. The word peculiar comes to mind. In 1 Peter 2:9 Peter tells Christians they are a “peculiar people.” Some of us in the Reformed community run with that. We understand peculiar to mean odd or strange when it actually meant to be owned by someone-in Peter’s meaning, owned by God. Have you noticed the reformed community has become peculiar by the new definition over the old?
Who knows what it would have felt like to sit in a pub with Luther, Zwingli, Bucer, Bullinger or Calvin? I’m guessing in many ways they may have fit right in. These reformers, who carved out western civilization as we know it, had the ears of the people-all kinds of people. So whatever oddities or peculiarities they possessed, it didn’t unnecessarily disenfranchise them. It didn’t unnecessarily remove them from their culture. The operative word here being unnecessarily. No doubt they had run-ins with their culture as Jesus clearly taught good Christians would. But it was a result of the message, not the personalities of the ones delivering it (with the possible exception of Luther).