What is Bible Presbyterian Church

A small Presbyterian denomination born out of the modernist-fundamentalist controversy. In 1936 The Presbyterian Church of America (later Orthodox Presbyterian Church) was founded by a small group of pastors and elders who left the Presbyterian Church-U.S.A. The immediate cause for this exodus was the suspension of J. Gresham Machen and J. Oliver Buswell, Jr., from the Presbyterian ministry due to their support of an independent mission board that sought to insure biblical teaching on Presbyterian mission fields. The newly formed denomination was soon drawn into internal conflict. Genuine differences in doctrine, ethics and church government, coupled with suspicions and disagreements, led Buswell, Carl McIntire, Allan MacRae and others to separate and form the Bible Presbyterian Church (BPC) in 1937.
At its first synod the BPC amended the Westminster standards to teach premillennialism. A piety which included alcoholic abstinence was enjoined, and a church government allowing greater freedom to the local church and both independent and church-controlled agencies was established. The chief characteristic was a self-conscious denominational “testimony” for the Bible and Jesus Christ, which issued in separatist stance calling for separation from apostasy as well as from those having fellowship with apostates. This ultimately isolated the BPC and hindered evangelistic efforts.
The BPC was originally supportive of the American and International Councils of Christian Churches (ACCC; ICCC) presided over by Carl McIntire. Disagreement during the 1950s over the denomination’s association with the ACCC and ICCC and the autonomy of BPC agencies led to the withdrawal of McIntire and others at the 1956 General Assembly to form the Bible Presbyterian Church, Collingswood Synod. The majority continued as the Bible Presbyterian Church, Columbus Synod, until 1961, when the denomination changed its name to the Evangelical Presbyterian Church (EPC). In 1965 the EPC then merged with the Reformed Presbyterian Church in North America, General Synod, to form the Reformed Presbyterian Church, Evangelical Synod.
BIBLIOGRAPHY.    G. P. Hutchinson, The History Behind the Reformed Presbyterian Church, Evangelical Synod (1974); The Constitution of the Bible Presbyterian Church (1946).


Daniel G. Reid et al., Dictionary of Christianity in America (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1990).