On June 11, the Orthodox Presbyterian Church turned 82. On that day, the Presbyterian Constitutional Covenant Union, which had been formed the year before by a small group of PCUSA members who desired a biblically reformed church, met for the last time.¹

You can learn more about the foundtion of the OPC in Darryl Hart and John Muether’s Fighting the Good Fight: A Brief History of the Orthodox Presbyterian Church, Edwin Rian’s The Presbyterian Conflict, and Robert Churchill’s Lest We Forget: A Personal Reflection on the Formation of the Orthodox Presbyterian Church, all published by the OPC Committee on the Historian.²

A few years ago, Dr. Hart, who did doctoral studies on Machen, taught a Sunday school class on Machen’s role in these events. His book on Machen is also in invaluable resource.

Last year, I prepared an interactive timeline of the events of the Presbyterian Conflict leading to the formation of the OPC. The story is also outline by someone outside the OPC in Bradley Longfield’s The Presbyterian Controversy: Fundamentalists, Modernists, and Moderates.

The OPC digitized issues of the Presbyterian Guardian, an independent magazine published by conservative presbyterians from 1935-1979; the issue just after the formation of the OPC is an enlighting original source on the events. The OPC has recently published old minutes of its General Assemblies online; the minutes from the first are here.