[2] Initially called Whitefield College of the Bible after a companion school in Banbridge, Northern Ireland, the seminary was renamed in 2002 to avoid confusion in the United States where Bible schools and seminaries prepare students at different academic levels.

Both the Church and its seminary acknowledge the Westminster Confession of Faith and its exposition of Reformed theology, which they believe to be taught by the Bible.

[4] In an advertising brochure published in 2008, the seminary declared its intent "to avoid the lamentable abuses" of covenant theology by pursuing "a strongly fervent evangelistic mission....[a] biblical, fundamental, separatist, evangelistic, and Reformed ministry.

"[5] Ian Paisley, the former moderator of the Free Presbyterian Church of Ulster, had a long-standing relationship with Bob Jones University, also located in Greenville, and by February 2007, every GRS faculty member was both a graduate of Bob Jones University and a minister or licentiate minister of the Free Presbyterian Church.

[6] In 2001 the Presbytery Commission appointed Michael Barrett, who had earned a Ph.D. in theology from BJU, as president.