The name had to be changed because of a successful lawsuit in civil court by the mainline denomination regarding name infringement – a trademark-violation issue.

This group held to the classic formulations of Reformed theology (as mediated through the Westminster Confession and the catechisms) and piety, thus forming an "orthodox" faction.

The other faction espoused a conservatism that showed a more keen interest in cultural and political matters, and saw the actions of the PCUSA as symptomatic of a rejection of long-held principles of conservative Christianity by much of the larger American society.

Scofield's notes were under considerable criticism by faculty members of Westminster Theological Seminary, who led the "orthodox" faction.

The formal exodus of Bible Presbyterian churches came about in 1938, only two years after the forming of the OPC, immediately after the failure of Milo F. Jamison, a dispensationalist, to be elected Moderator of the General Assembly.

The Bible Presbyterian Church has always maintained the unity of the covenant of grace (a decidedly non-dispensational position), and, in later years, passed resolutions against dispensationalism in its annual Synod meetings.

While the Bible Presbyterian Church Collingswood Synod remained under the influence of McIntire, the BPC Columbus Synod, which included such men as Francis Schaeffer and Jay E. Adams would eventually move beyond its Bible Presbyterian Church heritage and eventually would take the name the Evangelical Presbyterian Church in 1961 (which is not to be confused with the current denomination of the same name, founded in 1981).

In addition, the separate churches split for advocating exclusive psalmody and abstinence from alcohol.

[3][1] On March 28, 2008, the South Atlantic Presbytery voted by a wide margin to disassociate from the Bible Presbyterian Synod, in opposition to formal relations recently established between the Synod and the Orthodox Presbyterian Church.