In 1788, the Synod adopted the official name of the "Presbyterian Church in the United States of America" and held its first meeting in 1789.

[3] In 1857, the New School movement became divided over the issue of slavery and formed the United Synod of the Presbyterian Church.

[5] A literal interpretation of the Bible is followed and clearly demonstrated in its stances on creationism, homosexuality and same-sex marriage, feminism, and liberalism.

It forbids the "teaching or practice" of charismaticism, dispensationalism, Arminianism, altar calls, abortion, homosexuality, neo-orthodoxy, modernism, humanism, feminism, evolution, Roman Catholicism, and liberalism.

[5] In addition to the Bible the RPCGA adopts the Book of Church Order containing the Westminster Confession and Larger and Shorter catechisms as its subordinate standards.