March 29 Today in OPC History

On March 29, 1935, the Presbytery of New Brunswick of the Presbyterian Church U.S.A. suspended J. Gresham Machen from the ministry.

After the previous General Assembly ordered Machen and other members of the Independent Board for Presbyterian Foreign Missions to resign their positions, the New Brunswick Presbytery was swift to charge Machen with disobeying the mandate of the General Assembly and advocating rebellion in the church. Insisting that the charges were purely administrative, the Presbytery ruled out of order all of Machen's arguments regarding the doctrinal soundness of the Presbyterian Board of Foreign Missions. Machen and other IBPFM members appealed to the 1936 General Assembly where the verdicts were sustained and the convictions upheld, setting the stage for the formation of the Orthodox Presbyterian Church on June 11, 1936.

Picture: J. Gresham Machen