The Orthodox Presbyterian Church was formed in 1936 out of the modernist-fundamentalist controversy at a time when figures such as J. Gresham Machen were struggling with liberal influences at Princeton Seminary and the mainline Presbyterian Church. Much has been written on those early years, but a significant gap in the history persisted until recently. For the OPC’s 75th anniversary, the Committee for the Historian has commissioned two books. The first is a collection of essays edited by John R. Muether and Danny E. Olinger titled Confident of Better Things. The second is Between the Times: The Orthodox Presbyterian Church in Transition 1945-1990 written by Darryl. G. Hart. Hart’s book wonderfully chronicles the OPC during the transition beyond the first generation as the young Reformed denomination sought to find its identity in a changing evangelical world. Today Dr. Hart visits Christ the Center to speak about this important period in American Presbyterianism.
I appeal to you, brothers, to watch out for those who cause divisions and create obstacles contrary to the doctrine that you have been taught; avoid them. For such persons do not serve our Lord Christ, but their own appetites, and by smooth talk and flattery they deceive the hearts of the naïve. (Romans 16:17-18)