The Tacoma Bible Presbyterian Church is part of the Bible Presbyterian denomination which was founded in 1936 as an alternative to the growing apostasy (departure from the truth of God’s Word) in the mainline Presbyterian bodies. The Bible Presbyterian denomination has churches in 17 states and two Canadian provinces.

The beginning of this church was the fruit of great theological conflict that raged in the 1920’s and 1930’s within the Presbyterian Church, USA. The struggle was between those who believed the Bible and those who rejected it, between those who held Christianity as a supernatural religion and those who denied its supernaturalism.

Those ministers who were willing to take a stand against religious liberalism (because it was not true Christianity) formed a new mission board in 1937 - The Independent Board for Presbyterian Foreign Missions. This new Board would sponsor only Bible-believing missionaries who would take a stand against the liberalism which was then being taught on the mission fields. Of course, the General Assembly of the liberal PC-USA was greatly opposed to this new Board. They issued a mandate that required the members of the new Board to sever all relations with it. When the men who stood for the truth of the Bible refused to obey this mandate, a separation took place.

Dr. Roy T. Brumbaugh, the first pastor of Tacoma Bible Presbyterian Church and a member of the new mission board, was one of the many who refused to obey the mandate. The infamous mandate (which was in violation of both the Scriptures and the principles of Presbyterianism) led Dr. Brumbaugh to withdraw from the pastorate of First Presbyterian Church of Tacoma and renounce the jurisdiction of the PC-USA. Under Dr. Brumbaugh’s leadership the First Independent Church of Tacoma was formed on August 22, 1935, gathering in what was a Scottish Rite Temple. That church ultimately became the Tacoma Bible Presbyterian Church.