The Apostle Paul took every opportunity to preach. No doubt if he were alive today he would use all the modern technology available to spread the good news of the coming Kingdom to others.
Back when radio was coming into its own, the brotherhood in Southern California decided to use this medium to reach out to others with the saving message of the Bible. Bro. Edgar Round began giving regular radio addresses around 1930. A local station at the time wanted $35.00 for a 15 minute program and $65.00 for a 30 minute program. So we see that over eighty years ago our brethren were using radio to spread the gospel message.
Moving forward to our time, we remember the ecclesias in Southern California were all pooling their resources to buy time on the local stations. Back in the 1950s, these resources were used to buy radio time to spread the word. The ecclesias asked for suggestions for a catchy title to attract attention and Bro Leslie Clarke came up with the phrase “This is your Bible” which caught on and has been used ever since. It has since also become the name of the Internet work that began in 2006.
In the early days Bro Maurice Stewart was an active supporter of this good work and he wrote and delivered many hundreds of talks about the Scriptures on local radio stations. One such station had the call letters of KWKW and was located in a small building on the outskirts of Pasadena, California. On many occasions he would ask me to go to the station and fill in for him when he was unable to deliver the talk on the radio. Back then the broadcasts were always live since recording them for later use had not yet evolved.
The local ecclesias used to send representatives to meet at the home of Bro. Howard Brinkerhoff, who lived in Los Angeles, to plan and develop the programs and the follow up that was necessary to take care of those who would respond to our offers. Back in 1959 an ex-pastor of a church responded to the appeal and requested literature. Bro. John McConville called on him and he became very excited to find people who believed so much like he did. He had lost his job as a pastor because he no longer believed that the Bible taught heaven-going or the Trinity. He was so excited when he met Bro. McConville that he called his eldest son living in Sacramento, to tell him that he had found some who believed as he did. As a result of the “This is your Bible” broadcast and the follow-up work done, in due time the entire family was baptized into the saving name of the Lord. Their name is deCaussin and for many years after that the father used to come faithfully to the Howard Brinkerhoff home for meetings planning the work of “This is your Bible.”
“This is your Bible” radio broadcasts continued for many years and then moved to television: it had been preceded during the campaign of 1961 by a broadcast interview of Bro. H.P. Mansfield by Bro. Richard Stone. Once again, Bro Maurice Stewart was involved in the work on TV. Bro Stewart had a regular program out of Santa Maria in Central California for many years, starting in the mid-1960’s, and many brothers drove north to help him make tapes. Some of these were aired in Santa Maria and on many cable stations throughout California and eventually all across the nation.
Certainly the Lord has blessed the work of those who have labored so tirelessly to bring the Bible to life through the medium of radio and television using the theme of “This is Your Bible.” Our prayer is that the Lord will continue to bless the efforts of “This is your Bible” to take the saving message of the Gospel to a perishing world.
The Origin of the Organic World – Part One