Back to the Bible is an international

Christian ministry In Christianity, ministry is an activity carried out by Christians to express or spread their faith, the prototype being the Great Commission. The '' Encyclopedia of Christianity'' defines it as "carrying forth Christ's mission in the world", in ...

based in

Lincoln, Nebraska Lincoln is the capital city of the U.S. state of Nebraska and the county seat of Lancaster County. The city covers with a population of 292,657 in 2021. It is the second-most populous city in Nebraska and the 73rd-largest in the United Sta ...

, United States.

History

Founded in 1939 by Theodore H. Epp on radio station

KFOR (AM) KFOR (1240 MHz) is an AM radio station broadcasting a News Talk Information format. Licensed to Lincoln, Nebraska, United States, the station serves the Lincoln area. The station is currently owned by Alpha Media, through licensee Digity 3E Lic ...

, Back to the Bible expanded by supporting

missionaries A missionary is a member of a religious group which is sent into an area in order to promote its faith or provide services to people, such as education, literacy, social justice, health care, and economic development.Thomas Hale 'On Being a Mi ...

and broadcasting via

shortwave radio Shortwave radio is radio transmission using shortwave (SW) radio frequencies. There is no official definition of the band, but the range always includes all of the high frequency band (HF), which extends from 3 to 30 MHz (100 to 10 me ...

to other countries. By the mid-1950s, it was being broadcast somewhere in the world in any given minute, and in 1954 the organization's first international Bible teaching ministry office opened in Canada. By the time of Epp's retirement in 1981, the ''Back to the Bible'' program was syndicated as a daily 30-minute broadcast on more than 800 radio stations worldwide. Under Epp's direction, the broadcasts were also noted for music by the ''Back to the Bible Choir'' and quartet. Several popular phonograph recordings were made by the choir in the 1940s and 1950s. ''Back to the Bible'' also had a weekly youth program on Saturdays, featuring a youth choir and serialized adventures with a Christian theme, such as the ''

Danny Orlis series Danny Orlis is a Christian fiction series for youth by American author Bernard Palmer (1914-1998) and published predominantly by Moody Press of Chicago. Created in 1954, for many years the series was a regular feature on the weekly ''Back to the ...

'' written by Bernard Palmer. Both the music segments and youth program were discontinued in the 1980s. By the 1970s the organization had offices in Australia, Canada, Colombia, Costa Rica, Ecuador, England, France, India, Italy, Jamaica, Mexico, the Philippines, South Africa, Sri Lanka and Venezuela.

Warren W. Wiersbe Warren Wendall Wiersbe (May 16, 1929 – May 2, 2019) was an American Christian clergyman, Bible teacher, conference speaker and a prolific writer of Christian literature and theological works. Wiersbe is perhaps best known for his series of 50 b ...

, former pastor of

Moody Church The Moody Church (often referred to as Moody Memorial Church, after a sign hung on the North Avenue side of the building) is a historic evangelical Christian (Nondenominational Christianity) church in the Lincoln Park neighborhood of Chicago, Ill ...

Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...

Illinois Illinois ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern United States. Its largest metropolitan areas include the Chicago metropolitan area, and the Metro East section, of Greater St. Louis. Other smaller metropolita ...

, served as leader of the Lincoln-based ministry between 1984 and 1989. He was followed by Woodrow Kroll.

2010s

Back to the Bible announced Woodrow Kroll's retirement in January 2013. Dr John Munro, senior pastor at Calvary Church in Charlotte, North Carolina, became the program's next Bible teacher and served from August 2013. In August 2014 he was removed from this position following a complaint from a member of his church staff; after investigation by the church he was reinstated as senior pastor, but Back to the Bible stood by its decision to dismiss him from his role there. From August 2014 to June 2016, the daily ''Back to the Bible'' program featured Bible teaching from Warren Wiersbe, David Chadwick and Darrell Bock. In July 2016, Ron Moore, pastor of The Bible Chapel in the Pittsburgh area, was named president and Bible teacher. He served as president until February 2018, and was succeeded by

David Platt David Andrew Platt (born 10 June 1966) is an English former professional football coach and player, who played as a midfielder. Born in Chadderton, Lancashire, Platt began his career as an apprentice at Manchester United before moving to Crewe ...

. Back to the Bible ceased broadcasting on the radio in October 2020; it has continued to be produced as a podcast, with the ministry stating that

brokered programming Brokered programming (also known as time-buy and blocktime) is a form of broadcast content in which the show's producer pays a radio or television station for air time, rather than exchanging programming for pay or the opportunity to play spot comm ...

fees on most religious stations had made continuing to syndicate the program no longer viable.

Current situation

Back to the Bible has offices in nine countries outside the United States (Canada, Ecuador, India, Indonesia, Jamaica, Japan, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Trinidad & Tobago) and broadcasts in multiple languages. The charity has a 2-star rating from

Charity Navigator Charity Navigator is a charity assessment organization that evaluates hundreds of thousands of charitable organizations based in the United States, operating as a free 501(c)(3) organization. It provides insights into a nonprofit’s financial s ...

, an independent evaluator of American charities.

Bible teachers

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Back To The Bible Evangelicalism in Nebraska Evangelical parachurch organizations Organizations based in Lincoln, Nebraska Culture of Lincoln, Nebraska American Christian radio programs 1939 establishments in Nebraska