“Friends everywhere, I ask you to pray as I preach,” said Charles Fuller. \u00a0“In all my ministry never have I felt the conflict of Satanic powers as I do now when I stand before the microphone, preaching the shed blood of Christ as sinful man\u2019s only way of approach to God.”<\/p>\n
Charles Fuller’s call to Gospel ministry began with hearing Ephesians 1:8, preached by Paul Rader<\/a> in 1917. “I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened,” Paul writes, \u00a0“in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in his holy people.” After that day at the Church of the Open Door in Los Angeles, Charles Fuller was never the same.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n As you might know, the era of the late 1800s to the 1940s\u00a0saw a number of American evangelists and the beginning of what would later be called Fundamentalism. Charles Fuller (1887-1968) is part of a\u00a0movement to reintroduce people to the truths\u2013the fundamentals\u2013of having a relationship with Jesus and adhering to the Word of God. It came on the heels on heels of people like D.L. Moody<\/a>\u00a0(1837-1899), founder of Moody Church. Notable people included former baseball star Billy Sunday<\/a> (1862-1935) who called people to repentance through\u00a0revival campaigns that numbered more than 250 and amassed an enormous media following.\u00a0<\/b>A little later on, in 1949, Billy Graham holds the Los Angeles Crusades and launches to celebrity status. We know his legacy well, preaching to more than 215 million people in 185 countries.*<\/p>\n Charles Fuller’s work is notable. He became well known for\u00a0The Old Fashioned Revival Hour,<\/i>\u00a0a radio program that ran\u00a0from 1937 up until\u00a0his death in 1968. By the 1940s, more than 650 radio stations around the country\u00a0aired his program, carried by CBS and ABC radio. Those who tuned in heard great hymns sung by a quartet followed by\u00a0a short message from Fuller.<\/p>\n In the 1920s, as\u00a0pastor of Calvary Church in Placentia, California, Fuller was not too keen\u00a0about radio. It might be odd for us to realize, but radio was not seen as a particularly good place for the Gospel to be presented. In a 1923 article titled “Restless over Radio”, a friend of Fuller’s listed several reasons to take precautions:<\/p>\n (1) it would give some one preacher too much prominence Pragmatics won the day, as the article concludes with a poignant question about radio, a question that can also be applied to other mediums of communications like the Internet: “Should we not avail ourselves of this newest agency for broadcasting the Gospel, not allowing it to interfere with our emphasizing the obligation to assemble together, and recognizing the fact that the radio \u2014 with all of its advantages \u2014 is also another menace to the spread of the Gospel and the saving of souls?”<\/p>\n Here are two links that will help you better see\u00a0The Old Fashioned Revival Hour:Powerful Preachers From The Past: Charles E. Fuller<\/h2>\n
\n(2) it is costly and draws money away from other Christian enterprises
\n(3) it creates a “stay-at-home” habit
\n(4) it deprives a listener of that personal contact with the preacher himself
\n(5) decisions made for Christ through radio preaching cannot be followed up as well as those made in a church
\n(6) when radio is used for all kinds of commercial purposes and amusements, it is questionable whether the Gospel should also use it
\n(7) should the Gospel be preached over the air waves when Satan is the prince of the power of the air?<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
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