Friday, May 1, 2026

It is the 1st of May 2026. Welcome to the Christian History Almanac, brought to you by 1517 at 1517.org; I’m Dan van Voorhis.

 

Holy cow- it is May 1st, which makes this the first episode of the 8th season of this show. We started this little experiment on the 1st of May in 2019 and have brought you daily content every day since that day. This weekend on the show, I’ll be answering your questions- one of which is the perennial “how do you make this show,” which we haven’t done in a few years- BUT, we have a topic today that fits remarkably well with our own anniversary.

I went back through the archives to see what shows I had done on the 1st of May throughout this show’s history- and I was reminded that the first episode- which I can’t even imagine listening to now- had 3 stories and a poem- “The Convert” by G.K. Chesterton which I still love- “Because My name is Lazarus and I live”- ooh, so good. I talked about this being the feast day of Joseph- the father of Jesus and the patron saint of workers (appropriate for May Day) and the story of Frederick the Wise and then a brief mention of an old radio show- the Back to the Bible radio program which also debuted on this, the 1st of May in 1939- making it only 80 years older than this program- if we make it to 2099… or should my great grandson- well, we can only hope.

The Back to the Bible radio program was the brainchild of Theodore Epps. Epps, born in 1907 in Kansas, was raised in the Mennonite church; his grandfather started as an immigrant from Russia. The church supports Epps parents work as missionaries to the Hopi natives in Arizona, where Epps grew up. Epps attended the Bible Institute of Los Angeles (now BIOLA) and then the Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Fort Worth. He made his way to Oklahoma, where he briefly pastored a Mennonite Church before joining a local radio ministry- it too was called “Back to the Bible” and was started by T. Myron Webb, a medical doctor who saw the radio waves as a new means of evangelism.

While visiting relatives in Nebraska, he was asked to move there, as there were no gospel radio programs. Epp and his wife, Matilda, got in their Lincoln in the spring of 39 with 95 dollars. For 65 dollars, they bought 15 minutes of airtime for 3 weeks on a 250-watt station (that gets you about 10-20 miles of reach)- the debut live program, Back to the Bible, debuted on this day.

Back to the Bible followed the boom of early evangelical radio- a recent topic on a weekend edition. Into the 1940s, they expanded into publishing, a gospel quartet, and the Danny Orliss series- a children’s program, Odyssey-esque with a little Jack London meets Davey and Goliath (if that makes sense, I’m gonna leave that it- it’s a good description!).

Epp continued as host of the program until his retirement in 1984, when the popular author and preacher Warren Wiersbe took over as daily host- the show pared back to daily expository bible teaching- he was full-time until 1990 and continued to fill in through the 2000s. In 2007, there was an agreed-upon merger between Back to the Bible and Walk in the Word- the radio ministry of James MacDonald- that fell through and was a bullet dodged for the ministry, as MacDonald would be fired from his Harvest Bible church near Chicago and become quite the scandal-ridden figure over the past decade.

The next host was John Munro- a Scottish-born Calvary Chapel pastor who was removed when his church put him on paid leave- the church reinstated him, but Back to the Bible moved on with a series of hosts that included Wiersbe, Darrel Bock, and David Platt, among others.

In a 2001 Christianity Today that was recently featured on the Weekend Edition, they were the subject of a story by Randall Ballmer- they noted that they had just moved from reel-to-reel to digital… the article wondered where the pioneering Bible program would be headed in a new age. Like many ministries, they suspended over-the-air broadcasting in 2020 for cost reasons and have since moved to an app-based ministry supporting biblical literacy and discipleship. And it all began on this, the 1st of May in 1939.

 

The Last word for today comes from the daily lectionary and the first verses of Psalm 31 from the Metrical Psalter:

¹ In thee, O Lord, I put my trust,
shamed let me never be;


According to thy righteousness
do thou deliver me.

² Bow down thine ear to me, with speed
send me deliverance:


To save me, my strong rock be thou,
and my house of defense.

³ Because thou art my rock, and thee
I for my fortress take;


Therefore do thou me lead and guide,
ev’n for thine own name’s sake.

⁴ And since thou art my strength, therefore
pull me out of the net,


Which they in subtlety for me
so privily have set.

⁵ Into thine hands I do commit
my sp’rit: for thou art he,


O thou, Jehovah, God of truth,
that hast redeemed me.

 

This has been the Christian History Almanac for the 1st of May 2026, brought to you by 1517 at 1517.org.

The show is produced by the man who has never taken a break or a day off in over 2,300 shows- he is the incomparable Christopher Gillespie.

The show is written and read by a man writing this with the Angels up 2-1, there’s no way we’re keeping this lead… Dan van Voorhis.

You can catch us here every day- and remember that the rumors of grace, forgiveness, and the redemption of all things are true…. Everything is going to be ok.