The late John Vernon McGee was born in Hillsboro, Texas, in 1904. As
a student pastor, Dr. McGee's first church was located in Midway,
Georgia. It was there that he received what he believed to be his
greatest compliment from a country boy. Pastor McGee spoke of this
incident fondly recalling the words of the young boy and their
interaction together:
"'I never knew Jesus was so wonderful!' He started to say more but
choked up and hurried out of the church. As I watched him stride across
the field, I prayed, 'Oh, God, help me to always preach so that it can
be said, I never knew Jesus was so wonderful.'"
After completing his education earning his A.B. from Southwestern
University in Memphis, Tennessee; his B.D. from Columbia Theological
Seminary in Decatur, Georgia; his Th.M. and Th.D. from Dallas
Theological Seminary in Dallas, Texas, and after pastoring Presbyterian
churches in Decatur, GA, Nashville, TN, and Cleburne, TX, he and his
wife moved out west making Pasadena, California their home.
Pastor McGee accepted an opportunity to serve at Lincoln Avenue
Presbyterian Church in Pasadena. He often said that was the happiest
time in his life, with a young family and a young congregation whom he
was devoted to and loved. However, Dr. McGee's greatest pastorate was at
the historic, Church of the Open Door in downtown Los Angeles, where he
served from 1949 to 1970, leaving his home in Pasadena behind and for a
new home in Los Angles. It is there that he began his very first daily
radio broadcast called High Noon Bible Class on a single station.
Dr. McGee also served as
chairman of the Bible department at the Bible Institute of Los Angeles
(a.k.a. Biola University) and as a visiting lecturer at Dallas
Theological Seminary.
In 1967, he began
teaching on Thru the Bible Radio Network program. In a systematic
study of each book of the Bible, Dr. McGee took his listeners from
Genesis to Revlelation in a two and one-half year "Bible bus trip," as
he termed it. His radio ministry quickly grew. After retiring from the
pastorate in January, 1970, and realizing that two and a half years was
not enough time to teach thru the Bible, J.Vernon McGee completed
another study of the entire Bible in a five year period. Today the
program airs on over 400 radio stations each day in the U.S. and Canada,
is heard in more than 100 languages around the world and is also
broadcast via shortwave and the Internet. Thru the Bible is currently
broadcast on Trans World Radio in the UK and throughout the world every
weekday.
During his last few years, failing health demanded the cancellation
of many speaking engagements. This was extremely distressing to him.
There was no recurrence of an earlier bout with cancer during this time,
only a weakening heart. Back in 1965, after radical surgery, the doctors
had given him six months to live. The Lord gave him twenty-three more
years!
Dr. McGee and the Board of Directors wisely planned in advance how
the radio program would continue when Dr. McGee's time came to be with
the Lord. They determined that the message would remain the same and the
"voice" of Thru the Bible Radio would continue to be Dr. McGee
through the use of the taped five-year program, except for those foreign
language broadcasts, where the producers use the printed five-volume
Bible study to translate and produce the program.
On the morning of December 1, 1988, shortly after a meeting with the
then Associate Director of Thru the Bible Radio, fully
alert and in focused conversation centered around his concern for the
continuance of the radio ministry, Dr. McGee fell asleep in his chair
and quietly passed into the presence of his Savior. Dr. McGee's ministry
was and continues to be one of the great milestones for the cause of
Christ.