Thursday, April 25, 2024

It is the 25th of April 2024. Welcome to the Christian History Almanac, brought to you by 1517 at 1517.org; I’m Dan van Voorhis.

The story of Evangelicalism in America cannot be told without the name Charles Edward Fuller, the man who founded the seminary of the same name and hosted one of the most popular and enduring Christian Radio programs, the Old Fashioned Revival Hour, until his death in 1968.

The story of the Fullers is one of God’s providence by way of geography, real estate, oil and oranges. It was Charles's father, Henry, who got the itch to move west in 1874. Leaving his wife behind temporarily, he took the newly built train line out to California with a herd of sheep to sell. Finding the climate favorable and business opportunities, he sent for his wife, and they started a furniture shop at 3rd and Main in Downtown Los Angeles. It was there that their family would grow to six, with the birth of their youngest, Charles Edward on this, the 25th of April in 1887.

Henry, ever the entrepreneur, noticed that the climate was especially good for oranges and, seeing their popularity, would buy up orange groves that he would eventually become “Fuller’s Fancy Oranges” in Redlands; this would be the lifeblood of the family and their future endeavors. They had been members of Redlands Methodist Church, but Henry was taken by A.B. Simpson of the Christian and Missionary Alliance; Henry would eventually put away 100,000 for the training of pastors.

Meanwhile, Charles was not expected to go to college, but his mother eventually convinced his father, and he was off to Pomona College to play football and eventually graduate Cum Laude with a degree in Chemistry. While he had once thought of ministry, he instead got into the family business and sold fertilizer using his skills in chemistry to test soil.

He married Grace Payton in 1910, and the two moved to Placentia, where they became members of the Placentia Presbyterian church. However, Charles would later state that his faith had grown lukewarm, and the tragedy of the death of their first child in 1916 left a pall over him. While his wife was convalescing with TB at Big Bear Lake, he visited the famous “Church of the Open Door” to hear the famous athlete turned evangelist Paul Rader speak. It was from a message on Ephesians 1:18 that he would mark his true conversion and decision to work in ministry.  

His first instructor was the Scofield Reference Bible- a popular study bible imbued with the Dispensationalism of John Nelson Darby and anti-modernism in its theology. It would become a staple of the new Fundamentalists (a copy was buried at the cornerstone of BIOLA’s new auditorium). Having sold the rights to drill oil amongst his orange groves, he was able to quit his job and enroll at BIOLA (the Bible Institute of Los Angeles). While studying, he also began teaching classes at his church, which would soon outpace the growth of the church service itself.  

Charles would drop out of BIOLA to teach the class full time, which in 1925 became its own church, the Calvary Bible Church. Charles would seek ordination with the Baptist Bible Union. His popularity as a teacher and a preacher led to the growth of his church, and he was invited to join the Board of Trustees at BIOLA and become faculty at the Los Angeles Baptist Seminary (now the Master’s University). Meanwhile, despite warnings about the new medium of radio (after all, it was argued, satan is the “prince of the power of the air” and airwaves, perhaps), Fuller’s classes went out first via KREG in Santa Ana, then KGER out of Long Beach eventually to the 50,000 Watt KFI out of Los Angeles.

The Depression caused Fuller and his ministry difficulties, but amidst these his wife was praying and came to a sermon by Charles Spurgeon promising Great and Promising things to those who have faith. By 1934 this lead to his program, now called “the Old Fashioned Revival Hour” to grow in popularity such that by 1937 it was broadcast coast-to coast.

On a trip to the West Coast, Harold Ockenga of the Park Street Congregational church in Boston and president of the National Association of Evangelicals discussed a possible training ground for missionaries and preachers on the West Coast. Using the money he was able to make selling land, and with his father's money set aside, they formed the Fuller Evangelistic Association in 1942. Plans to form a school were set aside with the War, and the new school- the Fuller Seminary of Missions and Evangelism, opened its first semester in the Fall of 1946. It would become a center of what was dubbed “the New Evangelicalism,” with its faculty amongst the most reputable amongst the Modernist but not Fundamentalist theologians in America. Charles would serve on the board of the school and continue the Old Fashioned Revival Hour until his death in 1968. Born on this day in 1887, Charles Edward Fuller was 80 years old.

The last word for today is from the daily lectionary, a little early church history from Acts 8:

On that day a great persecution broke out against the church in Jerusalem, and all except the apostles were scattered throughout Judea and Samaria. 2 Godly men buried Stephen and mourned deeply for him. 3 But Saul began to destroy the church. Going from house to house, he dragged off both men and women and put them in prison. 

4 Those who had been scattered preached the word wherever they went. 5 Philip went down to a city in Samaria and proclaimed the Messiah there. 6 When the crowds heard Philip and saw the signs he performed, they all paid close attention to what he said. 7 For with shrieks, impure spirits came out of many, and many who were paralyzed or lame were healed. 8 So there was great joy in that city.

This has been the Christian History Almanac for the 25th of April 2024, brought to you by 1517 at 1517.org.

The show is produced by a man who is curious about what makes an orange “fancy”; he is Christopher Gillespie.

The show is written and read by a man whose father-in-law, Walt Harrah, once sang on the Old Fashioned Revival Hour- I’m 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.