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Top 10 Facts about John Vernon McGee

John Vernon McGee was born on June 17, 1904, in Hillsboro Texas, and died in Templeton, California on December 1, 1988. He was an American ordained Presbyterian minister, pastor, Bible teacher, theologian, and radio minister.

He attended Southwestern at Memphis and graduated Magna cum laude with a Bachelor of Divinity degree from Columbia Theological Seminary and Master of Theology and Doctor of Theology degrees from Dallas Theological Seminary.

John’s first church was located on a red-clay hill in Midway, Georgia. He served Presbyterian churches in Decatur, Georgia, Nashville, Tennessee, and Cleburne, Texas. He accepted his pastorate in Pasadena, California at the Lincoln Avenue Presbyterian Church in 1941.

In 1946, he began the Open Bible Hour radio program which aired once per week. In 1949, the program was expanded to a half-hour daily schedule and renamed the High Noon Bible Class.

By 1955, John had a well-publicized break with the Presbyterian Church and in 1970, he devoted himself to the Thru the Bible Radio Network. He also served as chairman of the Bible department at the Bible Institute of Los Angeles and was a visiting lecturer at Dallas Theological Seminary.

1. Thru The Bible Radio Program

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In 1941, he was pursued to begin a Sunday radio program, The Open Bible Hour on one station. It later became the High Noon Bible Class which laid the foundation of Thru The Bible.

The Sunday Sermon messages were recorded from the pulpit of the Church of the Open Door in Los Angeles.

John began broadcasting the Thru the Bible radio program in 1967. He took his listeners from Genesis to Revelation in a two- and- a half year ‘Bible Bus trip’ He had earlier preached a Through the Bible in a Year series of sermons, each devoted to one chapter of the Bible at the Church of the Open Door.

After his death, the program aired in 34 languages but has since been translated into over 100 languages. It is broadcast on Trans World Radio throughout the world every weekday.

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2. His Beliefs and Teachings

John was a Christian fundamentalist who believed that Premillennialism is the proper interpretation of Revelation 20:1-3 and 7-8 which talk about the end times prior to the final judgment.

He also expressed his disbelief in any validity of Amillennialism, which was a dominant view of the Protestant Reformers and is still held by the Eastern Orthodox and Roman Catholic Churches. He opposed the viewpoints of Fatalismm and absolute Predestination in Calvinism.

John rejected the Roman Catholic Church’s doctrine that Saint Peter went to and founded the Church in Rome, asserting in many sermons that the church in Rome was founded by Paul. He argues that the distinction between the Catholic church and the Early Church is mainly in regard to the latter’s role in developing the New Testament of the Bible. He believed in spreading the word of God to the nations to deliver many people who have not heard about Jesus Christ so that they may be saved.

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3. Recognition

John was a frequent and popular conference speaker at the Cannon Beach Christian Conference Center in Canon Beach, Oregon. This brought a lot of attention to him, more people were able to join his church. 

In 1989, he was posthumously inducted into the National Religious Broadcasters Hall of Fame.

4. Personal Life

While he served at a Presbyterian church in Cleburne, Texas, he met and later married Ruth Inez Jordan. They later moved to Pasadena, California, their first child was Ruth Margaret McGee. She was however born prematurely and died a few hours later.

John recounted the strategy in his sermon ‘Death of a Little Child’ The couple later had another daughter Lynda Karah McGee in 1946.

His wife died in 1997 after suffering from dementia for nearly a decade.

5. Areas of Service

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John was the head of the English Bible at the Bible Institute of Los Angeles, he was also a visiting lecturer at Dallas Theological Seminary. But that’s not all, during his free time, he was a teacher at the Los Angeles Bible Training school.

Before he retired, he spread the word through different churches like the First Presbyterian Church, Lincoln Avenue Presbyterian church, Church of the Open Door, Second Presbyterian, and Westminster Presbyterian church.

6. His Education Processes

John is a very successful minister. From 1930 to 1940 he took his marinating his educational value. He got degrees from Southwestern, Columbia Theological Seminary, and two degrees from Dallas theological seminary including a Ph.D. in Theology.

7. He was a Presbyterian Ordained Minister

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He was an American ordained Presbyterian minister, pastor, Bible teacher, theologian, and radio minister. As a Presbyterian, he served in different Presbyteries. He began as a minister at Cleveland, Texas then moved to Westminster Presbyterian Church and Midway Presbyterian Church, Decatur, Georgia from 1930 to 1933. However, he moved from Decatur to Nashville, Tennessee from 1933 to 1936 to Second Presbyterian Church and later to First Presbyterian Church at Cleburne in Texas from May 3, 1936, to October 3, 1949. In addition, he was posted to Lincoln Avenue Presbyterian Church in Pasadena, California from 1940 to 1948. In 1949, he began his own nondenominational Church of the Open Door until 1970 in Los Angeles, California.

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8. He Introduced a 5 Year Bible Reading Journey

His affection to teach people how to study the word of God was overwhelmingly adopted globally. His program the Bible Bus is a unique and systematic way that people read the bible from Genesis to Revelation covering the 66 books of the bible. However, one does not need to wait for five years to join, anyone willing to hop on the Bus can ride on at any time. However, the five years journey includes not only reading the bible but listening to YouTube, listening online, and MP3 recordings. Further, there are Apps Podcasts, and many study resources available online. This has reached more than 130 countries where people get access to his bible teaching.

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9. His Radio Programs

Apart from the program Thru the Bible and the Bible Bus, He was active in airing Bible teaching from 1941 through to the present day in The Open Bible Hour, High Noon Bible Class at Pasadena in California. The programs have grown to over 800 radio stations in North America.

10. He had many other Christian Assignments

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The word of God was spread globally through his Evangelism but what stood out was that he holds a Ph.D. in Theology which facilitated his being Head of the English Bible Department at the Bible Institute of Los Angeles also known as Biola University. Further, he was a visiting lecturer at Dallas Theological Seminary and Co-founder and teacher at the Los Angeles Bible Training School also known as LABTS. 

He died in 1988 at a nursing home in Templeton Califonia as reported by the Associated Press.

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