Book Description

Victory Through Christ To Mr. and Mrs. Charles G. Lang My fellow workers unto the kingdom of God Colossians 4 11 Foreword 19421943 radio season was notable because it brought the tenth anniversary of our mission of the air. The opening announcement on every program dur ing this period proclaimed Bringing Christ to the Nations The Tenth Anniversary Lutheran Hour We felt that atten tion should be called to the remarkable fact that during a decade of peace and war God had permitted us to broadcast the Gospel of Jesus Christ with its pledge of salvation and its divine help for our distracted age. For ten years the Holy Spirit touched the hearts of our listeners, and in an increasing degree prayers ascended to heaven beseeching divine benediction on our work. For ten years the broadcast promises of peace and pardon through faith in the Saviors atonement led tens of thousands in our country and many beyond its borders to contribute the large sums required for our broadcast we pay for every moment of our network time at die full commercial rate. For ten years our appeal for repentance and faith in Christ has led multitudes from sin to salvation. We thus have overabundant reason to thank our Triune God for the benediction and direc tion without which our efforts would have failed. I praise the goodness of the Lord because He gave me health and strength to speak in every regular broadcast. During a period as long as this, personalities inevitably come to the forefront. Lest too much recognition be given the human side of our radio endeavors, I tell our readers emphaticallyas I have stated in gatherings from coast to coast that no credit whatever should be given me per sonally. All honor to God and to Him alone In my own eyes it is a marvel of divine grace that this mighty missionary enterprise, begun with hesitation and executed as only a part of my busy seminary life, has enjoyed such startling success. Humbly and reverently we who have witnessed Gods glorious guidance in this happy work declare that the Lutheran Hour should be classified as one of the mighty miracles of mission ary history, a twentieth-century wonder, in which the Savior VII VIII FOKEWORD demonstrated the unfailing truth of His promise, AH things are possible to him that believeth. The aspect of our radio mission which fills me with con stant awe is the fact that these years have recorded an un mistakable increase in the listening audience. For the first half of the tenth season the period from October 25, 1942, to Palm Sunday, April 18, 1943, represented by the messages in this volume about 275,000 letters came to radio head quarters and to my office. These communications, the largest number ever received during a similar period, furnish definite evidence that the American people are not tired of the Gospel. Despite war and its disturbances, restrictions, and counter attractions our broadcast has gone forward in amazing strides. During the ten seasons a total of more than 1,500,000 letters were sent to the Lutheran Hour. If the ratio of ad vertising men is correct in its claim that we should figure 1,000 listeners for every letter, the radio has certainly de monstrated its remarkable power in spreading the Saviors Gospel. The tenth-anniversary season was appropriately marked by farsighted action on the part of the Lutheran Laymens League when it adopted the long-discussed and earnestly de sired resolution to broadcast continually each Sunday through out the year...