In April 1607, 104 sea- weary settlers and 40 seamen spied the shores of what is now called Virginia Beach. They had traveled four difficult months in three tiny ships – the largest 76 feet long, he smallest only 38 feet. Their quarters had been reduced even further by the foodstuffs and tools they brought with them, and by something else: a large wooden cross.

After so long a trip, the men anxiously longed to get on with settling in their new land. But before going any farther they had something they wanted to do. On April 29, the small group gathered on the dunes at an area they called Cape Henry. There they planted their cross, offered a prayer of thanksgiving, and dedicated the land to God: “… from these very shores the Gospel shall go forth to not only this New World, but the entire world.”

A few weeks later they founded Jamestown. Within a few years, they obtained a charter for a college to help them fulfill that commitment to spread the Gospel.

But they never saw their dreams for that college or their prayers for a worldwide Christian outreach become reality. In fact, most of those brave settlers died before they saw any answers to their prayers. Some saw dreams and hopes become ashes. Some saw only a tiny part of God’s fulfillment. Yet their prayers had been heard. It was only a matter of time.

The slums of New York are not where you would expect to find the Phi Beta Kappa son of a United States senator. Yet in October 1959 that’s where Pat and Dede Robertson found themselves and their three small children.

Three years earlier, Staten Island had been their home. But after coming to know Jesus Christ, Pat had felt led of the Lord to enroll in seminary.

Now, out of money but with seminary behind them, Pat and Dede were living with friends in Bedford-Stuyvesant while they waited for God to show them what to do next.

The first inkling of God’s plan had come late that summer when an old classmate wrote Pat’s mother and mentioned a defunct television station in Portsmouth, Virginia. “Would Pat be interested in claiming it for the Lord?” the letter had closed. Pat was indeed interested. But he had no money. No knowledge of television. He didn’t even own a television set. The door seemed closed. Nevertheless, he prayed. Was Portsmouth where God wanted him?

Finally, in November, after two months of prayer, God’s direction seemed clear: “Go and possess the station. It is yours.” With Dede, three children and only $70, Pat moved to Portsmouth – not even knowing if the station was still for sale.

At first Pat couldn’t get in touch with the station owner. “We need to ask the people to start praying for us at least,” Dede suggested. Out of the love offering given to him at a women’s meeting, Pat ordered 10,000 prayer cards, and distributed them to local Christians. The cards asked Christians to pray for wisdom to start a Christian television station and for God’s blessings on the negotiations to buy it.

Prophetically, the cards also asked Christians to pray for a nationwide ministry on radio and television. A few weeks later, God began answering their prayers: In January 1960, the owner agreed to a miraculously low price.

Difficult months of preparation followed. Then on October 1, 1961, nearly two years after moving to Portsmouth, Pat stood before a camera as the light blinked on and the decrepit television equipment sent a feeble signal to nearly homes.

During that first broadcast a film jammed in the projector, and the equipment broke down twice. But the message spoken was clear and uncompromising: “Jesus Christ is Lord!”

The Gospel was now going forth over the world’s first Christian television station. Thus, The Christian Broadcasting Network was born.

During those first years, Pat and his fledgling staff experimented with different types of program formats, striving to fill air time. Ministry results were slim and finances were extremely scarce. Each month Pat and Dede, along with CBN staff, were forced to trust God for the money to operate the station. It was time to ask the listeners and viewers to add their faith. And so, finally, in the fall of 1963, Pat came up with the concept of faith partners. He asked for 700 people who would each trust God for $10 a month to give toward the budget of CBN.

He called these partners “The 700 Club”. That first telethon raised only half the money needed to run CBN, but during the 1965 telethon, God sovereignty gave the people of Tidewater a spirit of giving. People even woke up in the middle of the night to turn on their televisions, see the telethon and call in pledges. For the first time, enough money had been pledged to meet CBN’s budget.

However, something else much more remarkable happened during that telethon. About midway through the week, as people called in for prayer, incredible miracles began to take place and hundreds of people found salvation in Jesus Christ!

“The days of your beginning seem small in your eyes in the light of where I have taken you … but this day shall seem in light of where I am going to take you … for I have chosen you to usher in the coming of My Son.”

Staff members were astounded. God would be using CBN to prepare the way for Jesus’ Second Coming – by proclaiming the Gospel to the world!

In January 1969, CBN’s combined radio and television ministry reached a potential audience of 10 million people with the good news of Jesus.

The hosts of 700 Club

During the next six years, God dramatically increased CBN’s outreach. By the end of 1975, CBN’s potential audience for television alone jumped to 110 million viewers, with more than 40 stations around the U.S. airing CBN programming. In addition, The 700 Club was being aired in Canada and a number of other countries.

The National 700 Club Center, which had opened the previous year, and 33 local centers ministered to the needs of more than a half-million callers. More quickly than anyone thought possible – CBN had outgrown the Portsmouth facilities!

During 1975 Pat looked for a location where CBN could build a headquarters large enough to house the growing ministry. He located five acres in nearby Virginia Beach which seemed perfectly suited, but one problem stood in the way of his plans: The owners wouldn’t sell. They wanted to keep the land as part of a larger tract. Pat was uncertain of what he should do next.

Then, in August, Pat traveled to Anaheim, California, for a meeting. One noon as he bowed his head in a restaurant to thank God for the meal set before him, God opened his eyes to a possibility he had not before imagined. “Don’t buy just five acres,” God seemed to say. “But the entire tract of land and build a headquarters and a school for My glory.”

As the years unfolded, the impact of the Lord’s message became clear. There would be an entire complex that would take the message of Jesus Christ to the world. A modern communications center. A university to train Christians. A conference center where world where world leaders would come to learn biblical principles.

Not long after the land was purchased, Pat discovered the significance of the location: CBN Center was the answer to prayers spoken just 12 miles away by those first English settlers.

They had wanted the Gospel to go forth from America. They had wanted the treasure of this land to be used by God for His glory. Yet they could never have imagined the technology that would make it possible to send the Gospel to the entire world from a single site 372 years later.

On April 29, 1976, the anniversary of the first settler’s landing, the land was dedicated to the glory of God. And on CBN’s 15th television anniversary, October 1, 1976, construction on CBN Center began.

Regent University
founded in 1977

In September 1978, another of those early settlers’ dreams was fulfilled. CBN University, now called Regent University, opened its doors to train up godly leaders in accordance with God’s Word in 2 Timothy 2:2 “And the things that thou hast heard of me among many witnesses, the same commit thou to faithful men, who shall be able to teach others also.”

Regent opened with 77 full-time students in Communication. Later, schools of Counseling, Education, Business, Divinity, Law, Government and Organizational Leadership were added.

On November 14, 1978, before that morning’s telecast of The 700 Club, Pat’s attention centered on the scripture before him – Isaiah 58. “Is not this the fast that I have chosen … Is it not to deal thy bread to the hungry, and that thou bring the poor that are cast out to thy house? ... Then shall thy light break forth as the morning, and thine health shall spring forth speedily … Then shalt thou call, and the Lord shall answer …” (verses 6-11)

Although Pat had read Isaiah 58 before, he had never seriously applied the words to himself or to CBN’s ministry. “This is Old Testament, and I’m in the New,” he had thought. But that day as he read the passage carefully several times, the words seemed timeless – the promises timeless. He knew that this was what God was trying to say to His people.

A few hours later, during The 700 Club telecast, Pat explained to viewers the insight God had given him into this scripture: “God promises us that if we bless others, He will bless us.” As he talked, Pat invited viewers who had a material need to call. He also invited others with a surplus to donate something. And because of God’s promise to bless both the recipient and the giver, Pat called this impromptu matching program “Operation Blessing”.

Operation Blessing
helping people around the world

At first Operation Blessing simply matched needs with gifts. But as volunteers embraced the program, Operation Blessing quickly became an abundant resource of desperately needed financial and spiritual help. Not only were the needs of individuals being met, but special help was being sent to whole communities with needs beyond their abilities – such as those in war-ravaged lands and victims of natural disasters.

In accordance with God’s Word, CBN was reaching out to help people’s material as well as spiritual needs. More than ever, the new space at CBN Center was needed to carry on this work.

On October 6, 1979, the eve of the Feast of Tabernacles, CBN Center was dedicated. Billy Graham gave the keynote address. Also present were dozens of other leaders spanning the spectrum of American Christianity: Bill Bright of Campus Crusade for Christ, Demos Shakarian of the Full Gospel Business Men’s Fellowship International, Rex Humbard and many others.

The dedication of CBN Center was a unique and visible demonstration of Jesus’ prayer in John 17:22 – 23 “… that they may be one, even as we are one … that the world may know that thou has sent me …”

Today CBN continues to fulfill God’s plan. Now CBN ministers the Good News of Jesus Christ to 170 countries through television, radio broadcasting, videocassette and literature distribution. These efforts, along with food, clothing and emergency aid dispersed through CBN affiliate Operation Blessing, bring hope and help to millions year after year. In the United States, CBN’s flagship television program, The 700 Club, is watched on any given day by over a million people – many of whom view it on the Fox Family Channel (which reaches a potential of 81 million households).

In conjunction with The 700 Club, CBN’s National Counseling Center has received more than 58 million calls since 1963. The center receives approximately 9000 calls each day, providing prayer counseling, crisis intervention or just a listening ear. Most importantly, this ministry has helped lead more than 2.5 million people to Jesus Christ.

Since 1976, the Lord has multiplied CBN’s international evangelistic efforts many times over. In 1989, CBN’s innovative “Gospel blitzes” in Central and South America resulted in more than 6 million people making a profession of faith – quadrupling what CBN had seen in the previous 30 years of ministry!

Biblical animation
Superbook

In 1990, CBN began airing its animated Superbook Bible series throughout the entire former Soviet Union, followed by three CBN prime time specials. These efforts resulted in an estimated 20-30 million people giving their lives to Jesus in that formerly communist nation. Since then, more than 21000 cell churches have been established in the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS), discipling new Christians in their faith and linking them to local churches.

In 1994, CBN’s evangelistic media blitz strategy was used in the Philippines where an estimated 10-15 million people responded to the Gospel message.

In 1995, CBN WorldReach was initiated. Since then, cultural, language, and spiritual barriers have been broken by launching local versions of The 700 Club around the world. For example, in 1998 more than 881 million people heard the Good News in India, Indonesia, Vietnam, Cambodia, Thailand, Singapore, and the Philippines through our various television programs.

In 1999, we established a production facility in the Philippines. The impact was so great that CBN has built similar ministry centers in India, Ukraine and Indonesia.

In 2000, more than 40 million people made decisions for Christ through the ministry of CBN WorldReach, and on average, over 100000 people come to Christ each day through the combined ministries of The Christian Broadcasting Network.

Media blitz efforts in Africa have resulted in an estimated 30 million salvations. In the Middle East, partners have helped establish a number of CBN WorldReach locations. And in the former Soviet Union, CBN programs reach a potential audience of 130 million on more than 80 networks and television stations.

During the last decade of the 20th century, CBN’s efforts worldwide resulted in 184 million salvations. The prayers of those voyage-weary English settlers long ago have been answered beyond their farthest dreams.

There is much more still to be done. And with the prayers and support of God’s people, CBN will play an ever-growing role in the fulfillment of God’s Word that “… the earth shall be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord, as the waters cover the sea” (Habakkuk 2:14).