H. M. S. Richards
Harold Marshall Sylvester Richards Sr. | |
---|---|
Born | Davis City, Iowa |
August 28, 1894
Died | Script error: The function "death_date_and_age" does not exist. |
Other names | H.M.S. Richards |
Education | Washington Missionary College (now Washington Adventist University) |
Spouse(s) | Mabel Annabel Eastman Richards (August 15, 1899 - October 25, 2002) |
Children | Virginia Cason H.M.S. Richards Jr. Kenneth E. H. Richards Jan Richards |
Parent(s) | Halbert M. J. Richards |
Church | Seventh-day Adventist |
Offices held
|
Founder/Speaker/Director Voice of Prophecy |
Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found. Harold Marshall Sylvester Richards Sr. (1894–1985), commonly known as H. M. S. Richards, was a well-known Seventh-day Adventist evangelist and author.
Born in Iowa, he is most famous for founding the Voice of Prophecy radio ministry and was a pioneer in religious radio broadcasting. His ministry inspired broadcasts in 36 languages on more than 1,100 stations, and Bible courses in 80 languages offered by 144 correspondence schools.[1]
Contents
Early life
Richards began his ministry as a tent preacher when he was 17. His brother worked as a driver for then Senator Warren G. Harding. Harding invited him to see a demonstration of the newly invented radio. Richards came to view radio as a way to bring the Gospel to nations. He came to California during the Depression and bpmade radio broadcasts from 1930, when he gave a 15-minute guest sermon on KNX in Los Angeles. He noted that every six days 1,000,000 more people come into the world. He viewed the radio as a way of keeping up with these new additions to the human race.[2]
Richards married Mabel Annabel Eastman in 1920, and they had 1 daughter and 3 sons. He died in 1985 at the age of 90.[3] In 1940, Richards ran on a very limited budget. By contrast, in 1980, he had a $6 million budget and a staff of researchers to help him avoid early foibles.[2]
Radio broadcasting
Upon graduation from Washington Missionary College (now Washington Adventist University) in 1919, H.M.S. Richards served as an evangelist in various places in the United States and Canada and during this period experimented with radio announcements in connection with his meetings.[4] He began regular radio program on October 19, 1929 on KNX (AM) in Los Angeles.[5][6][7]
Later Richards presented daily live broadcasts of The Tabernacle of the Air over KGER in Long Beach, and live weekly remote broadcasts from his tabernacle to KMPC (AM) in Beverly Hills.[5]
In his presentations he taught history. "Bible prophecy is not given so we can see what will happen, but so we can see what already happened, and get confirmation that the Bible is true. If it came true historically, then when Jesus gives his wonderful teachings, we ought to believe that, too," he noted.[2]
In January 1937 his radio footprint expanded over a network of several stations of the Don Lee Broadcasting System, and the name of the broadcast was changed to the Voice of Prophecy.[5]
His first coast-to-coast broadcast over 89 stations of the Mutual Broadcasting System was on Sunday, January 4, 1942.[5][6]
Throughout the years Richards' Voice of Prophecy broadcasts were marked by an opening theme song of "Lift Up the Trumpet" performed by the King's Heralds quartet and closed with his poem "Have Faith in God" each week having a new verse written.
As an author
In addition to published sermons and booklets, Richards authored the following books:
- The Indispensable Man[8]
- The Promises of God[9]
- What Jesus Said[10]
- Feed My Sheep[11]
- Look to the Stars[12]
- Why I Am a Seventh-day Adventist[13]
- One World[14]
- Revival Sermons[15]
- Day After Tomorrow[16]
Awards and biographies
- Awarded the Honor Citation by the National Religious Broadcasters in 1967 and 1970.
- Honorary doctorate conferred by Andrews University in 1960.
- Washington Adventist University's faculty of religion building "HMS Richards Hall" on Flower Ave, Takoma Park, MD is named in his honor
- La Sierra University renamed its School of Religion the "H.M.S. Richards School of Divinity," and has also designated an "H.M.S. Richards Library" to honor him for his work in the Seventh-day Adventist Church.
His life has been the subject of two biographies:
- H.M.S. Richards Man Alive by his daughter Virginia Cason[17]
- H.M.S. Richards: A Biography by Robert E. Edwards, longtime member of the King's Heralds[18]
See also
- Seventh-day Adventist Church
- Seventh-day Adventist theology
- Seventh-day Adventist eschatology
- History of the Seventh-day Adventist Church
- 28 fundamental beliefs
- Questions on Doctrine
- Teachings of Ellen White
- Inspiration of Ellen White
- Prophecy in the Seventh-day Adventist Church
- Investigative judgment
- The Pillars of Adventism
- Second Advent
- Baptism by Immersion
- Conditional Immortality
- Historicism
- Three Angels' Messages
- End times
- Sabbath in Seventh-day Adventism
- Ellen G. White
- Adventist
- Seventh-day Adventist Church Pioneers
- Seventh-day Adventist worship
References
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External links
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- Biography on the Voice of Prophecy website
- John Robertson, "The Voice of H. M. S. Richards". Spectrum 13:1 (September 1982), pp. 36–43.
- H.M.S. Richards Library at La Sierra University, which houses Richards' personal library of approximately 10,000 books, and the majority of his private papers.
- Articles by Richards cataloged in the Seventh-day Adventist Periodical Index (SDAPI)
- Articles with dead external links from October 2010
- Articles with hCards
- No local image but image on Wikidata
- Articles with Internet Archive links
- Seventh-day Adventist leaders
- American Christians
- American Seventh-day Adventists
- American Seventh-day Adventist clergy
- Seventh-day Adventist clergy
- History of the Seventh-day Adventist Church
- American religious writers
- Christian writers
- 1894 births
- 1985 deaths
- American radio personalities