It was a time of new frontiers. As the 1950s came to a close, Pat and Dede Robertson moved their three small children from their Bedford-Styvesant inner-city ministry in New York City to Portsmouth, Virginia, to purchase a dilapidated UHF-television station.

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 after obeying God's call to ministry.

Three years earlier, Staten Island had been their home, along with the jet-set life of a rising star. But the swinger lifestyle had lost its allure, and Pat Robertson went searching for the fulfillment that had eluded him. In 1956 he received Jesus Christ as his Lord and Savior. Not long after that momentous event he felt led of the Lord to enter Biblical Seminary in New York City.

By autumn of 1959, Pat and Dede were out of money, but seminary was behind them. They lived with friends while they waited for God to show them what to do next. The first inkling of God's plan came 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 an 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 Christian fellowship meeting, Pat ordered 10,000 prayer cards and distributed them to local believers. The cards asked people to pray for wisdom to start a Christian television station and for God's blessings on the negotiations to buy it. Prophetically, the card also asked Christians to pray for a nationwide ministry on radio and television tape.

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 nearby homes.

During the first broadcast a film jammed in the projector and the equipment broke down twice. But the message given that day was clear and uncompromising: "Jesus Christ is Lord!" The Gospel was now going forth from the world's first Christian television station -- thus the Christian Broadcasting Network was born.

The Birth of The 700 Club

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 the 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, 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 that they would give toward the budget of CBN.

He called these partners The 700 Club.

That first 700 Club telethon raised only half the money needed to run CBN. But during the 1965 700 Club telethon, God sovereignly gave the people of Tidewater a spirit of giving. 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! Steady growth of the ministry followed this outpouring of the Holy Spirit.

By 1967, the original tiny studio/office building no longer provided sufficient space for CBN's expanding programming and ministry. The people had given of their finances, and in response God had poured out an abundant, supernatural blessing. Tidewater, Virginia, once known as "the psychic capital of the world," was suddenly being shaken by a mighty outpouring of God's Spirit.

Just as important, Pat and the CBN staff began to see what God wanted in programming -- shows through which miracles and His blessings could flow to mankind. By January, 1967, The 700 Club telethon had grown into The 700 Club television show -- the foundation of CBN's programming.

The Vision Revealed

On June 5, 1967, the day construction started, something else happened: the Six-Day War broke out in Israel.

Within a few days, the Jews regained possession of Jerusalem. Jesus had said, "Jerusalem shall be trodden down of the Gentiles, until the times of the Gentiles be fulfilled" (Luke 21:24). For the first time in 2,400 years, Jerusalem was no longer under Gentile rule. That was a major fulfillment of biblical prophecy and a clear landmark looking for the Lord's return!

The timing of events left CBN staff with the overwhelming sense that CBN's destiny was linked with Israel and the coming Messiah. But how?

A year later, in May of 1968, during the dedication week of the newly completed Portsmouth facilities, God spoke His answer in a prophetic word through Harald Bredesen, a long-time friend of CBN and a member of the board of directors.

"The days of your beginning seem small in your eyes in light of where I have taken you ... but this day shall seem small 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! By 1969, CBN's combined radio and television ministry reached a potential audience of 10 million people with the Good News of Jesus.

During the first half of the 1970s, 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 few other countries around the world.

The 24-hour Prayer Counseling Center opened in 1974, and 33 local centers ministered to the needs of more than a half-million callers.

More rapidly than anyone thought possible, CBN had outgrown the Portsmouth facilities!

A Center for International Outreach

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 that 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 spoke to his heart. "Buy 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; and a conference center where world leaders would come to learn biblical principals.

Not long after the land was purchased, Pat discovered the significance of the location: CBN Center was the answer to the prayers spoken just 12 miles away by those first English settlers. The 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 372 years later would make it possible to send the Gospel to the entire world from a single site.

On April 29, 1976, the anniversary of the first settler's landing in 1607, the property was dedicated to the glory of God. And on CBN's 15th television anniversary, October 1, 1976, construction on CBN Center began.

In September, 1978, another of those early settler's dreams was fulfilled when CBN University, which would become 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 Education, Business, Psychology and Counseling, Divinity, Law, Government, and Global Leadership and Entrepreneurship were added on the Masters and Doctoral Level -- along with Bachelors degrees offered on the undergraduate level.

A Center for International Outreah

On November 14, 1978, before that morning's 700 Club telecast, 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."

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.

Today Operation Blessing still travels to disaster areas, in-need regions and helps communities around the globe.

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.

Celebration of Christian Unity

On October 6, 1979, the eve of the Feast of Tabernacles, CBN's new world headquarters in Virginia Beach, Virginia, was dedicated. Billy Graham gave the keynote address. Also present were dozens of other leaders spanning the spectrum of American Christianity: including Bill Bright of Campus Crusade for Christ, Demos Shakarian of the Full Gospel Business Men's Fellowship International, television ministry pioneer 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..."

A “Fruitful Field” Blossoms

In keeping with CBN's commitment to bring the Gospel not only to the U.S., but to the world, by 1977 The 700 Club was airing daily in parts of Central America, South America and the Caribbean. Weekly broadcasts reached people in Taiwan and Japan as well.

But the highlight of CBN's international outreach was still to come.

When George Otis, president of High Adventure Ministries, called Pat in October, 1981, and offered High Adventure's television station in southern Lebanon to CBN, Pat hesitated. He wanted to be sure this was God's will. He didn't want to make any mistakes in the Middle East -- the land of the Bible.

The next day, a Thursday, Pat felt led to ask God for a confirming sign, as Gideon had in the Old Testament. So he asked God to send CBN something made of gold.

On the following Sunday, as Pat and Dede prayed, the Lord led Pat to a passage in John about Jesus opening the eyes of the blind. God led Dede to a prophecy they had not noticed before in Isaiah 29:17-18:

"Is it not yet a very little while, and Lebanon shall be turned into a fruitful field, and the fruitful field shall be esteemed as a forest? And in that day shall the deaf hear the words of the book, and the eyes of the blind shall see out of obscurity, and out of darkness."

"Do you see what God is saying?" Pat asked Dede. "The Word of God is going to go forth from Lebanon, and the blind eyes in Israel and in the north area are going to be opened."

But by Monday, no gold had come. Pat prayed, "Lord, You know I want this very badly. But I'm not going to proceed without a sign from You ... Lord, where is the gold?"

That evening as Pat sorted through the mail from his personal mail box, a special delivery letter caught his eye. It was curious because only billing companies knew his personal address.

Pat opened the letter and could scarcely believe what he saw. Pictures of five rare gold coins! And a man wanted to give two of them to CBN! Here was God's answer to Pat's prayer.

CBN eagerly accepted the television station in southern Lebanon, and in April, 1982, Middle East Television officially went on the air.

"By the dawn of 1980 we had seen God marvelously bring more than 300,000 people to a saving knowledge of Jesus through the ministry of CBN," Pat Robertson wrote in Shout It from the Housetops. "Yet I continued to be deeply troubled by the rampant secularism that like a cancer was devouring the life of our society ..."

In American culture, God was out, casual sex, easy divorce and radical lifestyles were in. To Robertson, it was clear that the difficulties that America faced were moral problems and that the answers lay in a rebirth of faith and freedom. It was time to return to the principles of the Word of God on which this nation had been founded.

With this vision in place, Pat agreed to serve as co-chairman for Washington for Jesus with Bill Bright of Campus Crusade on April 29, 1980. The gathering of nearly a half-million Christians was spent in prayer, fasting and repentance on behalf of the nation. "I believe that day began the binding up of our wounded society and prepared the way for the revival for which so many in the Christian community had been interceding," Robertson wrote in Shout It from the Housetops.

A Radical Shift

That year, The 700 Club changed its format to a fast-paced news/magazine show and opened a news bureau in Washington, D.C. The audience would be informed about the events of the day and new viewers, many un-churched, could tune into Christian television or radio programs to hear the Good News of salvation through Jesus Christ.

By the 1980’s, CBN was ministering in 60 countries through television, videocassette, literature distribution and radio broadcasting. These efforts, along with food, clothing, and emergency aid dispersed through CBN affiliate Operation Blessing, brought hope to millions of people in America and around the world.

In the U.S., CBN's flagship television program, The 700 Club, was watched by more than 1.2 million people every day on CBN Cable and on local television stations across the country.

In order to combat the growing assaults on religious liberty led by groups like the ACLU, Pat Robertson launched the National Legal Foundation in 1981. The foundation guaranteed free legal assistance to those facing religious persecution. But beyond our borders, in the cradle of Christianity, there would soon be another milestone for the ministry -- Middle East Television.

Since the birth of CBN, Pat Robertson felt it was the ministry's destiny to be linked to Israel. He knew God would establish a ministry to Jews and Arabs in the Holy Land, but just how would He do it? What was God's will for CBN in the Middle East? Through a man named George Otis, and later two gold coins, the Lord confirmed His direction for CBN in the Holy Land.

In 1982, George Otis of High Adventure Ministries came to Virginia Beach, offering to give CBN a television station in southern Lebanon. After much prayer, Pat accepted the offer. Middle East Television officially went on the air in April, 1982, broadcasting a message of peace and hope into Israel and throughout the Middle East.

God’ Favor, Innovation Abound

Internationally, the Lord multiplied CBN's evangelistic efforts, in the Middle East and beyond. By the end of 1983, CBN's ministry had more than doubled in almost every vital area of world outreach.

Creative and innovative blessings propelled the ministry forward to an unexpected new audience: the Japanese. A state-of-the art advertising campaign appealed to the Japanese people through a modern translation of the Bible called "Alive Again." It became one of the top ten best-sellers in Japan.

Later, CBN was also able to broadcast The 700 Club on major VHF channels in Japan with outstanding results.

Research showed that the most popular programs for Japanese youth were animated cartoons. CBN created a series of animated Bible cartoons to reach Japanese audience. One hundred four episodes were created of an animation series called Superbook and Flying House. They became the third most popular cartoon programs in Japan.

The animated Bible series was also dubbed into Cantonese and nearly 70 percent of the total Saturday morning television audience in Hong Kong watched them on T.V. Later, CBN dubbed the Superbook cartoons into English and ran them on the BBC for 13 weeks. These animated children's Bible stories soon became hugely popular in America as well. In the years to follow, Superbook and The Flying House were dubbed into numerous languages and played all over the world.

In the 1980s God miraculously began opening doors in countries previously isolated from the Gospel.

On a cold, drizzly day in February, 1978, Pat and Dede Robertson traveled with 700 Club co-host Ben Kinchlow out of Hong Kong and to the border of mainland China. With cameras rolling, Pat, Dede and Ben joined hands and cried out to God to perform a miracle and open the door for Christian television in China. Seven years later, The 700 Club began broadcasting each week on Chinese Communist government television stations throughout the nation to a potential audience of as many as 600 million people -- with an avalanche of mail coming from China to the CBN offices in Hong Kong.

Encouraged by the fruit of the ministry in the Far East, CBN moved to vastly increase all mission endeavors. During Christmas and Easter of 1984-85, the government television authority of India -- a predominantly Hindu nation -- allowed CBN to broadcast the CBN animated story of Jesus' birth, crucifixion, and resurrection throughout that nation. And throughout Africa, The 700 Club received airtime granted that the show provided a limited amount of news.

With the success of the Bible campaign in Japan, plans were put in motion to launch "Project Bible" in the United States. This massive media campaign featured The Book a modern-language Bible with a new cover and user-friendly features. A prime-time TV special, Don't Ask Me, Ask God kicked off the project. At the time, it was the most-watched religious TV special in broadcasting history. The Book quickly rose to the top of the best-seller list.

In 1984, CBN University (later Regent University) was granted full accreditation by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools. In 1986, the School of Law was launched, in part as a result of a generous gift from Oral Roberts University.

Only three years later, in 1989, Regent University's School of Law received provisional accreditation from the American Bar Association. By that year CBN University had grown from a School of Communication & the Arts to seven professional schools, including Divinity, Law, Government, Psychology and Counseling, Business and Education

By 1984, CBN reached more than 31 million households in 15,000 cities and on 7,200 cable systems. On October 1, 1986, CBN answered its 25 millionth ministry call.

In CBN's first 25 years, more than one million people were led to Christ. By the late 1980s, another million people had accepted Jesus Christ as their Lord through CBN's Prayer Counseling Center. Then, in 1989, CBN's innovative "Gospel blitzes" in Central and South America resulted in more than 6 million people making a profession of faith -- miraculously quadrupling the number of salvations CBN had seen in the previous 30 years of ministry.