Mike Triem with Crawford Media Group speaks with Steve Shwetz of Through the Bible about the unique opportunity listeners have every five years to start the program from the very beginning as it cycles through Scripture—beginning with Dr. McGee’s foundational “Guidelines for Understanding the Scriptures” and then moving into Genesis once again. As the ministry approaches nearly 60 years on air and its 12th full cycle, Shwetz emphasizes the value of consistent, daily time in God’s Word through an accessible, radio-based format that fits naturally into listeners’ routines. He highlights how the five-year journey is more manageable than shorter
00:00:00 Introduction to Through the Bible’s Five-Year Cycle
00:00:46 The Importance of Consistency in Bible Study
00:01:03 Guidelines for Understanding the Scriptures
It’s Mike Triem with Crawford Media Group. We’re here with Steve Schwetz. Steve is with Through the Bible. You’re the voice on Through the Bible along with Dr. McGee, of course. And Steve, tell us about we’re getting ready to do something that we only get to do every five years. What is that?
SPEAKER 02 :
Yeah. Yeah, Mike, thank you for that and the opportunity to tell everybody about it. We affectionately call through the Bible the Bible bus. Dr. McGee named it that because we travel through the pages of Scripture. And just like a bus has a bus route and comes around to that stop again, ours is a five-year route. And we’re currently finishing up in the book of Revelation. And Dr. McGee is going to start. with guidelines for the understanding of the scriptures, 10 programs, and then launch into Genesis for the 12th time.
SPEAKER 01 :
It only happens every five years. This is now 60 years, right, is going to be the total.
SPEAKER 02 :
Yeah, well, we’re starting, I believe this, when we finish our 12th cycle, yeah, 56, and then we’ll be at 60 when we finish this cycle, which is just incredible.
SPEAKER 01 :
What would you say to the person about being able to start at the very beginning, listen to the 10 guidelines first, because that starts on Friday, April 3rd, and then Genesis and go all the way through the Bible with Dr. McGee? What are some of the special things that builds for people if they’ll be disciplined to do that?
SPEAKER 02 :
Oh, gosh, that’s a good question there. Well, first of all, consistency and just spending time in God’s word. And it’s I I always try to do, you know, the Bible in a year. I use the navigators plan, which is four sections and twenty five, twenty five days a week, twenty five days a month. But sometimes I fall off. The Bible in five years is much more doable. And with Dr. McGee explaining it to you along the way and the fact that it’s available on radio, a lot of times when people are driving in their cars on a commute or on a way home or a lunch, that’s when they tune in and it gives them an opportunity to study God’s word on an ongoing basis.
SPEAKER 01 :
On a lot of our stations, we intentionally have Dr. McGee at times when they can listen to through the Bible. So in the car, so easy, Steve. It’s reliable. You know it’s there. You don’t have to push a bunch of buttons to get there. It’s just easy. Maybe a button at most. Tell us about the guidelines, too, a little bit, because that’s something I haven’t been through. I mean, I’ve been through after 30 years with the company. I’ve been through guidelines, but I haven’t intentionally sat down and listened to all 10 guidelines.
SPEAKER 02 :
Yeah, Guidelines is what Dr. McGee kind of lays as the foundation for the five-year program. Guidelines for the Understanding of the Scriptures. It was originally a book that he had put out. If you get our notes and outlines, which are free, you can download them from our website. They’re included basically at the beginning of our notes and outlines. And what it does is it takes you through just – Laying the foundation for why should we read this book called the Bible? And is it reliable? And how is it different from other books? And what are the assumptions that we’re going to use? You know, that it’s the inspired word of God. And how do you go, you know, from all these different authors? And why is it 66 books and all of that? He deals with all of those in that. And yet at the same time, it’s not just… You know, like a mechanic explaining how your carburetor works. He still weaves in the gospel and changes people. People’s lives get changed as a result of listening to the guidelines. I mean, one quick story in Uganda, when we started in the Lugandan language and this particular area of Uganda had a high concentration of Muslims. And there was an imam, which is kind of like an Islamic pastor of a mosque, who started listening to the program at the beginning and actually came to the Lord, listening to the guidelines in his study, because that was the only safe place for him to listen, was actually in the mosque in his study and came to understand who Jesus Christ was and professed faith.
SPEAKER 01 :
Man, that doesn’t give you a feel for what Through the Bible does throughout the world, right? Oh, my goodness.
SPEAKER 02 :
Yeah, absolutely. And the other encouragement that I tell people, if they haven’t been on the Bible bus before, it’s like, oh, gee, I don’t know if I can do five years. That’s a long time. Don’t worry about it. It’s not five years. I had an administrative assistant when I first worked for IBM, and her name was Franchi, and she had in her cubicle a little picture that said, how do you eat an elephant? And it was a picture of an elephant, and then below it was one bite at a time. And that’s how we live the Christian life. It’s just one day at a time, one bite at a time. It’s daily exposure to God’s word. And if you miss it, no big deal. Just get back on when it’s available again.
SPEAKER 01 :
Well, the good news, too, is we have the replays available on our websites. You’ve got them on the Through the Bible website, plus their podcast and other options, too. So that’s where it can really help them.
SPEAKER 02 :
Yep. And we have an app, and it’s available every day on the app. So we try to make it as easily accessible as possible, and you can catch up. There’s lots of good ways to receive the program.
SPEAKER 01 :
We’re speaking with Steve Sweats with Through the Bible. And Steve, there are some stories that come out from our listeners. I have a KLTT one and a Kaybright one in front of me. I don’t know if you have access to those, so I can paraphrase them. But if you’ve got them in front of you, the Colorado one was really fun because this guy realized, I have to contact and let Through the Bible know I listened.
SPEAKER 02 :
Yeah, why don’t you read that one? I don’t have access to that.
SPEAKER 01 :
Yeah, that one was great. It was a guy from KLTT here in Denver. He said, I love the Bible, but I just wanted to call and say thank you for all that you’re doing with the Bible bus. He said, I listen on KLTT AM 670, and I heard tonight that maybe 1 in 10,000 people call and let you know that they listen. So I just wanted to call and say I’m listening quite frequently. So he doesn’t get every day, but he gets many often – Very often he gets it, and he gets it in the evening, which is one of the times that we air it at 7 p.m. And he said, just thank you, thank you. He said about 10 thank yous. And actually, it’s not a gal. It’s a gal named Linda. So there you go.
SPEAKER 02 :
yeah that’s a great story just the uh the big thing that makes that’s unique with through the bible and i think why it resonates with so many people is yeah dr mcgee is practical and it gets the individual into the word of god but i think the reason people really pray for and support the ministry is because of the focus on uh the international our commitment is that at least half of what comes in from a support standpoint to through the bible goes out into the international ministry that we have going and today we are in over 250 languages around the world of which 120 of those are full five-year programs just like you listen to here in the states
SPEAKER 01 :
Well, you brought up something, too. I know that’s a little bit of a rabbit trail, but Finland and Sweden, you had done some work out there, and you said you’re seeing some incredible things happening with young adults there, young men especially.
SPEAKER 02 :
Yeah, it was really exciting. I had an opportunity to visit our ministry partners in Finland, Norway, and Sweden. And in two of the three countries unsolicited, they said, you know, one of the things that we’re seeing in our area is young men and their increased interest in going to church and understanding the Bible. And that’s the same thing we were talking before. You hit record here, and that’s the same thing we’re hearing in the U.S. I’m seeing it in my church. My college group at my church for several years now, not just in the last year, but for several years, has consistently had a greater attendance of men than young women.
SPEAKER 01 :
And we’ve seen the same thing in our church. And in fact, when we did a conference last year, it was a young adults conference, and a couple people walked up and said, I listened to Through the Bible. And I thought, you’re not normally in the age group that we think of for radio listening for Through the Bible. And they’re right. A clear and simple answer was, you know, it’s easy. It’s free. I don’t have to go look up the podcast or any of that stuff. I can just punch it in on the radio when I’m going to work. I went, okay.
SPEAKER 02 :
works awesome yes yeah it’s great and then the other thing that actually i had not done for several years because i listened in my car the thing that i now that i listen um around my house and i can listen on my phone a lot easier is i try to listen with my bible open and i get so much more out of it when i can read along with him But if not, even to hear the Bible, I mean, everybody’s got Bible reading apps. Our app supports a Bible. You can read the passage or have it read to you and then listen to Dr. McGee teach it. And you do get more out of it when you read God’s word first.
SPEAKER 01 :
Do that and then also get the notes and outlines because that helps you kind of get context and really wrestle with it some for you, for your life. What’s God teaching me with this? Yeah. Yeah, absolutely. Here’s the Kay Bright listener in his letter. His name’s David. And he started listening on KBRT in 1975. So he said, I’ve been through the Bible 10 times. And he added, I plan on listening until the Lord returns to take me home. I mean, how about that? Yeah.
SPEAKER 02 :
Yeah, it’s so neat when you hear these older saints who have been, they do their trips and they count them. And I haven’t, I can’t remember the last time I’ve heard somebody say I’ve been on from the beginning, but I heard one that was 10 as well, 10 or 11. So that was so early on. That’s amazing. And Cabrite was one of our earliest stations that we were on as we were primarily in Southern California at that point.
SPEAKER 01 :
Well, I want listeners to understand the reach through the Bible. This guy, there’s more to his letter, and he talks about the worldwide reach because he recognizes that that’s part of end times, too, just the whole thing of reaching the unreached. We’re seeing so much in prophecy right now going on with stuff. And I feel like through the Bible is a part of that because you’re out there finding ways, incredible ways sometimes to reach people that previously weren’t reached with the gospel and with God’s word.
SPEAKER 02 :
Yeah, and the stories literally come every day. And in fact, if you’re interested in that, just a plug for our world prayer team. And what we do is we, figuratively speaking, travel the world on our knees. And Monday through Friday, you would get an email in your inbox and a brief testimony or letter from something that’s happening around the world. And we have a focus on different regions and we cover the whole world. And the exciting thing that I like about being on the World Prayer Team is, number one, I don’t like going through my email. It gives me a good break to pray and hear an encouraging story. But even if your church has an active missions program, you hear two or three reports a year maybe if the missionary is really faithful in sending it. And with through the Bible, with that world prayer team, you get something every single day, Monday through Friday of just an incredibly either encouraging or or letter that it’s not always victory and good things. It’s often oppression and other stuff where you can be praying effectively for that. And so many people say, I so appreciate being on the world prayer team and I’m looking forward to seeing these people in glory and the other world prayer team members, all of that. So it really builds a sense of community and focus of how the Lord is moving around the world.
SPEAKER 01 :
Is that through ttb.org? Is that the best way?
SPEAKER 02 :
Okay. Yeah, just go to ttb.org and sign up for World Prayer Today.
SPEAKER 01 :
It’s super easy. Well, Steve, it’s such a blessing to start the five-year cycle again, so this 12th time. Yeah. It’s kind of like, okay, 12, 5, get all this straight. Yeah. You know, the guy that has listened through 10 cycles of all the way through the Bible, he shows that there are people that do that. They’ve just made it part of their habit, driving to work. Or for us, you know, some of our stations, we have that evening release. So it could be after you have dinner, you just make that your sit down time. Yeah. And then they’ve got the app, all sorts of ways to listen and get involved. So ttp.org, ttb.org for throughthebible.org. And Steve Schwetz, we appreciate you guys. We love your work.
SPEAKER 02 :
Yeah, and thank you, Mike. We appreciate the way you guys have always been so faithful in supporting us and putting us on the right times on your stations. We greatly appreciate it.
