Revelation TV Background Information

Revelation TV is a Christian TV stations operating from the UK but under a broadcasting licence issued by the Spanish government. The station holds to an unusual mix of theological positions which places it outside mainstream Christianity (and possibly mainstream evangelicalism) in the UK.

[This article is occasionally updated. Last update: 9th July 2010]

Operations
Revelation TV operate a television channel broadcast on the Sky Digital platform to the UK and parts of mainland Europe. They also broadcast simultaneously on-line via live streaming. Revelation TV carries pre recorded programmes from other ministries who pay to have their material broadcast. These include some controversial word of faith teachers like Don Stewart and Kenneth Copeland and many African based churches in the UK. Revelation TV also carries in house programmes, many of which are broadcast live and include audience participation via telephone, email and text message.

Revelation TV previously operated two other TV channels: RMusic TV and Genesis TV. RMusic TV closed in early 2007 and Genesis and Revelation merged to become a single channel in April 2010.

Revelation TV Studios
Revelation TV operates from studios at Brycbox House, Cocks Crescent, New Malden. The studios were originally built as a community centre before becoming a television studio. TVAM was based there from 1985 to 1987 after which it was used for production of programmes including Wizadora, Ready Steady Cook and other Endemol productions. After this it was used as a post production base for Fountain Studios. They closed it in 1999 after which it was used for a short lived Sky music channel Musflash TV who still appear to manage the facility.

In March 2010 a planning application for demolition and erection of flats on the site was withdrawn by Barratt Homes. (details in this PDF document from page 125) .

General Theological position
The stations broad statement of faith is published on its web site here. This is avowedly evangelical, millennialist and zionist, but not pentecostal. In spite of this, the station clearly holds a pentecostal and charismatic position, believing that the gifts of the spirit are available to Christians today and that there is a baptism of the holy spirit secondary to water baptism and being saved. They also have a strong belief in "signs and wonders".

Dispensationalism
Revelation TV holds to a dispensationalist theological position - that we are living in the last days and that the return of Christ is imminent. They also believe in the rapture. They do not specify if this will be before, during or after the tribulation, although many of the presenters have stated pre-millenialist personal views.

They are supportive of concepts like the alleged emerging "New World Order" and other conspiracy theories expounded by the late Barry Smith who'se archive material is regulary broadcast on the channel.

Zionism
The station is strongly Christian Zionist, believing that the Jewish people are God's chosen people and have a special role in the last days, revealed in bible prophecy. However they tend to identify the Jewish people as the state of Israel rather than people who happen to be of the Jewish faith. They are in favour of "aliyah" (return to Israel of the diaspora Jews) but also supportive of messianic Judaism whilst being unclear whether Jews who do not accept Jesus can be saved by adherence to the law. They regularly promote group tours of Israel on their programmes and by mailings to their supporters.

Revelation TV has previously given some coverage to British Israelism, but this seems to have been set aside in favour of a more straightforward American style Christian Zionism.

Associated with this is the view of some presenters on the channel that Christians should abstain from eating pork or shellfish in line with old testament law, and that the Jewish festivals should be celebrated.

Political position
The channels self produced programmes present a conservative moral position and often use articles from the Daily Mail newspaper as examples of how society is breaking down. Bad things happening in the world are often explained as signs that the return of Christ is imminent.

The presented view seems to be that the world is against Christians and discriminates against them. Revelation TV seems to favour political action by Christians and they often make programmes about Christian political parties and organisations like Christian Voice and CCTV (now defunct). In this respect they are dominionist.

They do not support President Obama's administration whom they view as "not of God" because of its support for abortion and its willingness to seek peaceful solutions in the middle east (and its cooling relations with Israel).

Relations with political parties
Revelation TV has featured guests from various political parties, but has leaned towards UKIP and the Christian Party as invitees on various programmes including the Politics Show which was presented by Rev George Hargreaves, leader of the Christian Party.

Debate with the BNP
In March 2010 Revelation TV hosted a live debate between Nick Griffin (leader of the BNP) and Rev George Hargreaves of the Christian Party (broadcast on the now defunct Genesis TV sister channel). During the debate some protesters outside the studio were described as a "rabble" by one of the programmes presenters.

An article about the debate in the Kingston Guardian of 23rd March 2010 included this:

Gordon Petty, who moderated the debate, defended the TV station’s decision because some of the BNP’s policies aired the views of many Christians and therefore Mr Griffin deserved to be heard.

Mr Petty said: "From our perspective, we don’t agree with all the views of the BNP but we believe it is right that as Christians we do listen and make our own minds up.

"The BNP are the only party that would stop abortions in this country.

"Many Christians abhor abortion."

Word of faith teaching
They are ambivalent towards word of faith theology. On the one hand they show programmes that promote it, such as Don Stewart and Kenneth Copeland, but on the other hand their own programming is sceptical of it without being openly critical. There was some discussion about this by viewers on their website feedback page during 2009, but links to this page were removed from the Revelation TV web site. (This page has now totally disappeared but you can read a PDF copy of it here).

Justin Peters

On 10th February 2010 Genesis TV screened a Live at 9 programme during which the guest Justin Peters was critical of many word of faith teachers, including some who broadcast on Revelation TV. It was later announced that due to complaints about Peters' critical comments the programme would not be repeated (as would be the norm). Click here to see a video of the announcement (this video has now been removed from YouTube after a copyright complaint by 21st Century Television Ltd - the holding company for Revelation TV - but you can see another copy by clicking here). On the 16th February the station issued a statement on their website about the incident.

Use of Copyright Law and Other Means to Suppress Discussion

There is a strong tradition of Christian television ministries using copyright law to prevent their material being viewed outside its intended audience, especially on YouTube (e.g. Benny Hinn Ministries' removal of user uploaded material on a regular basis). In addition to the removal of the Justin Peters response video from YouTube (discussed above), Revelation - Genesis TV have previously closed down a discussion forum (citing abuse) and removed criticism of their showing of Don Stewart programmes from their web site feedback page. They have not, however, sought to remove user uploaded videos of prank calls made to the station which receive a lot of views on YouTube and are presumably seen as good publicity.

On 28th February 2010 Genesis-Revelation TV staff removed comments from viewers about the Justin Peters incident from their Facebook page. Following the removal of the comments another thread was started by some of the people who'se comments had been removed. Part of this discussion can be seen here.

On 27th April 2010 Revelation TV removed a discussion about their latest OFCOM ruling from their facebook discussions page. The initial posting can be viewed here.


On 9th July 2010 Revelation TV removed a number of discussions (some of them quite old) from their Facebook page with the following message:

Dear Friends,

Please do not use this page to argue or write offensive or condescending messages. If you do, your posts will be deleted and you will be barred from taking part in any discussions on this page.

Kind Regards,

The removed discussions were all about theological issues or disagreements rather than personal abuse.

The Bible
The bible is innerant, but they skirt round the textual criticism issue (i.e. which manuscript text of the bible is it that is innerant) and use various translations; predominantly the New American Standard Bible.

Prophecy
They sometimes feature prophecies from well known modern day prophets. Recently they featured a prophecy from David Wilkerson.

Evolution and Creationism
Revelation TV is opposed to the teaching of Evolution which they present as not scientifically proven. Viewers are encouraged to believe the bible, reject the scientific view and accept young earth creationism. This is presesented as the orthodox Christian position even though most professing Christians belong to denominations that accept evolution. To this end they have regular programming from John McKay (CMI), Answers in Genesis and Dr Grady McMurtry. They have also made programmes that advise parents on home schooling which is presented as a way of safeguarding children from the teaching of evolution and sex education in schools.

Relations with other religions and mainstream Christian denominations
Christianity is seen as the only true religion so they are against all other religions; apart from Judaism, which seems to inhabit a shadowy in-between area. In practice they normally do not criticise other religions apart from Islam. They have received a censure from OFCOM about their statements about Islam in the past.

Revelation TV and Genesis TV do not seem to engage with mainstream Christian denominations, and concentrate instead on independent charismatic churches, often ones with African connections. Their programme "Church in Focus" usually features interviews with leaders of churches which originate in AFrica or are led by members of the African community in the UK.

Relations with the broadcasting regulator OFCOM
Revelation and Genesis TV have been the subject of a number of complaints and investigations by OFCOM over the past few years. Details of some of these are given below.

Homosexuality and OFCOM
They have been vocal in opposition to homosexuality which has also got them into trouble with OFCOM. The person who made the complaint to OFCOM has a video explaining the background to it on YouTube.

Abortion and OFCOM
They are against legalised abortion and feature programmes about the issue from time to time. In September 2009 Revelation TV was found to be in breach of 1.3, 2.1, 2.3 and 5.5 of the OFCOM broadcast code for airing a programme called "The Land Cries Out for the Blood that Was Shed" which showed images of dismembered late aborted foetuses at 3:30pm, just prior to their afternoon children's programme. The full judgement can be found here in the OFCOM broadcast bulletin of 14th September 2009.

Commercial Promotions and OFCOM
In January 2010, Revelation TV was found to be in breach of rule 10.4 of the OFCOM broadcast code for giving undue prominence to the promotion of books, CD's and conferences by Andrew Womack. The full judgement can be found here in the OFCOM broadcast bulletin off 11th January 2010. The report concludes that:

Ofcom has previously censured Revelation TV for failing to review the content of its programmes prior to transmission. In light of our concerns, Ofcom is requiring the broadcaster to attend a meeting to discuss its compliance processes and procedures.

Promotion of alternative cure for Cancer and OFCOM
On 26th April 2010 Genesis TV was found to be in breach of rule 2.1 of the broadcasting code for screening a programme called "Bible Medicine" (4th January 2010) which promoted an alleged cure for cancer called GC100.

Revelation-Genesis TV defended showing the programme by saying that Dr Grinstein is a “serious academic and is not the CEO/sales person of a Company that is seeking to promote a product in order to make money”.

In relation to Rule 2.1, Genesis TV said that Dr. Grinstein, through his research, “has developed his belief and thinking on the treatment of cancer by alternative means to invasive surgery and treatment”. According to the broadcaster, the term GC100 relates to “a change of lifestyle and the eating of natural ingredients”. In addition, Dr. Grinstein was advocating an approach to living, based on his research and “backed up by statements from leading universities and medical journals from many different countries around the world”, on “how to avoid developing cancer”. Genesis TV maintained that Dr. Grinstein “is very thorough in his research [and in] keeping with the Ofcom Code he seeks to be factual and not misleading in any statement that he makes to the public”.

In their ruling Ofcom said:

We considered that the advocacy of GC100 as an anti-carcinogenic strategy had a clear potential to cause some members of the audience – especially vulnerable ones – very serious (and possibly life-threatening) harm.

The full Ofcom ruling can be found here (pdf document).


Spanish Broadcasting Licence
On 1st April 2010 Revelation TV gave up its UK broadcasting licence and took up a new one from the Spanish government (which was actually issued to them in January 2007). This means that they no longer have to comply with UK broadcasting regulations and OFCOM will not accept any complaints about the channel, althugh the homologation of European broadcasting legislation may close this loophole.

It remains to be seen how the channel will react to their new freedom on these issues or if the Spanish authorities will seek to regulate them, but given some of the issues OFCOM had objected to in the past its possible they may wish to air programmes about the "treatment" of homosexuality or present graphic imagery about abortion.

The new regulator is Comisión del Mercado de las Telecomunicaciones (CMT) and the official licence holder is a Spanish company called REVELATION TV EUROPE, S.L. You can read their licence here (pdf document in Spanish).

Under the new Audiovisual Media Services Directive from the EU, TV regulators from any EU country can demand that a regulator in another member state applies its rules to a broadcaster domiclied there if the majority of that broadcasters audience is in the other country. This means that OFCOM could continue to regulate Revelation TV if it so wished.

As an additional twist in the tail the OFCOM website still shows Revelation TV as still having a UK licence held by a company called "Revelation TV Limited". Presumably this is now no longer used.

Ownership and funding
It is not clear who currently owns Revelation TV. It was founded by Howard and Lesley Conder through their company 21st Century Television Ltd, but the funds are held by a charity set up for the purpose called the Revelation Foundation. One day per month is set aside for fundraising programmes to support the two channels. Most donors seem to be individuals and some make regular monthly donations.

Outside Broadcast Truck
During the first Revelation TV fundraising week in 2008 viewers were invited to donate towards the cost of an outside broadcast van. This was purchased in early 2009.
It is not clear if this has ever been completed but a page about it can be found here on the Revelation TV web site.

Commercial activities
Apart from selling airtime to other Christian ministries and selling some advertising space the station appears to have no other commercial activities.

Revelation Foundation
The channel is partly funded by the Revelation Foundation which was set up for the purpose. Viewers donations are made through the foundation and are therefore supplemented by the government through Gift Aid.

According to the Charities Commission web site they turned over £1.74M in the last financial year. Click here to view their accounts for the past few years.

Some information from the notes to the accounts for year ended 31 Mar 2008:

"Trustees' Expenses
Travel expenses amounting to £13,596 (2007 -£16,187) were re-imbursed to 1(2007 - 2) trustee(s).
In order to enable Mr Pettie to be able to perform his duties properly in London, accommodation costs were paid by the charity for this trustee. The amount of £13,886 (2007 -£14,327) was paid during the year for Mr Pettie."

"Revelation Foundation is in dispute with HMRC in respect of VAT which the Trustees consider is recoverable amounting to £147,020. HMRC consider that there is debt due to them amounting to £20,708 and this represents a difference of
£167,728. The Trustees consider that this amount is substantially recoverable but feel it is prudent to make a reserve in the accounts for the full amount."

"RELATED PARTY DISCLOSURES
Mr Conder's son and daughter are employees of the charity and the total of their salari es included in the accounts amounted to £62,084.
Mr Pettie's daughter provides bookkeeping services to the charity and the total paid to her during the year was £1,291.
21st Century Television Limited is a company controlled by Mr H Conder and his wife. 21st Century Television Limited was charged £45,000 during the year by the Foundation during the year for the use of the Foundation's staff. Revelation
Foundation received £300,000 donations from 21st Century Television Limited during the year. Revelation Foundation also acquired equipment totalling £260,000 during the year. The balance due from 21st Century Television Limited at 31 March 2008 amounted to £12,125 and this is included in trade debtors."

Some information from the notes to the accounts for year ended 31 Mar 2009:

The trustees at that date were listed as:

H Conder
G Pettie
A Tun
J Odell

Donations were £1,427,356 (down from £1,682,136 the previous year)
This sum included £128,862 from the government through the Gift Aid scheme.

There were no trustees remuneration or other benefits for the year ended 31 March 2009.
RELATED PARTY DISCLOSURES
Mr Conder's sons and daughter are employees of the charity and the total of their salaries included in the accounts amounted to £38,834. Mr Conder's sons also provided consultancy services totalling £22,468 during the year.

[Editors Note: Joel Conder and Miles Conder run their own production company called Jamsync Studios from the same building as Revelation TV and using the same facilities see http://www.jamsync.tv/ They also have a second business called Twin City Productions see http://twincityproductions.com/contact.aspx This uses the same telephone number as Revelation TV and their interent domain name is registered to 21st Century Television Ltd].

Mr Pettie's daughter provided bookkeeping services to the charity and the total paid to her during the year was £8,341.

21st Century Television Limited is a company controlled by Mr H Conder and his wife. 2Ist Century Television Limited was charged £45,000 during the year by the Foundation during the year for the use of the Foundation's staff. Revelation
Foundation received £350,000 donations from 21st Century Television Limited during the year.

Like all UK Christian broadcasters RevelationTV receives funding from the Government through the gift aid scheme via their charity. Click here for an article about this specific issue.

Reserves

At 31st March 2009 the Revelation Foundation had £822,243 in unrestricted funds (reserves) including £511,103 cash at bank. This compared to 2008's figures of £632,243 with £301,413 of that held as cash.

Its not clear how much of this is left as according to their May 2010 newsletter:

"The Revelation Foundation has no reserves - no money sitting in a bank account somewhere in case of a rainy day."

Resignation of Howard Conder

On 2nd February 2010 Howard Conder announced that he was resigning as a trustee of the Revelation Foundation and stepping down from his role at Revelation TV. The full text of his resignation can be found here (pdf document). Companies House records show that he resigned as a director of Revelation TV Ltd later that month. Revelation TV Ltd is not listed as a related party in the Revelation Foundation accounts, but it does hold the station's UK broadcasting licence. Since his resignation, Howard Conder has occasionally appeared on the channel so its not clear what actually happened.

As well as his involvement in Revelation TV, Howard Conder is a director of several unrelated companies including Playout 247 Ltd which supplies online streaming services to Revelation TV. Playout247 also markets web based video portals through another company called Vision IPTV Ltd. These portals include Talkgod.tv , the life coaching channel Be Do Have and others listed on this page.

New Logo
In April 2010 the channel changed their logo to one which incorporates elements of the Union Flag.