Kay Arthur, co-founder of Precept Ministries, passed away at the age of 91 this week on May 20. She helped women dive deep into the Bible, mining nuggets of life-changing truth. 2 Corinthians is one such passage which most likely means more to her today than it did when she was still yearning for her heavenly home.
Quoting 2 Corinthians 5:1, Kay Arthur said, “For we know that if the earthly tent, which is our house, is torn down, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands eternal in the heavens.”
Born in 1933, Kay Arthur accepted Christ as her Savior on July 16, 1963, when she was 29. She met her second husband Jack Arthur in Chattanooga at Tennessee Temple University, and the couple married in 1965. The two went on to serve as missionaries in Mexico for several years until faced with health issues. After returning home to Chattanooga, the couple began hosting Bible studies for teenagers in their living room, which grew into Precept Ministries. What started small became a giant ministry that serves in 190 countries with over 110 languages.
Kay Arthur also hosted a Bible teaching program known as the Precepts for Life from 1999-2017. The show was acknowledged as the Best Television Teaching Program by the National Religious Broadcasters and was broadcasted to over 30 counties and connected to more than 75 million households.
Talk Host Janet Mefferd says Arthur had a profound influence on the Kingdom of God.
“It's very sad that Kay Arthur has left us because she had such a monumental impact on millions of Christians. Her materials through Precept Ministries were instrumental in helping many, many Christians really dig into the Word of God,” Mefferd said.
Arthur's Bible studies didn't nibble around the edges of theology but were empowering to women.
Mefferd explained, “Sometimes the weakness of women's Bible studies is that they tend more toward the emotional than maybe the theological, at times. But Kay Arthur's materials were not like that.”
Mefferd continues to explain that Arthur helped millions of women around the world become true disciples because of Arthur’s influence.
“When you look at some of the statistics that we have coming out from Barna and the like, showing increasing biblical illiteracy in the church, I am just so grateful for somebody like Kay Arthur who took the Word of God seriously and said women need to study it.”
Kay Arthur’s family has requested that any contributions should be directed to the Kay Arthur Memorial Fund for Precept Ministries to use in continuing Arthur’s work in engaging people with the Word of God.
