The final two episodes of The Bible TV series will air on Channel 9 tonight (9.30pm), and Christian organisations are praying for viewers to come to Christ.

Bible Society Australia, Christian Media Australia, Heritage Film Distribution, Alpha, yesHEis and the Australian Christian Channel have come together to encourage Christians around Australia to watch the final episodes depicting the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, and talk about it with their non-Christian family and friends,

“It during this moment and the following days that searching hearts will be open to hearing more about the Gospel,” said Christian Media Australia in an email to supporters.

A website – TheBibleAU.tv – for those interested in finding out more about the gospel has been created which includes a gospel presentation, a message for Australian viewers from producers of the TV series, Roma Downey and Mark Burnett and an offer to receive a free New Testament from Bible Society Australia.

Ratings for The Bible TV series in Australia have fluctuated, with the first two episodes attracting “heavenly ratings” according to News.com.au TV writer Colin Vickery. The first hour of The Bible averaged 880,000 viewers across Australia’s five capital cities, with the second hour gaining 793,000 viewers.

“Those are fantastic figures given that The Bible didn’t start on air until approximately 9.15pm with final scenes sreening around 11.15pm,” wrote Vickery. However, numbers have dropped significantly, down to 320,000v metro viewers for episode 7 (screening 9.30-10.30pm) and 250,000 for episode 8 (screening 10.30-11.30pm) last week (statistics taken from The Australian’s Media blog).

But Christians are still hoping for a big finish for tonight’s episode, and praying for many more conversations about the Bible around the water cooler or over a coffee with those who haven’t yet accepted Jesus Christ as their Lord and Saviour.

“Please join with us as we pray for the impact of this episode…The Cross is such a wonderful, powerful, incredible story of God’s love for all mankind,” writes Heritage Film Distribution’s CEO Rod Hopping.

“Let’s pray that one of the largest viewing audiences in Australia tune in as the Cross is clearly presented on Channel Nine this coming Tuesday night.  As a result we’re praying that many, many people respond to that niggle of desire, belief and interest in the things of God all over our nation.”