Heroes Of The Faith

Billy Graham

When Dr Billy Graham went to be with the Lord at 99 years of age on February 21, 2018 the world lost one of the greatest evangelists of all time. His Crusade ministry began in 1947 when he was 28 years old and continued until his 417th Crusade in New York in 2005. He had preached to over 200 million people in 185 countries on six continents.

 

I first heard Billy Graham in 1966 at Earls Court in London. I was a teenager and had already given my life to the Lord but I rejoiced to be in a crowd of over 15,000 people who had gathered to hear him preach.  He spoke in a very straight forward way and was easy to listen to and would never have claimed to be the best preacher of all time, but he certainly was a very effective evangelist.

 

His often-repeated phrase in preaching was: “The Bible says” which gave authority to everything that he said. His whole life was devoted to proclaiming the God of the Bible, the truth of the Bible and the Bible’s message of salvation through faith in Jesus Christ and because of that, over 3 million people came to Christ under his ministry.

 

I was at Billy Graham’s London crusade on Thursday June 16th 1966 when we were given the big surprise of an appearance by Cliff Richard. He was invited to come forward to the microphone and he boldly proclaimed in public for the first time, that he was a born again Christian.  

 

Cliff’s career as a pop singer had begun in 1958 and he had had many hit singles and was very well known throughout Britain and Europe, later to represent the UK on the Eurovision Song Contest in 1968. Cliff had taken a very big risk by standing up that night and confessing that he was a Christian and God has honoured him for it ever since.  

 

The next year, 1967 Billy was back in England for another Crusade and I was in my last year of school.  I was so excited about this that I took the bold step of hiring a bus to take any of my school friends to London to hear Billy preach.  To this day I don’t know how I paid for it but the Lord provided!

 

Billy Graham’s gift for winning souls was matched by his gift for winning friends.  He was the confidant of Presidents and had the respect of countless celebrities and other people in high places including Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II -but he never compromised the message of the gospel. I always enjoyed it when he appeared on television whenever he was in Britain.  He never failed to give very clear and gracious answers to any question he was asked.

 

Lessons from Billy’s Life

 

One of the outstanding features of Billy Graham’s life was his integrity and unimpeachable character. At the beginning of his ministry Billy and his team established the Modesto Manifesto which was a code of ethics to protect the ministry against accusations of financial, sexual and power abuse. This code included rules for collecting offerings in churches, and in particular, a commitment that neither Billy nor his associates would never be alone with a woman other than their own wives.

 

Another outstanding principle of his ministry was that he took a stand against what is known today as White Supremacy which was manifested at that time in America in the segregation of black people from white people in public places and from 1953 onwards Billy refused to allow that to happen in his meetings. Billy said, "There is no scriptural basis for segregation. The ground at the foot of the cross is level, and it touches my heart when I see whites standing shoulder to shoulder with blacks at the cross.”

 

He worked closely with Dr Martin Luther King and invited him join him in the speaking at his Crusade in New York City in 1957, where 2.3million gathered over a 16 week period to hear them both.

 

Billy and Ruth Graham had five children -three daughters and two sons -all of whom are serving God today. Each of them spoke with great love and affection for their father at his funeral which was attended among others by President Trump. Billy’s third daughter Ruth (known as Bunny) told the story that day of how she had been divorced twice and how her second marriage had been a total disaster because of her own stubborn willfulness. When she was at her lowest point, she went to see her parents in great fear of their reaction to everything that had happened.  She told of how her father was standing in the driveway waiting for her and how held her in his arms with the words “Welcome home” assuring her of his total love and acceptance.

 

Although he was a good father, Dr Graham had spent many months each year away from home and his wife Ruth had done an amazing job in bringing the children up single handedly during those times, but in later life he expressed his regret that family had, to some extent, been sidelined by his ministry. Let this be a lesson to us all. This confession was typical of Billy who was always humble enough to acknowledge his failings or retract things that on reflection he regretted.

 

So many things could be said about Dr Billy Graham but in this article, I have tried to give a personal view from my own experience. So in closing let me share two more things:

 

I have a dear friend in my church who is retired Police Officer and because he was a member of the Christian Police Association, he was chosen along with others to drive members of the team while they were in Sunderland for Mission England in 1984. Peter was Billy Graham’s driver for a week and then two years later for the 1986 Itinerant Evangelist Conference in Amsterdam, Peter was the driver for Billy’s wife Ruth.  During that time, Peter and another officer had dinner with Dr Graham and he testifies to the fact that Billy was just the same in private as he was in public. He was genuinely interested in people – he was very warm and chatty and did not spend the evening talking about himself, instead he wanted to know all about their families and their own experiences in the Lord.  I have seen the Bible that was given to my friend Peter as a thank you gift for his service to the team, personally signed by Billy Graham.

 

Finally, as many of you know, one of the subjects I teach at the Bible College is Church History.  This course runs for two years and the last assignment I set for each student is to choose and research an outstanding Christian leader from any time over the last two thousand years. A number of students over the years have chosen Billy Graham and this always make me glad when young people who have not had even the small contact that I had, are also looking back to the way in which Billy Graham was a true man of God.

 

All glory to Jesus for giving us such an example of a servant of His who was so wise, so full of integrity and graciousness who achieved so much in his lifetime, and was faithful to the end!

 

FOOTNOTES

Ruth (Bunny) Graham at Billy Graham’s Funeral:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3J3jb2wiQRk

 

You should listen to his other daughter, Ann also speaking at the funeral.  It made me cry:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mM560fQSbSA

 

Cliff Richard 1966:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r5TJQcy2c14

 

Cliff at Mission England Birmingham 1984:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uhzeKCuURF4

 

Billy Graham’s wife Ruth speaking in Sheffield 1985:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lqNcYSF5onI