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Billy: "Billy Who?" (A Personal Look at Billy Graham, the World's Best-loved Evangelist) Chp 4
Billy
A Personal Look at Billy Graham, the World's Best-loved Evangelist
Billy Who?
— CALL TO ME, AND I WILL ANSWER YOU, AND SHOW YOU GREAT
AND MIGHTY THINGS, WHICH YOU DO NOT KNOW.
— JEREMIAH 33:3
Let us pay a quick visit to that borrowed tent on the vacant lot at Washington Boulevard and Hill Street in the city Los Angeles in the year 1949. Inside are the folding seats, two of which are reserved for us. This eloquent young man from North Carolina has opened his Bible and is preparing to step to the podium when George Beverly Shea stops singing. Thousands of listeners have filled the tent. In an adjoining tent other thousands are on their knees praying fervently for the speaker and his listeners.1
Now, I invite you to allow your imagination to roam. Let's assume that in the vaults of heaven a vast choir of angels is also listening to the music of Tedd Smiths's piano. A faint sound emanates from Earth, known widely in celestial circles as the Planet of Discord. Heavenly applause breaks out as singing now rises from the tent and blends harmoniously with the eternal music of the spheres: "To God be the glory, great things He has done!"
Does all this sound a bit euphoric? Not to a believer. Try to understand. Music is the first thing a new believer hears when he or she enters the everlasting doors of the kingdom of God. As for Billy Graham, he is an ordinary man except for this one thing. He is a citizen of the heavenly kingdom as well as of the United States o America. He lives with his God as well as with his wife and family. God makes him extraordinary. Thus my writing about Billy Graham is not like other biographical works on the man. My intent is not to evaluate, but to render a tribute if I can, and to say what millions of Billy's friends around the world would like to say if they could. I can't explain it further except to say that I sense angels are listening.
When the Greater Los Angeles Crusade for Christ was coming to a close, I was 7,000 miles away, sitting down to a sparse Thanksgiving dinner in a north Morningside flat in Edinburgh, Scotland. My hosts were Helen Forde, a charming widow visiting from Santa Monica, California, and her son-in-law and daughter, the Reverend and Mrs. Frederick Woodward of Virginia.
Our American Thanksgiving Day is not, of course, observed in Scotland, and in that postwar period we were still restricted by British "austerity" (too often without meat, without milk, without eggs, without petrol). Still the table was bountiful in its Scottish way, and we had so much for which to render thanks to our God. Frederick and I were graduate students in the New College at that athenaeum of learning and wisdom, the world famous University of Edinburgh.
While we worked our way through the sausage skins stuffed with meal, Mrs. Forde said to me as a fellow California, "Isn't it wonderful how God has been using Billy Graham back home?"
I expressed a polite interest. "Billy who?"
"Billy Graham. You know, the young evangelist from North Carolina."
I didn't know. I was currently trying to improve my German by reading Rudolf Bultmann's ponderous treatise on demythologizing the New Testament. "Tell me about him."
"He has been preaching the Gospel in a tent, and thousands are coming forward to be saved. They say he's a Baptist. I'm not sure, but I went there and watched. It was like a revival. Beautiful!"
"You mean in L.A.?" I asked, reaching for a cluster of Algerian grapes. "Who is he?"
Five years passed. By 1954 I had returned to California and was pastoring a rather miniscule congregation in south Berkeley across the bay from San Francisco when I received an invitation to watch a film at a nearby church. The film was a ten-minute newsreel depicting Billy Graham's arrival in London, England, to open his twelve-week evangelistic crusade in Harringay Arena on March 1, 1954.
I had been reading in Christian publications about those packed-out meetings in the arena, and particularly about the hostile London press that greeted him with, "Who invited you over here anyway? Do you think you can save Britain?"
One unusually harsh critic, William Conner, wrote two attacks in the Daily Mirror under the name of "Cassandra." Billy in turn wrote him a complimentary letter, asking for an interview.
"Will you," Cassandra responded, "meet someone fairly hellbent and not averse to a little quiet wickedness? Why should we not meet in a pub called The Baptist's Head? You could drink what you choose while I sin quietly with a little beer."
It seems they met, and afterward Cassandra wrote:
He came into the Baptist's Head absolutely at home — a teetotaler and an abstainer able to make himself completely at ease in the spit and sawdust department, a difficulty thing to do. He has a kind of ferocious cordiality that scares ordinary sinners stone-cold. I never thought that friendliness had such a sharp cutting edge. I never thought that simplicity could cudgel us sinners so... hard. We live and learn. The bloke means everything he says. And in this country he has been welcomed with an exuberance that makes us blush behind our precious Anglo-Saxon reserve.
At the final overflowing Friday night service in Harringay Arena, Cassandra was there.
All of this publicity made me, as an old reporter, extremely impatient to see that film. But as I sat there for those ten or twelve minutes, what inspired me during the film showing, and still inspires me, was not so much the huge welcoming crowd that greeted Billy and his team in the Waterloo railway station. Nor was it the jubilant, receptive audience that packed the Harringay Arena "Full and running over" night after night. Rather it was a simple statement Billy made to a congregation in one of the London churches on his arrival.
Obviously responding to the vitriolic criticism in the metropolitan London press, Billy told the assembled people, "We have not come here to save you. We have not come to reform you. We have come at the invitation of the churches of London to preach the unsearchable riches of Jesus Christ to the people of Britain."
Billy then quoted two verses that put a brand on my soul. The first was from Psalm 27:8: "When You said, 'Seek My face,' My heart said to you, 'Your face, Lord, I will seek.' " The other was taken from Jeremiah 29:13: "And you will seek Me and find Me, when you search for me with all your heart."
Those words forced me into what the sports writers call an "agonizing reappraisal." Things were not going well in my life, either domestically or vocationally, and I knew it. Small as my church was, it was wearing me out. The youth work was faltering. The organist was deaf. People liked me all right, but they gently resisted my ideas some of which should have been resisted. The neighborhood was changing. People were moving away. The harder I tried to resist the tide, the more I suffered from battle fatigue. Yet I was aware in my heart that if I could find God, if I could earnestly seek God's face and be found by Him, nothing else mattered.
It was obvious that I was not having a very effective ministry among my congregation. Such gifts as I had were limited, and questions about the Bible continued to harass me. But beyond all personal matters, I possessed a vast impatience with the ministry itself. With all its interminable duties, it seemed I just wasn't doing anything. But in that film I had watched people singing joyful Christian songs with tremendous zeal as they rode the London underground to Harringay. (The London Daily Telegraph reported: "The tube trains are packed with these singing multitudes."2) I couldn't even get my people to sing in church!
Jealousy was not my problem; I bore no ill will whatever toward Billy Graham or any other preacher of the Gospel. What I felt was entirely personal, and it went deep. Jesus said He came to set us free, but I seemed to be locked into an ecclesiastical establishment that made me feel that I was outside the stream of life, answering questions no one was asking, performing traditional religious duties of insignificance to God or humanity. I was like a windup toy that needed winding. While I loved the church of God and wanted to see it prosper, I despaired of my place in it.
Now the amazing scenes in that ten-minute film brought me up short. It appeared that the church's message about Jesus Christ really was relevant to lots of people, even to those who didn't go to church. The London Daily Mail was saying about Billy, "He has no magic, no magnetism; he makes no appeal to the emotions. His power — and power he has — is in his indivisible conviction that he knows the right way of life."3 Perhaps, I thought, if I couldn't reach anybody for God myself, I might get behind somebody who could. But first I had better unkink my theology, quit reading Reinhold Niebuhr, and start praying for Billy Graham.
Later that year Billy Graham, now clearly a mature evangelist with an international reputation, paid a brief visit to major cities along the Pacific coast. He conferred with committees of ministers and laymen about future crusades and spoke at evening rallies. When he came to the Bay Area, he was invited to preach at a one-night rally in San Francisco's Civic Auditorium.
During the five years that had elapsed since I first heard Mrs. Forde speak of Billy, my enthusiasm had been mounting about what he was doing. I had followed reports of his ministry in New England, in Portland, Oregon, in Seattle, in Minneapolis, Pittsburgh, and some of the southern cities.
In the summer of 1954, while I was on a solo hike in the high Sierras, God had convinced me that His Bible is infallible. As a colleague of mine liked to put it, I "strangled my intellect." Whatever it was God did or I did, my ministry took off in a new direction. I altered my pulpit message and joined a group of praying pastors. So when I read about the coming rally in San Francisco, I gladly filled my car with parishioners on a November evening and took them across the bay to hear the evangelist.
Knowing that San Francisco at night in November could be cold, damp, and windy, I wore a thick Harris tweed suit I had purchased in Edinburgh. Sure enough, at the entrance to the Civic Auditorium a waiting line extended for two long blocks. We stood shivering until some ushers came along to cheer us. When they learned that I was a minister, they invited me inside to sit with a hundred other pastors on the platform behind the podium. During the service Cliff Barrows called on us to stand and sing together, "Standing on the Promises of Christ My King." I sang my heart out.
What amazed me that night was the lighthearted spirit of the audience. It was exactly like what I had witnessed in that London film — a kind of Christian party. Expressions of joy were everywhere. Cliff Barrows seemed full of contagious good cheer as he led the singing. How different it was from the dignified religious solemnity I was used to — which meant, I was taught, doing things correctly, i.e., "decently and in order."4
When Billy came to the platform, he too seemed to convey a light spirit. He was the essence of cordiality until he began to preach. His text as the story of the rich young ruler and Jesus, as found in Luke 18:18-24. In sharp, rapid, effective sentences he presented the Bible scene. This young man, he said, was searching for answers at the right time (in his youth). He came with the right attitude (running) to the right person (Jesus). He asked Jesus the right question (about gaining eternal life) and received the answer (sell what you have; give to the poor; take up your cross and follow Me.) Then, said Billy, he did the wrong thing.
It was a well-constructed message, and I found it vivid and electrifying. The preacher was tall, lean, vigorous, impressive. He modulated his voice well; he pointed a long finger, swung his body, flexed his arms, and held up his Bible. His blue eyes were piercing, and his words were sharp, rapid, and effective. His southern accent sounded a bit odd to us Californians when he pronounced "can't" as "cain't," but nobody seemed to mind. The response was impressive as hundreds of people came to the front at his invitation.
At the close of the service, I left the platform to collect my carload of passengers for the trip across the Bay Bridge. They were missing. All had gone forward to give their lives to Jesus Christ.
Chapter 5 || Table of Contents
1. Cf. John Pollock, Billy Graham (London: Hodder & Stoughton, 1966), 84-91.
2. Ibid., 165.
3. Ibid., 168
4. 1 Corinthians 14:40 (KJV).
Prophecy Q&A with Gary Fisher: (Does the Mayan Calendar Predict 2012 Apocalypse?; Will the Antichrist be a Muslim?)
Does the Mayan Calendar Predict
2012 Apocalypse?
USA Today - With humanity coming up fast on 2012, publishers are helping readers gear up and count down to this mysterious — some even call it apocalyptic — date that ancient Mayan societies were anticipating thousands of years ago.A fourth is due this fall. Each arrives in the wake of the 2006 success of 2012: The Return of Quetzalcoatl, which has been selling thousands of copies a month since its release in May and counts more than 40,000 in print. The books also build on popular interest in the Maya, fueled in part by Mel Gibson's December 2006 film about Mayan civilization, Apocalpyto. Authors disagree about what humankind should expect on Dec. 21, 2012, when the Maya's "Long Count" calendar marks the end of a 5,126-year era.
Comment: There is a lot of buzz about this subject on the Internet and there have been a good number of people asking me about it at conferences and through email. My response is always the same. Why would anyone interested in the subject of end times be more concerned with whatever the Mayans believed than the proven prophets of God? Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Zechariah and others wrote extensively about the end times. They have spelled out fairly clearly how the end times would play out. None of God's prophets have ever been discredited because they prophesied falsely. Their credibility is "over the top" on the issue. Yet, many people prefer to pay attention to other sources. In this case, the Mayan calendar. Question: Will the Antichrist be a Muslim? Answer: I do not believe so. The following are the reasons why. 1). He (the Antichrist) shows no regard for the God of his fathers - he magnifies himself above them all (Dan. 11:37). This would be against the first pillar of Islam. All followers must state that there is no God but Allah. No Muslim can declare himself to be god, especially in a Jewish Temple in Jerusalem as the Antichrist will in II Thess. 2. If one did, the 1.2 billion Muslims around the world would have him beheaded before the sun sets.
What is significant here is the fact that the Mayan calendar simply ends at 2012. The subject is left hopelessly to speculation from that point. Unlike hopeless speculations, God's prophets gave us the full picture. Thanks to them, the future is very clear:
1.) Israel would be scattered from their land.
2.) The Church would be founded and operate in the interim.
2.) After many years, the Jewish people would return.
3.) Israel would be reestablished and rebuilt as a nation
4.) Israel would have to fight for their lives.
5.) All nations would eventually come against Israel.
6.) The Lord would fight against those nations at His return.
7.) The Lord would set up His Kingdom in Israel for 1,000 years.
8.) God would then bring New Jerusalem down and dwell among man forever. (See Ezekiel 33-48 and Revelation 19-22
2.) It appears that the world is about to witness the collapse of Islam. Inside the Muslim world there is desperation. This Allah is supposed to be greater, but 1.2 billion Muslims are witnessing that Allah cannot expel six million Jews from Israel for the last 60 years. He is not greater and history is proving it. Jehovah is greater!
3.) Daniel declares that the Antichrist will come from the people who destroyed the city (Jerusalem) and the Sanctuary (Temple) in Daniel 9:26. We know that Titus and the Roman 5th Legion who were in charge of the operation against the Jews and the Temple in 70A.D., were Italian Roman. The orders came from Rome, Italy. Those who destroyed the Temple were loyal to Caesar and Rome, Italy.
4.) A strong point: All this is interesting to ponder, but in the end, if one believes in a Rapture before the Tribulation, WE ARE NOT GOING TO BE HERE!!! The Antichrist cannot be revealed until He that now restrains him is taken out of the way and that will be during the coming Tribulation.
Annoucement: Last Call Devotions (on WordPress)
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Posteroous and Tumblr sites are scaled down versions also.
Prophecy Q&A with John MacArthur: Can Christians Participate in Civil Disobedience?
Can Christians Participate in Civil Disobedience?
Can Christians Participate in Civil Disobedience? John MacArthur We believe the Scripture teaches that we are to submit to government even if that government does not function entirely (or even primarily) by biblical principles (Romans 13:1-7). That principle is explicit in Peter's message to servants (1 Peter 2:18-19), which directly follows his more general comments regarding government (vv. 13-17). And that epistle teaches the same thing over and over again in varied ways: Submit even if you suffer, because in doing so you identify with Christ and are blessed (cf. 2:21-24; 3:1-2; 4:12-14; 5:9-10). There are times when we must obey God rather than men, but we believe that we should disobey the authorities only if they command us to do something directly against God's law (e.g. Acts 5:29 and its surrounding context). That is a fine distinction, but it is precisely where the issue lies. If we say that Christians are only required to obey their government when it is functioning by scriptural principles, we then nullify the teaching of Romans 13:1-7 and 1 Peter 2:13-17 in just about any age of history-especially the time during which those passages were written! The Roman government was as corrupt and godless as any in history, and yet Paul and Peter told Christians to "live in subjection," "submit to every ordinance," and "honor the king." So we believe that civil disobedience is justified only when government compels us to sin, or when there is no legal recourse for fighting injustice. The reason we draw the line there is simply because all the scriptural examples of civil disobedience fall squarely into those two situations. Any other kind of activism has no precedent in the Word of God and violates the spirit of Romans 13 and 1 Peter 2. 
Bob Coy: “And this is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent.”
So far we’ve seen that eternity is something God’s Word consistently points to, it’s the central feature of the Bible’s central figure, it’s what we were made for, it’s where judgment occurs based upon our response to Jesus Christ, and it’s defined by two very specific and different places. Next, we need to familiarize ourselves with a biblical expression that’s inseparably linked with eternity: eternal life. This term is exclusively found in the New Testament, and we see it predominately used by Jesus, Paul, and John. What’s interesting is that in each case, it’s used in a positive and desirable sense. But wait. As we’ve seen, eternity is defined by two places, and one of those places is anything but positive and desirable. How can that be? This is what we need to know that this stage in our study of eternity, the expression “eternal life,” which appears many times in the New Testament, refers to a quality of life and not just a quantity of life. “Eternal life” isn’t referring to the idea of an existence that will last forever. That’s something every single soul will experience one way or the other. Rather, it’s speaking of an existence under the best possible conditions. It’s pointing to a life of unending and unbroken fellowship with God through Jesus Christ: “And this is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent.” (John 17:3 NKJV) It’s the fulfillment of what we were made for (refer to March 3), and while it begins here and now when we place our faith in Jesus, it extends on into our eternal existence. Eternal life is not just a matter of us living for a long time. It’s a matter of us being brought back into a relational state with God that can never be improved upon and which will last forever. Think About It… What does this passage reveal to me about God? Devotionals by Active Word
Quality, Not QuantityTuesday, March 08, 2011
What does this passage reveal to me about myself?
Based on this, what changes do I need to make?
What is my prayer for today?
Biblical Leadership Principles: "What is your normal course of action when you receive bad news? (164-2)"
Tags: Act of arrogance, Babylon exiled Jerusalem's survivors, Coastal trade route, God-honoring king, Josiah's death, King Jehoiakim, Living between world superpowers, Organizational change, Processing bad news, What to do when you receive bad news Trackback from your site. 
What is your normal course of action when you receive bad news? (164-2)
Charles Stanley: Some people question whether the Lord is truly in control.
Some people question whether the Lord is truly in control. They learn about tragedies in the world and wonder if perhaps God isn’t powerful enough to overcome all evil. Or they encounter what seems like an insurmountable obstacle in their own life and come to the conclusion, Maybe His power is limited. My friend, we do not understand everything that happens in this life. But we know from Scripture that God has ultimate authority: “The Lord has established His throne in the heavens, and His sovereignty rules over all” (Ps. 103:19). Consider the far-reaching implications of these words. The Lord has complete control in all the universe—He reigns over everything and everyone, and His power is greater than all other strength. The termsomnipotent, omnipresent, andomniscientare frequently used to describe Him. In other words, our God is all-powerful, He exists everywhere, and He is all-knowing, which means there is nothing beyond His knowledge or His ability to direct and manage. And this limitless, unfathomable God, who is unhindered and fully in control, adopts us as His children. What an amazing thought! As we begin to grasp this truth, peace and rest will flood our souls. If you believe God is all-powerful, is that idea simply “head knowledge,” or does it affect the way you think and feel? When you realize that nothing happens apart from His awareness, direction, and loving purpose, it becomes possible to lay down worry and fear and truly experience His peace.Devotionals by In Touch
God’s SovereigntyDr. Charles StanleyTuesday, March 08, 2011
Greg Laurie: Do not love this world nor the things it offers you, for when you love the world, you do not have the love of the Father in you.
Do not love this world nor the things it offers you, for when you love the world, you do not have the love of the Father in you. —1 John 2:15 Imagine being mentioned by name in one of the epistles written by Paul. Not only was Demas mentioned, but he was mentioned twice. First Paul wrote in Philemon, “Epaphras, my fellow prisoner in Christ Jesus, sends you his greetings. So do Mark, Aristarchus, Demas, and Luke, my co-workers” (1:23–24). Then Paul mentioned him a second time: “Demas has deserted me because he loves the things of this life and has gone to Thessalonica” (2 Timothy 4:10). So why would Demas leave Paul? Because he loved this present world. He loved the things of this life. The Bible says, “Do not love this world nor the things it offers you, for when you love the world, you do not have the love of the Father in you. For the world offers only a craving for physical pleasure, a craving for everything we see, and pride in our achievements and possessions. These are not from the Father, but are from this world” (1 John 2:15–16). When the Bible speaks of the world, it is speaking of a culture, a mentality that is hostile to God. In the Parable of the Sower, where Jesus talked about the seed of God’s Word that was choked out by thorns, those thorns represent “the worries of this life and the lure of wealth” (Matthew 13:22). There are a lot of things that can cause us anxiety and keep us up at night. But Jesus said, “Can all your worries add a single moment to your life?” (Matthew 6:27). And Job said, “You have decided the length of our lives. You know how many months we will live, and we are not given a minute longer” (Job 14:5). We will not extend our lives by worrying. So let’s leave things in the hands of God. Devotionals by A New Beginning
Damaged by DistractionsGreg LaurieTuesday, March 08, 2011
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