There are plenty of preachers and pastors who claim to have the gift of leading souls to Christ and fill up churches and preach the truth to millions of people. No one has had the success, however, that the great evangelist Billy Graham has had.
According to Biography.com, Billy Graham preached the Christian gospel to as many as 215 million people living in 185 countries and was credited to preaching to more individuals than anyone else in history, and that is not counting the additional millions he addressed through radio-television and the written word.
Graham undoubtedly influenced many pastors, evangelists and traveling preachers of the 21st century and continues to influence thousands of up-incoming preachers across the country and around the world.
How Graham was raised had nothing to do with his desiring to become a traveling preacher, in fact, it was at the age of 16 that Graham attended a series of revival meetings run by evangelist Mordecai Ham. Ham’s sermons on sin spoke to Graham and changed his life forever.
After that sermon, Graham wanted to learn more about the word of God and began to study the word of God and wanted to learn what other people thought about God’s word.
From there, Graham took off and throughout his life was leading crusades and almost after every sermon, souls were being saved. In this blog, I will talk about the true impact that Billy Graham had on the kingdom of God.
According to the New York Times, Graham took the role of the evangelist to a new level. Graham lifted the term of evangelizing from the sawdust floors of canvas tents in small-town America to the podiums of packed stadiums in the world’s major cities. He was also among the first to use new communication technologies for religious purposes.
Graham was dubbed America’s Pastor as he has been called on by presidents and dignitaries alike. It is important to note Graham was not the spokesperson for a particular religion or people. In my opinion, his religious standing was biblically based and that is a good thing. His goal was to unite people under Christ.
In 1994, he read scripture at the funeral of Richard M. Nixon in California, offered prayer service in the National Cathedral for 9/11 victims, and traveled to New Orleans to preach and pray with Katrina survivors in 2005.
As “America’s pastor” he formed long-lasting friendships with all presidents from Eisenhower to Obama. In 1991, President H.W. Bush ask Graham to spend the night at the white house when American-led forces began to bomb Iraq. Out of all of the U.S. Presidents, Graham was closest to Nixon who made the evangelist the unofficial White House Chaplin.
Graham had broken some ground around the world as well. Graham traveled to North Korea and China, places where religious activity was officially restricted. In 1986 during a crusade in Paris, Graham used direct satellite transmissions to carry his sermons to about 30 other French cities.
With his crusade in San Juan, P.R., in 1995, he expanded his satellite reach more than six-fold. Biography mentions that Graham was rated by the Gallup organization as “One of the Most of Ten most admired people in the world” a staggering 51 times. He is regarded by contemporaries as humorous, non-judgmental, and sincere.
Billy Graham left behind a life of godly wisdom, accountability, and biblical love to his followers. Graham embodied the very mind of Christ and lived the love of Christ. (Eph. 5:2, 2 Cor. 5:14, Phil. 2:5). He led a glorious crusade for Christ preaching and teaching about God’s love, and salvation that is free to all who believe, and he is now in heaven where God said to him, “well done thy good and faithful servant” (Matt. 25:21).
Christianity Today mentioned at the end of every sermon, Graham always closed with,
“I’m going to ask you to do something that we’ve seen thousands of people do in different parts of the world. I’m going to ask you to say, I do want my life to change. I want to be certain that if I die I’ll go to heaven.' I’m going to ask you to come and make this decision. Make certain that you know Christ as your Lord and Savior. You may want to rededicate your life. You come.”
This simply means that Graham's goal was for people to be saved, and I believed he did just that.
