Sunday 28th February 2010

Gallery of  Influential Lives – Billy Graham

Billy Graham was born on a dairy farm in North Carolina in America. His family were Christians and attended Church. He learnt a lot about the Bible but did not have a personal relationship with God. In 1934 he responded to a preacher at a revival meeting and was a changed person. He wanted to go to a Bible college and started selling brushes door to door to earn the money for the course.

Soon Billy Graham was preaching on all opportunities. He found that people responded to his preaching and that when the time came for an alter call they came up in great numbers to accept Christ.

Billy Graham went to Wheaton Bible college in 1940 and met he wife to be. He graduated in 1943 and was married the same year. Then an opportunity came his way that changed his life significantly. He was offered the chance to take over a radio program and he was very popular.

People responded to his preaching without even seeing him, he preached life and that is what people want. Very soon Billy Graham was preaching to audiences of thousands of people and he had to choose between being a travelling evangelist or a church pastor. He chose the former.

When the war finished, Billy Graham came to England with Torrey Johnson. The English were shocked by Graham and his message of sin and salvation yet many people accepted the altar calls to go up to the front to accept Christ.

In 1949 Billy Graham had a big tent revival in Los Angeles. In eight weeks he drew 350,000 people including many celebrities who accepted Christ. He was now known throughout America. A series of successful crusades followed.

In 1950 he launched a weekly radio program across the United States. He formed the Billy Graham Evangelic Corporation and began a film company and a television show called the 'Hour of Decision'.

One important thing that Billy Graham did was to always treat black and white people as equal. As he continued with a series of successful crusades in America and all over the world, he was drawn more and more into the racism within America. He spoke out against this racism with the message of the gospel of love and helped various presidents with the tough decisions that needed to be made.

In 1977 Billy Graham had his first crusade in a communist country, within ten days he was preaching to huge crowds. In 1984 Billy Graham had his first crusade in Russia and soon followed this with a crusade in China.

In 1992 Billy Graham, aged 73, was diagnosed with Parkinson's disease. His response was to embark on a world-wide campaign to use satellite broadcasting to reach one billion people with the Word of God.