America’s Preacher, William “Billy”
Graham Jr., went to be with his Creator at his home
in Montreat, NC,
(at the age of ninety-nine) in the early
morning hours of Wednesday, February 21, 2018. His death was unpreventable as a result of multiple
illnesses like prostate cancer, pneumonia, fluid on the brain, and Parkinson’s
disease.
The Rev. Billy Graham rose to prominence in
the 1940s as a charismatic orator with a heart for sharing his faith in Jesus
Christ through 400 crusades with nearly 215 million people in more than 185
countries and 6 continents. If God uses ordinary people to do extraordinary
things, can you believe He will accomplish His purposes through your life, too?
Below are just a few of the interesting
facts about this humble giant of faith:
·
1949 - Holds crusades in tents in
downtown Los Angeles. Originally scheduled for three weeks, the crusades are so
popular they run for seven weeks.
·
1950s - Founds World Wide Pictures, a
motion picture division of The Billy Graham Evangelistic Association
(BGEA).
·
1983 - Awarded the Presidential Medal of
Freedom.
·
1996 - Awarded the Congressional Gold
Medal.
·
1999 - First non-musician to be inducted
into the Gospel Music Hall of Fame.
·
2000 - Wins the Ronald Reagan Presidential
Foundation Freedom Award, for monumental and lasting contributions to the cause
of freedom.
·
As
a five-year-old boy, Billy’s parents brought him to hear the famous evangelist,
Billy Sunday. Sunday had once played center field for the Chicago
Whitestockings baseball team. Although Billy loved baseball, all he remembers
about that day was how long Billy Sunday preached, how extremely hot it was,
and how much he wiggled throughout the whole sermon.
·
Billy Graham also dedicated
the old Charlotte Coliseum (Hornets) in 1988. He stood under the
scoreboard and offered a prayer of dedication. The next day the
scoreboard crashed to the floor.
·
Billy
Graham did not consider himself a strict interpreter of the Bible, and he
preached as a conservative, (not fundamental) Christianity.
·
Billy
Graham has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 1989. The chairman of the selection committee said,
“I can’t think of anybody in the world who has used radio, television and
motion pictures in a more positive way.”
·
Billy Graham held his first citywide
crusade in 1947 in Grand Rapids, MI.
·
Billy Graham was consistently listed on
Gallup's poll of the "10 Most Admired Men in the World” between 1950 and
1990.
·
Billy Graham was the son of a
dairy farmer in Charlotte, NC. He (and
his three siblings) grew up dreaming of becoming a professional baseball
player, but said this of himself "The talent for baseball obviously was not there."
·
Billy Graham helped George W. Bush
stop drinking. The first time the pair met. Bush was younger and drunk after
having several beers and glasses of wine.
·
Billy
Graham’s mother was a devout Christian. For the early part of his upbringing it
was apparent to Billy that his mother, not his father, was the one most
concerned with training the children in religious matters.
·
December 4, 1938 - Graham is baptized in
Silver Lake, Florida.
·
For
two hours, Billy would milk twenty cows, shovel away the manure, and fed the
cows’ fresh hay. This happened seven days a week, morning and evening, it was
Billy’s job to milk the cows, which meant waking at 2:30 each morning.
·
He was honored by Queen
Elizabeth II in 2001 as an honorary Knight Commander (KBE) of the Order of the
British Empire for "60 years of international contribution to civic and
religious life
·
He was kicked out of a youth
group at a Charlotte Presbyterian Church because he was "too
worldly."
·
Billy and Ruth’s children: Nelson Edman,
William Franklin, Ruth Bell, Anne Morrow, and Virginia
·
His father made him drink
beer until he got sick and it had such an impact on him that he abstained from alcohol
for the rest of his life
·
In 1934 at the age of 15, Billy Graham made a personal
commitment to Christ at a tent revival meeting featuring traveling evangelist Mordecai Ham.
·
In
2002, Billy Graham apologized after the release of secretly recorded tapes from
1972 in which he and President Richard Nixon agreed that liberal Jews dominate
the U.S. news media. Graham was heard saying the Jewish “stranglehold has got
to be broken or the country’s going down the drain.”
·
May 31, 2007 - The Billy Graham Library
and Museum in Charlotte, North Carolina, is dedicated. Former Presidents George H. W. Bush,
Bill Clinton, and Jimmy Carter attend.
·
Shortly after President Lyndon B.
Johnson was sworn into office in 1963, he invited Billy Graham to the White
House. The pair didn't have bathing suits and reportedly went skinny dipping
in the pool.
·
Since 1950, Billy Graham met with every US president from
Harry S. Truman to Barack Obama.
·
At
a 1952 Jackson, MS, revival Billy Graham removed the ropes that separated black
and white sections of the audience. He
said, "Christianity is not a white man's religion,
and don't let anybody ever tell you that it's white or black. Christ belongs to
all people. He belongs to the whole world."
·
To eliminate the suspicion of
infidelity, Graham vowed never to meet, travel or eat alone with any woman
other than his wife, Ruth (death, 6/14?07).
·
When
Billy’s parents invited him to attend a revival meeting, he agreed to go
because he had heard there would be a clash between protesters and the
evangelist. At the revival there were no protestors, only thousands of people
streaming into the tabernacle to hear the evangelist’s message. Night after
night, Billy snuck into the back of the tent to listen to the powerful and
convicting sermons. Something stirred in him that made him sorry for his
sin. After many nights of meetings, Billy finally walked forward to turn
from his sin to follow Jesus
·
When Dr. Martin Luther King,
Jr., was jailed during a civil rights protest in 1963, Billy Graham paid King's
bail.
·
Witnessing
the transformation in his father after a near death experience was a pivotal
point in Billy’s own pursuit of spiritual matters. Soon after his grandmother
died, Billy’s father’s face and jaw were crushed and disfigured from an
accident on the farm. The family did not expect him to live. Billy’s dad did
recover. His face would forever be deformed by the accident, but Billy couldn’t
help but notice that his dad’s spiritual condition was transformed as well.
“Someone
asked me recently if I didn’t think God was unfair allowing me to have
Parkinson’s and other medical problems when I have tried to serve Him
faithfully. I replied that I did not see it that way at all. Suffering is part
of the human condition, and it comes to us all. The key is how we react to it
either turning away from God in anger and bitterness or growing closer to Him
in trust and confidence.” (Billy Graham) [i]
 |
| Baby Billy Graham |
 |
| Billy Graham as an adult |
[i] Sources used:
·
“10 Things You Didn't Know about
Billy Graham” by Rhonda Stopper
·
“Billy
Graham Fast Facts” by CNN Library
·
“Billy Graham Fun Facts: 10 Things You Might Not
Know About Evangelical Leader” by Dave Fidlin
·
“Death by Natural Causes Explained” by Kathy Quan
·
“Factbox: Facts about Evangelist Billy Graham” by Reuters Staff
·
“Fun Facts about Billy
Graham” by My Hope
·
“Fun Facts You Probably Don't Know
about Rev. Billy Graham” by WorldNow
·
“Voice of a Generation” by Josie Griffiths e
·
G“10 Things
You Didn’t Know about Billy Graham” by Crosswalk.com
·
n“16
Lesser-Known Facts about Billy Graham, Including that Time He Went Skinny
Dipping with Lyndon B. Johnson” by Jolie Lee
·
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