Billy Graham and His Impact - Research Paper Example

Billy Graham and His Impact William Franklin Graham Jr., most commonly known as Billy Graham, is considered and regarded to be as the person who was able to preach and share the Word of God to more people compared to any other person in all of history. This does not even include the number of people that he has preached to through broadcasting in media such as in the television, radio and through the written word. He has dedicated and devoted his whole entire life since he felt the calling of the Lord in the middle of the 1930s, and continues to touch and inspire the hearts and the spirits of millions of people to come to the Lord. Leading an extraordinary and remarkable life, Billy Graham’s name will forever be remembered as the man who has influenced and shaped the world of Evangelism and Christianity in all of the United States of America. His life is the account of the impact he has made in the world. Born as the eldest on the seventh day in the month of November in 1918, Billy Graham was raised on their family’s dairy farmland in close proximity to the largest city in the state of North Carolina by his parents, William Franklin Graham I who was a successful cultivator and entrepreneur and Morrow Coffey. As he was growing up with his four other siblings namely Katherine, Melvin and Jean, he was already surrounded by the Christian upbringing in the Associate Reformed Presbyterian Church. When the Noble Experiment was imposed in 1933, when he was only a young man at the age of about fifteen years old, Graham’s father had forced him as well as his sister Katherine into drinking and engaging in alcoholic beverages to the point where they would start throwing up. This event that happened early in his life, only as a young teenager, has caused him and his sister a strong feeling of hatred and abhorrence for alcohol and intoxicating drinks and beverages as well as drugs. Graham, a year after the incident, was converted when he was only sixteen years of age at that time when he was attending a series of several revival and renewal meeting in which Mordecai Fowler Ham an American Independent Baptist evangelist and temperance movement leader, a social movement that insist on the reduction of in taking and drinking alcoholic beverages, was in charge of. He enthused up quite a number of different issues and controversies when he was charged and accused for ethical negligence and lack of discipline while he was attending and studying at his local high school. While he continued to be present and attend the meetings in Charlotte, the young Billy Graham was guided and was led, while listening to one of the sermons and lectures of Mordecai Ham, which resulted in the intensification and the increase of Graham's guilt of the outcome of his sins that he has committed in his life. Because of this, he soon after, committed and decided to give over his life to the Lord Jesus Christ. He wanted to put his name down for membership in the youth but was turned down and rejected since they thought of him as “too worldly.” Through the encouragement and persuasion of one of the dairy farm’s employees, Albert McMakin, Graham went to go and talk to Ham. Billy Graham, in the summer month of May of 1936, graduated from Sharon High School and went off to college and started attending the fundamentalist Bob Jones College, which has changed its name and is now presently called Bob Jones University, which was located in the city of Cleveland in the county of Bradley, Tennessee. He did not stay for a long while and after about a couple of months, only staying for one semester, because of not being able to adapt and adjust to the school’s environment, he transferred. He thought of the school as being too strict in both the coursework and the regulations and rules stringently implemented and followed by the school. At that particular moment in time, a pastor from Eastport Bible Church, Pastor Charley Young was able to inspire and had some bearing on Graham. Although he was nearly expelled and forced out, but Bob Jones Sr., the founder and the first president of Bob Jones College, counseled and urged him not to throw and waste his life away, saying, “At best, all you could amount to would be a poor country Baptist preacher somewhere out in the sticks.... You have a voice that pulls. God can use that voice of yours. He can use it mightily." And later on in his life, indeed, he did. By January of 1937, Billy Graham transferred and moved to Florida. He attended Florida Bible Institute, which is now Trinity College of Florida located in Temple Terrace. Here, he said that he received his calling from the Lord on the 18th green of the Temple Terrace Golf and Country Club. This place was situated across and directly in front of today’s Sutton Hall in Florida College. He graduated from this college in the year of 1940 with a Bachelor Degree in Theology. While he was still studying in Florida Bible Institute, it was in this place and time where he started to preach and teach the Word of God and the Gospel in all kinds of places. After he was baptized by Reverend John Minder, he started to go around and preach in the corners of the street, during rescue assignments and missions, and in minor churches as well. Graham also started to lead a series of numerous meetings in the Peniel Baptist Church in East Palatka. He was baptized the second time by one of the pastors in the church in Silver Lake, who was a Southern Baptist. During this time, he initiated his lifetime membership and acceptance for baptismal to the southern Baptists and became a member of the Southern Baptist Convention. While he was still residing in Florida, he met the president of the Wheaten College located in Illinois. Noticed for his great and noteworthy ability and gift in preaching and sharing the Gospel, they were able to arrange and let him attend Wheaton College, where he would go to and study for about three years. During the three years of his study there, he became a pastor in the United Gospel Tabernacle and preached several arrangements and some that were also located out of the state of Illinois. In addition, during his study, he met and became acquainted with Ruth McCue Bell, whom he would later marry and share the rest of his life with. Ruth was born in China and was raised by medical missionaries in a Presbyterian hospital near Shanghai. She later moved to Korea, and then to the Unites States in North Carolina. She then transferred to Wheaten College where she would meet and fall in love with Billy Graham. Billy remembers, “"I saw her walking down the road towards me and I couldn't help but stare at her as she walked. She looked at me and our eyes met and I felt that she was definitely the woman I wanted to marry." Ruth considered and thought of Graham as a man who "wanted to please God more than any man I'd ever met." Furthermore, while still at Wheaten College in Illinois, Billy Graham made a decision that the Holy Bible is the surefire, fail-safe and the perfect Word of God. In the Forest Home Christian camp, which is now called the Forest Home Ministries, where he wrestled this issue with the help of Henrietta Mears, presently, a memorial commemorating and marking the decision that Graham made about seven decades ago stands. Later on, Billy Graham studied hard and in time, he earned and graduated Bachelor of Arts in anthropology, or the study of humanity. They married two months shortly after their graduation from college on the thirteenth of August in the year 1943. They afterward lived in a small house made out of logs which was designed by Ruth herself. They permanently built and resided in their simple small home in the Blue Ridge Mountain province in the town of Montreat in North Carolina. Ruth and Billy had a total of five children. Currently, each of them are taking on and following the footsteps of their parents in the ministry of sharing the Gospel and of helping the world through managing and running different kinds of organizations and associations. The eldest, Virginia Leftwich Graham Tchividjian born in 1945, two years after they got married, is presently an author of seven books and a lecturer who speaks out specifically to women during conferences and conventions all over America. Anne Graham Lotz is currently managing AnGeL ministries. Ruth Graham is the founder and the president of a ministry which was started in 2004, Ruth Graham & Friends. Franklin Graham is at presently the manager of Samaritan’s Purse, which is a relief association worldwide. He will also become the successor of his father at the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association. Lastly, the youngest of the Graham siblings is Nelson "Ned" Graham who is a minister, controlling and handling an organization that gives out Christian literature in the Communistic country of China which is called East Gates International. Also, some of the grandchildren that Billy Graham has are also following the footsteps and the legacy of Billy by taking part as well in Christian ministry such as Tullian Tchividjian, who is a senior pastor in a church in Florida, called the Coral Ridge Presbyterian Church. Graham in Western Springs, from about 1943 to 1944, while he served the Village Church for a little over one year, preached on a radio program, “Songs in the Night” every Sunday evening after taking over the program of Torrey Johnson, who was lacking funds to keep airing it since Graham, with the help of some people attending worship helped him out and gave financial support. Subsequently, he employed gospel baritone singer George Beverly Shea as the director of Graham’s ministry through the radio Billy Graham at the age of only thirty, he left the radio show in the care of George shea. The program was only a few months old when Graham had to leave behind the radio show and the church where he served as well in Western Springs and became the youngest ever to sit as a college president during his term in Northwestern College located in the capital city of St. Paul in the state of Minnesota. He later became the president for four years from 1948 to the year 1952. He eventually moved on to become the vice president of the local Youth for Christ or the YFC. This organization was co-founded by friend of Graham, Torrey Johnson and Canadian cartoonist, evangelist, politician, agnostic, inventor, newspaper editor, broadcaster and author, Charles Templeton. Initially, the Youth for Christ International was named as only Youth for Christ which was a number of earlier unassociated evangelical protestant religious movements. This led to the development, creation and the formation of Youth for Christ International in 1946. Serving this organization, Graham was able to travel all over the world including the United States of America and several other surrounding and neighboring nations such as Canada, and also in other continents like in Europe. In these countries as a travelling representative, Graham spoke fervently in rallies and public gatherings. After actively participating for a couple of years, Graham, as he was beginning to have and involve himself in his very own evangelistic work, holding rallies, his work in YFC lessened and soon after, he resigned in 1948 from the organization although he continued and continued to become a close active friend of the association. He also ardently continued to serve on YFCI’s board of directors for a period of time. The fact that Graham had little official and former training in preaching and sharing to the people about the word of the Lord and the fact that he was still very successful in doing and practicing shows and exemplifies the great, outstanding and notable skill that Graham evidently had and the passion that he possessed in order to bring the Lord’s name wherever he went and whoever he met. A year after in 1949, Graham scheduled a sequence of different Christian services held for the purpose of inspiring and encouraging unmoving and passive members of the church in order to gain and bring in new converts to the Christian church community in Los Angeles, California. He held these revival meetings through making and putting up circus tents in a parking lot. From these series of numerous revival meetings which were led by Billy Graham made his name increasingly popular to the extent where he came to be a national religious figure that made him known throughout the whole of United States of America. His ascension to national distinction and popularity was partially because of the help and support of famous and popular newspaper Tai pan, William Randolph Hearst even though the two have never come across each other. Because of the support and the praise by Hearst for Graham caused the Los Angeles promotion and the campaign movement to go on for eight weeks, even though the original plan was only for two. As Billy Graham became all the more popular and famous because of the exposure of his name and his work to the media by William Hearst, later on, Henry Robinson Luce, co-founder of several well established magazines that shaped American media such as Time, Fortune and Life magazine, became more aware and noticed the exceptional work of Graham wrote articles about him in Time and Life magazine and later on, placed him on the cover of Time magazine in 1954. Billy Graham conducted more and more evangelistic crusades and campaigns all over America since the year 1948. He leased out bigger venues and areas such as stadiums, arenas, parks and avenues and roads. More than five thousand people sang in his choral group. He preached and shared the Good News of the Lord to thousands of crowds and also gave their testimony of how Jesus came into their life and changed it for the better. Also, he encouraged people, who were feeling convicted and inspired and let them talk to different counselors and advisers that would give advices and guidance with whatever problem or concern they have regarding Jesus Christ and their life. These people who were also called inquirers, would afterwards, pray with the person they counseled. This method of preaching and inviting new people to come to Christ was very effective. In Moscow, Russia, in the year 1992, there were over a hundred fifty five thousand people who willingly came forward during one of Graham’s crusades to be advised, counseled and prayed for. Graham passionately and ardently continued his ministry through crusades, different sets of rallies, campaigns and movements in many parts of the United States as well as in other countries in the world. He travelled around including South America, Europe, Australia and Asia. He had numerous religious missions in which he preached, that lasted and extended up to three to four months. As his movements increased in size and as the people who came increased in number, in order to be able to organize this in an orderly and a systematic way with a business-like basis, Graham along with his wife and some of his friends such as Cliff Barrows, a devoted evangelistic minister; Shea; Grady Wilson, a passionate minister; and George Wilson, an associate of YFC and Northwestern Schools, together integrated and incorporated BGEA , or the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association, that still stands today. BGEA’s main focus and purpose is to let as many people know about the Lord Jesus Christ and what he has done for the world. He also got involved and engaged in different activities in places such as in Sydney, Australia, Buenos Aires in Argentina, Winnipeg, Paris, Hong Kong, Mexico City and many more. He preached in London as well as in New York City, particularly in the Madison Square Garden, which is also known as the World’s Most Famous Arena by the year 1957. This continued on for about four months or approximately sixteen full weeks. At first, BGEA’s head office and the center of its operations was at first located in Minneapolis but was later transferred to Charlotte, New Carolina where he resided during the time of his early years. This organization’s ministries included radio programs such as Hour of Decision, which was a weekly broadcast that aired internationally for over five long decades. His organization also engaged in television specials regarding his missions broadcasted and aired on TV regularly in both the United States and in Canada as well. Not only in televisions and radio programs, but also through the written word, Billy Graham Evangelistic Association’s ministries included broadcasting multiple newspapers to numerous separate stations covering both the United States and Canada. The association of Graham and the others published their official magazine called Decision magazine. Christianity Today, a periodical began and was initiated in 1956. World Wide Pictures, a production company that has produced over a hundred and thirty films in total and also a website for children called Passageway.org was started. Billy Graham not only participated and was actively involved in his ministry in the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association; he also took part in promoting and advocating equality for all people. When the civil rights movement started in 1955 to 1968, he eagerly disliked and was strongly against segregation and separation although he went through some zigzag years, where in he refused to speak to segregated gatherings and assemblies that met and drew together in auditoriums and other large venues. Although he went through some one and off years, he later on emerged and came out as a man who was against racism and segregation in the community. He repeatedly said and reminded the people that Christianity’s role and stand on the issue of equality of the people, no matter what race, gender or walk of life one comes from. He was involved in a fight and feud with a certain KKK member why assimilation of the black Americans is very important especially and particularly in the Southern society of America. He also paid for the bail money in order to guarantee and make sure of the discharge and the release from prison of Martin Luther King, Jr. during the 1960’s. He also invited Martin Luther King, Jr. in the platform during a revival meeting when he spoke in New York City. During this gathering, about 2.3 million people listened in the assembly. Graham continued in his popularity and extended his exposure and visibility to the religious world. He appeared as a guest in several TV shows. He also created and built his very own pavilion for a fair in New York City in the year 1964. He is known to be the very first evangelist that spoke inside the borders of Russia, the Iron Curtain after the Second World War In addition, he also addressed and spoke to more crowds in Eastern Europe and also in the Soviet Union, urging the people to stop the wars, the conflicts both internally and with other countries and, calling and beckoning people to unite together, promote, advocate and encourage for world peace. Lasting from the year 1948 to 1994, the time of the segregation of the blacks and the whites was put into effect and implemented by the South African National Party government. The white people were classified as the superior race and the “non-whites” were degraded and put down, most especially the black people. They segregated every part of the social community including the education of the students in a school, health care in hospitals, and other kinds of public services. During this epoch in the South African history, Graham kept on declining to go and speak to South Africa in anticipation of the time where in audiences would be allowed to merge together and integrate, letting them attend and sit down to listen to his lectures and sermons, desegregated. When he was finally able to visit South Africa in 1973, he held his first crusade there. During the campaign, he candidly announced that he was against and was not in favor of racial discrimination and prejudice. After more than a few years of continuous campaigning and speaking to crowds, he showed interest in nurturing, developing and encouraging the bringing of the people to Christianity of the world. During the years 1983, 1986 and the end of the 2oth century and also the last year of the 2nd millennium in 2000, Billy Graham his arranged, sponsored and gave his financial support to huge conferences and conventions that trained Christian evangelists and missionaries who came from all parts of the globe. With a number of missionary representatives that came from over a hundred and fifty seven countries the immense training seminar was held in Amsterdam, the Netherlands. After this colossal event, he went to several countries in Eastern Asia and he went on to hold several crusades in the United States. He went to South Korea and China between 1988 to 1992. He held crusades and festivals, as well as prayer services in several states where natural calamities, catastrophes and disasters have just recently occurred at that time, including the September 11 attacks of the World Trade Center in New York, Oklahoma bombing and the hurricane Katrina disaster in New Orleans. During some of his movements, several important and renowned people sat down and became part of the huge crowds who listened to Billy Graham as he spoke to large audiences. Some who became part of the addressees and audience were presidents of America such as Harry S. Truman, Richard Nixon, Bill Clinton, the family of the Bush and the current U.S. president Barack Obama as well. He also was able to be in charge of a few presidential burials and funerals. In some, he was not able to officiate it due to health and medical circumstances and conditions. Billy Graham was also blunt and outspoken about his opposition against the concept of communism, although he supported the Cold War policy during the time of the wars in Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia. During his later years, he began to suffer several medical conditions that prevented him from actively doing his missionary and evangelistic work. He went through double hip replacement surgery as well as a couple of times of admission and recuperation as he was hospitalized. Billy Graham also faced numerous controversies and received a few critics and questionable and debatable issues such as the controversial subject matters such as the criticism made by Truman, calling Graham a ‘counterfeit’ and also his tapes with president Richard Nixon. Throughout the course of Billy Graham’s life, he received a handful of awards. He was named, “The Greatest Living American.” He has been time after time positioned and classed as one of the most well-liked and admired person in both the United States and even in the world as well. He also received other awards and honors such as an award received from the National Conference of Christians and Jews, National Interreligious Award and he was also dubbed as among the century’s greatest Christian friends of Jews. A day was even celebrated in his name in his hometown at Charlotte, North Carolina, “Billy Graham Day.” Furthermore, Billy Graham received the Congressional Gold Medal, the North Carolina Award, Ronald Reagan Freedom Award, the Templeton Foundation Prize for Progress in Religion and the Sylvanus Thayer Award as well. He was inducted in the Gospel Music Hall of Fame and many monuments were created for him such as auditoriums and libraries. Billy Graham, as well, became an author of about seven books such as Peace with God, How to be Born Again, Facing Death and the Life After and his most current which was published in 2006, The Journey: How to Live by Faith in an Uncertain World. Indeed, Billy Graham’s life demonstrate and exemplifies the immense and the enormous impact he had that affected, influenced and shaped not only America but also the whole world. His religious missions and the countless sermons, campaigns and crusades that he led and held in different countries changed the lives of millions of people from around the globe. Not only known and highly regarded for his amazing and dedicated work as a strong and fervent evangelist, he was also able to contribute and played a big role in the movement against communism and most especially the civil rights movement which was a long battle for the desegregation and the equality of the people regardless of the color of the skin. Indeed, Billy Graham was one of the most prominent and influential evangelist in America and in the world. Works Cited Bloom, Harold. "BILLY GRAHAM: The Preacher." Time. In partnership with CNN, 14 June 1999. Web. 4 May 2011. Billy Graham Biography (Evangelist). (n.d.). Infoplease. Retrieved May 4, 2011, from http://www.infoplease.com/biography/var/billygraham.html Graham Center Archives. (n.d.). Billy Graham and the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association – Historical Background. Wheaton College. Retrieved May 4, 2011, from http://www.wheaton.edu/bgc/archives/bio.html Merriman, M. (Director). (2006). Billy Graham: God's Ambassador [Documentary]. BLA: 20th Century Fox. Bloom, H. (1999, June 14). BILLY GRAHAM: The Preacher. Time. Retrieved May 4, 2011, from http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,991259,00.html Graham, B. (1997). Just As I Am: The Autobiography of Billy Graham. San Francisco, Calif.: HarperSanFrancisco. Read More