Billy Graham’s Long Obedience

 Billy Graham’s Long Obedience

 Published in Marietta (GA) Daily Journal, 3/4/18

 In 1954 on the last day of Billy Graham’s first London Crusade, a Church of England clergyman remarked that Graham’s simple preaching would set Christianity back 100 years.  Upon hearing of this, the famous evangelist replied, “I’m disappointed.  I had hoped to set it back 2000 years.”

Not one scandal ever touched the world’s most famous and recently departed Christian.  The chief criticism thrown at him was his almost constant absence from his family and his simplicity.  Famed theologian Reinhold Niebuhr dismissed Mr. Graham’s ministry as “ballyhoo.” 

 Though wrought with eloquence and illustrative power, Billy Graham’s sermons were indeed simple.  According to Graham, Scripture instructs every believer to view truth and all communication of it in clear, unambiguous terms.  Graham’s “yea” was yea, and his “nay” was nay.

Like so many other trailblazers, Billy Graham was the target of slings and arrows from all directions.  Theological liberals faulted him for over-emphasizing doctrine (sin, salvation, the deity of Christ, the love of God, etc.) and de-emphasizing social justice.  Protestant fundamentalists charged him with heresy whenever he shared a stage with the pope. 

Though raised by Presbyterian parents, Graham was not a Calvinist.  Breaking from his strong Calvinist parents, he became a Southern Baptist.  Eschewing John Calvin’s teachings on “election” (the belief that God chooses some to be saved from sin – “the elect” – and some not), Graham preached “the whosoever” of Scripture.  Unlike Calvin, Luther, and England’s premier preacher Charles Spurgeon, Graham claimed that each individual chooses to repent and believe or not.  Thus his unfailing appeal to all people to “come to Christ.”

Anyone today who is unclear about what the word “evangelical” means need look no further than at the life and work of Billy Graham.  An evangel, from which come the words “evangelist” and “evangelical,” is a messenger. Graham’s message was the Christian Gospel.  Though not usually dubbed a fundamentalist, Billy Graham fully embraced the four fundamentals of the Christian faith: the virgin birth, the sinless life, the substitutionary death, and the literal resurrection.

For many decades, evangelicals in America have comprised a sought after voting bloc, though not always a monolithic one.  Still, Graham avoided partisan politics, was a confidant of every president since Harry Truman, and preached that only God, not government or its largesse, can change the human heart.  He urged Christians to “pray for the magistrates” and to be “the salt of the earth.”  Around the world he has been considered the voice of evangelicalism.

Graham was by no means the first mass evangelism preacher.  In the mid-1700’s, Englishman George Whitefield, drew huge crowds on both sides of the Atlantic.  He was largely instrumental in the Great Awakening, the spiritual revival that swept England and America. 

Although Graham’s theology was more in line with John Wesley, the founder of Methodism (Whitefield was a Calvinist; Wesley wasn’t), he imitated Whitefield’s use of media.  For Whitefield the new media was newspapers.  According to Thomas Kidd, Whitefield’s biographer, Whitefield’s publications alone doubled the output of the American press between 1739 and 1742.  As is well known, Graham utilized newspapers, radio, television and movies to convey the Gospel message.  With his father-in-law, China missionary Nelson Bell, he founded “Christianity Today” magazine which is still a respectable organ of evangelicalism.

Strangely enough, a phrase that originated from the “God is dead” philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche describes Billy Graham well.  Nietzsche, Hitler’s favorite philosopher, declared that fulfillment is the result of “a long obedience in the same direction.”  Anyone who has followed Billy Graham’s preaching or read his books knows that constancy and humility marked his character.  He preached until he couldn’t.

A visit to the Billy Graham Library in Charlotte, N.C. clearly confirms that the man was sold on Christ, not on himself.  The multi-media presentations, the literature, the history of the man are all downplayed.  The Christian Gospel is heralded.  Wouldn’t you know that at the end of the trek through the library there is a non-threatening invitation for visitors to step into the counseling room if they would like to know more about the Christ who changed Billy Graham’s life and consequently the lives of millions.

Every pastor I have ever had has been much like Billy Graham.  Their message has been identical, their eloquence notable, their knowledge commendable, but their “long obedience (to their call) in the same direction” is what I have admired most.

Billy Graham influenced fellow preachers as well as sinners like me.  How we finish is the ultimate test.  Billy Graham finished well.

Roger Hines