The Editors of TIME - TIME Billy Graham: America’s Preacher, 1918–2018

COMMEMORATIVE EDITION

19182018

Billy Graham

Americas Preacher

EDITOR Edward Felsenthal

CREATIVE DIRECTOR D.W. Pine

DIRECTOR OF PHOTOGRAPHY Kira Pollack

Billy Graham

Americas Preacher

EDITOR Richard Lacayo

WRITERS Jeffery L. Sheler, Nancy Gibbs, Michael Duffy

DESIGNER Arthur Hochstein

PHOTO EDITOR Dot McMahon

RESEARCHER Lisa McLaughlin

EDITORIAL PRODUCTION Lionel P. Vargas, David Sloan

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SPECIAL THANKS Brad Beatson, Brett Finkelstein, Andra Ford, Melissa Frankenberry, Kristina Jutzi, Simon Keeble, Seniqua Koger, Kate Roncinske

e-ISBN: 978-1-54784-351-0

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Contents

Toronto, 1955

INTRODUCTION

MOMENTS IN A LIFE

CHAPTER ONE

CHAPTER TWO

CHAPTER THREE

FROM THE TIME ARCHIVES

CHAPTER FOUR

CHAPTER FIVE

A VISIT AT HOME

Introduction and Chapters 15 by Jeffery L. Sheler

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Americas Preacher

Billy Graham wasnt just the most important American minister of the 20th century. He was a world leader who changed the way the Word was spread.

By JEFFERY L. SHELER

IN HIS ELEMENT In 1973, Graham preaches to a crowd of 21,000 in St. Paul.

IT WAS A SWELTERING AFTERNOON, June 26, 2005, the third and final day of Billy Grahams 417th crusade. The crowd at New York Citys Flushing Meadows Corona Park spilled far beyond the designated seating area, in the shadow of the Unisphere, a gleaming 12-story globe from the 1964 Worlds Fair. The young and the old, parents with small children, seekers, true believers, and the merely curiousmore than 90,000 people in allhad come to see and hear the worlds most famous preacher in what would be his last crusade.

After nearly an hour of music and other preliminaries, the frail evangelist shuffled onto the stage to a standing ovation. Helped by his son Franklin, he slowly made his way to the pulpit, where he would deliver the same simple message he had preached to more than 215 million people in more than 185 countries during more than half a century: Jesus Christ came to earth, he died on the cross, he rose again, and he calls us to repent of our sins.

But as he started out on this historic dayhis familiar chiseled face filling two giant video screens, his thick white mane of hair blowing in the humid breezeGraham took longer than usual in publicly thanking his co-workers for their hard work and for putting up with me for nearly 60 years. I was asked in an interview if this was our last crusade, and I said it probably isin New York, he said in a slightly muffled voice with a lilting Carolina accent. And then, smiling, he quickly added, But I also said, I never say never.

The crowd cheered at the tantalizing prospect that this aging lion of God was not yet ready to be silenced. And yet as Graham spoke wistfully about his own mortalityYes, Im looking forward to death... I know that it wont be longthere was no escaping the truth that an era was drawing to a close.

Graham, who would live to the great old age of 99, dying at home on Feb. 21, 2018, stepped onto the national stage at a tumultuous moment in history. World War II had just ended, and the Cold War, with its twin menaces of godless communism and the threat of nuclear annihilation, haunted the national psyche. Into the howling darkness of postwar existential angst, the handsome young preacher sounded a clear and certain trumpet, a hope-filled message brimming with faith in the God of the Bible and the promise of eternal life in Jesus Christ.

For more than five decades, Billy Graham reigned as the single most visible and revered figure in American Protestantism. From humble beginnings as a street preacher in the South, he became a friend and confidant of presidents and a preacher to the masses, delivering his plainspoken message in televised events in stadiums and sports arenas on nearly every continent. In the process he won more than 3 million convertsperhaps more than any other preacher in historyand achieved international acclaim as the worlds leading Christian evangelist.

Yet Grahams stature as a spiritual leader was mostly symbolic. There was no ecclesiastical hierarchy over which he presided, no political organization under his command. His pulpit was his nexus of influence, and he used it with aplomb. Whenever and wherever he spoke, it was with an unmistakable air of authority, based not on his professional credentials or personal rhetorical skills but on the power of a simple phrase he repeated often: The Bible says...

Throughout his public career, even among those who did not share his conservative brand of Christian faith, Graham was held in high personal regard by a broad swath of the American public. From the mid-century on, he was a permanent fixture on the Gallup organizations annual list of the most-admired men in the world.