Billy Graham - Just as I am: the autobiography of Billy Graham

Just As I Am

The Autobiography of Billy Graham

Billy Graham

This book is gratefully dedicated to every person
who has faithfully supported our ministry
over the years.

Contents

8. A Growing Outreach: Augusta, Modesto, Miami, Baltimore,
Altoona, Forest Home 19481949

11. Building for the Future: Portland, Films, Radio (The Hour of Decision),
The Billy Graham Evangelistic Association, Atlanta 1950

15. Into Asia: India, the Philippines, Hong Kong, Formosa (Taiwan),
Japan, Korea 1956

16. The Power of the Printed Page: My Answer, Books,
Christianity Today, Decision

19. Into All the World: The Caribbean 1958, Chicago 1962,
South America 1962, Mexico 1981

23. Reaching Out to a Broken World: Miami Rock Festival, Universities,
Ireland and South Africa, Television and Films, Disasters 1960s1970s

28. Moscow and Beyond: Moscow
1982, East Germany and Czechoslovakia 1982, the Soviet Union 1984

31. Broadening the Vision: Conferences and Congresses (Montreux,
Berlin, Lausanne, Amsterdam) 19601986

35. New Days, New Directions: The Internet, Television and Satellites,
Evangelism Training, Outreach to Youth 1990s

To be honest, I never thought I would write this book.

For one thing, I felt I was simply too busy for such an extended project. Not only my preaching but my responsibilities as chief executive officer of the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association have always demanded a tremendous amount of time and decision making. I have always been focused on the future, rather than trying to remember what happened half a lifetime ago. How could I justify canceling a busy schedule to write about the past?

For another thing, I knew it would be beyond my ability to write such a work alone. I would need the help of others, but where would I ever find them? And how could we ever encompass a lifetime of ministry in only one volume?

Most of all, if anything has been accomplished through my life, it has been solely Gods doing, not mine, and Henot Imust get the credit.

But a number of friends still urged me to undertake this task. Not only was it important for the historical record, they contended, but they felt there were lessons to be learned from the ministry God had entrusted to us. I recalled how much I had learned from reading the writings and studying the lives of the great men and women of the past. At my age, I thought of the next generation, who might be encouraged by such a book to believe that God can do in their generation what He did in ours. I came to see that in its own way this book could be a ministry also.

As I say in more detail at the end of the book, I also found the right people to assist mealthough the shortcomings are solely my responsibility, not theirs.

This book has taken ten years to write. My biggest problem was always carving out the time to work on it. During those years, not only have I continued to preach the Gospel on every continent, both in person and on television, but I have had to deal with numerous problems, including several illnesses and accidents.

I soon realized it was impossible to include in this book everything we have been involved in during more than half a century of ministry, and one of the hardest parts has been deciding what to leave out. As I look back over the hundreds of Crusades we have been privileged to hold, they tend to come together in my memory as one. Every one had its unique character, of course; but time and space dont allow me to cover more than a few Crusades and a few other events that were especially memorable.

Even as I write these words, I think of the many individuals to whom I owe an enormous debt because of their help or their friendship, and yet whose names are not mentioned in these pages. I want them to know of my genuine gratitude to them in any case.

I have tried to be as accurate as possible in summarizing events and conversations, researching them thoroughly and recounting them carefully. However, I have come to realize how memories fade over the years. We have all heard the illustration of the blind men who were asked to describe an elephant, each coming up with a wildly different description because they were all touching a different part of the animal. I realize that my memory may differ occasionally from that of others; the best I can do is record events as I recall them.

Finally, I want to add a few words about my calling as an evangelist. The word evangelist comes from a Greek word meaning one who announces Good News. Its verb form occurs over fifty times in the Greek New Testament. An evangelist, then, is like a newscaster on television or a journalist writing for a newspaper or magazineexcept that the evangelists mission is to tell the good news of the Gospel. (The word Gospel actually means Good News.)

In the Bible, an evangelist is a person sent by God to announce the Gospel, the Good News; he or she has a spiritual gift that has never been withdrawn from the Church. Methods differ, but the central truth remains: an evangelist is a person who has been called and especially equipped by God to declare the Good News to those who have not yet accepted it, with the goal of challenging them to turn to Christ in repentance and faith and to follow Him in obedience to His will. The evangelist is not called to do everything in the church or in the world that God wants done. On the contrary, the calling of the evangelist is very specific.

Nor is the evangelist free to change the message, any more than a newscaster is free to change the news. The main thrust of our message is centered in Christ and what He has done for us by His death and resurrection, and the need for us to respond by committing our lives to Him. It is the message that Christ came to forgive us and give us new life and hope as we turn to Him.

Through these pages, the reader will discover how I have sought (however imperfectly) to follow Christ. But if through these pages someone learns what it means to follow Christ, or gains a new vision of Gods plan for this world, then the effort has been worth it.

B ILLY G RAHAM
J ANUARY 1997

When the editors at HarperSanFrancisco (now HarperOne) and their colleagues at Zondervan first approached me about the possibility of doing a second edition of this book, I was admittedly reluctant. Not only was I preoccupied with other projects (and the inevitable burdens of old age), but I wasnt convinced that anything would be gained from a second edition.

But the editors pointed out that ten years would have passed since the book was first publishedten years in which much had happened, both in the world and my own life. They werent seeking a complete revision of the entire book, they explained, but only an update covering the last ten years. I am grateful for both their assistance and their patience, and I hope the additional chapters I have added covering this past decade will be of interest. The main sections of the book remain as they were written ten years ago (although some of the people in them now have died or faded from public memory).

May God use these pages to point you not to Billy Graham but to Jesus Christ, the One I have always sought to serve.

B ILLY G RAHAM
A PRIL 2007

Introduction: Between Two Presidents
Harry S. Truman 1950, Kim Il Sung 1992

It was July 14, 1950, and I was about to make a fool of myself.

At the urging of my friends Congressman Joe Bryson of South Carolina and Congressman Herbert C. Bonner of North Carolina, John McCormack, who was the influential representative from Massachusetts, had arranged an appointment for me with President Truman. It had not been easy for them, however.