Reverend Billy Graham, one-time backwoods minister who eventually became the world’s foremost Christian evangelist and a spiritual advisor to several US presidents and millions of Americans and others via their television sets, has died.
He died on Wednesday, aged 99. He was a pioneer of “televangelism”.
Born on November 7, 1918, Rev. Graham was raised as one of four children on a dairy farm in Charlotte, North Carolina.
Rev. Graham had a spiritual awakening in 1934 that changed the course of his life. He attended the Florida Bible Institute, now Trinity College of Florida, and was ordained as a Baptist minister in 1939.
In 1950, he founded the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association (BGEA) in Minneapolis, Minnesota and launched a weekly “Hour of Decision” radio program.
Graham and his wife Ruth Bell Graham — the daughter of a missionary surgeon who grew up in China — had five children.
These include Anne Graham Lotz, a Christian author and speaker, and two sons, who like their famous father became ministers.
One son, William Franklin Graham III is now the Head of the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association.
His wife Ruth, although married for nearly 64 years to the world’s most famous Baptist preacher, remained a lifelong Presbyterian. She died in June 2007 at the age of 87.
Rev. Graham spread the message of spiritual redemption at tents and stadium revival meetings, in a career that spanned decades. He brought many people across the globe to Christ through his just and concise preaching of the gospel. His monthly publications, Decision Magazine, helped many people grow in the Christian faith.
“Billy Graham is the closest thing to a national pope that we shall ever see,” journalist Garry Wills once wrote in The Washington Post.
Rev. Graham escaped every form of scandal by keeping a meticulous watch over his staff and finances. He once said in an interview in 1991 that: “My greatest fear is that I’ll do something that will bring disrepute on the Gospel of Christ before I go,”
He suffered from a host of ailments late in life, including Parkinson’s disease and prostate cancer. In 1995, weakened by illness and old age, he turned over operation of his ministry to his eldest son.
May the soul of this great man of God rest in peace, the world will surely miss your contributions to the gospel of christ.
