Just As I Am: The Autobiography of Billy Graham Read online

  Just As I Am

  The Autobiography of Billy Graham

  Billy Graham

  Dedication

  This book is gratefully dedicated to every person

  who has faithfully supported our ministry

  over the years.

  Contents

  Cover

  Title Page

  Dedication

  Preface

  Preface to the Revised Edition

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

  Part One - Foundations 1918–1943

  1.Down on the Farm: Roaring Twenties and Depression Thirties

  2.The 180-Degree Turn: Itinerant Evangelists and Traveling Salesmen

  3.Called to Preach: Bob Jones College 1936, Florida Bible Institute 1937–1940

  4.Northern Exposure: Wheaton College, the Tabernacle, 1940–1943

  Part Two: A Ministry Begins 1943–1949

  5.Ruth: Courtship and Marriage, Pastorate at Western Springs, Youth for Christ

  6.Youth for Christ: The United States, Canada, Great Britain, Europe 1945–1947

  7.College President: Northwestern Schools 1948–1952

  8.A Growing Outreach: Augusta, Modesto, Miami, Baltimore,

  Altoona, Forest Home 1948–1949

  Part Three: Turning Points 1949–1955

  9.Watershed: Los Angeles 1949

  10. Whirlwind: Boston, Columbia, New England, the Team 1950

  11. Building for the Future: Portland, Films, Radio (The Hour of Decision),

  The Billy Graham Evangelistic Association, Atlanta 1950

  12. The General Who Became President: President Dwight D. Eisenhower

  13. Breakthrough in Britain: London 1954

  14. Impact in Europe: The Continent, Scotland, Cambridge 1954–1955

  Part Four: To the Ends of the Earth 1956–1967

  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

  17. Marathon in Manhattan:New York 1957

  18. To Earth’s Ends: Australia 1959, Africa and the Middle East 1960

  19. Into All the World: The Caribbean 1958, Chicago 1962,

  South America 1962, Mexico 1981

  20. First Steps Behind the Iron Curtain: Moscow 1959, Poland 1966, Yugoslavia 1967

  Part Five: World in Upheaval 1960–1976

  21. The Thousand Days: President John F. Kennedy

  22. Tall Timber from Texas: President Lyndon B. Johnson

  23. Reaching Out to a Broken World: Miami Rock Festival, Universities,

  Ireland and South Africa, Television and Films, Disasters 1960s–1970s

  24. My Quaker Friend President Richard M. Nixon

  25. The Healer from Michigan: President Gerald Ford

  Part Six: New Frontiers 1977–2007

  26. Openings in the Curtain Hungary 1977, Poland 1978

  27. The Sunday School Teacher from Georgia: President Jimmy Carter

  28. Moscow and Beyond: Moscow

  1982, East Germany and Czechoslovakia 1982, the Soviet Union 1984

  29. Leading with Wit an Conviction: President Ronald Reagan

  30. A New Day Dawning: Romania, Hungary, Russia 1985–1992

  31. Broadening the Vision: Conferences and Congresses (Montreux,

  Berlin, Lausanne, Amsterdam) 1960–1986

  32. A Leader with Experience and Energy: President George H. W. Bush

  33. The Pacific Giant: China 1988–1994

  34. Through Unexpected Doors: North Korea 1992 and 1994

  35. New Days, New Directions: The Internet, Television and Satellites,

  Evangelism Training, Outreach to Youth 1990s

  36. From Arkansas to Washington: President Bill Clinton

  37. Leading in a Time of Crisis: President George W. Bush

  Part Seven: Reflections

  38. A Team Effort: Those Who Made It Possible

  39. A Half-Century of Friends: From Death Row to Buckingham Palace

  40. At Home: Reflections on My Family

  41. A Decade of Grace: 1997–2007

  42. The Best Is Yet to Be: Looking to the Future

  Appendix: Sermon for National Day of Prayer and Remembrance (September 14, 2001)

  Acknowledgments

  Photo Insert A

  Photo Insert B

  Photo Insert C

  Billy Graham Crusades

  Books by Billy Graham

  Index of Names and Places

  Photographic Credits

  Acclaim for Just As I Am

  Copyright

  About the Publisher

  Preface

  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 God’s doing, not mine, and He—not I—must 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 me—although 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 don’t 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 magazine—except that the evangelist’s 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 God’s plan for this world, then the effort has been worth it.

  BILLY GRAHAM

  JANUARY 1997

  Preface to the Revised Edition

  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 wasn’t 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 published—ten years in which much had happened, both in the world and my own life. They weren’t 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.

  BILLY GRAHAM

  APRIL 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.

  In May 1950, Congressman Bryson had written Congressman McCormack that I would be in Washington on June 2, 3, and 6. He asked whether an appointment could be made for me with the President on any of those days. The President’s secretary wrote back to McCormack promptly, saying that the schedule was full. “It will be quite some time before we will be able to make any additions to the President’s calendar,” the secretary added.

  My friends persevered, however. I will never know exactly what happened behind the scenes; perhaps Mr. McCormack called the President’s attention to the Crusade we had held in his hometown of Boston several months before.

  Whatever the reason, less than three weeks later Congressman McCormack received another letter from the President’s secretary, suggesting “that you ask Dr. Graham if it would be convenient for him to call here at the Executive Office at 12:00 Noon on Friday, July 14th.”

  And then, five days later, war broke out in Korea.

  On June 25, 1950, troops from North Korea invaded South Korea. Kim Il Sung, North Korea’s Communist president, was determined to reunite the Korean Peninsula, which had been divided (with U.S. approval) at the thirty-eighth parallel after World War II.

  When I heard the news, I sent President Truman a telegram urging him to stand firm against President Kim Il Sung’s military and ideological threat.

  “MILLIONS OF CHRISTIANS PRAYING GOD GIVE YOU WISDOM IN THIS CRISIS. STRONGLY URGE SHOWDOWN WITH COMMUNISM NOW. MORE CHRISTIANS IN SOUTHERN KOREA PER CAPITA THAN ANY PART OF WORLD. WE CANNOT LET THEM DOWN.”

  Three weeks later, I was on my way to meet the President.

  Apart from the fact that Truman was a fellow Baptist and a fellow Democrat—which meant practically the same thing in the South, where I grew up—I did not know much about him.

  Did he know much about us? It was doubtful, although I had written him a couple of times since he came to office.

  Several years earlier, I wrote to tell him about Youth for Christ, the organization that had employed me as an evangelist since 1945. I wanted him to help us start a ministry in the American-occupied zone in Germany; his approval would be necessary, or so some friends in Congress had told me. In my mind’s eye I pictured the President giving careful and prolonged personal attention to my request. But that, of course, was not the case; he probably never saw my letter.

  In February 1949, shortly after his inauguration, I wrote to the White House asking the President’s secretary to assure President Truman “that over 1,100 students here at these Northwestern Schools are praying daily that God will give him wisdom and guidance in the strenuous days lying ahead.”

  The invitation to the White House was for me alone, but I corralled my colleagues Grady Wilson, Cliff Barrows, and Jerry Beavan into flying with me to Washington from the Winona Lake, Indiana, Bible conference at which I had been preaching. When we arrived at the capital, we checked in at the Mayflower Hotel. We slept fitfully.

  First thing the following morning, I telephoned our contact to ask if I might bring along my three companions. After a noticeable pause, which I thought was a prelude to the answer no, the voice on the telephone agreed.

  What should we wear? We had been praying about that issue since receiving Congressman McCormack’s telegram of July 11, but we did not have a great deal to choose from. In the end, we went with what we had been wearing at the Bible conference.

  I was just a tanned, lanky thirty-one-year-old, crowned by a heavy thatch of wavy blond hair, wearing what Time magazine would later describe as a “pistachio-green” suit (I remember it as cream-colored) with rust-colored socks and a hand-painted tie. My three colleagues were similarly attired. But was there something missing, we asked ourselves.

  We had seen a picture of the President on vacation in Florida, wearing white buck shoes. That was it! Grady already had a pair. I sent him to the nearest Florsheim store to buy white bucks for Cliff and me. So how could we go wrong? After all, the President was a haberdasher himself.

  “What time is it?” I kept asking. “We don’t want to be late.”

  My watch was broken; fortunately, Cliff’s watch was working.

  Better early than late, we left the hotel. The White House was too close to take a cab so we walked down Connecticut Avenue and across Lafayette Square, turning a few heads, I guess. People probably thought we were a barbershop quartet out for a stroll.

  When we arrived at the side gate of the White House, we passed through the security guards and checkpoints easily enough. The President’s secretary then took us in hand, informing us that our visit would last exactly twenty minute
s.

  Promptly at noon, we were ushered into the Oval Office. From the look on President Truman’s face, the chief executive of our nation must have thought he was receiving a traveling vaudeville team. He welcomed us cordially enough, though, with handshakes all around. Then he said he had heard some good things about our meetings.

  I told him about Los Angeles the previous fall, where we preached in a huge tent but, initially, attracted virtually no mention in the press. Then newspaper tycoon William Randolph Hearst, for no apparent reason, had directed his editors to focus on what was going on inside the tent. Almost overnight we became nationally known. During the fifty days of meetings there, attendance snowballed to a total of 350,000, an unheard-of crowd for an evangelistic gathering in those days.

  Then I told him about Boston, where we had meetings at the end of 1949, followed by an extensive New England tour in the early months of 1950. By this time, the newspapers were spotlighting us everywhere we went. After our rally on Boston Common on Sun-day, April 23, officials had estimated the crowd at 50,000. On that day, against the backdrop of the revelation that the Soviet Union was building a nuclear arsenal, I had publicly called on the President of the United States to proclaim a day of national repentance and prayer for peace.