He became the founder of the magazine that was known as Christianity Today. Billy Graham was himself indispensable even when you look at the genealogy or the pedigree of many of the central institutions of evangelical life. In the late 1940s they described themselves as the New Evangelicals and knew they were in a sense, because they affirmed the classic doctrines of Christianity without compromise, but at the same time they were representing the future, not just a return to something like the cultural conservatism of the 19th century. But when Billy Graham arrived on the scene, he and others perceived the need for a distinctively evangelical, distinctively orthodox form of Protestant Christianity that wasn't mired in what was considered to be the combativeness of American fundamentalism, also its estrangement and disengagement from the culture, but rather would have the mold of engagement.īilly Graham became one of the singularly most important figures in forging what became known as American evangelicalism. They thought they had decisively silenced Orthodox Christianity and they had largely expunged Orthodox ministers from the pulpits of their denomination, especially from the most prestigious and elite pulpits. Eventually it became a movement known as Fundamentalism, and in the battle for control of those northern Protestant denominations, in almost every single case one after another, it was the Conservatives who lost and the Liberals who won.Īs America entered World War II, it appeared, at least to those in control of the liberal Protestant denominations, particularly in the north, that they were in the driver's seat not only in the leadership of their denominations but the leadership of American culture writ large. This led conservatives to respond the theological liberalism with an affirmation of the fundamentals of the faith. By the time the 20th century came along, there was full-scale theological liberalism throughout most of the established denominations in the north. Liberal theology began to become apparent in mainline northern denominations in the last decades of the 19th century. As always, he got right to the point, which is the singular gospel of Jesus Christ.īilly Graham came to adulthood in the aftermath of what was known as the Fundamentalist-Modernist Controversy in the United States. The first time I heard him in person was in 1982 when he came to Southern Seminary where he had a relationship, and he spoke in chapel, and he said to the students then, "You must think about the fact that you are not promised tomorrow." He spoke about ministry and he spoke about preaching in light of eternity and God's judgment. I knew him not only from watching him on television as a child, but I knew him because he spoke at my inauguration as President of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary. The best-known evangelist not only of his generation but of the history of the Christian Church. Not only did he respond to the Gospel, he eventually would respond with a call to ministry and furthermore, would become an evangelist. He preached the Gospel, and the teenage Billy Graham heard the Gospel and responded. The evangelist was one of the best known of the early 20th century, Mordecai Ham was his name and he was himself an innovator. He lived a rather traditional childhood in rural America and he also experienced the tumult of adolescence, describing himself in retrospect as rebellious, though it was a rather quiet and uneventful rebellion.Īll that changed when in 1934 he went to a revival meeting, invited by a friend and basically dared to go. He was born William Franklin Graham, born to a farmer and his wife in North Carolina. Billy Graham was one of the titanic figures of American evangelicalism.Īs a matter of fact, you cannot talk about evangelicalism in its modern form in 20th-century America, now into the 21st century, without reference to the vision and the impact, the influence of Billy Graham. Just to state the dates indicates something of the significance of his life, and a life that for so many decades was lived out before the watching world. When he died yesterday at age 99, Billy Graham, as the world knew him, was one of the titanic figures on the world scene, and he had been so ever since at least 1949.
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