It’s with sadness that I bring you the news that Billy Graham has just passed on from his long life at the age of 99:
WATCH: ABC News Special Report: Evangelist Billy Graham passes away. He was 99. https://t.co/rLtAbtyLiE pic.twitter.com/dzQ8BkHjfa
— ABC News (@ABC) February 21, 2018
Here’s more:
Graham died at his home this morning, the spokesman said. Known as “America’s pastor,” Graham was a key figure in reviving the American evangelical movement. The preacher began holding revival meetings in the 1940s and went on to become an adviser to presidents.
He had been in poor health in recent years, and had turned his international ministry over to his son, Franklin Graham.
Despite numerous hospitalizations in recent years, Graham’s work remained in the public eye late into his life. In 2011, around his 93rd birthday, he released what The Associated Press said was his 30th book, “Nearing Home: Life, Faith, and Finishing Well,” on the subject of aging. Also in 2011, audio files documenting six decades of his ministry were put online in a searchable database.
Graham brought evangelical Christianity into the mainstream. As spiritual adviser to many U.S. presidents, he had great access to the White House.
“Each one I’ve known long before they ever became president, been in their homes many times; always called them by their first names, until they became president,” Graham said of several former presidents.
He was close to Dwight D. Eisenhower, Lyndon Johnson, Richard Nixon, Ronald Reagan and both Bushes.
Bill Clinton turned to him after his much publicized sex scandal, and George W. Bush credited Graham with helping him to quit drinking alcohol.
When asked how his life would be different if it were not for Billy Graham, George W. Bush said simply, “I wouldn’t be president.”
The evangelist brought his “Billy Graham Crusades” around the world, preaching to more than 210 million people in 185 countries and territories. His largest such gathering drew 1 million people in Seoul, South Korea, in the 1970s.
As Graham prepared at age 86 for what he called his final U.S. crusade, a three-day event in New York City the weekend of June 25, 2005, he pondered his own mortality.
“Do I fear death?” he asked at a news conference. “No. I look forward to death with great anticipation. I’m looking forward to seeing God face to face, and that could happen any day.”
I personally never heard Graham speak in person, and maybe once on television when I was growing up. But as I remember it his legacy was most certainly bigger than life and he’s credited with bringing the message of salvation to many. What a legacy.
The world will most certainly miss Rev. Billy Graham, but he’s in a far better place now and I’m sure his heart was already there.
Rest in peace.