Home 
Those of us who live in the shadow of the great Billy Graham assume the world-renowned evangelist never had any doubts about the Christian faith. We tend to believe he has all the answers to all the questions…and that it’s always been that way.
But that’s not the case, and a conversation he had in 1949 proved it.
During the famed Los Angeles Crusades of 1949 – which most believe made Graham a national spokesman for religious matters – the evangelist spent time in talks with a close friend and gifted preacher by the name of Chuck Templeton. Templeton, who some believed to be an even better preacher than Graham, had been attending Princeton Seminary and challenged some of Graham’s staunchly-held beliefs about Christianity, namely the inspiration and authority of Scripture.
Richard Foster claimed Graham had little inclination or patience for Templeton’s abstract intellectualism. Templeton’s response to Graham’s disinterest was provoking:
“Bill,” Templeton retorted, “you cannot refuse to think. To do that is to die intellectually.” The rebuke stung, and the debate in his soul intensified. Finally, the issue came to a head at Forest Home, a Christian retreat centre in the San Bernardino Mountains near Los Angeles.
Struggling over the intellectual questions his friend had raised, Billy went out alone into the pine forest to think, to pray. With his Bible spread open on a tree stump he dropped to his knees. “O God!” he prayed. “There are many things in this book I do not understand. There are many problems with it for which I have no solution…. Father, I am going to accept this as Thy Word – by FAITH! I’m going to allow faith to go beyond my intellectual questions and doubts, and I will believe this is Your inspired Word.”
Today, millions are glad that Rev. Graham courageously faced his doubts and clung to his faith, for he has led all of them to faith in Jesus Christ! Rev. Graham rightly knew that disciples of Jesus “live by faith, not by sight” (2 Corinthians 5:7).
Can you imagine what would have happened to those millions of people had Rev. Graham conceded the truth of God’s Word?
To tell the truth – the sad truth – his life would have been similar to that of Chuck Templeton’s. History tells us that Templeton actually deserted his faith and became an agnostic. When he died in 2001, the ex-preacher had long forsaken the Bible’s truth, and had embraced secular thinking, for example, Darwin’s theory on the origin of species.
But Billy Graham’s faith in the Bible – and the God behind it – changed his life…and millions of others.
Resource’s Origin:
Streams of Living Water by Richard Foster. HarperCollins, 2001, Page 210.
Topics Illustrated Include:
Authority
Beliefs
Bible
Billy Graham
Doubt
Evangelism
Evangelist
Faith
Faithful
God’s Word
Inerrancy
Inspiration
Intellectualism
Prayer
Taking a Stand
Trusting God
Truth
(Resource cataloged by David R Smith)
