Paul Harvey interviews Billy Graham at his home in NC

[Music] we're certainly delighted to have you here in home and mom treat you lean here before yes I always feel as though I'm visiting an historic shrine imagining that for generations yet unborn this is going to be a a very significant mountaintop it has been for you why Billy Montreat why were this were your roots here well I was born and reared about a hundred miles from here in near Charlotte North Carolina on a farm and when I went into evangelism in that we were gonna travel Ruth wanted to live near her parents and I don't blame her and I'm delighted that we did that now because they helped rewrite children and they had settled here in Montreat when they came home from China and dr. Bell was a doctor here and we lived down in the valley in a little house across the street from them then eventually we moved up here in the life of most successful man there are exceptions good health is such a tremendous factor you've seen we've been blessed with a bountiful good health you have a secret Jewish well one of the things is climbing up and down these mountains and also I run every day and take a lot of calisthenics and try to eat wholesome food rooster with me all the things she reads about in the magazines that are supposed to be good for you but I do have good health now in fact I have the best health now any period of my life and I don't know why because during my 20s and 30s and 40s there were times I thought I wouldn't make it but now I feel the best I think you learn to live with yourself as you move along what's the secret of illa grams success well I think if you call success I'm not sure you call it success because only god can judge that but I think that I have one of the few that have traveled all over the world for so long for so many years for example we were holding great Crusades in Great Britain back as early as the late forties and the early fifties and all over Germany and all over Africa and all over India and all over Japan and throughout the Far East it's it's been a world ministry I do not think of myself Paul any longer as an American citizen only I think of myself as a world citizen I've traveled over this world a great deal now and I feel that I'm a part of a great mosaic of the human race that God has created each made in His image each needing the gospel of Christ each having the same basic problems and desires and longings and I'm a part of that do you know what's wrong with the human race people remember them all beings who somehow the Bible tells us 17,000 woman it summed up in one word they're your kids how young goes he sinned he'll soon swing and the glorious news of the gospel is that God is willing to forgive you Oh sue Martin subject under put know somebody he sought to be obligate Kalamata John because his son Jesus Christ took your sin he'll know that for tradition to store after popular part of our own collagen who is this strange man that marches across history who you and you to Gandhi who you umpire and ashamed and aquata history result is the one atom who can explain him who you nan and I was a communal ISM there's never been anybody like you manage a but up want to come a who he only had a Ministry of three years yearly Melissa let me tattoo to Aki who do and yet 2,000 years later millions of our millions on every continent bow and worship him all over the world people have a have a difference in the way they react and respond but not to the gospel when the gospel of Jesus Christ is proclaimed I just cannot see any difference anywhere in the world whether it's Africa or Asia or Europe or America or university grew for a primitive tribe the way you say to the critics group who says that that the Gospel message is too simplistic when we're dealing these days with very basic social issues why isn't Billy Graham not on a out on a picket line why is you another Graham crusading for civil rights but you know I've talked to Martin Luther King many times about that and I said Mike I called him like I said Mike I said I'll stay in the stadiums and make them integrated through the South this was back in the 50s and you go ahead on the streets and do your thing we went to Latin America together and he made the statement while we were in Brazil at a dinner that if it had not been for my work his would have been much more difficult and we demanded integration almost from the beginning of our meetings in the south and as a result I think that this later groundwork at that time now today it's almost impossible for the present generation to understand what things were in those days and what it took to be that way and how many threatening letters we got in how many threats against my family as a result of the stand that we took at that time part of the problem in America in race is not so much the color of skin as it is psychological there's a psychological barrier that could be overcome by a great spiritual awakening that would plan in our hearts love for each other recognizing that we are of one blood under heaven now Jesus was a man he was human he was not a white man he was not a black man he came from that part of the world that touches Africa and Asia and Europe and he probably had a brown skin Christianity is not a white man's religion and don't let anybody ever tell you that it's quite a black Christ belongs to all people he belongs to the whole world his gospel is for everyone whoever you are scriptures day I'm not proclaiming sociology primarily or politics or or how to keep healthy I'm proclaiming the Word of God and God's Word is powerful it's quick and powerful and sharper than a two-edged sword the scripture says and I found out a little secret early in my ministry that I could have an outline let's say are four or five points and just quote scriptures under each one of those points and those scriptures themselves did the job because the the Word of God is alive it's not a book of history and necessarily and it's not just an ordinary book it's a living book and that word gets down into the heart and we've had people come to Christ in which I have quoted some terribly obscure passage but that passage said something to that particular person for his need so that I believe that I'm quoting the very word of God to this generation or any generation and that's the thing Paul that never goes out of date and that's what it's hard for secular people to to understand that it applies to every generation in every age to every person all over the world I can be speaking to some little tribe in Africa I can speak to a crowd in India and that word of god has its own built-in power yet others proclaim the same message and yet we have the numbers to certify that infinitely more come forward to Billy Graham I'm not sure that God counts the numbers and keeps those kind of statistics I'm looking more not quantity so much as quality because I believe that there's a need today for disciples of Jesus Christ they must go much further than just come forward in and make one declaration it's a lifetime commitment and I'm interested in people being Christians living the Christian life proving themselves rather than just coming forward and being a statistic in one of our Crusades I remember many years ago I went through a terrible struggle intellectually about the Bible and I was concerned and worried and battling with myself and I remember going out in the moonlight out in the forest and I took this Bible and I said Lord I don't understand all about this Bible there are many things I cannot explain and I remember laying the Bible out on a stump of a tree that had been cut down and I got on my knees and I said Lord this is your book I'm going to accept it by faith like I accepted the Lord Jesus Christ by faith and he saved me and changed me and transform me I'm accepting this as your word by faith Washington and Hill streets Los Angeles California September 1949 and a soon to be historic citywide revival had begun rather flashy but dynamic young evangelist tall lanky preacher from North Carolina named Billy Graham he was joined by a team which consisted of his trombone playing song leader cliff barrel by a gospel singer from Chicago named George Beverly Shea at first crusade who no unusual publicity or attention but when a number of local personalities hit the sawdust trail walked forward to receive Christ the newspapers took notice crowds swelled the crusade was extended beyond his scheduled completion then midway through the crusade something happened that would forever shape the future of Billy Graham and that of its youthful teen one evening during the crusade Billy arrived at the tent before the service to find the place packed with reporters next morning the los angeles examiner headlined billy graham and his crusade thousands take paths to Christ rich and poor Jam revival tent young Billy Graham hailed another Billy Sunday in fact Billy was featured in all of the influential newspapers controlled by William Randolph Hearst and eventually it would be revealed that the powerful newspaper mogul had telegrammed an order to all of his city editors to quote Huff Graham and Clarke so soon every major city newspaper and journal in this country and abroad had reported on Billy and his crusade and for the first time in recent history old-time religion was front page news and its newest Crusader Billy Graham you know I never met mr. Hearst I never had any correspondence with him in my whole life and I still do not know and neither do his sons know really how it all happened they think perhaps he slipped in in disguise and heard me preach in that tent in Los Angeles or one of his maids who attended the meetings had told him about it whatever the reason it certainly started a chain of events that I never dreamed would go on this long I thought it might be a short-lived phenomena I never had the slightest idea and if I did I probably would have run from it I would have been frightened by it because it had to be a gradual development of repaired you see when I started in Los Angeles and it became in life and time and The Associated Press and all these magazines when religion never got any play at all in the press and it became an overnight phenomena people forgot I've been already preaching ten years in small places and had all this preparation and the thing that nearly threw me though Paul was the publicity in the beginning because for example when I went to new in New England in the spring of 1950 and stayed for six weeks I had an average of 15 to 20 reporters that traveled with me full-time as I went to the various universities as I went to the various stadiums great crowds of people we were involved in a newspaper war five newspapers in Boston and each one sent reporters with us then Look magazine had their reporters and time had their reporters and all these maggots that nearly threw me because I didn't know they would ask me they'd say what do you think about this policy of our government I just answer them they say what do you think about Harry Truman how to answer them I didn't have sense enough to handle diplomatically some of these questions that today I wouldn't dare tackle what strengthened you at those times I've had enough trials and tribulations and persecutions and troubles and criticisms and sicknesses to always keep me down before the Lord any time I think I'm anything the Lord has his way of pushing me right down and saying Billy Graham you're dependent on me or it may be financial for example in the earlier periods of our ministry and even today I have to go right back to my knees and say Lord you have to supply the need and we're not going to be able to continue all this ministry that you've given us and this is your work you don't have to supply it and that keeps me on my knees every administrator religious and secular has to envy the manner in which you've kept essentially the same team together for so many years are you really together in your private lives as well as your public work yes we really are as a matter of fact we take our holidays together we can't wait to see each other when we're apart and we're a very closely knit team and in fact so closely knit that some people find it difficult when they a new person coming on our team feels that it's hard for them to break into that circle and we just finished for example one team meeting in which we discuss this very thing and because we've been together so long we even think alike when I'm sitting on a platform I hardly ever have to communicate with Bev Shea or cliff barrows they know my thinking and I know there's it's just almost like clockwork and it's because we've been together so long and there's a love between us for example cliff barrows and I have been together for 30 years it started out as the Graham barrows evangelistic Crusades and cliff and I have never had a disagreement in all these years we have we've never once had a disagreement there's just perfect working together now tribute that largely the clips wonderful spirit and and he has a tremendous spirit of helping hold our team together in that same spirit and I think that spirit goes throughout our whole organization Billie before him during Crusades there's an increasingly wide spectrum of local church support for you and for the crusade how do you manage this we are Church oriented we wear churchmen we believe in the church we believe in that the organized church is a part of God's plan and it's God's organization upon earth and I have always held that point of view and I always will and that's the reason that we are so incorporated into the church and without the church's supporting us without the churches providing the choir the issues and all the rest of it you know we come in really as advisors in the preparation of a crusade we advise the churches on past experience how we would do it but it's really each crusade has its own local flavor because it's directed by local people they handle all the finances for example they raise all the money they spend all the money they publish the result of the audit in the newspapers when we leave they handle all the follow-up of the crusade it's handled all the local churches and logical to assume that billy graham has a lot of writers how do you prepare for a sermon the message of the Evangelist is a very narrow message it's shooting with a rifle as it were because it's the fact that Jesus Christ died for our sins and he rose again he's coming back and you must repent of your sins you must receive him by faith as your Savior that's the essence of the gospel that has to be in every message and I'm I study to get proper illustrations to illustrate spiritual truth because this was the way Jesus did it he spoke first with authority he spoke with great simplicity so that the common people heard him gladly he taught profound truth but he taught it simply and he told stories to illustrate spiritual truth immediately before and during one of these tremendous crusade meetings what's a Billy Graham thinking about I'm thinking about the next sentence no I'm really thinking Lord helped me commute when I'm preaching I'm really praying to very strangely my subconscious is praying every minute that I'm in that pulpit Lord helped me to say the right thing bring these scriptures to my remembrance bring this illustration to my remembrance because I have to have God's help I couldn't do it there are times Paul when I get up to speak that I feel like my message is completely left me and I wonder what my first sentence is going to be and when I stand in the pulpit it all comes back usually sometimes I've had blank spots in preaching for example I've come to points in preaching where I couldn't remember John 3:16 and there's a spiritual battle going on and I think that Satan is trying to stop that word from going out now that doesn't mean I don't have power the power is in the word whether I feel it or not he gives us the power and the strength and the ability to communicate the gospel to you and without that power and a service like this we might as well not come if you've come just to hear Billy Graham but I hear somebody sing you've come just for a show we haven't come here to entertain you we haven't come to put on a show we've come to tell you how you can find God Billy with your permission I'd like to mention a few subjects allowing you to respond as succinctly as possible or the word or a sentence if possible just you're right off the top of the head response to such things as yes or no capital punishment I've taken neutral position and the reason is I'm still studying that subject I have two thoughts about it in the Old Testament there was capital punishment in the New Testament their teachings of the Lord that Jesus Christ that seemed to contradict some of the things in the Old Testament and Ruth and I was studying that subject right now very carefully because I'm asked that quite often at press conferences and pretty soon I want to be able to say yes I know there's homosexuality or sin yes marijuana marijuana I would not like to say it's a sin except as it hurts the body and hurts the mind and I think the evidence is overwhelming now that it does bring a take away inhibitions to heart and I would call it certainly something that young people should not engage in female clergy well I've been to too many mission fields of the world where the men were not doing the work and the women had to do it and we've had a great many women who were great preachers and who were great teachers and I would have to leave that up to denominational leaders in each denomination my own denomination for example does not ordain females yet that I know about but some denominations are doing it I don't think I'll get into that denominational and theological problem President Carter oh he was chairman of two of our Crusades and he and I are friends I've not been as close to him as I have been to other presidents I don't know for what reason but I've never been to the White House since he's been president except once and then I didn't see him I saw vice president Mondale I didn't ask what I was invited there by President Carter to report on my trip after hungry former President Nixon we have very good friends I see him from time to time we talked on the phone once in a while he's his old self and I would like to see President Nixon certainly never run for office again he never will but I would like to see him consulted by any president for his deep insight in especially in the field of Foreign Affairs Billy what's your favorite reading other than the Bible history and memoirs of people perhaps that I have known our historical novels I like to read historical novels I think that started back when many years ago when I read LEM is around when I was in school and became fascinated with Victor Hugo and I like to read that type of a novel in-depth novel or winds of war things like that I read that's my reading on the side really were you ever a naughty boy it's according to what you mean by naughty let's say I was a mischievous boy were you really yes I think so I was filled with a lot of energy I've seen my often at least I think both of my sons when they were going through their teenage period and I did all sorts of practical jokes on people and I was filled with it I love to take a car and drive it as fast as it would go and I remember getting one time stuck in the mud and and the car just buried and it was my father's car and it buried up to the steering wheel I didn't think I could get out it was not a quicksand but as quick mud and when my father came with horses to get it out of there he was pretty upset Billy a pranks were as close as you came to sinning as a youngster before accepting Christ what difference did it make well Paul we are all sinners and all of us have come short of the glory of God even the finest and best person that ever lived accept Christ as a sinner and we all need repentance and and when I was shown the difference between sins singular which is a disease we all have and we need forgiveness and we need cleansing and sins plural because jesus said out of a heart come all of these evil things and for some people it may be jealousy for some people it may be pride for some people it may be adultery for some people it may be something else but these are sins that originate in the original sin which is singular and and we all need Jesus Christ to cleanse us from that original sin and to give us victory because the Bible teaches that Jesus taught that we're slaves of sin when we receive Christ as Savior the Scripture teaches sin no longer has dominion over us sin no longer cracks the whip we don't practice sin any longer we sin yes we can fall in sin and the moment we do we feel guilty and we say Lord forgive me and he forgives us but we don't practice sin we don't make it a practice to tell lies we're not pathological liars after we've come to Christ but Billy having known your mother your father-in-law your wife I can't help but feel that Billy Graham would be a pretty nice guy with or without religion isn't this so well I suppose all of us in a sense has religion but you know the purpose of Christ's coming was not ready to make us nice guys his coming was to redeem us to forgive us so that we can have eternal life because this life is very brief and very transitory we have all of eternity in front of us where am I going to spend eternity what is my future going to be that's decided by my relationship to Christ according to the teaching of the Bible seven presidents have either been in this room are you in their homes at the White House or elsewhere you must have some significant reflections of your associations with these several presidents to some one incident stand someone that would not betray a confidence if you were to reveal it now I remember the last time I saw President Eisenhower he was dying at Walter Reed Hospital and the only reason I would tell this now is because I asked me if I could he's white and she said absolutely he asked me to come and see him and I went into the room and he said Billy he said I want you to tell me one more time how a person can know they're going to heaven and I had a Testament that took it out and I read him several passages of Scripture and then I said mr. president all I called him general then I said general let's pray and I gripped his hand he gripped mine I prayed for him and with him he had already accepted Christ as his Savior long ago and he looked up with that big smile of his and he had tears in his eyes he said I know last night it was my privilege to go with the President to Atlantic City and in that magnificent speech that he made before about 30,000 educators from all over America he said this our times are filled with Carol certainly this generation has been called the tormented generation and this is the generation destined to live in the midst of crisis danger fear war and death ever since Billy Graham trained in the Oval Office with President Harry Truman every occupant of the White House has sought out Billy's counsel and advice though he has turned a deaf ear to political position for himself he has long been an ease in the company of our nation's great or in challenging the American people to pursue national spiritual renewal as he did here in Washington DC on independence day today I call upon all Americans to raise your voices in prayer and dedication to God and to recommit to the ideals and dreams for which our country was founded let's dedicate ourselves today to renewal of faith in God let's dedicate ourselves to building rather than Barney Billy Graham's critics say that the greatest mistake Billy ever made in his almost impeccable public career was his increasing role in American political life during the late 60s and early 70s suddenly boomerang at Watergate Richard Nixon was a personal friend and a man whom you supported for president the subsequent trauma must have been as hurtful for you as for him in a sense well Paul you know I'd really did never publicly endorse him but by implication I certainly did I mean I can't deny that by appearing with him at a rally in South Carolina and that was largely due to a longtime friendship with Governor Jimmy Barnes who called me and he had left his vacation to come and sit with me on an integrated platform in South Carolina when it might have cost him the governorship and I owed Jimmy Byrnes a great debt of gratitude and he said Billy we must have you I don't want you to get involved in politics just coming lead a prayer well I did because I knew deep down inside that I shouldn't get that involved in partisan politics but I must be honest with you I was for Richard Nixon at that time I know some of the suggestions that you involve yourself in partisan politics some of the appointive physicians which you have been offered these must have tempted you well I I would have to define temptation there was one or two that I fought about for a few hours before I said no but in my heart I always knew that I would never do anything but preach suppose there were to be a public groundswell of support for Billy Graham for president would you be able to turn your back on that yes I think I would I think I have a higher calling and yet you have made yourself available to several presidents as a counselor yes I would be delighted to go and to go to any president regardless of which party that invited me and he wanted some counsel and advice especially in moral and spiritual problems are in other areas that I may have some knowledge of but I would not I would not consider an appointed office I remember when I was asked to be you know one of the delegation to the United Nations by two presidents and said no to that even though it might have given me some platform that I might not otherwise have but you know Paul I consider the call to the ministry the highest and most marvelous calling in the world because it's an eternal calling and I wouldn't trade places with any president or any King billy graham's early love of history prepared him well for the international prominence that's gained him an audience with the heads of state and world leaders on every continent in fact the catalogue of Billy's acquaintances friendships over the years reads like a who's who of world history Billy when you're really Queen Elizabeth or uh Sir Winston Churchill Fred you talk about spiritual things only no I did primarily with mr. Churchill Alma saw him once at his invitation after I'd finished preaching at Wembley Stadium and he invited me to come and see him and I spent about 40 minutes with him and he talked about hope he said I'm an old man and he said it 9 times I haven't recorded in my notes that I'm an old man and he said I see no hope for the world he said what hope do you see again I had my Testament and I took it out and I showed him about the second coming of Christ which he already knew he was well acquainted with the Bible and he showed me the three afternoon newspapers sitting in on that big long desk that he had and he said look at that murder on the front of every one of them he said we can't go on this way he said he said I don't see any hope unless it's what you say and then is we went out the door I went out and I felt like I'd been with mr. history himself [Music] you ever feel like chucking at all staying here relaxing enjoying your family your hobby if you ask me Paul my greatest temptation that's in that is the greatest temptation I have because at this moment I would like to stop humanely traveling I've seen all the airport's been in all the airplanes and motels that I ever want to see in my whole life I only go now because I believe I'm commanded and called of God I always did but I think it's greater now because I would love to stay here with Ruth our children are grown and gone and sometimes they say you know poor dead-end mother up there by themselves they don't realize what a great time we're having should Billy Graham's earthly pilgrimage end today would he be satisfied with his life's work no I don't think I ever will be satisfied the only satisfaction satisfaction I'll have is when I see Christ because it says I will be satisfied when I see him in his likeness the scripture says in the Psalms one of the translations and I think I'll only be satisfied when I see the face of Christ tonight I'm glad to tell you as we close that the Lord Jesus place can be received your sins forgiven your burdens lifted your problem solved by turning your life over to him repenting of your sin and turning to Jesus Christ is safe he died on the cross he was made to be sin for us and on that cross he took the hand of God with one of his hands in your hand with the other and he reconciles God and man God was in Christ reconciling the world unto himself I'm asking you tonight to commit your life to Jesus Christ it's tough but there's a joy and a peace and a satisfaction in living that kind of a life and following him and there's the security you now know where you're going you know where you come from you know what life is all about you know why you're here you know that if you died you've got a place to go all over the world throughout Japan throughout America in the great stadiums of Great Britain all over Europe I've seen thousands of people do what I'm going to ask you to do I'm going to ask you to get up out of your seat wherever you are and come and stand in front of this platform and say by coming I know that I'm a sinner I receive Christ into my heart I want my sins forgiven I want to know that I'm going to him I want a new life in Jesus Christ [Music] [Music]

Channel: Our Only Hope

Views: 794,255

Keywords: Paul Harvey, Billy Graham, Jesus Christ, Joel Osteen, Richard Nixon, Sin, Catholics, Racism

Id: 7geKSeSSRa4

Length: 34min 23sec (2063 seconds)

Published: Sat Jun 02 2018