Billy
A Personal Look at Billy Graham, the World's Best-loved Evangelist

© 1997 Sherwood Eliot Wirt

Crossway Books, Wheaton, Illinois

1. Graham, Billy, 1918-2018.
2. Evangelists — United States — Biography.
BV3785.G69W48 ~ 269.2 ~ LC: 96-040841 ~ OCLC: 35860930 ~ 271p.

Billy: A Personal Look at Billy Graham, the World's Best-loved Evangelist is presently held by 595 libraries including the Los Angeles Public Library and the University of Oxford.

Table of Contents

FOREWORD by James D. Douglas       13

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS       15

POEM: "McMakin's Charge"       17

INTRODUCTION       19

I. THE SEED

1.  The High Pager       27

2. Reservoirs       33

3. Challenge and Response       37

4. Billy Who?       43

5. The City       49

6. Why Me?       57

7. Just Do It!       65

8. Dakota Detour       71

9. Ike's Putting Green       77

II. THE LEAF BLADE

10. The First Issue       85

11. The Prayer Base       97

12. Berlin: Courage Under Fire       107

13. Missing on Mount Shasta       113

14. Write the Vision       119

III. THE WHEAT HEADS

15. Easter in Birmingham       129

16. God in Earls Court       137

17. With the Troops in Vietnam       149

18. War and Peace in Korea       155

19. Miracle in Johannesburg       161

20. Alaska: Two Men Prayed       165

IV. THE RIPE GRAIN

21. Leadership       175

22. Greatness       183

23. The Royal Musketeers       191

24. On the Lighter Side       205

V. THE HARVEST

25. The International Congresses       217

26. Thawing the Cold War       231

27. Into All the World       241

28. L' Envoi       249

APPENDIX: "The Hope for America"       253

NOTES (See each chapter)

INDEX       265

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Back Cover & Jacket of the Book

For 50 years he's been conducting crusades for the world. But few know the preacher apart from the pulpit. Few have been there in the circle during pre-crusade prayer times, or sat beside him on flights around the globe, or visited with him in his North Carolina home.

But for nearly 40 years, Sherwood Wirt has been there. He has ministered and traveled with Billy Graham and experienced the realities of international ministry alongside his dear friend — a friend who also happens to be the world's most loved evangelist. In that time, Sherwood Wirt has come to know the real Billy.

And now so can you. Sharing stories, highlights, and the historic moments of Graham's ministry efforts, as well as the times spent away from the public eye, Wirt gives you an intimate glimpse of Billy. His memoirs reveal Billy's heart and vision. And his loving tribute will reassure you that the evangelist you've listened to for decades is as he has always seemed — a man devoted to God and to opening the door of His Kingdom to the world.

Some of the choicest glimpses into the ministries of the biblical prophets and evangelists were recorded not by those individuals themselves, but by writers who accompanied them in their work. Dr. Sherwood Wirt has been a valued associate of my father for decades, and in this book he shares his own unique perspective on Daddy's life and ministry. I appreciate his friendship and efforts.

FRANKLIN GRAHAM

WHAT PEOPLE HAVE SAID ABOUT BILLY GRAHAM

I want to pray for Billy Graham and the converts he is reaching. I want to thank God he is succeeding where so many of us have failed.

– LESLIE WEATHERHEAD
City Temple, London

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What is lacking in me and in my theological colleagues in the pulpit and at the university lectern, that makes Billy Graham so necessary?

– HELMUT THIELICKE
University of Hamburg, Germany

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Dr. Graham has taught us all to begin again at the beginning in out evangelism, and speak by the power of the Spirit of sin and righteousness and judgment.

– GEOFFREY LORD FISHER
 Archbishop of Canterbury

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Billy Graham is perhaps the most prayed-for man on earth today.

– ARMIN GESSWEIN
Revival Prayer Fellowship

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If the Lord will keep Billy Graham anointed, we'll keep him humble.

– GRADY B. WILSON
Friend and associate

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When the Buddhist priests come into our library, the favorite book they like to borrow is Billy Graham's Peace with God.

– CHURCH LIBRARIAN
 Anthong, Thailand

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Billy Graham did not influence the evangelical resurgence of our time so much as he epitomized it.

– HAROLD J. OCKENGA
Pastor, educator

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Billy is the most focused man on prayer I ever knew. Each time he called me as a crusade director, he began with, How's prayer?"

– TOM PHILLIPS
World missionary leader

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Billy Graham is one of those rare jewels who tread this earth periodically and, by their lives and teaching,draw millions of others close to God.

– MISS RAJKUMARI AMRIT KAUR
Minister of Health, India

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To me Billy Graham is the greatest person to have lived in the twentieth century.

– RICHARD Q. MUSSMAN
 Computer expert

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The fall of communism was due to God's will and Billy Graham's preaching.

– GOVERNOR JAMES B. HUNT, JR.,
 of North Carolina

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Billy Graham can preach in West Berlin where he wants and as long as he wants, your protests notwithstanding.

– MAYOR WILLI BRANDT
 (to Mayor Waldemar Schmidt of East Berlin, 1960)

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His genius for satisfying a hungry soul is unmatched.

– MARTIN MARTY
 Educator, editor

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He does what he says, and has done it since he came to Christ as a teenager.

– MELVIN GRAHAM
 Brother of Billy

*      *      *      *      *      *      *

I am only a Western Union messenger boy, delivering a telegram from God to the door of humanity.

– BILLY GRAHAM

Sherwood Eliot Wirt has enjoyed a long literary career that has included stints with the San Francisco Examiner and the Juneau (Alaska) Daily Press, where for four years he served as the city editor. He has also written more than 40 books and edited numerous others, winning various awards for his work.

   After Wirt wrote a book about Billy Graham's San Francisco crusade in 1958, Graham invited him to join his team. Wirt holds the distinction of being the founding editor of Decision, a magazine envisioned and established by Graham himself that blazed trails in Christian publishing. Wirt has also served as a senior pastor, preached in various cities around the world, and accompanied Billy Graham on countless evangelistic crusades.

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