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Billy Graham: God's ambassador (DVD)

Out of our seats?

BILLY GRAHAM: GOD’S AMBASSADOR (DVD)
Duration: 2 hours (approx.)
Gaither Film Productions
£14.99 (from Authentic Media)

This is a DVD about the life of the great evangelist Billy Graham. The production is highly professional and introduced and narrated by Sir David Frost.

For many people, to watch this will take them on a very nostalgic journey which covers almost the last 70 years. Having filled in the family backgrounds of both Billy and his wife Ruth (born of missionary parents in China), we are told of the evangelist’s own conversion and his being powerfully called to the work of spreading the gospel. We are privileged to see footage of Graham’s controversial crusades in Britain in the 1950s and ponder the now long-gone happy naivety of the crowds that gathered.

The 1960s saw city-wide crusades in America taking place against the backdrop of the struggles for civil rights, with Graham refusing to have different areas for black and white folk cordoned off in the arenas where he spoke and Dr. Martin Luther King was praying from the platform. The 1980s saw Billy going behind the Iron Curtain with the gospel and the question is floated as to whether these trips had at least some part in the collapse of Communism. By the 90s Graham was very much the elder statesman of Christianity in America, the friend of presidents (a number of whom appear on the DVD), often at the White House and was later the obvious person to speak to the nation at the US National Cathedral after the atrocity of 9/11. Amid all this, Graham remains humble and committed to preaching the gospel at every opportunity.

Integrity

What did I particularly like? I especially liked the story of how the four founders of the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association thought through what had made other evangelists fall and damage Christ’s name. They identified four matters — money, sex, exaggeration and denigrating local pastors. They took action to try to make sure such things were avoided. We need such integrity today. I also liked, despite the challenge of modernism, his acceptance by faith of the Bible as the Word of God.

What was I not so sure about? There is no doubt that Billy Graham has been prepared to be associated with some pretty strange people in his time — Richard Nixon and the President of North Korea to name just two. David Frost does try to address such situations in the narration, but one is not always convinced by the explanation.

But I must say that, although I do have a number of misgivings about the invitation system used by Billy Graham at his crusades, no Christian can fail to be moved by the clips of Graham’s simple preaching of Christ and the film of hundreds of people getting up out of their seats and coming to the front as a way of expressing their commitment to Christ. Yes, many of those that came may have done so for the wrong reasons — but let’s remember, praise God, many didn’t!

Also included on the disk is an interview with David Frost, Crusade music and a Crusade sermon from Billy Graham. The life of Billy Graham is a great and fascinating story, and if you need something stimulating and edifying to watch this summer, you will find this DVD more than worthwhile.

John Benton