what was likely evangelist Billy Graham’s last revival meeting in the United States, officials said Monday, June 27. By the end of his three-day Greater New York Crusade the 86-year old Graham, who has been suffering from a variety of ailments, had preached to more than 242,000 people, organizers said. "Over 9,400 people of all ages and widely varying nationalities" became born again Christians, added the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association (BGEA).
GREAT FLOOD
In the shadow of the Unisphere, a steel globe representing New York’s diversity, Billy Graham spoke about the great flood from the book of Genesis and related it to the future end of the current world. "We are approaching a climactic moment in history," said Graham Sunday, June 26, according to a BGEA report. "There is going to come an end to the world’s system in which
we live."
He mentioned his own mortality, even as his larger message concerned humanity’s limited lifespan and its need for the saving power of the risen savior, Jesus Christ, the BGEA noted in a statement obtained by BosNewsLife.
Thanking longtime associate, 96-year-old vocalist George Beverly Shea, and mentioning his own age of 86, he reportedly said, "I know it won’t be long before both of us are going to be in heaven. … In [the Bible] Amos chapter four it says, Prepare to meet your God. Are you prepared?"
DIFFERENT COUNTRIES
Among the estimated 2,700 people coming forward Sunday, June 26, to publicly commit their lives to Christ, were people from different countries and cultures. Jessica, a 16-year-old student who had come with her youth group from Texas to counsel at the Crusade, told of praying with 37-year-old Anna, a Russian immigrant, as the woman committed her life to Jesus for the first time, the BGEA said.
"Earlier that afternoon, far from the main platform, Anna had sat down near Jessica and two of Jessica’s friends from her youth group. The four chatted as they listened to the music, and Anna asked them questions about their faith and reasons for coming to the Crusade. When the time came for the girls to go to the counseling area, they said their goodbyes and made their long way to the front area."
The BGEA said that "Jessica turned around to find Anna had followed them, excitedly asking to be led to Jesus Christ. After praying and going over the evangelistic materials BGEA gives each respondent, Anna asked for prayer for her unsaved family, and Jessica encouraged her to take her newfound faith back into her community."
FORGIVENESS NEED
Throughout the crusade at Flushing Meadows Corona Park Graham stressed "the deep, immediate need of mankind for forgiveness and stressed that this should not be the end of anything. This should be the beginning of a new day with the Lord in New York."
Graham also spoke about his concern of the young generation who he called "uniquely fractured" and "hurting." On Saturday, June 25, at Billy Graham’s invitation, a 12-year-old boy named Matt came forward and committed his life to Jesus Christ for the first time, BGEA officials recalled. He was accompanied by his parents, Wilfred and Susan, his younger sisters, Nicole and Kristin, and his younger brother, Michael.
By the end of the evening, Matt’s father and three siblings had all made first-time commitments to Christ, and his mother had prayed to renew her relationship with God, BGEA said, citing counselors. "I want you to know that your Heavenly Father has never abandoned you, and He never will," Graham told Matt and the 4,400 mainly young people who came forward. "An entire family’s eternity was changed Saturday night, and thousands more like them went home resting in the love and security of a new relationship with Jesus Christ," the BGEA said.
SIMILAR SCENES
Similar scenes were reported Friday, June 24, during the start of the Crusade when Graham anxiously admitted he was feeling as "the first night" when he began his career nearly 6 decades ago. Over 1,300 churches from more than 90 denominations supported the Crusade providing hundreds of counselors who went through the BGEA’s Christian Life and Witness training course, organizers said.
Among the counselors are representatives of more than 20 language groups prominent in New York, including Spanish, Arabic, Punjabi, Mandarin Chinese, and Russian, marking this Crusade "as one of the most internationally focused in BGEA history," the organization added. Graham told reporters he knew many people attended the meeting because they believe it will be his last rally. However "I look forward to death. I look forward to see God face-to-face," he stressed.
He suggested the New York meeting may have have ended six decades of preaching. Graham preached to more than 210 million in 185 countries, according to estimates. (With BosNewsLife Research and reports from New York).
