Posted by Kevin D. Hendricks on June 17, 2009
You could call it “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry Evangelist,” but I don’t think anyone ever describes Billy Graham as angry. At any rate, during Graham’s famous Los Angeles crusade in 1949 he preached the infamous sermon “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God” by Jonathan Edwards. The Jonathan Edwards Center at Yale offers a digital exhibit on the curious case of the 20th century’s most famous preacher borrowing a sermon from the 18th century’s most famous preacher.
What’s perhaps most interesting are the edits Graham makes to Edwards’ sermon. Graham focuses more on mercy and grace, he brings up Jesus sooner and more often, and he gives more of an Arminian slant on God’s will than Edward’s Calvinist take.
Posted by Kevin D. Hendricks on December 30, 2008
Last week I linked to the original Billy Graham Christmas Special from 1952. A young, charismatic Billy Graham stood in front of a fireplace and a Christmas tree, waving his finger and reading from the Bible. But he made one interesting analogy about ants that stuck out.
Skip ahead to 9:56 of the video to see it:
“You know one day I was walking along and I stepped on an anthill. And I thought to myself as I saw those dying ants, I wish I could go down and be just an ant for just a moment to talk to those ants and tell them that I didn’t mean to. That’s the way it was with God. God looked down over the battlements of heaven and God said, ‘How can I tell men that I’m a God of love, I’m a God of mercy, that I’m a God of long suffering, the only way I can do it is to become a man.’ And that’s exactly what happened, ladies and gentlemen: Jesus Christ became man.”
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