Billy Graham was an American evangelical Christian evangelist and an ordained Southern Baptist minister. Graham is best known for his evangelistic missions or “Crusades.” He believed God knew no borders or nationalities. Throughout his career, Graham preached to millions around the world. He met and prayed with every U. S. president from Dwight Eisenhower to Barack Obama.
Graham authored 34 books, including his memoir, Just As I Am. In 1983, he was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by President Ronald Reagan. In 1996, Graham and his wife, Ruth, received the Congressional Gold Medal, the highest award Congress can bestow on a private citizen.
Graham married Wheaton College classmate Ruth Bell Graham in 1943. They had five children ( Ruth Graham, Gigi Graham Tchividjian, Anne Graham Lotz, Nelson, & Franklin Graham) and made their home in the mountains of North Carolina. They were married for 64 years before Ruth’s death in 2007. Graham died from natural causes on February 21, 2018, at his home in Montreat, North Carolina, at the age of 99.
No one is exempt from the touch of tragedy: neither the Christian nor the non-Christian; neither the rich nor the poor; neither the leader nor the commoner. Crossing all racial, social, political, and economic barriers, suffering reaches out to unite mankind. ~ Billy Graham, "Till Armageddon" (p. 26)
Suffering is mentioned many times in the Bible. Did not Christ suffer on the cross? Suffering is part of being a Christian and a non-Christian. The difference is that we have the comfort of the Holy Spirit and the non-Christian does not. You will gain insight as to why we suffer on this earth and God's plan for suffering in our lives.
If you're a Christian in the United States, you've probably heard of Billy Graham. He was one of the most influential Christians and evangelists in the 20th century. However, despite my knowing who he was and how much I had heard about his crusades and evangelistic efforts, I had never really heard that he was an author. This changed when I inherited a few of his books. After reading through the book I can see why I never really heard about him as an author if his books are all like this.
Till Armageddon is an oddly titled book. By the title you would think that Graham is going to be focused on the end times or something along that lines. However, this isn't the case. His focus is instead on suffering, as the subtitle of the book is "A Perspective on Suffering." Even though this is his focus for the book that doesn't stop Graham from talking about the end of the world every so often and offering a heaping pile of fear about how the world is getting worse every few chapters or so.
In some ways this is a hard book to be so down on. Graham obviously loves Jesus and really as you read through the book it reads more like an extended tract to get people to come to know Jesus. This isn't a bad thing, but in a book supposed to be about suffering with a title that sounds like a book about the end times, having it also sound like an attempt at evangelism, just makes the book seem like it doesn't have a clear vision. Graham isn't a pastor and he's not really a theologian either, he's an evangelist and it shows in the book. It's not a bad thing that that's his main focus in life, but it doesn't make for a great book when the topic isn't necessarily the basics of faith and what it means to have faith in Jesus.
Even with this lack of focus Graham does have the relevant insight, but there is just too much other baggage to really recommend the book. I think the worst aspect is his inclusion of the end times idea and connecting it to suffering. It makes him too focused on how bad he thinks the world is getting, which just shows the lack of any sort of historical understanding on his part, and potentially biblical understanding as well. I mean hasn't he read the book of Judges or Kings? Things have been a violent awful mess for some time.
Graham's approach to the idea of suffering also just feels kind of surface level. He references Job a good number of times in the book, as any good book on Christian suffering does, but I can't help but feel that a lot of the tone sounds like Job's friends. Maybe not insistent upon the idea that we've sinned and are being corrected (though he does present that as an option), but still just in a way that tends to try to get us away from being allowed to mourn or struggle with our suffering.
Billy Graham may have been a man who loved Jesus very much and was a great evangelist, but based on my first read of him, I can't say that I find him a great author. Now maybe this was just a bad example and he has other books that are better. I do have at least one more of his to read and I'll give it a shot. I just found the book to be a bit messy on what it was trying to accomplish, resorts to the tired cliche of the world is getting worse and worse a bit too much, and just tends to approach the idea of suffering from the outside and trying to get people away from mourning and struggling without really getting down into those aspects too much. There are books that do this subject much better justice.
A wonderful biblical look at the myriad causes of and Christian responses to human suffering. Graham's words provide comforting insights, all supported by his deep scriptural knowledge. Though written in 1982, its text offers timeless benefits to a struggling heart. Highly recommended.
This book blessing me cause give me understand all the armageddon life that happen in life as person and general. The author give a lot bible verse to make believers understand how to survive in all suffering, because God never fail in His promise