“First, I was made aware that a vast majority of evangelism was
being done to reach ‘the unhappy pagan,’ the person whose life is
falling apart and who is ready to grasp the gospel because it offers
hope for their painful situation. I realized there are large numbers
of people who are not unhappy, who find their lives fulfilling, at
least apparently so, and I sensed the need for someone, maybe me,
to speak to ‘the happy pagan.’ From Amsterdam, my wife and I
went to India, where we saw the great need of pastors there, and
I told my wife, ‘I would love to be an evangelist to the skeptic, to
the honest intellectual who has intellectual objections to faith. I’d
like to develop that kind of Christian apologetic ministry.’
“Second, I remember Billy Graham saying, ‘You have never
evangelized a person until you have told them about the cross.’
Billy told of a difficult moment when he preached and had no
response whatsoever. Then one of his colleagues put his arm
around him and said, ‘Billy, you ought not be surprised. There
was no cross in your sermon tonight.’
“Later, when I told Leighton Ford about these reflections,
he said, ‘Billy has always maintained that it’s fine to reach the
intellect, but if you lose the simplicity of the gospel, you will
not accomplish the task. I knew that was the way to go. I’d
seen God take Billy, an honest man with integrity and a sim-
ple trust in the profound power of the gospel, and I said, ‘That’s
what I want to be.’ The Lord used Billy Graham and the Am-
sterdam conferences to light a fire way beyond what he ever
imagined.”
Ravi Zacharias went on to launch a ministry to skeptical intel-
lectuals that has offices in Atlanta, Toronto, Oxford, Singapore,
India, and Abu Dhabi.
■ ■ ■John Huffman’s awareness of Billy began when he was just six
years old. John’s father, a pastor and YFC leader, had in 1946
brought Billy to Boston for the first time, and while there, the
evangelist took his small son for a walk along the beach.The Leadership Secrets of Billy Graham