People Just Found What Billy Graham Posted to Facebook Moments Before He Died

Americans were shocked Wednesday morning to learn of the passing of famed Evangelist Billy Graham at the age of 99.

Merely hours before his death, Graham posted one last time to Facebook.

See it:

“If you went for a walk in the woods, but then decided to wander off the path, and found yourself surrounded by a thicket of thorns and poison ivy, who would you blame? Would you blame the person who built the path? No, of course not. Instead you’d blame yourself if you were honest, because you alone were responsible for wandering from the path.

In a far deeper way, this is what happens when we decide to leave God out of our lives. For a time, it may seem like wandering away from Him doesn’t make any difference; it may even seem easier and freer. But eventually it catches up with us—just as wandering off that path and into the thicket caught up with you.” —Billy Graham

Vice President Mike Pence may have best summed up Billy’s death:

Graham, who had been in ill health for a number of years, was regularly listed in polls as one of the “Ten Most Admired Men in the World.”

Shearer told Fox News that Graham died from “natural causes.”

His Christian crusades took him from the frenzy of Manhattan to isolated African villages and according to the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association website, he preached to more people in live audiences than anyone else in history.

The BGEA put his lifetime audience at nearly 215 million people in more than 185 countries and territories, with “hundreds of millions more” viewing him on television, video, film and webcasts.

Continued:

“My one purpose in life,” he said, “is to help people find a personal relationship with God, which, I believe, comes through knowing Christ.”

Graham was last hospitalized in 2011 at Mission Hospital in Asheville, N.C. for what was described as “evaluation and treatment of his lungs.” He was also hospitalized that year due to pneumonia.

William Franklin Graham Jr. was born Nov. 7, 1918 and raised on a dairy farm in Charlotte, N.C.

At 15, he made his personal commitment to Christ at a revival meeting in Charlotte. After attending Bob Jones College and the Florida Bible Institute, Graham was ordained a Southern Baptist clergyman in 1939.

President Trump weighed in, as well:

USA Today has more:

Grant Wacker, a Duke University professor of Christian history, says Graham represented, “what most decent churchgoing people thought and ought to think.”

His reputation was untouched by sex or financial scandals. When anti-Semitic comments came to light as transcripts of conversations with Richard Nixon surfaced, Graham was promptly and deeply apologetic.

He never built a megachurch, set up a relief agency, launched a political lobby or ran for office. Yet he redefined American Protestant life by popularizing Christianity’s core message — Christ died for your sins — downplaying denominational details and proclaiming the joys found in faith.

Continued:

Graham was, however, drawn to power. Eventually, he met, prayed with, comforted and joked with 12 U.S. presidents, and Graham learned to walk a tightrope.

He found a fine balance that allowed him to become America’s pastor, Democrat or Republican. North or South.

When President Clinton’s affair with Monica Lewinsky came to light, Graham called for forgiveness. Clinton told Peter Boyer of The New Yorker, “He took sin seriously. But he took redemption seriously. And it was incredibly powerful the way he did it.”

Continued:

Former president George W. Bush has said it was a conversation with Graham that turned him from his drinking ways when he was young.

“I’ve never called him on a specific issue but his influence is bigger than a specific issue, as far as I’m concerned. He warms your soul,” Bush told an ABC 20/20 special on the preacher and politics.

RIP, Reverend.

his post was written by John S. Roberts]