A Tale of Two Lives

Where you stand on the Bible, and its truth, will determine the course of your life, particularly if you consider yourself a follower of Christ.

Early in his life, Billy Graham wrestled with whether or not he was going to embrace the Bible as the inspired, revealed Word of God and therefore the ultimate truth-source for his life, or view it through eyes that dismissed it as a fallible, unreliable book of merely human insight. He intuitively knew that this was no mere intellectual decision, but that it would alter the very trajectory of his life.

He had a friend named Chuck Templeton at the time, who was facing the same decision. Both were rising stars in the evangelical world although most considered Templeton the better speaker of the two. But as Templeton looked at the Bible, he made the conscious decision not to believe it, and to view it as little more than any other book. He then went to work on Billy to take a similar position.

The resolution came while Billy was at a student conference at Forest Home, a retreat center in the San Bernadino Mountains near Los Angeles. Billy went for a walk in the surrounding pine forest. About fifty yards off the main trail, he sat for a long time on a large rock that was there, with his Bible spread open on a tree stump. Then he made his choice, ultimately and finally praying: "Oh God, I cannot prove certain things. I cannot answer some of the questions Chuck is raising and some of the other people are raising, but I accept this Book by faith as the Word of God."

And that, Billy would later say, changed everything.

I've been to Forest Home, and on a similar walk I accidentally stumbled on the very rock upon which Graham made his life-long values choice. I knew it was the same rock because there is now a bronze tablet on the stone commemorating his decision. Why such recognition? Because it was through that decision that Graham was able to be used by God to change the world. Here's how Graham himself reflects on it:

“[That single resolution] gave power and authority to my preaching that has never left me. The gospel in my hands became a hammer and a flame... I felt as though I had a rapier in my hands and through the power of the Bible was slashing deeply into men's consciousness, leading them to surrender to God."

Sadly, the world never heard any more from Chuck Templeton. He ended up resigning from the ministry and eventually left the faith altogether. He was interviewed at the age of 83. Asked by a journalist about his youthful decision, he reflected back on his life and said that he missed Jesus.

And then he broke down in tears and could say no more.

James Emery White

Sources

William Martin, A Prophet with Honor: The Billy Graham Story.

Lee Strobel, The Case for Faith: A Journalist Investigates the Toughest Objections to Christianity.