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Seventy-five years ago this fall, a 30-year-old evangelist named Billy Graham (1918–2018) began what was supposed to be a three-week evangelistic crusade in Los Angeles. When Graham finally left town, the campaign had been extended to 57 days and more than 350,000 people had attended the services. The L.A. Crusade had become national news, and the handsome, fiery evangelist with the Southern drawl was a celebrity. For the next seven decades, Graham was the most famous Christian in America and likely the best-known evangelical in the world. Before Los Angeles Graham’s star was on the rise before the L.A. Crusade. This was the era when the terms “fundamentalism” and “evangelicalism” were often synonymous but increasingly referred to two emerging trajectories within conservative Protestantism. Graham embodied the tension. Starting in 1945, Graham served as a vice president for Youth for Christ, an outreach ministry committed to converting teenagers through community evangelistic rallies. It was part of a constellation of evangelical parachurch ministries formed in the 1940s. Graham was the most famous Christian in America and likely the best-known evangelical in the world. Graham was also the youngest college president in America. In 1948, he was appointed president of Northwestern Theological Seminary and the Bible School (now University of Northwestern). Graham was selected for this role by William Bell Riley (1861–1947), the longtime pastor of First Baptist Church of Minneapolis and a leading fundamentalist. Riley envisioned Graham as his heir to his leadership of Midwestern fundamentalism. A condition of Graham’s presidency was that he could continue his role with Youth for Christ and preach for citywide evangelistic campaigns. Under the Canvas Cathedral The L.A. Crusade was organized by a group called Christ for Greater Los Angeles. The group prayed for revival for months in advance and advertised the event widely across Southern California. The crusade began on September 25 in a 6,000-seat circus tent. Graham preached against common vices, critiqued atheistic communism, and longed for national revival. But the heart of his preaching was the call for individual sinners to repent and trust in Jesus Christ as their personal Lord and Savior. Graham came to prominence during the Cold War, and he continued to advocate for conservative Christian patriotism until he was chastened following the Watergate scandal because of his close association with Richard Nixon. However, a simple evangelistic appeal would remain Graham’s central message throughout his long ministry. A few celebrities attended the L.A. Crusade. The famous L.A. radio broadcaster Stuart Hamblen, known for his entertainment career in song and film and for his notorious drinking and gambling, announced on the air that he had become a Christian at Graham’s crusade. Olympian and former prisoner of war Louis Zamperini was another noteworthy convert. Zamperini later became the subject of the best-selling book Unbroken and the Hollywood film of the same name. Both conversions made the national news. One newsman who took particular interest was William Randolph Hearst, who owned dozens of newspapers across the nation with a circulation in the millions. When he learned Hamblen had become a Christian, Hearst sent a two-word telegram to all his papers: “Puff Graham.” The crowds swelled from the increased publicity. Eventually, a 9,000-seat tent replaced the original, but even the massive “Canvas Cathedral” couldn’t fully contain the crowds coming to hear Graham each night. Though the crusade was scheduled to end on October 17, organizers decided to extend the meetings for several more weeks. Divine and Human in Revival Graham has been criticized by some Reformed observers for embracing “revivalism” and “decisionism.” Opinions will vary on those questions, but regardless of their soteriological preferences, most evangelicals still believe that God used Graham to contribute to the salvation of thousands of sinners over his ministry. The L.A. Crusade lets us reflect on the mysterious relationship between God’s sovereignty and human instrumentation in Christian history. The Lord laid it on the hearts of a group of ministers to plan an evangelistic crusade for L.A. They prayed for months in advance. During the crusade, a second, smaller tent was set aside for volunteers to pray for each night’s services. Graham’s message boiled down to a straightforward gospel presentation. Everyone was trusting God to do what only he could do. The L.A. Crusade lets us reflect on the mysterious relationship between God’s sovereignty and human instrumentation in Christian history. While the Lord was clearly at work, people had to make meaningful decisions every step of the way. The L.A. ministers had to decide to pray, decide to plan the event, and decide to invite Graham. The latter had to decide to accept the invitation. There were two different decisions about the tent size, as well as the important decision to extend the crusade past its original three weeks. Of course, those converted each night had to decide to follow Jesus. The Lord took the divine initiative in all these decisions, in ways both known and unknown to the people involved. And then there was Hearst. The newsman wasn’t a Christian. His profligate lifestyle was widely known and had at times been scandalous. He had no interest in the gospel. But he knew a good story when he saw it, and Hamblen’s conversion was a good story. So Hearst decided the world needed to know about Graham’s L.A. Crusade, which resulted in an extended event, increased attendance, and many more conversions. The Lord was at work in all this too. Graham and Evangelicalism L.A. is where Billy Graham became Billy Graham. He emerged as the key figure in the New Evangelical movement, a postwar coalition of conservative Protestants committed to pursuing national renewal and global evangelical awakening through both intentional evangelism and strategic cultural engagement. From the 1950s onward, millions of born-again Christians found in evangelicalism (no longer “new”) an alternative to separatist fundamentalism on the right and mainline Protestantism on the left. Graham wasn’t the only leading light in New Evangelicalism. Pastor and theological educator Harold John Ockenga (1905–85) was an organizational genius, and scholar-journalist Carl F. H. Henry (1913–2003) provided the movement with an intellectual agenda. All three men were friends and collaborated frequently. But in God’s providence, Graham’s L.A. Crusade put postwar evangelicalism on the map. The rest is history—and by God’s grace, the story is still being told.

When you think about heaven, what do you most look forward to? Having your body redeemed and being free from pain and suffering? Being reunited with friends and family? Or perhaps finding out what it’s like to “ride a drop of rain” (as one country song muses)? Scripture has much to say about the joys that await those who love God. Contemporary books on eternity, like Randy Alcorn’s Heaven, often emphasize the physical nature of God’s future kingdom and seek to expand our imaginations about all that everlasting joy might include. This is good. Such treatments can be a welcome correction to an overly spiritualized, disembodied, and boring view of heaven. But if we’re not careful, we can allow such longings to swallow up the most important one—the one that makes our hope distinctly Christian. After all, if you only long to be free from pain or hang out with friends, what are you doing more than others? Do not even the pagans do the same? Without denying the kingdom’s multifaceted glories, Samuel G. Parkison—associate professor of theological studies at Gulf Theological Seminary—wants to draw our attention back to the glory of all glories, the “one thing” David longed for above all else (Ps. 27:4). It’s found in the title of his new book: To Gaze upon God: The Beatific Vision in Doctrine, Tradition, and Practice. Seeing the face of God is “what makes heaven heaven” (1). For anyone who loves God, the thought of seeing his face ought to stir excitement. For anyone who has read the Bible, it also ought to raise questions. Parkison’s book seeks to channel the excitement by exploring the questions raised by Scripture in light of the historical doctrine of the beatific vision. Whom Shall We See, and How? One of the central (and most interesting) theological questions Parkison wrestles with is how we’ll see God. Will our vision of him consist of a “spiritual sight of the divine essence” or “an ocular sight of Christ’s human nature” (155)? For anyone who loves God, the thought of seeing his face ought to stir excitement. This question arises from the seeming conflict between passages promising we’ll see God (Matt. 5:8; Rev. 22:4) and passages declaring no one has ever seen God—or even can see him (1 Tim. 6:16; John 1:18; Ex. 33:20). As Parkison rightly notes, any biblical solution to this dilemma must center on Christ, who is “the image of the invisible God” (Col. 1:15; see John 1:18). Of him, John could honestly say, “We [saw him] with our eyes,” for Jesus was (and is) God made flesh (1 John 1:1; John 1:14). Without a doubt, God’s people will one day see God the Son in our flesh and with our eyes (1 John 3:2; see Job 19:26). But does that mean we won’t see the Father or Spirit? Is the beatific vision a vision of Christ only (and only of his human nature at that)? The classical Trinitarian doctrine of inseparable operations reminds us that while the persons of the Trinity can be differentiated, they can’t be divided. Although it terminates on Christ alone, the incarnation—like all divine works—is an act of all three persons and reveals all three persons. As Michael Allen put it, “[In Christ] we see God and not simply an instrument of or attachment to God” (156). Or as Christ himself put it, “Whoever has seen me has seen the Father” (John 14:9). The beatific vision may not be of Christ alone, but it is through Christ alone and by the Holy Spirit. So when asked whether our vision of God consists of a “spiritual sight of the divine essence” or of an “ocular sight of Christ’s human nature,” Parkison’s answer is both. In his words, “The beatific vision…is made possible by the inseparable operations of the Trinity, and is a truly trinitarian vision. We shall behold the glory of God in his essence, and we shall behold this glory in the face of Jesus Christ by the unveiling and illuminating ministry of the Holy Spirit” (156). When My Faith Shall Be Sight Parkison also highlights the relationship between faith and sight: “The beatific vision entails a paradox of somehow ‘seeing’ the invisible” (55). The author of Hebrews uses similar words to refer to faith (Heb. 11:27). So both faith and the beatific vision are described as kinds of seeing. Moreover, both types of seeing have the same object: “the glory of Christ, who is the image of God,” or “the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ” (2 Cor. 4:4, 6). We “see” him by faith now, by sight later. Finally, both types of seeing have the same transforming effect, though on a vastly different scale. In 2 Corinthians 3:18, Paul describes the effect of beholding Christ by faith now: “We all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another.” In 1 John 3:2, John describes the effect of beholding Christ by sight later: “Beloved, we are God’s children now, and what we will be has not yet appeared; but we know that when he appears we shall be like him, because we shall see him as he is.” As Parkison notes, “There are galaxies contained in that little word . . . because” (39). The beatific vision may not be of Christ alone, but it is through Christ alone and by the Holy Spirit. So while some degree of transformation is a prerequisite for seeing God (Matt. 5:8), complete transformation only happens as the result of seeing God. And this complete transformation includes the glorification of our bodies (including our eyes!) to be like Jesus’s glorious body. Indeed, as Parkison highlights with a Jonathan Edwards quote, the sight of Jesus in his glory “will be the most glorious sight that the saints will ever see with their bodily eyes. . . . Yea the eyes of the resurrection body will be given chiefly to behold this sight” (134–35). If you want to practice seeing God now, meditate on the glories of Jesus Christ by faith. And if you want some encouragement in doing that, read Parkison’s book. At points, his engagement with historical theologians (like Aquinas, Anselm, and Owen) wades into deep theological waters that go over my head. But sometimes it’s good for pastors to read over their heads as they ponder the mysteries of God.

In this lecture, Don Carson discusses Ezekiel’s visions from God in Ezekiel 8–9, which convey Jerusalem’s widespread idolatry and sinfulness. He contrasts the corruptibility of false worship with the necessity of true worship, and he connects the importance of authentic worship to historical awakenings. Carson underscores that without a clear moral vision, society risks decay. He teaches the following: Ezekiel’s denunciation of corrupt worship that relativized God How corrupt worship dulls moral vision and invites divine judgment The Western world’s interest in worship and search for spirituality The idol of jealousy in Ezekiel’s vision as an example of syncretism God’s judgment of participants of corrupt worship and his mercy on those who grieve over their sin How Ezekiel’s vision shows the moral impetus behind the Great Awakening

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