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.