General Reference The list of accomplishments achieved by Billy Graham during his fruitful life is too long to itemize. What can be said with certainty is that from publishing to mass media to education, he has used every tool at his disposal to spread the Gospel. The result is that an estimated 100 million people have heard him preach and over two million have made a commitment to Christ.
The early church leader Tertullian wrote during the Roman persecutions that “the blood of the martyrs is the seed of the Church.” What was true then is true today as the worldly sacrifice of brave Christians serves to inspire others to take their place and continue preaching the Gospel message.
For nearly 60 years, between the mid-1920s and the 1980s, Fundamentalism was a separatist movement that had little public influence. This changed when preachers like Pat Robertson and Jerry Falwell took up the mantle of past leaders and began stressing the need for national repentance and a return to conservative values.
Within a few years Communist leaders had executed over 1,000 bishops and priests, had razed hundreds of ancient monasteries, and seized the church’s treasuries and property. Yet totalitarianism could not ultimately extinguish the spirit of the people. After the fall of the Iron Curtain the Orthodox church thrived again.