Q: Which U.S. president gave Billy Graham a personal tour of the Gettysburg battlefield?
A: President Dwight D. Eisenhower
“The President wants to see you,” the voice on the other end of the line told Billy Graham late one night in Aug. 1955. The evangelist was staying in Washington, D.C., and was planning to head to his hometown of Charlotte, North Carolina, the next day.
Instead, a car arrived at his hotel the following morning to take him to President Dwight Eisenhower’s farm in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania.
“I had no idea what President Eisenhower wanted,” Mr. Graham wrote, “but all the way there I prayed that God would help me say the right thing.”
Mr. Graham and the President shared a quiet lunch before the evangelist spent time praying with first lady Mamie Eisenhower, who was sick in bed.
Then President Eisenhower asked if Mr. Graham would like a tour of the Gettysburg battlefield.
Mr. Graham mentioned that both of his grandfathers had fought there, and he called his mother to find out which company her father had been with. The President took time to show him the place where his grandfather most likely would have fought during Pickett’s Charge on the last day of the bloody Battle of Gettysburg in 1863.
But the battlefield tour was not the purpose of the visit. Later that day, the President revealed why he requested Mr. Graham’s presence. The two men had spoken about faith before, but Eisenhower still had questions.
Mr. Graham shared the following story in his autobiography Just As I Am:
“Billy, do you believe in Heaven?” [President Eisenhower] asked.
“Yes, sir, I do,”
“Give me your reasons.”
With my New Testament open, I gave the President a guided tour through the Scriptures that spoke of the future life.
“How can a person know he’s going to Heaven?” he asked.
I explained the Gospel to him all over again, as I had on previous occasions. I sensed he was reassured by that most misunderstood message: salvation is by grace through faith in Jesus Christ alone, and not by anything we can do for ourselves.
>> Read more: Billy Graham’s Answers on Heaven
It was the same message Mr. Graham spent his life urgently sharing with the world. He knew it was something people desperately needed to hear, whether he was speaking to ordinary citizens or the leader of the free world.
Do you have the assurance that you will go to Heaven? You can. Start here.
