Two very famous men passed away recently. The Reverend Billy Graham died on February 21 and Dr. Stephen Hawking died on March 14. Both made an impact on the world but for very different reasons.
Billy Graham was the greatest evangelist of our time. No one preached at larger venues or led more people to Christ than this humble man from North Carolina.
Stephen Hawking was a British professor, physicist, and author renown for writing about time, black holes and the origin of the universe. He was diagnosed with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) when he was 21. He was given two years to live but lived until age 76. He received 13 honorary degrees and earned his Ph.D. His book, “A Brief History of Time,” was a New York Times best seller. From a human perspective, he beat the odds and lived a remarkable life. He was famous for his brilliant mind and for overcoming his physical limitations.
Billy Graham received the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the Congressional Gold Medal, an honorary knighthood, and was one of four private citizens to lie in honor at the United States Capitol. Rosa Parks (2005) and two Capitol Police officers (1998) are the other three.
Both Graham and Hawking earned international fame. Both influenced millions. Both men’s deaths were headline news.
But that’s where their similarities end. Billy Graham was Christian, a follower of Jesus who believed the Bible was the infallible word of God and trusted in Jesus for his salvation.
Stephen Hawking was an atheist who denied the existence of God and heaven.
It’s hard to imagine two more different men. A life lived in pursuit of knowledge without recognizing God as the source of knowledge is truly sad. The idea of spending one’s entire life studying and writing and proving one’s intelligence only to deny the very possibility of an Intelligent Designer breaks my heart.
I’ve had people ask me how I can believe in a God I’ve never seen, how I can worship a being that I’ve never experienced with my five senses. I always told them I had faith. But I think I have a slightly clearer answer now.
While some people live their whole lives without knowing what it feels like to love or be loved, most people know what love feels like. But can you see love? Touch love? Taste love? Smell love? Hear love?
Before you answer that, take this question literally. Can you touch an emotion? See it? No. Not really.
We see love in action: A 90-year-old husband helping his wife out of the car. A stranger anonymously paying for your dinner. A fire fighter running into a burning building to save a stranger’s life.
Jesus’ death on the cross is the supreme example of love in action. None of us could die to save another person. He was the only one who could, because he was the only sinless man. Billy Graham believed what Stephen Hawking denied: That God created everything, Jesus died for us, and heaven is real. Hawking rejected what he couldn’t experience with his five senses. Graham went on faith.
Free will baffles me. People can choose to love, hate, or be indifferent toward Jesus. Indifference is the same thing as hatred in this instance, because when it comes to salvation, you either believe or you don’t. Period. Another thing that’s hard to reconcile is the idea that God knows before we’re born whether we’ll choose to love and serve Him or not. He gives us the choice knowing beforehand what we’ll decide. I can’t help but shake my head when I try to understand this.
I don’t know everything. (That’s a laugh! I can’t remember a single thing from my high school physics class, and here I am writing about a brilliant physicist.) Stephen Hawking may have accepted Christ moments before he died. I hope he did. I really hope he did. But his legacy isn’t going to be about service to God, and Graham’s will be.
I hope my small legacy will about service to Christ. It definitely won’t be about how smart I was, how many books I wrote, honorary degrees I received, or stadiums I filled.
But we don’t have to be brilliant scholars or famous preachers to make a difference.
1 Corinthians 1:26 reads, “Remember, dear brothers and sisters, that few of you were wise in the world’s eyes or powerful or wealthy when God called you.” (NLT) I recommend reading 1 Corinthians 1:18-31 for a clearer understanding of this verse. Paul wrote to a church dealing with the same problems we combat today, and to believers who are an awful lot like we are.
Have a wonderful week. Blessings!