George Palmer hated everything Billy Graham stood for, so he plotted to kill the evangelist at a 1959 Crusade. This is the story of how God changed his heart.

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i was always told that i would amount to

nothing

and that i’d end up on the streets

if you tell a person that continually

that’s what you believe that you’re

worthless you’re useless

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the story really starts when i was seven

and a half when in 1949

my father died he just finished planting

100 cherry trees and then

had a heart attack and was taken to

hospital

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and i never forget when i was told that

my dad had died

i just couldn’t handle that and i

remember running up into the top paddock

i screamed at god god i hate you i hate

you with all my heart

i hate you and i will never love you

hatred i found is like a cancer

it doesn’t stay dormant it grows

i was just so angry with god

i had a vile temper i really did

if anyone did anything to me i’d pick up

a chisel and throw it out

we had a big gang fight

we captured the leader of the other gang

and we held his hand on the ground and

we ran a car backwards and forwards

over his hand and broke every bone in

his hand

it’s all i ever thought of was hurting

people

we heard that billy graham was coming

he was a man that i hated we hated

christianity

and he stood for everything we hated

i do not believe that you have come here

to hear a man

i believe you have come to hear a

message

i want you to listen to this minute of

what i’m going to say

because this is the most important thing

i’ll say

you must be willing to repent of your

city

billy graham stood for everything that i

detested

it was something that drove me and made

me exist

day by day

the only reason the 10 of us went to

that

crusade was to kill billy graham

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i made up ten zip guns so each member

had one of those

i said to the guys come on we’re going

on the green

and we spaced ourselves so that we could

see each other

around where billy graham was preaching

we decided that we would leave it until

the

appeal time not before but during the

appeal

we would kill billy graham there are

thousands of youth here today

that have burdens that need to be lifted

my gum was under my jumper and i’m

standing there and i looked around at

this crowd

and i thought what the dickens are all

these people doing here

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and i turned back around and then

suddenly a voice said to me

what are you doing here george

and i quickly turned back around to have

a look and see

who was there and nobody was there that

i knew

and i got very uncomfortable about that

i could tell you

very uncomfortable the spirit of god is

speaking and he’s here tonight and you

know he’s here

and there’s a little voice down inside

of you that says you need christ

that is god speaking okay i know this is

you god

you took my dad you hurt me so much

why should i love you why should i care

about you

and god sent me out george i didn’t take

your dad to hurt you

and indeed he said i would never hurt

you

full stop

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well by this time i’m starting to melt a

bit

now remember that i hadn’t cried since

seven and a half

i tell you before you leave this great

stadium

you can find an answer to the dilemmas

the mysteries of life

if you will come and surrender yourself

without reservation to jesus christ

i thought about it for a while and then

the appeal came

i suddenly began to weep

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and i cried and i cried and i tried

my zip gun was under my jumper i put it

on the ground

and i ran to the front

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there may be many factors that led you

to this moment but there is a climactic

moment

when you give your life to christ

and you do it by faith faith in christ

the amazing thing was that nine out of

the ten of us got converted

that night then we were all a blobbling

mess

we really were and we talked about

you know how wrong we were and the

things we’d done and all this

it was quite a night let me tell you

quite a night

god took this person that hated him

with every part of his being

yet god took him and loved him

it’s amazing how god can take a

situation like

like we were in and he can change a life

completely and i thank him every day for

that

i really do

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you