BILLY GRAHAM BEGINS CRUSADE AT ROSE BOWL.

Byline: Marshall Allen Staff Writer

Opening a four-day religious crusade, famed evangelist Billy Graham preached a simple message about the sins of man and the love of God to a crowd of about 45,000 on Thursday night - the same type of sermon he's been preaching for more than a half-century to followers around the world.

For many in the Rose Bowl, the message that Jesus of Nazareth had died for their sins was the truth that already guided their lives. Still, thousands of worshippers poured onto the field when the 86-year-old preacher invited them to give their lives to Christ.

``You've come to Jesus,'' Graham said from the stage. ``He'll forgive you. He's willing to change you. But you have to allow him.''

The night was cool and damp in Pasadena, and the crusade began with contemporary Christian music acts like Mercy Me and Nicole C. Mullen. People talked about it as a historic crusade, one of the final times the famous evangelist will ever preach, and the event took on the feeling of a farewell tour.

Some people in the crowd, like Daisy Swan, 73, of Temple City attribute their salvation to Graham. Swan said she was ``hungry for God'' but had heard little about Christ until she and her husband attended a Graham crusade in Los Angeles in 1962.

``It changed my whole life,'' Swan said. ``I became a new person. My values changed. My lifestyle changed. My life wasn't good before.''

Graham is one of the seminal leaders in the evangelical movement, starting his ministry in the 1950s, when evangelicals were rooted in fundamentalism and separated themselves from the secular world. He first gained national prominence in 1949 in Los Angeles, where he preached to a total of 350,000 people during an eight-week crusade in a tent at Hill and Washington streets.

Sarah Berry, 66, of Silver Lake was a young girl when she saw Graham at that revival meeting.

``He was very dynamic, very youthful,'' recalled Berry, a retired elementary school principal. ``Dark curly hair, a vibrant and tremendous voice - with a tinge of the Southern accent, too. He spoke with such conviction about people finding Christ.''

Thursday night at the Rose Bowl, where she typically comes on Saturdays for football games, Berry said his message has not changed.

``The message is still the same - Christ died for your sins, God loves you and there's a better life for you,'' she said.

Graham has been bedridden for most of this year after breaking his hip and pelvis in two separate falls. He is frail and hard of hearing, and his son, Franklin - who has now taken over the day-to-day operations of his ministry - had to assist him to the pulpit at the Rose Bowl. He now preaches from a custom podium that allows him to sit when he tires.

Graham has always gone to extraordinary efforts to communicate his message. The Pasadena crusade is being simultaneously interpreted into 14 languages, including sign language.

Ira Schipper, who has worked for the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association for 34 years, said crusades have been translated since 1980, but none has ever had as many languages as the Rose Bowl event.

Schipper said it's important that each person hears the message in his or her ``heart language.''

``We believe that the message we have, that Mr. Graham's been preaching for all these years, is the answer to the problems of the world, if people would get right with God through Jesus Christ,'' he said.

Marshall Allen, [phone], Ext. 4461

marshall.allen(at)sgvn.com

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Evangelist Billy Graham speaks Thursday during the opening night of his crusade.

Danny Moloshok/Associated Press