Rev. Franklin Graham: Father's Book Talks About Heaven

The Rev. Billy Graham, at 97, "realizes he's getting ready to step through that portal of eternity" into Heaven, his son, the Rev. Franklin Graham said Friday, and wanted to be clear in his last book how a person can be best prepared for eternity.

"My father said he was never afraid of death; he said it was the dying part of it he wasn't too sure of," the younger Graham told Fox News' "Fox and Friends" program, explaining that the book, "Where I Am: Heaven, Eternity, and Our Life Beyond," released at the end of September, will be his father's last.

"At 97, he just doesn't have the strength or energy to start another project like this," Graham said about the legendary evangelist. "He actually started this before his 95th birthday two years ago, and it was about 90 percent finished, and then he got sick."

The family did not think the elder man would live until Christmas, said Graham, so the book was set aside, and "he's gotten better, he's gotten a little stronger, [so] he went ahead and finished the book."

He wanted to finish the book, Graham said, because there are a lot of misconceptions about Heaven.

"Heaven is where God is," said Graham. "Heaven is where his son Jesus Christ is. And my father wanted people to know this. There's Heaven but also Hell and he speaks about Hell in the book."

He said that as his father has gotten older, he's returning even more to the convictions of his youth, and that there is no question he'll be going to Heaven to meet God and Jesus Christ.

"As a young boy he confessed his sins to god and asked Jesus Christ into his heart and life and on that day God forgave my father not because and he wasn't a good boy or anything and he was a sinner," Graham said. "He repented and asked Christ into his heart, which he'll do for anybody. My father wanted in his book to be very clear, his last book how a person can be prepared for eternity."

Graham concluded the interview by mentioning his charity, Operation Christmas Child Box, in which the family ministry hopes to collect about 11 million boxes, in hopes that many of them will end up with refugees fleeing the Middle East and heading into Europe.

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