I want to pose a question to each one of you. Suppose I followed you around with a camera and taped everything that you said, every day, whether sick or well, tired or alert, prepared or unprepared, in public or private... would every statement that came out of your mouth have 100% doctrinal precision? Certainly not, but hopefully if one watched hours of the footage, the pattern that they would see is one of sanctification and a pursuit after God.
Recently I have been studying the attributes of God, and believe me when I say that there is only one perfect, immutable, faithful, holy, righteous one in the universe, and that is God. We cannot, and should not expect the same of any created being, that would be to diminish the perfections of God.
Now suppose I followed you around with a digital camera, and took tens of thousands of photos of you in the same situations and brought before your friends, neighbors, colleagues and even your congregations only the photos that put you in a bad light, but buried the rest that showed any of the ways that God has used you over the years. Then suppose I were to make a website about you that featured only the pictures -say the four or five worst pictures and then worked to persuade these people that this is what you were like one hundred percent of the time. I would be deceiving people would I not? Is not deception from the enemy, the one who hates Jesus?
I urge you brothers, look at the fruits of Billy Graham's ministry, not just the four or five unripe bananas that every one of these anti-Billy ministries parades around to show that he is a heretic, but look at the width and breadth of his ministry. Listen to any one of the thousands of sermons that he has preached, read the thousands of articles that he has written in contrast with the four or five interviews/articles that he has given where he has fumbled an answer.
Do you not see that you are being controlled by the enemy. Slander should not find any place among the children of light. We are playing into the trap of the enemy, and I see that even I have been guilty of tearing down Godly men with supposedly 'smoking gun' evidence.
The one segment that one will see come up again and again in attacking the credibility of Billy Graham is from an interview he did with Robert Schuller in which he says,
Now let us break this down statement by statement and see if Billy Graham has fallen into heresy -because remember, the word that supposedly gets Billy into trouble is "wide" which he never said, but was put into his mouth by Schuller.
1. [i]"I think everyone that loves Christ or knows Christ, whether they are conscious of it or not they are members of the Body of Christ."[/i] I have already quoted Hebrews 11:24-27 in a previous post, but please read this verse 26, "He regarded disgrace for the sake of Christ as of greater value than the treasures of Egypt, because he was looking ahead to his reward." If you read this verse, you will see that the writer of Hebrews says that Moses was motivated by the knowledge of Christ, yet the Lord Jesus had yet to be conceived physically by the Holy Spirit in the Virgin Mary. This knowledge of Christ eternal was one given to Moses by God, not through a historic witness, but by direct revelation. Is it impossible for God to do so in the hearts and minds of others around the world today? Do you want to limit the power of God?
2. [i]"And that is what God is doing today. He is calling people out of the world for his name. Whether they come from the Muslim world or the Buddhist world or the Christian world or the non-believing world, they are members of the body of Christ because they have been called by God."[/i] Isn't it true that apart from a call from Jesus no one can come to the Lord God? Isn't it also true that Jesus calls those whom have yet to hear the Gospel, or may not even have the opportunity to hear the Gospel. Romans 2:12-16 which I have already quoted in a previous post says that those who have not received the Gospel will be judged by the law of God written in their hearts. Abraham did not have the law, and yet he was able to have faith in God and to become the father of faith. Does not the bible bear witness (especially in Romans 4) that Abraham had faith before he received the circumcision, therefore faith comes before the law! When Billy says that this is what God is doing, I think it can be true to say that this is what God has always been doing. Calling people out of darkness into light. The Spirit bears witness to the Christ even in the absence of a Christian church to share the full Gospel, and Paul shares that they will not be judged by what they do not know, but by the light that has been revealed to each of them by God. In this way, there are many being called to Jesus out of the Muslim world, the Buddhist world, the Hindu world through dreams and visions where Jesus comes directly to an individual and announces his presence to that person. I have met many believers from foreign countries who have received such visitations from Jesus, even while they were in darkness! Just remember, it is not what we call ourselves that makes us children of God, it is whether we are called of God. Billy Graham is stating a biblical truth here, can I get an amen?!
3. [i]"They may not even know the name of Jesus, but they know in their heart that they need something that they don't have and they turn to the only light that they have and I think that they are saved and that they are going to be with us in heaven."[/i] This assumes that God, in his mercy, when He reveals to a person their need for Jesus, gives them enough grace to respond to that revelation. I do admit that this statement can be stronger, and can also be misinterpreted to say something that I do not think Billy intended to say. He is not saying here that all Muslims, all Buddhists and all non-believers have a right relationship with God, on the contrary he is speaking about "called" ones. Billy is speaking about specific people within these communities that do not have a gospel-witness that have been called by God and given enough light to act on that calling. God would only be working to condemn a person if he gave them light unto salvation but not the grace in order to respond to it. That is the principle behind Sovereign Grace. It is funny that while Billy is often labeled as an Armenian heretic, he is here espousing a view that is thoroughly Calvinist in its understanding of God -maybe this is the doing of his late-wife's Presbyterian upbringing.
None of the things that are said in this supposedly condemning interview are actually false when brought under the light of scripture. They just rub our ears wrong. In fact, Billy is saying that Jesus is the only way, but we are twisting his words to say something completely different. The way IS narrow, only a few will enter... but remember, God is the one handing out the tickets, not us! Just because a person doesn't have the same label as I do does not condemn them, each person has to respond to the light that they have been given by Jesus, and they will be judged by Him, not by us. It would be very sad if only Southern Baptists went to heaven, Southern Baptists are great and all, but I would like to think that after two thousand years Jesus has reaped a larger and more diverse crop than just Southern Baptists. Do you see what I am saying?
I have served as a missionary am studying to be a career missionary. I believe that we must preach the Gospel, every believer that has been called by God is compelled by the love of Christ to preach Him and Him only! Woe to me if I do not preach the Gospel. I am not saying that God's Sovereign Grace, even among the gentiles is an excuse to abandon the call to missions. We have been commissioned! We have been given marching orders by our general -it would be mutiny to disobey. God does not need us, and yet he chooses to use us as his instruments. He does not need us to reach the gentiles and yet he calls us to Go with his authority and make disciples of all nations. From this I can only infer that by God's Sovereign will it is through the church preaching the Gospel that the greatest harvest can be gathered. We do not preach a message that condemns people to hell, but one that sets people free from the bondage of Satan.
Certainly there were god-fearers in the biblical narrative. The Queen of Sheba, Naaman, Cornelius, Uriah the Hittite... a careful study of the bible will show that there were many that God drew to the nation of Israel and to Jesus from outside of Israel. Even the entire town of Nineveh, which repented due to the preaching of Jonah will stand at the resurrection as judges along with the saints. However, in contrast with the countless gentiles who were judged and punished by God, it is quite unsettling. The gate is VERY narrow for those to whom the Gospel has not been preached -even the eye-of-the-needle seems very generous in light of the biblical revelation on this. God killed all the firstborns in Egypt, along with countless others in the plagues and the entire army in the Red Sea, only a hand full of Egyptians actually fled with Israel and came under YHWH's banner. We need to preach the Gospel, even if God does call a few individuals out of an unredeemed culture, there are still many more within that culture sinking into hell without the light of the Gospel witness! Billy Graham has been faithful to preach around the world, to millions of people. Sometimes I find it difficult to share my faith with the person next to me on the bus. How about you?
There are men who have made careers out of cutting down other men, but if we look at the scriptures we do not see this in the life of Jesus. He did preach out against hypocrisy and heretical teachings about the Father, but he never named names. Ultimately every one is going to be judged by God according to the light they have been given. Billy Graham is right in saying (in his infamous Larry King appearance) that he is not the judge. It is true that he could have said more pointed and strong statements concerning God, and I believe that he has -because he has given thousands of interviews in which he has said that Jesus is the only way, yet we crucify him for a handful of them where he is less direct than we feel he should have been. Let us stop looking at snap-shots and look at the film version, lets stop looking at individual pieces of fruit and start looking at the whole harvest.
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