To deliver you from the way of evil, From the man who speaks perverse things; From those who leave the paths of uprightness To walk in the ways of darkness. (Proverbs 2:13-13, NASB)

I’m Afraid Age Has Very Little To Do With It

In reading comments around the blogosphere concerning what the Lord has been recently bringing to light regarding Billy Graham and apostasy I notice a number of people attempting to attribute Graham’s “rounding off” huge chunks of the historic orthodox Christian faith to his age. I have already covered some of this in “Evangelical” Inclusivism Is Older Than You Think.

The Lord is my witness that Billy Graham was always someone I had looked to as an example and someone I greatly admired in Christ. That is until troubling quotes and questionable associations he’d been making through the years kept coming up in my research. But for those who think that Graham’s age is a factor in this apostasy I present the following for your edification.

In his video presentation Billy Graham: The Man and His Message my good friend Cecil Andrews of Take Heed Ministries points out that “when he appeared on the Christian scene in the late 1940’s he certainly did not, at that stage, compromise on the uniqueness of the Person and the work of the Lord Jesus Christ, in fact in 1948 [Billy Graham] made this statement. He said: ‘the three greatest menaces faced by orthodox Christianity are Communism, Roman Catholicism, and Muhammadism,’ which we know is Islam today. The sad thing is that having made that very commendable statement he then subsequently proceeded to retreat on all fronts.”

Dr. John MacArthur then adds the following salient comments concerning the path that this kind of inclusivism, into which Graham would get caught up, took to arrive within the evangelical community:

This has certainly leaped from Aristotle to the [Roman] Catholic Church into evangelical Protestantism. Now we have a kind of Protestant viewpoint that says Muslims and Hindus and whoever are going to be in the Body of Christ, in the Kingdom, in Heaven, with salvation whether they ever get a Bible or whether they ever hear the Gospel or whether they ever know about Jesus Christ. The Billy Graham organization affirmed that this position is the same as the one articulated in an article in Decision magazine which Billy wrote in 1960, so this is not something new. (transcript on file)

Denying The Protestant Reformation

Now we consider these examples not long after the Decision article to which MacArthur refers:

Oct. 29th 1963 Dr. Graham admitted to the ‘Daily Journal’ of International Falls, Minn., that at a Graham Crusade in San Paulo Brazil the Roman Catholic Bishop stood beside him and blessed the converts as they came forward. Graham said that this illustrated ‘something tremendous, an awakening of reform and revival within Christianity’ was happening. (‘New York Times’ Nov. 9th, 1963).

5th July 1968 in ‘Christianity Today’ Billy spoke of cooperation with apostate Romanism and said, ‘I don’t think we have all to unite and be one big church to do the work of God, but there are areas where we can cooperate‘. (Online source, emphasis mine)

That would be news to Luther and Calvin, not to mention scores of powerful men of God such as Charles Spurgeon. And then as indicitive of Graham’s policy regarding the apostate Church of Rome we consider a letter from Cardinal Roger Mahoney to his priests. It states that Billy Graham will not prostylitize his Roman Catholic parishoners, which has always been Billy Graham’s compromised policy in this area.

Cardinal Roger Mahony informs us:

These officials [from BGEA] have assured me that, in keeping with Dr. Graham’s belief and policy, there will be no proselytizing [of Roman Catholics], and that anyone identifyiing him or herself as a Catholic will be referred to us for reintegration into the life of the [Roman] Catholic church… Dr. Graham preaches the Gospel with great eloquence and with a true ecumenical spirit,… (Online source, emphasis mine)

And men and women, Tim Challies is telling the truth in his piece Billy Graham and Ecumenicism when he says:

Conservative Christians have long lamented Billy Graham’s ecumenicism. Since the early days of his ministry, Graham has worked hand-in-hand with Catholic Churches and has often expressed his belief that Catholics who are faithful to Roman Catholic teachings are saved. (Online source)

Satan’s Spirit Of Ecumenicism Penetrates Christ’s Church

So as you should now be able to see this apostasy by Billy Graham has been happening for quite some time now and apparently Christ has had enough of it. Because the tragic result for those following Graham’s Reformation-denying example is an inclusivism which has now slithered its way into an evangelicalism that had never renounced her humanism. This repugnant ecumenical spirit of compromise has actually entered the very sanctuary of our Lord through the Ecumenical Church of Deceit with its Purpose Driven postevangelical message of Rick Warren and the Emergent Church “twist to universalism” offered by men like panentheist Spencer Burke of TheOoze and the sinner sensitive self-esteem “whichever way the wind blows” message of Joel Osteen.

So you can now see that Billy Graham’s apostasy isn’t really so new after all, is it? However, the devastating effects upon the Body of Christ are only now being brought to light by God the Holy Spirit:

For it is time for judgment to begin with the family of God; and if it begins with us, what will the outcome be for those who do not obey the gospel of God? (1 Peter 4:17)

…He who has an ear, then let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches…