The message you’ll see below from Billy Graham is supposedly consistent with the one preached by Jesus Christ and His Apostles. Apparently this is what Acts 17:6 tells us was the teaching that upset the world and would get Christ crucified and each of His Apostles, save John, killed.

Below is a clip from an appearance by Billy Graham on Robert Schuller’s “Hour of Power,” program #1426 entitled Say “Yes” To Possibility Thinking, which was originally broadcast May 31, 1997. The following is from the transcript:

Schuller: Tell me, what do you think is the future of Christianity?

Graham: I think everybody that loves Christ, or knows Christ, whether they’re conscious of it or not, they’re members of the Body of Christ. And I don’t think that we’re going to see a great sweeping revival, that will turn the whole world to Christ at any time. I think James answered that, the Apostle James in the first council in Jerusalem, when he said that God’s purpose for this age is to call out a people for His name.

And that’s what God is doing today, He’s 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’ve been called by God. They may not even know the name of Jesus but they know in their hearts 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’re going to be with us in heaven.

Schuller: What, what I hear you saying that it’s possible for Jesus Christ to come into human hearts and soul and life, even if they’ve been born in darkness and have never had exposure to the Bible. Is that a correct interpretation of what you’re saying?

Graham: Yes, it is, because I believe that. I’ve met people in various parts of the world in tribal situations, that they have never seen a Bible or heard about a Bible, and never heard of Jesus, but they’ve believed in their hearts that there was a God, and they’ve tried to live a life that was quite apart from the surrounding community in which they lived.

Schuller: I’m so thrilled to hear you say this. There’s a wideness in God’s mercy.

Graham: There is. There definitely is.

Truly amazing; Graham announces, and he’s far from alone is this, “everybody that loves Christ, or knows Christ, whether they’re conscious of it or not, they’re members of the Body of Christ.” Zow-ee; now we even have salvation via osmosis with none of that nasty ol’ preaching of the Gospel.

Of course there are those of us who will wonder: Can you love and/or know someone and not be conscious of it; and then, inadvertantly end up a member of a Body you aren’t even aware of? God has said that to be saved one must call on the Name of Jesus; and I wonder, can you really do that without knowing it?

And is Graham, whom I had such great respect for—and who is thought of as one of the greatest evangelists ever—really as obtuse as his answer to Robert Schuller’s speculation makes him appear? Schuller hopes that “it’s possible for Jesus Christ to come into human hearts and soul and life” without the Gospel having been preached to them:

Graham: Yes, it is, because I believe that. I’ve met people in various parts of the world in tribal situations, that they have never seen a Bible or heard about a Bible, and never heard of Jesus, but they’ve believed in their hearts that there was a God, and they’ve tried to live a life that was quite apart from the surrounding community in which they lived.

Really? The Bible says merely believing there is a God essentially qualifies one to be a demon — Even the demons believe that—and shudder (James 2:19). And from over twenty years of study in Comparative Religion and non-Christian cults I can tell you that virtually all religious structures have people who try to live a so-called “good life” and believe in God.

Well, at least this’ll all give us more time to head out to another conference and afterward go knock back a couple of brews with the boys at the pub while we have our pseudo-intellectual conversations about Scripture we’re told that we can’t understand anyway. Sola evangelicalism gloria.