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Or, The Coming Destruction of the One World Religion
  
==CONDITIONS OF ENTIRE SANCTIFICATION.1==
 
  
--Continued.<br><br><br><br>
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Billy Graham: Christianity's Modern Balaam
  
<FONT color="#000000"><B>(xxvii.)</B><FONT color="#0033ff"><B> </B><FONT color="#440000"><B>[BREAD OF LIFE]</B><FONT color="#0033ff"> <FONT color="#000000">We need also to know ourselves as starving souls, and Christ as the "bread of life,"<FONT color="#0033ff"> [John 6:35]<FONT color="#0033ff"> <FONT color="#000000">as "the bread that came down from heaven."<FONT color="#0033ff"> [6:41].<FONT color="#0033ff"> <FONT color="#000000">We need to know spiritually and experimentally what it is to "eat of his flesh, and to drink of his blood,"<FONT color="#0033ff"> [6:53]<FONT color="#0033ff"> <FONT color="#000000">to receive him as the bread of life, to appropriate him to the nourishment of our souls as really as we appropriate bread, by digestion, to the nourishment of our bodies.<FONT color="#000000" size="2"><br><br>
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"Shouldest thou help the ungodly, and love them that hate the LORD? therefore is wrath upon thee from before the LORD"  
<FONT color="#000000"><br><br>
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(2Chronicles 19:2).
This I know is mysticism to the carnal professor. But to the truly spiritually-minded, "this is the bread of God that came down from heaven, of which if a man eat he shall never die."
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<FONT color="#440000">[Or, <FONT color="#aa0000">"This is that Bread which came down from Heaven: not as your fathers did eat manna, and are dead: he that eateth of this Bread shall live for ever" (John 6:58)<FONT color="#440000">.] <br><br><br><br>
 
  
<FONT color="#000000">To hear Christ talk of eating his flesh, and of drinking his blood, was a great stumbling-block to the carnal Jews, as it now is to carnal professors. Nevertheless, this is a glorious truth, that Christ is the constant sustenance of the spiritual life, as truly and as literally as food is the sustenance of the body. <br><br>
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by Tom Stewart
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But the soul will never eat this bread until it has ceased to attempt to fill itself with the husks of its own doings, or with any provision this world can furnish.
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<FONT color="#440000">[<FONT color="#aa0000">"15 <FONT color="#aa0000">Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him. 16 <FONT color="#aa0000">For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world. 17 <FONT color="#aa0000">And the world passeth away, and the lust thereof: but he that doeth the Will of God abideth for ever" (1John 2:15-17)<FONT color="#440000">.] <br><br><br><br>
 
  
<FONT color="#000000">Do you know, Christian, what it is to eat of this bread? If so, then you shall never die.<br><br>
 
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<B>(xxviii.)</B><FONT color="#0033ff"><B> </B><FONT color="#440000"><B>[FOUNTAIN OF THE WATER OF LIFE]</B><FONT color="#0033ff"> <FONT color="#000000">Christ also needs to be revealed to the soul as the fountain of the water of life. "If any man thirst," says he, "let him come unto me and drink."<FONT color="#0033ff"> [John 7:37].<FONT color="#0033ff"> <FONT color="#000000">"I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end. To him that is athirst, I will give unto him of the fountain of the water of life freely." [Revelation 21:6].<FONT color="#0033ff"><br><br>
 
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<FONT color="#000000">The soul needs to have such discoveries made to it, as to beget a thirst after God that cannot be allayed, except by a copious draught at the fountain of the water of life. It is indispensable to the establishing of the soul in perfect love, that its hungering after the bread, and its thirsting for the water of life, should be duly excited, and that the spirit should pant and struggle after God, and "cry out for the living God,"
 
  
<FONT color="#440000">[<FONT color="#aa0000">"My soul thirsteth for God, for the Living God" (Psalm 42:2)<FONT color="#440000">.] <br><br><br><br>
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Preface
  
<FONT color="#000000">that it should be able to say with truth: "My soul panteth for God as the hart panteth for the water-brooks; My heart and my flesh crieth out for the living God;"
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A CNN/USA Today/Gallup survey was taken of the American public on December 28th-29th 1998, sampling 1,055 adult Americans' opinions of whom they "admire the most". "Woe to the rebellious children, saith the LORD, that take counsel, but not of Me" (Isaiah 30:1). Despite the House of Representatives' vote to impeach him, President Bill Clinton was voted the most admired man-- "living in any part of the world"-- for the second consecutive year. "For My thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways My ways, saith the LORD" (55:8). It came as no surprise that NBA sports star Michael Jordan was included near the top of that list-- 4th most admired. However, the 2nd most admired was the only one of the top four that is not an American-- Pope John Paul II. "Moreover I will deliver all the strength of this city, and all the labours thereof, and all the precious things thereof, and all the treasures of the kings of Judah will I give into the hand of their enemies, which shall spoil them, and take them, and carry them to Babylon" (Jeremiah 20:5). The individual that ranked as the 3rd most admired man-- by this "evil and adulterous generation" (Matthew 12:39)-- in 1998's year end poll, was Billy Graham, the Southern Baptist evangelist known throughout the world. But, "11 Blessed are ye, when men shall revile you, and persecute you, and shall say all manner of evil against you falsely, for My sake. 12 Rejoice, and be exceeding glad: for great is your reward in Heaven: for so persecuted they the prophets which were before you" (5:11-12).
  
<FONT color="#440000">[Or, <FONT color="#aa0000">"As the hart panteth after the water brooks... my heart and my flesh crieth out for the Living God" (Psalm 42:1; 84:2)<FONT color="#440000">.] <br><br><br><br>
 
  
<FONT color="#000000">"My soul breaketh for the longing that it hath after thee at all times."
 
  
<FONT color="#440000">[Or, <FONT color="#aa0000">"My soul breaketh for the longing that it hath unto Thy Judgments at all times" (Psalm 119:20)<FONT color="#440000">.] <br><br><br><br>
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How Could This Happen?
  
<FONT color="#000000">When this state of mind is induced by the Holy Spirit, so that the longing of the soul after perpetual holiness is irrepressible, it is prepared for a revelation of Christ, in all those offices and relations that are necessary to secure its establishment in love. Especially is it then prepared to apprehend, appreciate, and appropriate Christ, as the bread and water of life, to understand what it is to eat the flesh and drink the blood of the Son of God. It is then in a state to understand what Christ meant when he said, "Blessed are they that do hunger and thirst after righteousness, for they shall be filled."<FONT color="#0033ff"> [Matthew 5:6].<FONT color="#000000"> They not only understand what it is to hunger and thirst, but also what it is to be filled; to have the hunger and thirst allayed, and the largest desire fully satisfied. The soul then realizes in its own experience the truthfulness of the apostle's saying, that Christ "is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think."<FONT color="#0033ff"> [Ephesians 3:20].<FONT color="#0033ff"><br><br>
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Jesus Christ, the Judge, "standeth before the door" (James 5:9), and the Apostasy preceding His Second Coming is already in progress. "When the Son of Man cometh, shall He find Faith on the Earth?" (Luke 18:8). Though it may seem that the entire world has capitulated to Babylon the Great, the God of All Comfort assures His people, "I have reserved to Myself seven thousand men, who have not bowed the knee to the image of Baal" (Romans 11:4). The transformation of Professed Christianity into Babylon the Great must accelerate as the Man of Sin must shortly be revealed. "But evil men and seducers shall wax worse and worse, deceiving, and being deceived" (2Timothy 3:13). Though Christ's free gift of salvation is offered to the world-- and "few there be that find it" (Matthew 7:14)-- apparently even fewer have an "understanding of the times, to know what Israel [i.e., the Godly] ought to do" (1Chronicles 12:32). [See our articles, "An Earnest Appeal to Roman Catholics, Or, Roman Catholicism Examined in Light of the Scriptures" and "Babylon the Great (Part 2), The Reformation and the Church of Rome", for an exposition of Rome's doctrine and history.]
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<FONT color="#000000">Many stop short even of anything like intense hunger and thirst; others hunger and thirst, but have not the idea of the perfect fulness and adaptedness of Christ to meet and satisfy the longing of their souls. They therefore do not plead and look for the soul-satisfying revelation of Christ. They expect no such divine fulness and satisfaction of soul. They are ignorant of the fulness and perfection of the provisions of the "glorious gospel of the blessed God;"<FONT color="#0033ff"> [1Timothy 1:11],<FONT color="#0033ff"> <FONT color="#000000">and consequently they are not encouraged to hope from the fact, that they hunger and thirst after righteousness, that they shall be filled; but they remain unfed, unfilled, unsatisfied, and after a season, through unbelief, fall into indifference, and remain in bondage to sin.<br><br>
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<B>(xxix.)</B><FONT color="#0033ff"><B> </B><FONT color="#440000"><B>[THE TRUE GOD AND ETERNAL LIFE]</B><FONT color="#0033ff"> <FONT color="#000000">The soul needs also to know Christ as the true God, and the eternal life. "No man can say that Jesus is the Lord, save by the Holy Spirit."<FONT color="#0033ff"> [1Corinthians 12:3].<FONT color="#0033ff"> <FONT color="#000000">The proper divinity of Christ is never, and never can be, held otherwise than as a mere opinion, a tenet, a speculation, an article of creed, until he is revealed to the inner man by the Holy Spirit. But nothing short of an apprehension of Christ, as the supreme and living God to the soul, can inspire that confidence in him that is essential to its established sanctification. The soul can have no apprehension of what is intended by his being the "eternal life," until it spiritually knows him as the true God.
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<FONT color="#440000">[<FONT color="#aa0000">"And we know that the Son of God is come, and hath given us an Understanding, that we may know Him that is True, and we are in Him that is True, even in His Son Jesus Christ. This is the True God, and Eternal Life" (1John 5:20)<FONT color="#440000">.] <br><br><br><br>
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How could this degeneration take place for the Professed Church, if the Godly continue to "grow in grace, and in the knowledge of our LORD and Saviour Jesus Christ" (2Peter 3:18)? Obviously, the Professed Church has ceased to grow, but has become "as a backsliding heifer" (Hosea 4:16). The command of the Holy One-- "Be ye holy; for I am holy" (1Peter 1:16)-- has been minimized or sinfully ignored, i.e., "Christians aren't perfect-- just forgiven". As the Saints became "weary in well doing" (Galatians 6:9), instead of reproving the "unfruitful works of darkness" (Ephesians 5:11), they opened their arms of fellowship to Babylon the Great in the name of Unity and Christian Love. But, "what saith the Scripture?" (Romans 4:3). "Shouldest thou help the ungodly, and love them that hate the LORD? therefore is wrath upon thee from before the LORD" (2Chronicles 19:2).
  
<FONT color="#000000">When he is spiritually revealed as the true and living God, the way is prepared for the spiritual apprehension of him as the eternal life. "As the living Father hath life in himself, so hath he given to the Son to have life in himself."<FONT color="#0033ff"> [John 5:26].<FONT color="#0033ff"> <FONT color="#000000">"In him was life, and the life was the light of men."<FONT color="#000000" size="2"> [1:4].<FONT color="#0033ff"> <FONT color="#000000">"I give unto them eternal life."<FONT color="#0033ff"> [10:28].<FONT color="#0033ff"> <FONT color="#000000">"I am the way, the truth, and the life."<FONT color="#0033ff"> [14:6].<FONT color="#0033ff"> <FONT color="#000000">"I am the resurrection and the life."<FONT color="#0033ff"> [11:25].<FONT color="#0033ff"> <FONT color="#000000">These and similar passages the soul needs spiritually to apprehend, to have a spiritual and personal revelation of them within. <br><br>
 
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Most professors seem to me to have no right idea of the condition upon which the Bible can be made of spiritual use to them. They seem not to understand, that in its letter it is only a history of things formerly revealed to men; that it is, in fact, a revelation to no man, except upon the condition of its being personally revealed, or revealed to us in particular by the Holy Spirit.
 
  
<FONT color="#440000">[<FONT color="#aa0000">"Who also hath made us able ministers of the New Testament; not of the letter, but of the Spirit: for the letter killeth, but the Spirit giveth Life" (2Corinthians 3:6)<FONT color="#440000">.] <br><br><br><br>
 
  
<FONT color="#000000">The mere fact, that we have in the gospel the history of the birth, the life, the death of Christ, is no such revelation of Christ to any man as meets his necessities; and as will secure his salvation. Christ and his doctrine, his life, and death, and resurrection, need to be revealed personally by the Holy Spirit, to each and every soul of man, to effect his salvation. So it is with every spiritual truth; without an inward revelation of it to the soul, it is only a savour of death unto death.
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Billy Graham: His Early Life and Ministry
  
<FONT color="#440000">[<FONT color="#aa0000">"To the one we are the savour of death unto death; and to the other the savour of life unto life. And who is sufficient for these things?" (2Corinthians 2:16)<FONT color="#440000">.] <br><br><br><br>
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Outside of the Pope, one of the best known names of the modern Christian culture is that of Billy Graham-- William Franklin Graham, Jr.-- born in 1918. "For unto whomsoever much is given, of him shall be much required" (Luke 12:48). At the age of 16, Billy Graham made a public profession of faith in the LORD Jesus Christ, under the preaching of Baptist evangelist, Mordechai Ham (1877-1961). "Even a child is known by his doings, whether his work be pure, and whether it be right" (Proverbs 20:11). In 1936, Graham briefly attended Bob Jones College (now Bob Jones University of Greenville, South Carolina [USA])-- founded by Bob Jones, Sr. (1883-1968), Fundamentalist evangelist-- citing an inability to adjust to Bob Jones campus life as his reason for leaving. "Can two walk together, except they be agreed?" (Amos 3:3). He then transferred to Florida Bible Institute (now Trinity College). At this time, he began his life-long membership in the Southern Baptist Convention. Graduating in 1940, he then entered Wheaton College, where he also graduated; and, in 1943, he married Ruth Bell (b. 1920), daughter of missionaries to China and Korea. "For this cause shall a man leave father and mother, and shall cleave to his wife: and they twain shall be one flesh" (Matthew 19:5).
  
<FONT color="#000000">It is in vain to hold to the proper divinity of Christ, as a speculation, a doctrine, a theory, an opinion, without the revelation of his divine nature and character to the soul, by the Holy Spirit. But let the soul know him, and walk with him as the true God, and then it will no longer question whether, as our sanctification, he is all-sufficient and complete.
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During his early ministry, Billy Graham became a well known evangelistic figure among the Fundamentalist, Bible preaching churches of America, but still not a byword to America's religious mainstream. "A good name is rather to be chosen than great riches, and loving favour rather than silver and gold" (Proverbs 22:1). From 1945 to 1948, Graham assisted Torrey Johnson, organizing rallies and speaking for the Youth for Christ organization. "If ye continue in My Word, then are ye My disciples indeed" (John 8:31). In 1947, William B. Riley (1861-1947)-- ardent Fundamentalist, who fought the drift of the Northern Baptist Convention into Modernism's Social Gospel-- persuaded Graham to accept the leadership of Northwestern Schools in Minneapolis, Minnesota [USA]. "Confidence in an unfaithful man in time of trouble is like a broken tooth, and a foot out of joint" (Proverbs 25:19).
  
<FONT color="#440000">[<FONT color="#aa0000">"In that hour Jesus rejoiced in Spirit, and said, I thank Thee, O Father, LORD of Heaven and Earth, that Thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent, and hast revealed them unto babes: even so, Father; for so it seemed good in Thy sight" (Luke 10:21)<FONT color="#440000">.] <br><br><br><br>
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After all, in 1948, at the annual convention of the fundamentalist 'Conservative Baptist Association', Billy Graham was asked: "What do you expect the World Council of Churches to do this August when you visit Copenhagen?" Graham replied, "I believe they are going to nominate the Anti-Christ" (from Ian R. K. Paisley's "Billy Graham and the Church of Rome" [1970], p. 46). Contrast that to Graham's 1974 statement at the International Congress on World Evangelization in Lausanne, Switzerland: "I have nothing but the warmest of relations with the World Council of Churches" (from Dr. Bert Oately-Willis' "Billy Graham: The Facts" [Toronto Free Presbyterian Church]). "No man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon" (Matthew 6:24).
  
<FONT color="#000000">Let no one object to this, that if this is true, men are under no obligation to believe in Christ, and to obey the gospel, without or until they are enlightened by the Holy Spirit. To such an objection, should it be made, I would answer,--<br><br>
 
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(a.)<B> </B>Men are under an obligation to believe every truth so far as they can understand or apprehend it, but no further. So far as they can apprehend the spiritual truths of the gospel without the Holy Spirit, so far, without his aid, they are bound to believe it.
 
  
<FONT color="#440000">[<FONT color="#aa0000">"Therefore to him that knoweth to do good, and doeth it not, to him it is sin" (James 4:17)<FONT color="#440000">.] <br><br><br><br>
 
  
<FONT color="#000000">But Christ has himself taught us, that no man can come to him except the Father draw him.
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1949-- A Year of Decision for Billy Graham
  
<FONT color="#440000">[<FONT color="#aa0000">"No man can come to Me, except the Father which hath sent Me draw him: and I will raise him up at the Last Day" (John 6:44)<FONT color="#440000">.] <br><br><br><br>
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Let an excerpt from a biography of Billy Graham, "Billy Graham and the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association - Historical Background", prepared by the staff of the Billy Graham Center Archives at Wheaton College-- since 1980, the designated repository for the papers of Graham and the records of the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association (BGEA)-- inform us of the sudden transformation of Billy Graham at the close of 1949. "Within evangelical and fundamentalist communities in America, Graham was quite well known. At the end of 1949, he suddenly came into national prominence. An evangelistic campaign Graham was leading in Los Angeles resulted in the dramatic conversion of a local underworld figure and a prominent disc jockey, among others. The newspaper magnate, William Randolph Hearst, for reasons unknown, ordered his publications to 'puff Graham' and other newspapers around the country followed suit. The campaign, planned for three weeks, lasted seven. Next, Graham went to Boston for a scheduled series of campaigns and again the results were spectacular. He then went on to Columbia, South Carolina, where he met publisher Henry Luce, who was impressed with the evangelist and had articles about him written for his publications, Time and Life magazines." "Woe unto you, when all men shall speak well of you! for so did their fathers to the false prophets" (Luke 6:26).
  
<FONT color="#000000">That this drawing means teaching is evident, from what Christ proceeds to say. "For it is written," said he, "they shall all be taught of God. Every one therefore that hath heard and hath learned of the Father cometh unto me."<FONT color="#0033ff"> [6:45].<FONT color="#0033ff"><br><br>
 
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<FONT color="#000000">That this learning of the Father is something different from the mere oral or written instructions of Christ and the apostles, is evident from the fact, that Christ assured those to whom he preached, with all the plainness with which he was able, that they still could not come to him except drawn, that is taught, of the Father. As the Father teaches by the Holy Spirit, Christ's plain teaching, in the passage under consideration is, that no man can come to him except he be specially enlightened by the Holy Spirit.
 
  
<FONT color="#440000">[<FONT color="#aa0000">"The eyes of your understanding being enlightened; that ye may know what is the hope of His calling, and what the riches of the Glory of His inheritance in the Saints" (Ephesians 1:18)<FONT color="#440000">.] <br><br><br><br>
 
  
<FONT color="#000000">Paul unequivocally teaches the same thing. "No man," says he, "can say that Jesus is the Lord, but by the Holy Spirit."<FONT color="#0033ff"> [1Corinthians 12:3].<FONT color="#0033ff"> <FONT color="#000000">Notwithstanding all the teaching of the apostles, no man by merely listening to their instruction could so apprehend the true divinity of Christ, as honestly and with spiritual understanding to say, that Jesus is the Lord. <br><br>
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The Way of Balaam
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But what spiritual or true Christian does not know the radical difference between being taught of man and of God, between the opinions that we form from reading, hearing, and study, and the clear apprehensions of truths that are communicated by the direct and inward illuminations of the Holy Spirit?
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<FONT color="#440000">[<FONT color="#aa0000">"20 <FONT color="#aa0000">But ye have an Unction from the Holy One, and ye know all things. 21 <FONT color="#aa0000">I have not written unto you because ye know not the Truth, but because ye know it, and that no lie is of the Truth" (1John 2:20-21)<FONT color="#440000">.} <br><br><br><br>
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But, why identify the name
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of the wicked prophet, Balaam,  
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with that of Billy Graham, a Bible preaching evangelist?
  
<FONT color="#000000">(b.)<B> </B>I answer, that men under the gospel are entirely without excuse for not enjoying all the light they need from the Holy Spirit, since he is in the world, has been sent for the very purpose of giving to men all the knowledge of themselves and of Christ which they need. His aid is freely proffered to all, and Christ has assured us, that the Father is more willing to give the Holy Spirit to them that ask him, than parents are to give good gifts to their children.
 
  
<FONT color="#440000">[<FONT color="#aa0000">"If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children: how much more shall your Heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to them that ask Him?" (Luke 11:13)<FONT color="#440000">.]<FONT color="#0033ff"><br><br>
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(1) Billy Graham, like Balaam, gives credence to the Word of God. Balaam said, "I cannot go beyond the Word of the LORD my God, to do less or more" (Numbers 22:18). Billy Graham affirms, "The Bible says".
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<FONT color="#440000">[<FONT color="#aa0000">"For unto whomsoever much is given, of him shall be much required: and to whom men have committed much, of him they will ask the more" (12:48)<FONT color="#440000">.] <br><br><br><br>
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<FONT color="#000000">All men under the gospel know this, and all men have light enough to ask in faith for the Holy Spirit, and of course all men may know of themselves and of Christ all that they need to know. They are therefore able to know and to embrace Christ as fully and as fast as it is their duty to embrace him. They are able to know Christ in his governmental and spiritual relations, just as fast as they come into circumstances to need to know him in these various relations.
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(2) Billy Graham, like Balaam, encourages unscriptural compromise. Balaam encouraged Israel to "commit whoredom with the daughters of Moab" (Numbers 25:1), while Graham encouraged a Roman Catholic couple, disillusioned with their Catholic church-- as reported in the "Sun Telegram" (January 6th 1973)-- "Don't pull out of the [Catholic] church. Stay in it ... help your church". And,
  
<FONT color="#440000">[<FONT color="#aa0000">"For the invisible things of Him from the Creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even His Eternal Power and Godhead; so that they are without excuse" (Romans 1:20)<FONT color="#440000">.] <br><br><br><br>
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(3) Billy Graham, like Balaam, ostensibly refuses riches to pursue his ministry. Balaam replied to Balak's messengers, "If Balak would give me his house full of silver and gold, I cannot go beyond the Word of the LORD my God, to do less or more" (Numbers 22:18). Though the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association (BGEA) took in over $102 million in 1991, Billy Graham's salary was just a little over $100,000. Money seems to be less of a motivator for Graham than the praise and adulation of man, i.e., the satisfaction that presidents and world leaders would give audience to his counsel. "5 They are of the world: therefore speak they of the world, and the world heareth them. 6 We are of God: he that knoweth God heareth us; he that is not of God heareth not us. Hereby know we the Spirit of Truth, and the spirit of error" (1John 4:5-6).
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A thoughtful evaluation of the ministry of Billy Graham will reveal that Billy Graham has been mightily used of Satan to break down the walls of separation between the Godly and the ungodly. "And ye shall be holy unto Me: for I the LORD am holy, and have severed you from other people, that ye should be Mine" (Leviticus 20:26). It will also reveal that Billy Graham's most effective work for Babylon the Great has been that of masquerading as a Bible believing evangelist-- doing "the work of the LORD deceitfully" (Jeremiah 48:10)-- seducing unwary Pilgrims into laying aside the "Sword of the Spirit" (Ephesians 6:17) in the name of Christian Love and Unity. If the Pope had approached the Bible-Believing-Evangelical-Community with the need for Ecumenical Unity in previous generations, he would have been viewed with suspicion-- on account of the corruptions of the Medieval Catholic Church, the terrors of the Inquisition, the wicked absurdity of Papal infallibility, etc. "Ye shall know them by their fruits" (Matthew 7:16). [See our articles, "Babylon the Great (Part 1), The Purpose and History of Babylon the Great", for a discussion of Balaam's relationship to promoting Israel's Baal worship.]
  
<FONT color="#000000">The Holy Spirit, if he is not quenched and resisted, will surely reveal Christ in all his relations in due time, so that, in every temptation a way of escape will be open, so that we shall be able to bear it. This is expressly promised, 1 Cor. x. 13, "There hath no temptation taken you but such as is common to man; but God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able, but will with the temptation also make a way to escape, that ye may be able to bear it." <FONT color="#0033ff"><br><br>
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But, when Billy Graham, who is supposed to be a respected leader of the Bible-Believing-Evangelical-Community, calls for Love and Christian Unity with the Church of Rome, i.e., Babylon the Great, it becomes palatable to the rank and file. "Woe unto them that call evil good, and good evil; that put darkness for light, and light for darkness; that put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter!" (Isaiah 5:20). Though Billy Graham is only one of "many antichrists" (1John 2:18)-- for he opposes the necessity to "come out of" Babylon the Great (Revelation 18:4), which is the antichristian Church of Rome-- he does prepare the way for the False Prophet and the Antichrist. "For he that biddeth him God speed is partaker of his evil deeds" (2John 11). [See our article, "Babylon the Great (Part 3), The Ecumenical Movement and the Church of Rome", to trace the prophetic significance of the False Love and Unity of Ecumenism.]
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<FONT color="#000000">Men are able to know what God offers to teach them, upon a condition within the compass of their ability. The Holy Spirit offers, upon condition of faith in the express promise of God, to lead every man into all truth. Every man is, therefore, under obligation to know and do the whole truth, so far and so fast as it is possible for him to do so, with the light of the Holy Spirit.
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<FONT color="#440000">[<FONT color="#aa0000">"Seeing ye have purified your souls in obeying the Truth through the Spirit unto unfeigned love of the brethren, see that ye love one another with a pure heart fervently" (1Peter 1:22)<FONT color="#440000">.] <br><br><br><br>
 
  
<FONT color="#000000"><B>(xxx.)</B><FONT color="#0033ff"><B> </B><FONT color="#440000"><B>[OUR LIFE]</B> <FONT color="#000000">But be it remembered, that it is not enough for us to apprehend Christ as the true God and the eternal life, but we need also to lay hold upon him as our life. It cannot be too distinctly understood, that a particular and personal appropriation of Christ, in such relations, is indispensable to our being rooted and grounded, established and perfected in love.
 
  
<FONT color="#440000">[<FONT color="#aa0000">"When Christ, Who is our Life, shall appear, then shall ye also appear with Him in Glory" (Colossians 3:4)<FONT color="#440000">.] <br><br><br><br>
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A Chronology of the Compromise of Billy Graham With Babylon the Great.
  
<FONT color="#000000">When our utter deficiency and emptiness in any one respect or direction, is deeply revealed to us by the Holy Spirit, with the corresponding remedy and perfect fulness in Christ, it then remains for the soul, in this respect and direction, to cast off self, and put on Christ. When this is done, when self in that respect and direction is dead, and Christ is risen, and lives and reigns in the heart in that relation, all is strong, and whole, and complete, in that department of our life and experience.
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1966, December 6th. A National Council of Churches-- or, the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the U.S.A., Inc., which is "the largest ecumenical body in the United States, with a membership of about 40 million" (Britannica CD 99)-- committee invited Billy Graham to speak at a December 6th luncheon. Dr. Graham said, "We need to remind ourselves of such scriptures as Paul wrote to the Corinthians, 'Wherefore come out from among them and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing, and I will receive you.' [2Corinthians 6:17] Now some people have interpreted that verse to mean the National Council-- that you're to come out and touch not the unclean thing. (Laughter) That's not the meaning there, the meaning is paganism-- the evils of the world. Indeed we're to go into the world, and mingle with the publicans and sinners but we're not to participate in the moral and social evils" (from Ian R. K. Paisley's "Billy Graham and the Church of Rome", pp. 27-28). Concerning Graham's mocking of spiritual separation, "Fools make a mock at sin" (Proverbs 14:9). Ian Paisley wisely assessed that the purpose of the Ecumenical Movement is the final union of all churches with Babylon the Great. "Without a doubt the aim of both the National Council of Churches in America, and the World Council of Churches on the international level is the final unity of all churches with the Roman Catholic Church" (Paisley, "Billy Graham and the Church of Rome", p. 25). Concerning Babylon the Great, "a whore is a deep ditch; and a strange woman is a narrow pit" (23:27).  
  
<FONT color="#440000">[<FONT color="#aa0000">"9 <FONT color="#aa0000">Lie not one to another, seeing that ye have put off the old man with his deeds; 10 <FONT color="#aa0000">and have put on the new man, which is renewed in Knowledge after the image of Him that created Him" (Colossians 3:9-10)<FONT color="#440000">.] <br><br><br><br>
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1967, November 21st. Belmont Abbey College, a Roman Catholic school in Belmont, North Carolina (USA), climaxed the week long program of its Institute for Ecumenic Dialogue-- "designed to promote understanding among Catholic and Protestant clergymen"-- with the presentation of an honorary degree of doctor of humane letters (D.H.L.) to Southern Baptist evangelist, Billy Graham. "The gospel that built this school and the gospel that brings me here tonight is still the way of salvation," Graham assured his audience of 1,700 Protestants and Catholics (from an article, "Belmont Abbey Confers Honorary Degree" by Paul Smith, taken from the "The Gastonia Gazette" [North Carolina] November 22, 1967). "I marvel that ye are so soon removed from Him that called you into the grace of Christ unto another Gospel" (Galatians 1:6).
  
<FONT color="#000000">For example, suppose we find ourselves constitutionally, or by reason of our relations and circumstances, exposed to certain besetments and temptations that overcome us. Our weakness in this respect we observe in our experience. But upon observing our exposedness, and experiencing something of our weakness, we begin with piling resolution upon resolution. We bind ourselves with oaths and promises, and covenants, but all in vain. When we purpose to stand, we invariably, in the presence of the temptation, fall.
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1968, July 5th. In the magazine "Christianity Today"-- founded in 1955 by Graham, his father-in-law L. Nelson Bell, and others "to present the evangelical viewpoint to theologically liberal Protestant pastors" (from "Billy Graham and the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association - Historical Background" of the Billy Graham Center Archives at Wheaton College)-- Graham spoke of cooperation with the Church of Rome, saying, "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" (from Dr. Bert Oately-Willis' "Billy Graham: The Facts" [Toronto Free Presbyterian Church]). Billy Graham was speaking of willingness to cooperate with Babylon the Great, i.e., to have "fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness" (Ephesians 5:11). This step in Graham's disobedience formed part of a gradual slide away from any kind of Scriptural separation. "But the Word of the LORD was unto them precept upon precept, precept upon precept; line upon line, line upon line; here a little, and there a little; that they might go, and fall backward, and be broken, and snared, and taken" (Isaiah 28:13).
  
<FONT color="#440000">[<FONT color="#aa0000">"But put ye on the LORD Jesus Christ, and make not provision for the flesh, to fulfil the lusts thereof" (Romans 13:14)<FONT color="#440000">.] <br><br><br><br>
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1977, June 3rd. "Would Billy Graham conduct a crusade at the Vatican? If a place were made available and Christian leaders in Rome wanted him to, he might. No campaign in Catholicism's capital is on the evangelist's calendar now, but his five-day crusade last month [May 1977] on the Notre Dame University Campus proved he is not afraid to go deep into Roman Catholic territory. It also showed that many elements in the once hostile Catholic community are now receptive to Graham's type of ministry. Graham's sermons were of the type that audiences around the world have heard, with only a few more references to such Catholics as Bishop Fulton Sheen and Mother Teresa of Calcutta" (from "Christianity Today" June 3, 1977). Even King David would have to disagree with Billy Graham's unscriptural evangelism. "4 I have not sat with vain persons, neither will I go in with dissemblers [pretenders]. 5 I have hated the congregation of evil doers; and will not sit with the wicked" (Psalm 26:4-5). When Billy Graham began to refuse to keep his evangelistic crusades from being sponsored by the enemies of the Gospel of Christ, then he openly surrendered his ministry to the Devil. "Enter not into the path of the wicked, and go not in the way of evil men" (Proverbs 4:14). Billy Graham forgot that only the methods of the LORD could properly promote his ministry. "6 For promotion cometh neither from the east, nor from the west, nor from the south. 7 But God is the Judge: He putteth down one, and setteth up another" (Psalm 75:6-7).
  
<FONT color="#000000">This process of resolving and falling brings the soul into great discouragement and perplexity, until at last the Holy Spirit reveals to us fully, that we are attempting to stand and to build upon nothing. The utter emptiness and worse than uselessness of our resolutions and self-originated efforts, is so clearly seen by us, as to annihilate for ever self-dependence in this respect.
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1978, January. In an interview given to "McCall's Magazine" Graham said, "I used to believe that pagans in far off countries were lost going to hell if they did not have the Gospel of Jesus Christ preached to them. I no longer believe that. I believe that there are other ways of recognizing God through nature for instance and plenty of other ways of saying 'yes' to God". But, Dr. Graham, what happened to the Gospel necessity of turning solely to Jesus Christ in faith? "Neither is there salvation in any other: for there is none other name under Heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved" (Acts 4:12). The Billy Graham Evangelistic Association later issued a statement citing Graham as saying, "On the whole I am pleased with the accuracy of the article (McCall's)... a few statements unfortunately convey meanings which I never intended. This may be due to my own failure to make myself as plain as I should have". However, in the same McCall's article, Graham said, "I've found that my beliefs are essentially the same as those of orthodox Roman Catholics... we differ on some matters of later church tradition". Notice how the difference between Graham and the universal Church of Rome is admittedly nonexistent. "Ye adulterers and adulteresses, know ye not that the friendship of the world is enmity with God? whosoever therefore will be a friend of the world is the enemy of God" (James 4:4). The Scripture telling of the degeneration of evil men, i.e., Billy Graham's departure from salvation by faith alone in Christ Jesus, must also be true. "But evil men and seducers shall wax worse and worse, deceiving, and being deceived" (2Timothy 3:13).
  
<FONT color="#440000">[<FONT color="#aa0000">"For Godly sorrow worketh repentance to Salvation not to be repented of: but the sorrow of the world worketh death" (2Corinthians 7:10)<FONT color="#440000">.] <br><br><br><br>
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1979, September. "The Christian Courier" of Milwaukee, Wisconsin published the following report on their recent Milwaukee Crusade: "Sister Maureen Hopkins, Director of the Ecumenical and Interfaith Commission of the Milwaukee Roman Catholic Archdiocese, and a liaison member of the Crusade committee, reported that 120 people have volunteered within the Catholic community to help her with the task of contacting each of the 3,500 inquiries. Sr. Maureen received the names and telephone numbers from the Crusade Committee, based upon the inquirers indication of leaving a Catholic background on his inquiry card... All 3,500 were immediately invited to a Eucharistic celebration which was held on August 16 at St. Theresa's Church in Milwaukee. The mass was attended by more than 400 people. The primary purpose for the mass was to remind the inquirers that their commitments to Christ should be nurtured within the sacramental framework of the [Catholic] church." "Woe be unto the pastors that destroy and scatter the sheep of My pasture! saith the LORD" (Jeremiah 23:1).
  
<FONT color="#000000">Now the soul is prepared for the revelation of Christ to meet this particular want. Christ is revealed and apprehended as the soul's substitute, surety, life, and salvation, in respect to the particular besetment and weakness of which it has had so full and so humiliating a revelation. Now, if the soul utterly and for ever casts off and renounces self, and puts on the Lord Jesus Christ, as he is seen to be needed to meet his necessity, then all is complete in him. Thus far Christ is reigning within us. Thus far we know what is the power of his resurrection, and are made conformable to his death.
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"Christianity Today" for September 7,1979 pointed out that "Graham had sent a team member almost a year before the Crusade to conduct a seminar on the working of the Crusade for Milwaukee [Catholic] priests and lay workers". Pastor John Ashbrook writes, "It is a tragedy that 3,500 decision cards were turned over to the Roman Catholic Church, but, it is a worse tragedy when you realize that it did not 'happen,' It was planned by the world's best-known evangelist" (from John Ashbrook's "Billy Graham's Catholic Connection"). "Woe unto him that buildeth his house by unrighteousness" (Jeremiah 22:13).  
  
<FONT color="#440000">[<FONT color="#aa0000">"That I may know Him, and the Power of His Resurrection, and the Fellowship of His Sufferings, being made conformable unto His Death" (Philippians 3:10)<FONT color="#440000">.]<FONT color="#0033ff"><br><br>
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1979, September 27th. On the eve of the Papal visit to the United States in 1979, The Religious News Service produced a September 27,1979 dispatch which quoted Billy Graham as follows: "The visit of Pope Paul II to the United States is an event of great significance not only for Roman Catholics, but for all Americans-- as well as the world... In the short time he has been Pope, John Paul II has become the moral leader of the world. My prayers and the prayer of countless other Protestants will be with him as he makes his journey" (from John Ashbrook's "Billy Graham's Catholic Connection"). "When thou sawest a thief, then thou consentedst with him, and hast been partaker with adulterers" (Psalm 50:18). And, "They that forsake the Law praise the wicked: but such as keep the Law contend with them" (Proverbs 28:4).
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<FONT color="#440000">[<FONT color="#aa0000">"11 <FONT color="#aa0000">For what man knoweth the things of a man, save the spirit of man which is in him? even so the things of God knoweth no man, but the Spirit of God... 16 <FONT color="#aa0000">For who hath known the mind of the LORD, that he may instruct Him? But we have the mind of Christ" (1Corinthians 2:11, 16)<FONT color="#440000">.] <br><br><br><br>
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<FONT color="#000000">But I said, that we need to know and to lay hold upon Christ as our life. Too much stress cannot be laid upon our personal responsibility to Christ, our individual relation to him, our personal interest in him, and obligation to him. <br><br>
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1980, January/February. Alan Cairns recorded that, "DR. GRAHAM HAILS THE POPE AS 'THE GREATEST RELIGIOUS LEADER OF THE MODERN WORLD.'" Billy Graham wrote this in a lengthy article in the "Saturday Evening Post" of January/February 1980, referring to John Paul II as "one of the greatest moral and spiritual leaders of this century" and "an evangelist" who "sought to speak to the spiritual hunger of our age in the same way Christians throughout the centuries have spoken to the spiritual yearning of every age-- by pointing people to Christ" (from Alan Cairns' "Billy Graham and His Bible" [Greenville, South Carolina-- in association with the Toronto Free Presbyterian Church]). When the Professed Church begins to believe such lies as Graham wrote for the "Saturday Evening Post", then the Scripture is rejected. "Let not an evil speaker be established in the Earth: evil shall hunt the violent man to overthrow him" (Psalm 140:11). Also, the Scripture is spurned that declares, "I am a companion of all them that fear Thee, and of them that keep Thy Precepts" (119:63).
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To sanctify our own souls, we need to make every department of religion a personal matter between us and God, to regard every precept of the Bible, and every promise, saying, exhortation, threatening, and in short, we need to regard the whole Bible as given to us, and earnestly seek the personal revelation of every truth it contains to our own souls.
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<FONT color="#440000">[<FONT color="#aa0000">"Neither is there any creature that is not manifest in His sight: but all things are naked and opened unto the eyes of Him with Whom we have to do" (Hebrews 4:13)<FONT color="#440000">.] <br><br><br><br>
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1981. Billy Graham "met the pope for the first time, and was the first Protestant to speak at the North American College, a seminary for students from North America at the Vatican" (reported from "Roman Catholic- Evangelical Cooperation" at ReligiousTolerance.org-- an unscriptural website, i.e., "tolerant of all religious beliefs, accurate in our writing, and inclusive", run by two "Unitarian Universalists", one "Wiccan" [witch], and one "liberal but unaffiliated Christian"). "Come [quickly], LORD Jesus" (Revelation 22:20). Billy Graham's toleration of wickedness is the essence of his sin, i.e., hypocritical love. "Let love be without dissimulation [literally, hypocrisy]. Abhor that which is evil; cleave to that which is good" (Romans 12:9). Any tolerance of that which is known to be evil, in the name of being balanced, fair, inclusive, etc. is a devious means of stripping the Saint of his holiness. "Wherefore come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the LORD, and touch not the unclean thing; and I will receive you" (2Corinthians 6:17). When the very word "tolerance" can be used as a weapon against the Godly, then the enemy has come in like a flood. But, "when the enemy shall come in like a flood, the Spirit of the LORD shall lift up a standard against him" (Isaiah 59:19). Amen, and Amen!
  
<FONT color="#000000">No one can too fully understand, or too deeply feel, the necessity of taking home the Bible with all it contains, as a message sent from Heaven to him; nor can too earnestly desire or seek the promised Spirit to teach him the true spiritual import of all its contents. He must have the Bible made a personal revelation of God to his own soul. It must become his own book. He must know Christ for himself. He must know him in his different relations. He must know him in his blessed and infinite fulness, or he cannot abide in him, and unless he abide in Christ, he can bring forth none of the fruits of holiness. "Except a man abide in me, he is cast forth as a branch, and is withered."<FONT color="#0033ff"> [John 15:6].
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1984, February 9th. John Ashbrook, pastor of Bible Community Church in Mentor, Ohio, reported that the Lake County (Ohio) "News Herald" of February 9, 1984 printed a headline stating: "Graham's Help on Vatican Ties". The article was an Associated Press release: "A spokesman for Billy Graham confirms that the evangelist played a behind-the-scenes role in President Reagan's decision to establish formal diplomatic relations with the Vatican, a newspaper reported yesterday. Early in 1983, Graham was asked by the president and adviser William Clark to make informal, private inquiries among evangelical Protestant leaders about likely response to such an action, said Donald Bialy, media director for the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association in Minneapolis. A copy of the seven-page letter that the Baptist evangelist sent to Clark was obtained by the Chicago Sun-Times, which quoted Graham as saying, 'If anyone can do it and get away with it, it is Mr. Reagan.'" Concerning the sinful overture of the United States to the Vatican, "Righteousness exalteth a nation: but sin is a reproach to any people" (Proverbs 14:34). And concerning America's departure to Rome, "My people have committed two evils; they have forsaken Me the Fountain of Living Waters, and hewed them out cisterns, broken cisterns, that can hold no water" (Jeremiah 2:13).
  
<FONT color="#440000">[<FONT color="#aa0000">"Sanctify them through Thy Truth: Thy Word is Truth" (John 17:17)<FONT color="#440000">.] <br><br><br><br>
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1989, June 8th. Commenting on a highlight of his life, Billy Graham offered this anecdote about a 1989 meeting with Pope John Paul II: "There was a pause in the conversation; suddenly the Pope's arm shot out and he grabbed the lapels of my coat, he pulled me forward within inches of his own face. He fixed his eyes on me and said, 'Listen Graham, we are brothers'" (from "Today" June 8, 1989). "Make no friendship with an angry man; and with a furious man thou shalt not go" (Proverbs 22:24). And, "Take ye heed every one of his neighbour, and trust ye not in any brother: for every brother will utterly supplant, and every neighbour will walk with slanders" (Jeremiah 9:4).
  
<FONT color="#000000">Apprehending and embracing Christ as our life implies the apprehension of the fact, that we of ourselves are dead in trespasses and in sins, that we have no life in ourselves, that death has reigned, and will eternally reign in and over us, unless Christ become our life.
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1995, June 2-8. "The European" reported, "DR. GRAHAM SENDS HIS ENQUIRERS INTO ROMAN CATHOLICISM, EASTERN ORTHODOXY, LIBERAL PROTESTANTISM, ETC." This has been a consistent policy since Billy Graham's early evangelistic days. "His name and address and a lot of information about him is taken and within 24 hours that is sent to a minister of the church of his choice regardless of denomination" (from an interview with Graham in the "U.S. News and World Report" of August 27, 1954). "But whoso shall offend one of these little ones which believe in me, it were better for him that a millstone were hanged about his neck, and that he were drowned in the depth of the sea" (Matthew 18:6). Why has Billy Graham done this? Like Balaam, Billy Graham "loved the wages of unrighteousness" (2Peter 2:15), i.e., the acceptance of man, the success of man, the materialism of man, etc. But, the "deceivableness of unrighteousness" (2Thessalonians 2:10) caused Billy Graham to believe the lie that he has done all of this for Jesus Christ. In the end, Billy Graham has no one to blame but Billy Graham. "Neither is there any creature that is not manifest in His sight: but all things are naked and opened unto the eyes of Him with whom we have to do" (Hebrews 4:13).
  
<FONT color="#440000">[<FONT color="#aa0000">"I am the Vine, ye are the branches: He that abideth in Me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit: for without Me ye can do nothing" (15:5)<FONT color="#440000">.] <br><br><br><br>
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1997. In Billy Graham's autobiography, he made clear that his goal was not to lead people out of Roman Catholicism: "My goal, I always made clear, was not to preach against Catholic beliefs or to proselytize people who were already committed to Christ within the Catholic Church. Rather, it was to proclaim the Gospel to all those who had never truly committed their lives to Christ" (from Billy Graham's autobiography, "Just As I Am", p. 357). "3 If any man teach otherwise, and consent not to Wholesome Words, even the Words of our LORD Jesus Christ, and to the doctrine which is according to Godliness; 4 He is proud, knowing nothing, but doting about questions and strifes of words, whereof cometh envy, strife, railings, evil surmisings, 5 Perverse disputings of men of corrupt minds, and destitute of the Truth, supposing that gain is Godliness: from such withdraw thyself" (1Timothy 6:3-5).
  
<FONT color="#000000">Until man knows himself to be dead, and that he is wholly destitute of spiritual life in himself, he will never know Christ as his life. It is not enough to hold the opinion, that all men are by nature dead in trespasses and sins. It is not enough to hold the opinion, that we are, in common with all men, in this condition in and of ourselves. We must see it. We must know what such language means. It must be made a matter of personal revelation to us. We must be made fully to apprehend our own death, and Christ as our life; and we must fully recognize our death and him as our life, by personally renouncing self, in this respect, and laying hold on him as our own spiritual and eternal life.
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1997, January. Larry King interviewed Billy Graham, and he easily induced Graham to make statements applauding the Pope and the Church of Rome.
  
<FONT color="#440000">[<FONT color="#aa0000">"And be found in Him, not having mine own righteousness, which is of the Law, but that which is through the Faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of God by Faith" (Philippians 3:9)<FONT color="#440000">.] <br><br><br><br>
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KING: What do you think of the other [churches]... like Mormonism? Catholicism? Other faiths within the Christian concept?
  
<FONT color="#000000">Many persons, and, strange to say, some eminent ministers, are so blinded as to suppose, that a soul entirely sanctified does not any longer need Christ, assuming that such a soul has spiritual life in and of himself; that there is in him some foundation or efficient occasion of continued holiness, as if the Holy Spirit had changed his nature, or infused physical holiness or an independent holy principle into him, in such a sense that they have an independent well-spring of holiness within, as a part of themselves. <br><br>
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GRAHAM: Oh, I think I have a wonderful fellowship with all of them. For example...  
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Oh, when will such men cease to darken counsel by words without knowledge,
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<FONT color="#440000">[<FONT color="#aa0000">"Who is this that darkeneth Counsel by words without knowledge?" (Job 38:2)<FONT color="#440000">.] <br><br><br><br>
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KING: You're comfortable with Salt Lake City? You're comfortable with the Vatican?
  
<FONT color="#000000">upon the infinitely important subject of sanctification! When will such men--when will the church, understand that Christ is our sanctification; that we have no life, no holiness, no sanctification, except as we abide in Christ, and he in us; that, separate from Christ, there never is any moral excellence in any man; that Christ does not change the constitution of man in sanctification, but that he only, by our own consent, gains and keeps the heart; that he enthrones himself, with our consent, in the heart, and through the heart extends his influence and his life to all our spiritual being; that he lives in us as really and truly as we live in our own bodies;
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GRAHAM: I am very comfortable with the Vatican. I have been to see the Pope several times. In fact, preaching in his cathedral in Krakow. I was his guest... [and] when he was over here... in Columbia, South Carolina... he invited me on the platform to speak with him. I would give one talk, and he would give the other...
  
<FONT color="#440000">[<FONT color="#aa0000">"Jesus answered and said unto him, If a man love Me, he will keep My Words: and My Father will love him, and We will come unto him, and make Our abode with him" (John 14:23)<FONT color="#440000">.] <br><br><br><br>
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KING: You like this Pope?
  
<FONT color="#000000">that he as really reigns in our will, and consequently in our emotions, by our own free consent, as our wills reign in our bodies? Cannot our brethren understand, that this is sanctification, and that nothing else is? that there is no degree of sanctification that is not to be thus ascribed to Christ?
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GRAHAM: I like him very much.... He and I agree on almost everything.
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Billy Graham's self-admitted "fellowship" with Mormonism and Catholicism makes him a "partaker of [their] evil deeds" (2John 11). "Have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather reprove them" (Ephesians 5:11). However, no amount of historical proofs or Scriptural texts will convince you of the blackness of Billy Graham's compromise or the present nakedness of the Professed Church, if you are unwilling to receive it. "If any man will do His will, he shall know of the doctrine, whether it be of God, or whether I speak of Myself" (John 7:17). In fact, that so few of the Professed Church can understand Billy Graham's compromise and oppose it, demonstrates that the "coming of the LORD draweth nigh" (James 5:8). For, "when the Son of Man cometh, shall He find Faith on the Earth?" (Luke 18:8).
  
<FONT color="#440000">[<FONT color="#aa0000">"By the which Will we are sanctified through the offering of the Body of Jesus Christ once for all" (Hebrews 10:10)<FONT color="#440000">.] <br><br><br><br>
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1997. David Frost interviewed his long time friend, Billy Graham. Frost noted the change that took place in Graham from the early days of his evangelistic ministry to the present.
  
<FONT color="#000000">and that entire sanctification is nothing else than the reign of Jesus in the soul? nothing more nor less than Christ, the resurrection and the life, raising the soul from spiritual death, and reigning in it through righteousness unto eternal life? I must know and embrace Christ as my life; I must abide in him as a branch abides in the vine; I must not only hold this as an opinion; I must know and act on it in practice. <br><br>
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FROST: When you began, people said you were the apostle of certitude-- an impossible certitude. You have, over the years, developed the ability to say, I don't know. In the sense that you have found it easier to say, I don't know, with the passing over the years.
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Oh, when the ministry of reconciliation all know and embrace a whole Christ for themselves; when they preach Jesus in all his fulness and present vital power to the church; when they testify what they have seen, and their hands have handled of the word of life--then, and not till then, will there be a general resurrection of the dry bones of the house of Israel.
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<FONT color="#440000">[<FONT color="#aa0000">"13 <FONT color="#aa0000">And ye shall know that I am the LORD, when I have opened your graves, O My people, and brought you up out of your graves, 14 <FONT color="#aa0000">and shall put My Spirit in you, and ye shall live, and I shall place you in your own land: then shall ye know that I the LORD have spoken it, and performed it, saith the LORD" (Ezekiel 37:13-14)<FONT color="#440000">.] <br><br><br><br>
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GRAHAM: Exactly. It's not easier, but it's the truth...
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It has become more humanistically expedient and acceptable for Billy Graham to now say, "I don't know" than in his early Fundamentalist days-- and later-- when his oft used expression was, "The Bible says". "Horror hath taken hold upon me because of the wicked that forsake Thy Law" (Psalm 119:53). The certainty of a "plain path" (27:11) from the LORD directed by a "more sure Word of prophecy" (2Peter 1:19) has now been replaced by the same uncertainty possessed by those who perish. "17 This I say therefore, and testify in the LORD, that ye henceforth walk not as other Gentiles walk, in the vanity of their mind, 18 Having the understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God through the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of their heart" (Ephesians 4:17-18). True Christians have the Infallible Scriptures-- "16 All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness: 17 That the man of God may be perfect, throughly [thoroughly] furnished unto all good works" (2Timothy 3:16-17)-- while Babylon the Great has only an "infallible" Pope. "For their rock is not as our Rock, even our enemies themselves being judges" (Deuteronomy 32:31).
  
<FONT color="#000000">Amen. Lord, hasten the day!
 
  
<FONT color="#440000">[<FONT color="#aa0000">"That which was from The Beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon, and our hands have handled, of the Word of Life" (1John 1:1)<FONT color="#440000">.] <br><br><br><br>
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1999. With Parkinson's disease, Billy Graham is now more of a university chancellor, watching over the vast expanse of the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association (BGEA)-- with his son, William Franklin Graham III (b. 1952), already positioned as his father's successor at the BGEA. "26 And every one that heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them not, shall be likened unto a foolish man, which built his house upon the sand: 27 And the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house; and it fell: and great was the fall of it" (Matthew 7:26-27). Sadly, Billy Graham still presents himself as the affable senior statesman of Evangelical Christianity, admired by the world religious community, but he has yet to repent of his adultery with Babylon the Great. "Behold, I will cast her [Jezebel, i.e., Babylon the Great] into a bed, and them that commit adultery with her into great tribulation, except they repent of their deeds" (Revelation 2:22). Perhaps the Amazingly Merciful God would allow Billy Graham to be cast into the Tribulation Week (Daniel 9:27) to gain his repentance. "When He slew them, then they sought Him: and they returned and enquired early after God" (Psalm 78:34).
  
<FONT color="#000000"><B>(xxxi.)</B><FONT color="#0033ff"><B> </B><FONT color="#440000"><B>[ALL IN ALL]</B><FONT color="#000000"><B> </B>We need especially to know Christ as the "All in all." Col. iii. 11: "Where there is neither Greek nor Jew, circumcision nor uncircumcision, Barbarian, Scythian, bond nor free, but Christ is all and in all." <br><br>
 
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Before the soul will cease to be overcome by temptation, it must renounce self-dependence in all things. It must be as it were self-annihilated. It must cease to think of self, as having in it any ground of dependence in the hour of trial. It must wholly and in all things renounce self, and put on Christ. It must know self as nothing in the matter of spiritual life, and Christ as all.
 
  
<FONT color="#440000">[<FONT color="#aa0000">"7 <FONT color="#aa0000">But what things were gain to me, those I counted loss for Christ. 8 <FONT color="#aa0000">Yea doubtless, and I count all things but loss for the excellency of the Knowledge of Christ Jesus my LORD: for Whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and do count them but dung, that I may win Christ, 9 <FONT color="#aa0000">and be found in Him, not having mine own righteousness, which is of the Law, but that which is through the Faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of God by Faith" (Philippians 3:7-9)<FONT color="#440000">.] <br><br><br><br>
 
  
<FONT color="#000000">The Psalmist could say, "All my springs are in thee."<FONT color="#0033ff"> [Psalms 87:7].<FONT color="#000000"> He is the fountain of life. Whatever of life is in us flows directly from him, as the sap flows from the vine to the branch; or as a rivulet flows from its fountain.
+
On Separating Obedience From Love, And Truth From Unity
  
<FONT color="#440000">[<FONT color="#aa0000">"But whosoever drinketh of the Water that I shall give him shall never thirst; but the Water that I shall give him shall be in him a Well of Water springing up into Everlasting Life" (John 4:14)<FONT color="#440000">.]<br><br>
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True Christian love responds to the Father that sent His "Only Begotten Son" (John 3:16), to the "Greater Love" (15:13) of the LORD Jesus Christ that laid "down His life for His friends" (15:13), and to the "Love of the Spirit" (Romans 15:30) that pursued us with the "Great Love wherewith He loved us" (Ephesians 2:4). The only right response of the Saints to the Love of God is loving obedience. "For this is the Love of God, that we keep His Commandments: and His Commandments are not grievous" (1John 5:3). The Body of Christ must be taught that obedience to the Word of God is the demonstration of a heart of love from a True Saint. "He that hath My Commandments, and keepeth them, he it is that loveth Me: and he that loveth Me shall be loved of My Father, and I will love him, and will manifest Myself to him" (John 14:21).
<br><br>
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<FONT color="#440000">[<FONT color="#aa0000">"Ho, every one that thirsteth, come ye to the waters, and he that hath no money; come ye, buy, and eat; yea, come, buy wine and milk without money and without price" (Isaiah 55:1)<FONT color="#440000">.] <br><br><br><br>
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<FONT color="#000000">The spiritual life that is in us is really Christ's life flowing through us. Our activity, though properly our own, is nevertheless stimulated and directed by his presence and agency within us. So that we can and must say with Paul, "yet not I, but Christ liveth in me." Gal. ii. 20. <br><br>
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If the Body can be somehow persuaded that Christian Love can be separated from Obedience, then the way of the Antichrist can be prepared so that no heed need be given to the warning that damnation will come to all those who receive the Mark of the Beast. "9 And the third angel followed them, saying with a loud voice, If any man worship the Beast [the Antichrist] and his image, and receive his Mark in his forehead, or in his hand, 10 The same shall drink of the wine of the wrath of God, which is poured out without mixture into the cup of His indignation; and he shall be tormented with fire and brimstone in the presence of the holy angels, and in the presence of the Lamb" (Revelation 14:9-10).
<br><br>
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It is a great thing for a self-conceited sinner to suffer even in his own view, self-annihilation, as it respects the origination of any spiritual obedience to God, or any spiritual good whatever. But this must be before he will learn, on all occasions and in all things, to stand in Christ, to abide in him as his "ALL."
+
  
<FONT color="#440000">[<FONT color="#aa0000">"And of His fulness have all we received, and grace for grace" (John 1:16)<FONT color="#440000">.] <br><br><br><br>
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Further, if Christian Unity can be separated from Truth, then the lack of obedience to the "Word of Truth" (Ephesians 1:13) will breed a False Christian Unity-- in the name of "that they may be one" (John 17:11)-- free of the restrictions of the Word of God. But, "Sanctify them through Thy Truth: Thy Word is Truth" (17:17) was the high priestly prayer of the LORD Jesus Christ in Gethsemane, understanding that True Christian Unity only comes from submission to the Truth of the Word of God. "13 Till we all come in the Unity of the Faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ: 14 That we henceforth be no more children, tossed to and fro, and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the sleight of men, and cunning craftiness, whereby they lie in wait to deceive; 15 But speaking the Truth in Love, may grow up into Him in all things, which is the head, even Christ" (Ephesians 4:13-15).
  
<FONT color="#000000">O, the infinite folly and madness of the carnal mind! It would seem, that it will always make trial of its own strength before it will depend on Christ. It will look first for resources and help within itself, before it will renounce self, and make Christ its "all in all." It will betake itself to its own wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, and redemption. In short, there is not an office or relation of Christ, that will be recognized and embraced, until the soul has first come into circumstances to have its wants, in relation to that office of Christ, developed by some trial, and often by some fall under temptation; then, and not until, in addition to this, Christ is clearly and prevailingly revealed by the Holy Spirit, insomuch that self is put down, and Christ is exalted in the heart.
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Once Truth has been divorced from Christian Unity, then it is unnecessary to discriminate if the one who enters Jerusalem to seat himself in the "temple of God, shewing himself that he is God" (2Thessalonians 2:4) is really Jesus Christ or simply the Antichrist. The stage has been set for the advent of that Antichrist, for the predicted Apostasy-- falling away from Obedience to the Truth of the Word of God-- that precedes the Man of Sin is well under way (and, speeding to completion). "2 That ye be not soon shaken in mind, or be troubled, neither by spirit, nor by word, nor by letter as from us, as that the Day of Christ is at hand. 3 Let no man deceive you by any means: for that Day shall not come, except there come a falling away first, and that Man of Sin be revealed, the Son of Perdition" (2Thessalonians 2:2-3).
  
<FONT color="#440000">[<FONT color="#aa0000">"Because the carnal mind is enmity against God: for it is not subject to the Law of God, neither indeed can be" (Romans 8:7)<FONT color="#440000">.] <br><br><br><br>
 
  
<FONT color="#000000">Sin has so becrazed and befooled mankind, that when Christ tells them, "without me ye can do nothing,"<FONT color="#0033ff"> [John 15:5],<FONT color="#000000"> "and if any man abide not in me, he is cast forth as a branch and is withered,"<FONT color="#0033ff"> [15:6],<FONT color="#0033ff"> <FONT color="#000000">they neither apprehend what or how much he means, and how much is really implied in these and similar sayings, until one trial after another fully develops the appalling fact, that they are nothing, so far as spiritual good is concerned, and that Christ is "all and in all."<br><br>
 
<br><br>
 
<B>(xxxii.)</B><FONT color="#0033ff"><B> </B><FONT color="#440000"><B>[THE RESURRECTION AND THE LIFE]</B><FONT color="#0033ff"><B> </B><FONT color="#000000">Another relation in which the soul must know Christ, before it will steadily abide in him, is that of "the Resurrection and the Life."<FONT color="#0033ff"> [John 11:25].<FONT color="#0033ff"> <FONT color="#000000">Through and by Christ the soul is raised from spiritual death. Christ as the resurrection and the life, is raised in the soul. He arises or revives the Divine image out of the spiritual death that reigns within us. He is begotten by the Holy Spirit, and born within us. He arises through the death that is within us, and develops his own life within our own being. Will any one say, "this is a hard saying, who can hear it?"<FONT color="#0033ff"> [6:60].<FONT color="#0033ff"> <FONT color="#000000">Until we know by our own experience the power of this resurrection within us, we shall never understand "the fellowship of his sufferings and be made conformable to his death."<FONT color="#0033ff"> [Philippians 3:10].<FONT color="#0033ff"><br><br>
 
<br><br>
 
<FONT color="#000000">He raises our will from its fallen state of death in trespasses and sins, or from its state of committal and voluntary enslavement to lust and to self, to a state of conformity to the will of God. Through the intellect, he pours a stream of quickening truth upon the soul. He thus quickens the will into obedience. By making fresh discoveries to the soul, he strengthens and confirms the will in obedience.
 
  
<FONT color="#440000">[<FONT color="#aa0000">"Consider how I love Thy precepts: quicken me, O LORD, according to Thy lovingkindness" (Psalm 119:159)<FONT color="#440000">.]<br><br>
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Conclusion
<br><br>
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<FONT color="#440000">[<FONT color="#aa0000">"Teach me to do Thy Will; for Thou art my God: Thy Spirit is good; lead me into the land of uprightness" (143:10)<FONT color="#440000">.]<br><br>
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<br><br>
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<FONT color="#440000">[<FONT color="#aa0000">"For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of His good pleasure" (Philippians 2:13)<FONT color="#440000">.] <br><br><br><br>
+
  
<FONT color="#000000">By thus raising, and sustaining, and quickening the will, he rectifies the sensibility, and quickens and raises the whole man from the dead, or rather builds up a new and spiritual man upon the death and ruins of the old and carnal man. He raises the same powers and faculties that were dead in trespasses and sins to a spiritual life. He overcomes their death, and inspires them with life. He lives in saints and works in them to will and to do; and they live in him, according to the saying of Christ in his address to his Father, John xvii. 21: "As thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in us;" and again, ver. 23: "I in them and thou in me, that they may be made perfect in one." <br><br>
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The LORD Jesus Christ had His John the Baptist. "For this is he that was spoken of by the prophet Esaias, saying, The voice of one crying in the wilderness, Prepare ye the way of the LORD, make His paths straight" (Matthew 3:3). The False Prophet and the Antichrist also have their Balaam to prepare their way into the Tribulation Week (Daniel 9:27)-- but, for their inevitable judgment at the conclusion of that Week. "And the Beast [the Antichrist] was taken, and with him the False Prophet that wrought miracles before him, with which he deceived them that had received the Mark of the Beast, and them that worshipped his image. These both were cast alive into a Lake of Fire burning with brimstone" (Revelation 19:20). May God grant that Modern Balaam-- Billy Graham-- "repentance to the acknowledging of the Truth" (2Timothy 2:25). But, whether or not the Sovereign God should bestow mercy-- "Therefore hath He mercy on whom He will have mercy, and whom He will He hardeneth" (Romans 9:18)-- upon Billy Graham, may the True People of God "judge righteous judgment" (John 7:24) by separating from Babylon the Great. "Come out of her, My people, that ye be not partakers of her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues" (Revelation 18:4).
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He does not raise the soul to spiritual life, in any such sense that it has life separate from him for one moment. The spiritual resurrection is a continual one. Christ is the resurrection in the sense that he is at the foundation of all our obedience at every moment. He, as it were, raises the soul or the will from the slavery of lust to a conformity to the will of God, in every instance and at every moment of its consecration to the will of God. But this he does only upon condition of our apprehending and embracing him in this relation.
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<FONT color="#440000">[<FONT color="#aa0000">"Buried with Him in baptism, wherein also ye are risen with Him through the Faith of the operation of God, Who hath raised Him from the dead" (Colossians 2:12)<FONT color="#440000">.]<br><br>
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.
<br><br>
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<FONT color="#440000">[<FONT color="#aa0000">"And hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in Heavenly places in Christ Jesus" (Ephesians 2:6)<FONT color="#440000">.] <br><br><br><br>
+
  
<FONT color="#000000">In reading the Bible, I have often been struck with the fact, that the inspired writers were so far ahead of the great mass of professed believers. They write of the relations in which Christ had been spiritually revealed to them. All the names, and titles, and official relations of Christ, must have had great significancy with them. They spoke not from theory, or from what man had taught them, but from experience, from what the Holy Spirit taught them.
 
  
<FONT color="#440000">[<FONT color="#aa0000">"And my speech and my preaching was not with enticing words of man's wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of Power" (1Corinthians 2:4)<FONT color="#440000">.] <br><br><br><br>
 
  
<FONT color="#000000">As the risen Christ is risen and lives, and is developed in one relation after another, in the experience of believers, how striking the writings of inspiration appear! As the necessities of our being are developed in experience, and as Christ is revealed, as in all new circumstances and relations, just that and all that we need, who has not marvelled to find in the Bible, way-marks, and guide-boards, and milestones, and all the evidences that we could ask or desire, that inspired men have gone this way, and have had substantially the same experiences that we have.
+
Tom Stewart
 
+
<FONT color="#440000">[<FONT color="#aa0000">"17 <FONT color="#aa0000">And when I saw Him, I fell at His feet as dead. And He laid His right hand upon me, saying unto me, Fear not; I am the First and the Last: 18 <FONT color="#aa0000">I am He that liveth, and was dead; and, behold, I am Alive for evermore, Amen; and have the keys of Hell and of Death" (Revelation 1:17-18)<FONT color="#440000">.] <br><br><br><br>
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<FONT color="#000000">We are often also struck with the fact, that they are so far ahead of us. At every stage in our progress we seem to have, as it were, a new and improved edition of the Bible. We discover worlds of truth before unnoticed by us--come to know Christ in precious relations in which we had known nothing of him before. And ever, as our real wants are discovered, Christ is seen to be all that we need, just the thing that exactly and fully meets the necessities of our souls. This is indeed "the glorious gospel of the blessed God."<FONT color="#0033ff"> [1Timothy 1:11].<FONT color="#0033ff"><br><br>
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<br><br>
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<FONT color="#000000"><B>(xxxiii.)</B><FONT color="#0033ff"><B> </B><FONT color="#440000"><B>[BRIDEGROOM]</B><FONT color="#000000"><B> </B>Another precious and most influential relation of Christ in the affair of our sanctification, is that of the Bridegroom or Husband of the soul. The individual soul needs to be espoused to Christ, to enter into this relation personally by its own consent.
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<FONT color="#440000">[<FONT color="#aa0000">"5 <FONT color="#aa0000">While the Bridegroom tarried, they all slumbered and slept. 6 <FONT color="#aa0000">And at midnight there was a cry made, Behold, the Bridegroom cometh; go ye out to meet Him. 7 <FONT color="#aa0000">Then all those virgins arose, and trimmed their lamps... 13 <FONT color="#aa0000">Watch therefore, for ye know neither the day nor the hour wherein the Son of Man cometh" (Matthew 25:5-7, 13)<FONT color="#440000">.] <br><br><br><br>
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<FONT color="#000000">Mere earthly and outward marriages are nothing but sin, unless the hearts are married. True marriage is of the heart, and the outward ceremony is only a public manifestation or profession of the union or marriage of the souls or hearts. All marriage may be regarded as typical of that union into which the spiritual soul enters with Christ.
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<FONT color="#440000">[<FONT color="#aa0000">"Wherefore, my brethren, ye also are become dead to the Law by the Body of Christ; that ye should be married to another, even to Him Who is raised from the dead, that we should bring forth fruit unto God" (Romans 7:4)<FONT color="#440000">.] <br><br><br><br>
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<FONT color="#000000">This relation of Christ to the soul is frequently recognized, both in the Old and the New Testament. It is treated of by Paul as a great mystery. The seventh and eighth chapters of Romans present a striking illustration of the results of the soul's remaining under the law, on the one hand, and of its being married to Christ on the other. <br><br>
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<br><br>
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The seventh chapter begins thus, "Know ye not, brethren, for I speak to them that know the law, how that the law hath dominion over a man so long as he liveth. For the woman who hath a husband is bound by the law to her husband so long as he liveth; but if her husband be dead, she is loosed from the law of her husband. So then if, while her husband liveth, she be married to another man, she shall be called an adulteress; but if her husband be dead she is free from that law, so that she is no adulteress though she be married to another man. Therefore, my brethren, ye also are become dead to the law by the body of Christ: that ye should be married to another, even to Christ who is raised from the dead, that we should bring forth fruit unto God."<FONT color="#0033ff"> [Romans 7:1-4].<FONT color="#0033ff"><br><br>
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<br><br>
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<FONT color="#000000">The apostle then proceeds to show the results of these two marriages, or relations of the soul. When married to the law, he says of it, "For when we were in the flesh, the motions of sins, which were by the law, did work in our members to bring forth fruit unto death."<FONT color="#0033ff"> [7:5].<FONT color="#000000"> But when married to Christ, he proceeds to say, "we are delivered from the law, that being dead wherein we were held; that we should serve in newness of spirit and not in the oldness of the letter."<FONT color="#0033ff"> [7:6].<FONT color="#0033ff"><br><br>
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<br><br>
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<FONT color="#000000">The remaining part of this chapter is occupied with an account of the soul's bondage while married to the law, of its efforts to please its husband, with its continual failures, its deep convictions, its selfish efforts, its consciousness of failures, and its consequent self-condemnation and despondency. <br><br>
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<br><br>
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It is perfectly obvious, when the allegory with which the apostle commences this chapter is considered, that he is portraying a legal experience, for the purpose of contrasting it with the experience of one who has attained to the true liberty of perfect love.<br><br>
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The eighth chapter represents the results of the marriage of the soul to Christ. It is delivered from its bondage to the law, and from the power of the law of sin in the members. It brings forth fruit unto God. Christ has succeeded in gaining the affections of the soul. What the law could not do Christ has done, and the righteousness of the law is now fulfilled in the soul. <br><br>
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The representation is as follows: The soul is married to the law, and acknowledges its obligation to obey its husband. The husband requires perfect love to God and man. This love is wanting, the soul is selfish. This displeases the husband, and he denounces death against her, if she does not love. <br><br>
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She recognizes the reasonableness of both the requisition and the threatening, and resolves upon full obedience. But being selfish, the command and threatening but increase the difficulty. All her efforts at obedience are for selfish reasons. <br><br>
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The husband is justly firm and imperative in his demands. The wife trembles, and promises, and resolves upon obedience. But all in vain. Her obedience is only feigned, outward, and not love. She becomes disheartened and gives up in despair. <br><br>
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As sentence is about to be executed, Christ appears. He witnesses the dilemma. He reveres, and honours, and loves the husband. He entirely approves his requisition and the course he has taken. He condemns, in most unqualified terms, the wife. Still he pities and loves her with deep benevolence. He will consent to nothing which shall have the appearance of disapproving the claims or the course of her husband. His rectitude must be openly acknowledged. Her husband must not be dishonoured. But, on the contrary, he must be "magnified and made honourable." Still Christ so much pities the wife, as to be willing to die as her substitute. This he does, and the wife is regarded as dying in and by him her substitute. <br><br>
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Now, since the death of either of the parties is a dissolution of the marriage covenant, and since the wife in the person of her substitute has died under and to the law her husband, she is now at liberty to marry again. <br><br>
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Christ rises from the dead. This striking and overpowering manifestation of disinterested benevolence, on the part of Christ, in dying for her, subdues her selfishness and wins her whole heart. He proposes marriage, and she consents with her whole soul. Now she finds the law of selfishness, or of self-gratification, broken, and the righteousness of the law of love fulfilled in her heart. <br><br>
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The last husband requires just what the first required, but having won her whole heart, she no longer needs to resolve to love, for love is as natural and spontaneous as her breath. Before the seventh of Romans was the language of her complaint. Now the eighth is the language of her triumph. Before she found herself unable to meet the demands of her husband, and equally unable to satisfy her own conscience. Now she finds it easy to obey her husband, and that his commandments are not grievous, although they are identical with those of the first husband. <br><br>
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<br><br>
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Now this allegory of the apostle is not a mere rhetorical flourish. It represents a reality, and one of the most important and glorious realities in existence, namely, the real spiritual union of the soul to Christ, and the blessed results of this union, the bringing forth of fruit unto God. This union is, as the apostle says, a great mystery; nevertheless, it is a glorious reality. "He that is joined unto the Lord, is one spirit." 1 Cor. vi. 17.<br><br>
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<br><br>
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Now until the soul knows what it is to be married to the law, and is able to adopt the language of the seventh of Romans, it is not prepared to see, and appreciate, and be properly affected by, the death and the love of Christ. <br><br>
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<br><br>
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Great multitudes rest in this first marriage, and do not consent to die and rise again in Christ. They are not married to Christ, and do not know that there is such a thing, and expect to live and die in this bondage, crying out, "O wretched man that I am?"<FONT color="#0033ff"> [Romans 7:24].<FONT color="#0033ff"> <FONT color="#000000">They need to die and rise again in Christ to a new life, founded in and growing out of a new relation to Christ. Christ becomes the living head or husband of the soul, its surety, its life. He gains and retains the deepest affection of the soul, thus writing his law in the heart, and engraving it in the inward parts.<br><br>
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But not only must the soul know what it is to be married to the law, with its consequent thraldom and death, but it must also for itself enter into the marriage relation with a risen, living Christ. <br><br>
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<br><br>
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This must not be a theory, an opinion, a tenet; nor must it be an imagination, a mysticism, a notion, a dream. It must be a living, personal, real entering into a personal and living union with Christ, a most entire and universal giving of self to him, and receiving of him in the relation of spiritual husband and head. The spirit of Christ and our spirit must embrace each other, and enter into an everlasting covenant with each other. There must be a mutual giving of self, and receiving of each other, a blending of spirits, in such a sense as is intended by Paul in the passage already quoted: "He that is joined to the Lord is one spirit."<FONT color="#0033ff"> [1Corinthians 6:17].<FONT color="#0033ff"><br><br>
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<br><br>
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<FONT color="#000000"><B>My brother, my sister, do you understand this? Do you know what both these marriages are, with their diverse results? If you do not, make no longer pretence to being sanctified, for you are still in the gall of bitterness and in the bond of iniquity.</B>
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<FONT color="#440000">[<FONT color="#aa0000">"For I perceive that thou art in the gall of bitterness, and in the bond of iniquity" (Acts 8:23)<FONT color="#440000">.] <br><br><br><br>
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<FONT color="#000000"><B>"Escape for thy life."</B><FONT color="#0033ff"><B> </B>[Genesis 19:17]. <br><br><br><br>
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<A name="LECTURE 65"></A>The following lecture was given by Dennis Carroll.<br><br><br><br>
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Latest revision as of 22:27, 18 January 2016

Or, The Coming Destruction of the One World Religion


Billy Graham: Christianity's Modern Balaam

"Shouldest thou help the ungodly, and love them that hate the LORD? therefore is wrath upon thee from before the LORD" (2Chronicles 19:2).


by Tom Stewart


Preface

A CNN/USA Today/Gallup survey was taken of the American public on December 28th-29th 1998, sampling 1,055 adult Americans' opinions of whom they "admire the most". "Woe to the rebellious children, saith the LORD, that take counsel, but not of Me" (Isaiah 30:1). Despite the House of Representatives' vote to impeach him, President Bill Clinton was voted the most admired man-- "living in any part of the world"-- for the second consecutive year. "For My thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways My ways, saith the LORD" (55:8). It came as no surprise that NBA sports star Michael Jordan was included near the top of that list-- 4th most admired. However, the 2nd most admired was the only one of the top four that is not an American-- Pope John Paul II. "Moreover I will deliver all the strength of this city, and all the labours thereof, and all the precious things thereof, and all the treasures of the kings of Judah will I give into the hand of their enemies, which shall spoil them, and take them, and carry them to Babylon" (Jeremiah 20:5). The individual that ranked as the 3rd most admired man-- by this "evil and adulterous generation" (Matthew 12:39)-- in 1998's year end poll, was Billy Graham, the Southern Baptist evangelist known throughout the world. But, "11 Blessed are ye, when men shall revile you, and persecute you, and shall say all manner of evil against you falsely, for My sake. 12 Rejoice, and be exceeding glad: for great is your reward in Heaven: for so persecuted they the prophets which were before you" (5:11-12).


How Could This Happen?

Jesus Christ, the Judge, "standeth before the door" (James 5:9), and the Apostasy preceding His Second Coming is already in progress. "When the Son of Man cometh, shall He find Faith on the Earth?" (Luke 18:8). Though it may seem that the entire world has capitulated to Babylon the Great, the God of All Comfort assures His people, "I have reserved to Myself seven thousand men, who have not bowed the knee to the image of Baal" (Romans 11:4). The transformation of Professed Christianity into Babylon the Great must accelerate as the Man of Sin must shortly be revealed. "But evil men and seducers shall wax worse and worse, deceiving, and being deceived" (2Timothy 3:13). Though Christ's free gift of salvation is offered to the world-- and "few there be that find it" (Matthew 7:14)-- apparently even fewer have an "understanding of the times, to know what Israel [i.e., the Godly] ought to do" (1Chronicles 12:32). [See our articles, "An Earnest Appeal to Roman Catholics, Or, Roman Catholicism Examined in Light of the Scriptures" and "Babylon the Great (Part 2), The Reformation and the Church of Rome", for an exposition of Rome's doctrine and history.]

How could this degeneration take place for the Professed Church, if the Godly continue to "grow in grace, and in the knowledge of our LORD and Saviour Jesus Christ" (2Peter 3:18)? Obviously, the Professed Church has ceased to grow, but has become "as a backsliding heifer" (Hosea 4:16). The command of the Holy One-- "Be ye holy; for I am holy" (1Peter 1:16)-- has been minimized or sinfully ignored, i.e., "Christians aren't perfect-- just forgiven". As the Saints became "weary in well doing" (Galatians 6:9), instead of reproving the "unfruitful works of darkness" (Ephesians 5:11), they opened their arms of fellowship to Babylon the Great in the name of Unity and Christian Love. But, "what saith the Scripture?" (Romans 4:3). "Shouldest thou help the ungodly, and love them that hate the LORD? therefore is wrath upon thee from before the LORD" (2Chronicles 19:2).


Billy Graham: His Early Life and Ministry

Outside of the Pope, one of the best known names of the modern Christian culture is that of Billy Graham-- William Franklin Graham, Jr.-- born in 1918. "For unto whomsoever much is given, of him shall be much required" (Luke 12:48). At the age of 16, Billy Graham made a public profession of faith in the LORD Jesus Christ, under the preaching of Baptist evangelist, Mordechai Ham (1877-1961). "Even a child is known by his doings, whether his work be pure, and whether it be right" (Proverbs 20:11). In 1936, Graham briefly attended Bob Jones College (now Bob Jones University of Greenville, South Carolina [USA])-- founded by Bob Jones, Sr. (1883-1968), Fundamentalist evangelist-- citing an inability to adjust to Bob Jones campus life as his reason for leaving. "Can two walk together, except they be agreed?" (Amos 3:3). He then transferred to Florida Bible Institute (now Trinity College). At this time, he began his life-long membership in the Southern Baptist Convention. Graduating in 1940, he then entered Wheaton College, where he also graduated; and, in 1943, he married Ruth Bell (b. 1920), daughter of missionaries to China and Korea. "For this cause shall a man leave father and mother, and shall cleave to his wife: and they twain shall be one flesh" (Matthew 19:5).

During his early ministry, Billy Graham became a well known evangelistic figure among the Fundamentalist, Bible preaching churches of America, but still not a byword to America's religious mainstream. "A good name is rather to be chosen than great riches, and loving favour rather than silver and gold" (Proverbs 22:1). From 1945 to 1948, Graham assisted Torrey Johnson, organizing rallies and speaking for the Youth for Christ organization. "If ye continue in My Word, then are ye My disciples indeed" (John 8:31). In 1947, William B. Riley (1861-1947)-- ardent Fundamentalist, who fought the drift of the Northern Baptist Convention into Modernism's Social Gospel-- persuaded Graham to accept the leadership of Northwestern Schools in Minneapolis, Minnesota [USA]. "Confidence in an unfaithful man in time of trouble is like a broken tooth, and a foot out of joint" (Proverbs 25:19).

After all, in 1948, at the annual convention of the fundamentalist 'Conservative Baptist Association', Billy Graham was asked: "What do you expect the World Council of Churches to do this August when you visit Copenhagen?" Graham replied, "I believe they are going to nominate the Anti-Christ" (from Ian R. K. Paisley's "Billy Graham and the Church of Rome" [1970], p. 46). Contrast that to Graham's 1974 statement at the International Congress on World Evangelization in Lausanne, Switzerland: "I have nothing but the warmest of relations with the World Council of Churches" (from Dr. Bert Oately-Willis' "Billy Graham: The Facts" [Toronto Free Presbyterian Church]). "No man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon" (Matthew 6:24).


1949-- A Year of Decision for Billy Graham

Let an excerpt from a biography of Billy Graham, "Billy Graham and the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association - Historical Background", prepared by the staff of the Billy Graham Center Archives at Wheaton College-- since 1980, the designated repository for the papers of Graham and the records of the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association (BGEA)-- inform us of the sudden transformation of Billy Graham at the close of 1949. "Within evangelical and fundamentalist communities in America, Graham was quite well known. At the end of 1949, he suddenly came into national prominence. An evangelistic campaign Graham was leading in Los Angeles resulted in the dramatic conversion of a local underworld figure and a prominent disc jockey, among others. The newspaper magnate, William Randolph Hearst, for reasons unknown, ordered his publications to 'puff Graham' and other newspapers around the country followed suit. The campaign, planned for three weeks, lasted seven. Next, Graham went to Boston for a scheduled series of campaigns and again the results were spectacular. He then went on to Columbia, South Carolina, where he met publisher Henry Luce, who was impressed with the evangelist and had articles about him written for his publications, Time and Life magazines." "Woe unto you, when all men shall speak well of you! for so did their fathers to the false prophets" (Luke 6:26).


The Way of Balaam

But, why identify the name of the wicked prophet, Balaam, with that of Billy Graham, a Bible preaching evangelist?


(1) Billy Graham, like Balaam, gives credence to the Word of God. Balaam said, "I cannot go beyond the Word of the LORD my God, to do less or more" (Numbers 22:18). Billy Graham affirms, "The Bible says".

(2) Billy Graham, like Balaam, encourages unscriptural compromise. Balaam encouraged Israel to "commit whoredom with the daughters of Moab" (Numbers 25:1), while Graham encouraged a Roman Catholic couple, disillusioned with their Catholic church-- as reported in the "Sun Telegram" (January 6th 1973)-- "Don't pull out of the [Catholic] church. Stay in it ... help your church". And,

(3) Billy Graham, like Balaam, ostensibly refuses riches to pursue his ministry. Balaam replied to Balak's messengers, "If Balak would give me his house full of silver and gold, I cannot go beyond the Word of the LORD my God, to do less or more" (Numbers 22:18). Though the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association (BGEA) took in over $102 million in 1991, Billy Graham's salary was just a little over $100,000. Money seems to be less of a motivator for Graham than the praise and adulation of man, i.e., the satisfaction that presidents and world leaders would give audience to his counsel. "5 They are of the world: therefore speak they of the world, and the world heareth them. 6 We are of God: he that knoweth God heareth us; he that is not of God heareth not us. Hereby know we the Spirit of Truth, and the spirit of error" (1John 4:5-6). A thoughtful evaluation of the ministry of Billy Graham will reveal that Billy Graham has been mightily used of Satan to break down the walls of separation between the Godly and the ungodly. "And ye shall be holy unto Me: for I the LORD am holy, and have severed you from other people, that ye should be Mine" (Leviticus 20:26). It will also reveal that Billy Graham's most effective work for Babylon the Great has been that of masquerading as a Bible believing evangelist-- doing "the work of the LORD deceitfully" (Jeremiah 48:10)-- seducing unwary Pilgrims into laying aside the "Sword of the Spirit" (Ephesians 6:17) in the name of Christian Love and Unity. If the Pope had approached the Bible-Believing-Evangelical-Community with the need for Ecumenical Unity in previous generations, he would have been viewed with suspicion-- on account of the corruptions of the Medieval Catholic Church, the terrors of the Inquisition, the wicked absurdity of Papal infallibility, etc. "Ye shall know them by their fruits" (Matthew 7:16). [See our articles, "Babylon the Great (Part 1), The Purpose and History of Babylon the Great", for a discussion of Balaam's relationship to promoting Israel's Baal worship.]

But, when Billy Graham, who is supposed to be a respected leader of the Bible-Believing-Evangelical-Community, calls for Love and Christian Unity with the Church of Rome, i.e., Babylon the Great, it becomes palatable to the rank and file. "Woe unto them that call evil good, and good evil; that put darkness for light, and light for darkness; that put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter!" (Isaiah 5:20). Though Billy Graham is only one of "many antichrists" (1John 2:18)-- for he opposes the necessity to "come out of" Babylon the Great (Revelation 18:4), which is the antichristian Church of Rome-- he does prepare the way for the False Prophet and the Antichrist. "For he that biddeth him God speed is partaker of his evil deeds" (2John 11). [See our article, "Babylon the Great (Part 3), The Ecumenical Movement and the Church of Rome", to trace the prophetic significance of the False Love and Unity of Ecumenism.]


A Chronology of the Compromise of Billy Graham With Babylon the Great.

1966, December 6th. A National Council of Churches-- or, the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the U.S.A., Inc., which is "the largest ecumenical body in the United States, with a membership of about 40 million" (Britannica CD 99)-- committee invited Billy Graham to speak at a December 6th luncheon. Dr. Graham said, "We need to remind ourselves of such scriptures as Paul wrote to the Corinthians, 'Wherefore come out from among them and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing, and I will receive you.' [2Corinthians 6:17] Now some people have interpreted that verse to mean the National Council-- that you're to come out and touch not the unclean thing. (Laughter) That's not the meaning there, the meaning is paganism-- the evils of the world. Indeed we're to go into the world, and mingle with the publicans and sinners but we're not to participate in the moral and social evils" (from Ian R. K. Paisley's "Billy Graham and the Church of Rome", pp. 27-28). Concerning Graham's mocking of spiritual separation, "Fools make a mock at sin" (Proverbs 14:9). Ian Paisley wisely assessed that the purpose of the Ecumenical Movement is the final union of all churches with Babylon the Great. "Without a doubt the aim of both the National Council of Churches in America, and the World Council of Churches on the international level is the final unity of all churches with the Roman Catholic Church" (Paisley, "Billy Graham and the Church of Rome", p. 25). Concerning Babylon the Great, "a whore is a deep ditch; and a strange woman is a narrow pit" (23:27).

1967, November 21st. Belmont Abbey College, a Roman Catholic school in Belmont, North Carolina (USA), climaxed the week long program of its Institute for Ecumenic Dialogue-- "designed to promote understanding among Catholic and Protestant clergymen"-- with the presentation of an honorary degree of doctor of humane letters (D.H.L.) to Southern Baptist evangelist, Billy Graham. "The gospel that built this school and the gospel that brings me here tonight is still the way of salvation," Graham assured his audience of 1,700 Protestants and Catholics (from an article, "Belmont Abbey Confers Honorary Degree" by Paul Smith, taken from the "The Gastonia Gazette" [North Carolina] November 22, 1967). "I marvel that ye are so soon removed from Him that called you into the grace of Christ unto another Gospel" (Galatians 1:6).

1968, July 5th. In the magazine "Christianity Today"-- founded in 1955 by Graham, his father-in-law L. Nelson Bell, and others "to present the evangelical viewpoint to theologically liberal Protestant pastors" (from "Billy Graham and the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association - Historical Background" of the Billy Graham Center Archives at Wheaton College)-- Graham spoke of cooperation with the Church of Rome, saying, "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" (from Dr. Bert Oately-Willis' "Billy Graham: The Facts" [Toronto Free Presbyterian Church]). Billy Graham was speaking of willingness to cooperate with Babylon the Great, i.e., to have "fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness" (Ephesians 5:11). This step in Graham's disobedience formed part of a gradual slide away from any kind of Scriptural separation. "But the Word of the LORD was unto them precept upon precept, precept upon precept; line upon line, line upon line; here a little, and there a little; that they might go, and fall backward, and be broken, and snared, and taken" (Isaiah 28:13).

1977, June 3rd. "Would Billy Graham conduct a crusade at the Vatican? If a place were made available and Christian leaders in Rome wanted him to, he might. No campaign in Catholicism's capital is on the evangelist's calendar now, but his five-day crusade last month [May 1977] on the Notre Dame University Campus proved he is not afraid to go deep into Roman Catholic territory. It also showed that many elements in the once hostile Catholic community are now receptive to Graham's type of ministry. Graham's sermons were of the type that audiences around the world have heard, with only a few more references to such Catholics as Bishop Fulton Sheen and Mother Teresa of Calcutta" (from "Christianity Today" June 3, 1977). Even King David would have to disagree with Billy Graham's unscriptural evangelism. "4 I have not sat with vain persons, neither will I go in with dissemblers [pretenders]. 5 I have hated the congregation of evil doers; and will not sit with the wicked" (Psalm 26:4-5). When Billy Graham began to refuse to keep his evangelistic crusades from being sponsored by the enemies of the Gospel of Christ, then he openly surrendered his ministry to the Devil. "Enter not into the path of the wicked, and go not in the way of evil men" (Proverbs 4:14). Billy Graham forgot that only the methods of the LORD could properly promote his ministry. "6 For promotion cometh neither from the east, nor from the west, nor from the south. 7 But God is the Judge: He putteth down one, and setteth up another" (Psalm 75:6-7).

1978, January. In an interview given to "McCall's Magazine" Graham said, "I used to believe that pagans in far off countries were lost going to hell if they did not have the Gospel of Jesus Christ preached to them. I no longer believe that. I believe that there are other ways of recognizing God through nature for instance and plenty of other ways of saying 'yes' to God". But, Dr. Graham, what happened to the Gospel necessity of turning solely to Jesus Christ in faith? "Neither is there salvation in any other: for there is none other name under Heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved" (Acts 4:12). The Billy Graham Evangelistic Association later issued a statement citing Graham as saying, "On the whole I am pleased with the accuracy of the article (McCall's)... a few statements unfortunately convey meanings which I never intended. This may be due to my own failure to make myself as plain as I should have". However, in the same McCall's article, Graham said, "I've found that my beliefs are essentially the same as those of orthodox Roman Catholics... we differ on some matters of later church tradition". Notice how the difference between Graham and the universal Church of Rome is admittedly nonexistent. "Ye adulterers and adulteresses, know ye not that the friendship of the world is enmity with God? whosoever therefore will be a friend of the world is the enemy of God" (James 4:4). The Scripture telling of the degeneration of evil men, i.e., Billy Graham's departure from salvation by faith alone in Christ Jesus, must also be true. "But evil men and seducers shall wax worse and worse, deceiving, and being deceived" (2Timothy 3:13).

1979, September. "The Christian Courier" of Milwaukee, Wisconsin published the following report on their recent Milwaukee Crusade: "Sister Maureen Hopkins, Director of the Ecumenical and Interfaith Commission of the Milwaukee Roman Catholic Archdiocese, and a liaison member of the Crusade committee, reported that 120 people have volunteered within the Catholic community to help her with the task of contacting each of the 3,500 inquiries. Sr. Maureen received the names and telephone numbers from the Crusade Committee, based upon the inquirers indication of leaving a Catholic background on his inquiry card... All 3,500 were immediately invited to a Eucharistic celebration which was held on August 16 at St. Theresa's Church in Milwaukee. The mass was attended by more than 400 people. The primary purpose for the mass was to remind the inquirers that their commitments to Christ should be nurtured within the sacramental framework of the [Catholic] church." "Woe be unto the pastors that destroy and scatter the sheep of My pasture! saith the LORD" (Jeremiah 23:1).

"Christianity Today" for September 7,1979 pointed out that "Graham had sent a team member almost a year before the Crusade to conduct a seminar on the working of the Crusade for Milwaukee [Catholic] priests and lay workers". Pastor John Ashbrook writes, "It is a tragedy that 3,500 decision cards were turned over to the Roman Catholic Church, but, it is a worse tragedy when you realize that it did not 'happen,' It was planned by the world's best-known evangelist" (from John Ashbrook's "Billy Graham's Catholic Connection"). "Woe unto him that buildeth his house by unrighteousness" (Jeremiah 22:13).

1979, September 27th. On the eve of the Papal visit to the United States in 1979, The Religious News Service produced a September 27,1979 dispatch which quoted Billy Graham as follows: "The visit of Pope Paul II to the United States is an event of great significance not only for Roman Catholics, but for all Americans-- as well as the world... In the short time he has been Pope, John Paul II has become the moral leader of the world. My prayers and the prayer of countless other Protestants will be with him as he makes his journey" (from John Ashbrook's "Billy Graham's Catholic Connection"). "When thou sawest a thief, then thou consentedst with him, and hast been partaker with adulterers" (Psalm 50:18). And, "They that forsake the Law praise the wicked: but such as keep the Law contend with them" (Proverbs 28:4).

1980, January/February. Alan Cairns recorded that, "DR. GRAHAM HAILS THE POPE AS 'THE GREATEST RELIGIOUS LEADER OF THE MODERN WORLD.'" Billy Graham wrote this in a lengthy article in the "Saturday Evening Post" of January/February 1980, referring to John Paul II as "one of the greatest moral and spiritual leaders of this century" and "an evangelist" who "sought to speak to the spiritual hunger of our age in the same way Christians throughout the centuries have spoken to the spiritual yearning of every age-- by pointing people to Christ" (from Alan Cairns' "Billy Graham and His Bible" [Greenville, South Carolina-- in association with the Toronto Free Presbyterian Church]). When the Professed Church begins to believe such lies as Graham wrote for the "Saturday Evening Post", then the Scripture is rejected. "Let not an evil speaker be established in the Earth: evil shall hunt the violent man to overthrow him" (Psalm 140:11). Also, the Scripture is spurned that declares, "I am a companion of all them that fear Thee, and of them that keep Thy Precepts" (119:63).

1981. Billy Graham "met the pope for the first time, and was the first Protestant to speak at the North American College, a seminary for students from North America at the Vatican" (reported from "Roman Catholic- Evangelical Cooperation" at ReligiousTolerance.org-- an unscriptural website, i.e., "tolerant of all religious beliefs, accurate in our writing, and inclusive", run by two "Unitarian Universalists", one "Wiccan" [witch], and one "liberal but unaffiliated Christian"). "Come [quickly], LORD Jesus" (Revelation 22:20). Billy Graham's toleration of wickedness is the essence of his sin, i.e., hypocritical love. "Let love be without dissimulation [literally, hypocrisy]. Abhor that which is evil; cleave to that which is good" (Romans 12:9). Any tolerance of that which is known to be evil, in the name of being balanced, fair, inclusive, etc. is a devious means of stripping the Saint of his holiness. "Wherefore come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the LORD, and touch not the unclean thing; and I will receive you" (2Corinthians 6:17). When the very word "tolerance" can be used as a weapon against the Godly, then the enemy has come in like a flood. But, "when the enemy shall come in like a flood, the Spirit of the LORD shall lift up a standard against him" (Isaiah 59:19). Amen, and Amen!

1984, February 9th. John Ashbrook, pastor of Bible Community Church in Mentor, Ohio, reported that the Lake County (Ohio) "News Herald" of February 9, 1984 printed a headline stating: "Graham's Help on Vatican Ties". The article was an Associated Press release: "A spokesman for Billy Graham confirms that the evangelist played a behind-the-scenes role in President Reagan's decision to establish formal diplomatic relations with the Vatican, a newspaper reported yesterday. Early in 1983, Graham was asked by the president and adviser William Clark to make informal, private inquiries among evangelical Protestant leaders about likely response to such an action, said Donald Bialy, media director for the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association in Minneapolis. A copy of the seven-page letter that the Baptist evangelist sent to Clark was obtained by the Chicago Sun-Times, which quoted Graham as saying, 'If anyone can do it and get away with it, it is Mr. Reagan.'" Concerning the sinful overture of the United States to the Vatican, "Righteousness exalteth a nation: but sin is a reproach to any people" (Proverbs 14:34). And concerning America's departure to Rome, "My people have committed two evils; they have forsaken Me the Fountain of Living Waters, and hewed them out cisterns, broken cisterns, that can hold no water" (Jeremiah 2:13).

1989, June 8th. Commenting on a highlight of his life, Billy Graham offered this anecdote about a 1989 meeting with Pope John Paul II: "There was a pause in the conversation; suddenly the Pope's arm shot out and he grabbed the lapels of my coat, he pulled me forward within inches of his own face. He fixed his eyes on me and said, 'Listen Graham, we are brothers'" (from "Today" June 8, 1989). "Make no friendship with an angry man; and with a furious man thou shalt not go" (Proverbs 22:24). And, "Take ye heed every one of his neighbour, and trust ye not in any brother: for every brother will utterly supplant, and every neighbour will walk with slanders" (Jeremiah 9:4).

1995, June 2-8. "The European" reported, "DR. GRAHAM SENDS HIS ENQUIRERS INTO ROMAN CATHOLICISM, EASTERN ORTHODOXY, LIBERAL PROTESTANTISM, ETC." This has been a consistent policy since Billy Graham's early evangelistic days. "His name and address and a lot of information about him is taken and within 24 hours that is sent to a minister of the church of his choice regardless of denomination" (from an interview with Graham in the "U.S. News and World Report" of August 27, 1954). "But whoso shall offend one of these little ones which believe in me, it were better for him that a millstone were hanged about his neck, and that he were drowned in the depth of the sea" (Matthew 18:6). Why has Billy Graham done this? Like Balaam, Billy Graham "loved the wages of unrighteousness" (2Peter 2:15), i.e., the acceptance of man, the success of man, the materialism of man, etc. But, the "deceivableness of unrighteousness" (2Thessalonians 2:10) caused Billy Graham to believe the lie that he has done all of this for Jesus Christ. In the end, Billy Graham has no one to blame but Billy Graham. "Neither is there any creature that is not manifest in His sight: but all things are naked and opened unto the eyes of Him with whom we have to do" (Hebrews 4:13).

1997. In Billy Graham's autobiography, he made clear that his goal was not to lead people out of Roman Catholicism: "My goal, I always made clear, was not to preach against Catholic beliefs or to proselytize people who were already committed to Christ within the Catholic Church. Rather, it was to proclaim the Gospel to all those who had never truly committed their lives to Christ" (from Billy Graham's autobiography, "Just As I Am", p. 357). "3 If any man teach otherwise, and consent not to Wholesome Words, even the Words of our LORD Jesus Christ, and to the doctrine which is according to Godliness; 4 He is proud, knowing nothing, but doting about questions and strifes of words, whereof cometh envy, strife, railings, evil surmisings, 5 Perverse disputings of men of corrupt minds, and destitute of the Truth, supposing that gain is Godliness: from such withdraw thyself" (1Timothy 6:3-5).

1997, January. Larry King interviewed Billy Graham, and he easily induced Graham to make statements applauding the Pope and the Church of Rome.

KING: What do you think of the other [churches]... like Mormonism? Catholicism? Other faiths within the Christian concept?

GRAHAM: Oh, I think I have a wonderful fellowship with all of them. For example...

KING: You're comfortable with Salt Lake City? You're comfortable with the Vatican?

GRAHAM: I am very comfortable with the Vatican. I have been to see the Pope several times. In fact, preaching in his cathedral in Krakow. I was his guest... [and] when he was over here... in Columbia, South Carolina... he invited me on the platform to speak with him. I would give one talk, and he would give the other...

KING: You like this Pope?

GRAHAM: I like him very much.... He and I agree on almost everything. Billy Graham's self-admitted "fellowship" with Mormonism and Catholicism makes him a "partaker of [their] evil deeds" (2John 11). "Have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather reprove them" (Ephesians 5:11). However, no amount of historical proofs or Scriptural texts will convince you of the blackness of Billy Graham's compromise or the present nakedness of the Professed Church, if you are unwilling to receive it. "If any man will do His will, he shall know of the doctrine, whether it be of God, or whether I speak of Myself" (John 7:17). In fact, that so few of the Professed Church can understand Billy Graham's compromise and oppose it, demonstrates that the "coming of the LORD draweth nigh" (James 5:8). For, "when the Son of Man cometh, shall He find Faith on the Earth?" (Luke 18:8).

1997. David Frost interviewed his long time friend, Billy Graham. Frost noted the change that took place in Graham from the early days of his evangelistic ministry to the present.

FROST: When you began, people said you were the apostle of certitude-- an impossible certitude. You have, over the years, developed the ability to say, I don't know. In the sense that you have found it easier to say, I don't know, with the passing over the years.

GRAHAM: Exactly. It's not easier, but it's the truth... It has become more humanistically expedient and acceptable for Billy Graham to now say, "I don't know" than in his early Fundamentalist days-- and later-- when his oft used expression was, "The Bible says". "Horror hath taken hold upon me because of the wicked that forsake Thy Law" (Psalm 119:53). The certainty of a "plain path" (27:11) from the LORD directed by a "more sure Word of prophecy" (2Peter 1:19) has now been replaced by the same uncertainty possessed by those who perish. "17 This I say therefore, and testify in the LORD, that ye henceforth walk not as other Gentiles walk, in the vanity of their mind, 18 Having the understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God through the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of their heart" (Ephesians 4:17-18). True Christians have the Infallible Scriptures-- "16 All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness: 17 That the man of God may be perfect, throughly [thoroughly] furnished unto all good works" (2Timothy 3:16-17)-- while Babylon the Great has only an "infallible" Pope. "For their rock is not as our Rock, even our enemies themselves being judges" (Deuteronomy 32:31).


1999. With Parkinson's disease, Billy Graham is now more of a university chancellor, watching over the vast expanse of the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association (BGEA)-- with his son, William Franklin Graham III (b. 1952), already positioned as his father's successor at the BGEA. "26 And every one that heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them not, shall be likened unto a foolish man, which built his house upon the sand: 27 And the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house; and it fell: and great was the fall of it" (Matthew 7:26-27). Sadly, Billy Graham still presents himself as the affable senior statesman of Evangelical Christianity, admired by the world religious community, but he has yet to repent of his adultery with Babylon the Great. "Behold, I will cast her [Jezebel, i.e., Babylon the Great] into a bed, and them that commit adultery with her into great tribulation, except they repent of their deeds" (Revelation 2:22). Perhaps the Amazingly Merciful God would allow Billy Graham to be cast into the Tribulation Week (Daniel 9:27) to gain his repentance. "When He slew them, then they sought Him: and they returned and enquired early after God" (Psalm 78:34).


On Separating Obedience From Love, And Truth From Unity

True Christian love responds to the Father that sent His "Only Begotten Son" (John 3:16), to the "Greater Love" (15:13) of the LORD Jesus Christ that laid "down His life for His friends" (15:13), and to the "Love of the Spirit" (Romans 15:30) that pursued us with the "Great Love wherewith He loved us" (Ephesians 2:4). The only right response of the Saints to the Love of God is loving obedience. "For this is the Love of God, that we keep His Commandments: and His Commandments are not grievous" (1John 5:3). The Body of Christ must be taught that obedience to the Word of God is the demonstration of a heart of love from a True Saint. "He that hath My Commandments, and keepeth them, he it is that loveth Me: and he that loveth Me shall be loved of My Father, and I will love him, and will manifest Myself to him" (John 14:21).

If the Body can be somehow persuaded that Christian Love can be separated from Obedience, then the way of the Antichrist can be prepared so that no heed need be given to the warning that damnation will come to all those who receive the Mark of the Beast. "9 And the third angel followed them, saying with a loud voice, If any man worship the Beast [the Antichrist] and his image, and receive his Mark in his forehead, or in his hand, 10 The same shall drink of the wine of the wrath of God, which is poured out without mixture into the cup of His indignation; and he shall be tormented with fire and brimstone in the presence of the holy angels, and in the presence of the Lamb" (Revelation 14:9-10).

Further, if Christian Unity can be separated from Truth, then the lack of obedience to the "Word of Truth" (Ephesians 1:13) will breed a False Christian Unity-- in the name of "that they may be one" (John 17:11)-- free of the restrictions of the Word of God. But, "Sanctify them through Thy Truth: Thy Word is Truth" (17:17) was the high priestly prayer of the LORD Jesus Christ in Gethsemane, understanding that True Christian Unity only comes from submission to the Truth of the Word of God. "13 Till we all come in the Unity of the Faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ: 14 That we henceforth be no more children, tossed to and fro, and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the sleight of men, and cunning craftiness, whereby they lie in wait to deceive; 15 But speaking the Truth in Love, may grow up into Him in all things, which is the head, even Christ" (Ephesians 4:13-15).

Once Truth has been divorced from Christian Unity, then it is unnecessary to discriminate if the one who enters Jerusalem to seat himself in the "temple of God, shewing himself that he is God" (2Thessalonians 2:4) is really Jesus Christ or simply the Antichrist. The stage has been set for the advent of that Antichrist, for the predicted Apostasy-- falling away from Obedience to the Truth of the Word of God-- that precedes the Man of Sin is well under way (and, speeding to completion). "2 That ye be not soon shaken in mind, or be troubled, neither by spirit, nor by word, nor by letter as from us, as that the Day of Christ is at hand. 3 Let no man deceive you by any means: for that Day shall not come, except there come a falling away first, and that Man of Sin be revealed, the Son of Perdition" (2Thessalonians 2:2-3).


Conclusion

The LORD Jesus Christ had His John the Baptist. "For this is he that was spoken of by the prophet Esaias, saying, The voice of one crying in the wilderness, Prepare ye the way of the LORD, make His paths straight" (Matthew 3:3). The False Prophet and the Antichrist also have their Balaam to prepare their way into the Tribulation Week (Daniel 9:27)-- but, for their inevitable judgment at the conclusion of that Week. "And the Beast [the Antichrist] was taken, and with him the False Prophet that wrought miracles before him, with which he deceived them that had received the Mark of the Beast, and them that worshipped his image. These both were cast alive into a Lake of Fire burning with brimstone" (Revelation 19:20). May God grant that Modern Balaam-- Billy Graham-- "repentance to the acknowledging of the Truth" (2Timothy 2:25). But, whether or not the Sovereign God should bestow mercy-- "Therefore hath He mercy on whom He will have mercy, and whom He will He hardeneth" (Romans 9:18)-- upon Billy Graham, may the True People of God "judge righteous judgment" (John 7:24) by separating from Babylon the Great. "Come out of her, My people, that ye be not partakers of her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues" (Revelation 18:4).

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Tom Stewart