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==THE RELATIONS OF CHRIST TO THE BELIEVER==
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Or, The Coming Destruction of the One World Religion
  
'''BY THE
 
  
''REV. CHARLES G. FINNEY''<br>
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Billy Graham: Christianity's Modern Balaam
<br>
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'''Text taken from'''<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"
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(2Chronicles 19:2).
  
'''LECTURES 62-67'''<br>
 
<br>
 
<FONT color="#000000">The text was typed in by John , Terri, and Aaron Clark, and the many friends of this Systematic. <I>Thank you!</I><br>
 
The only source for these lectures came from the printed 1851 English edition of SYSTEMATIC THEOLOGY by Charles Finney.<br>
 
<FONT color="#ff0000"><br>
 
Scripture Additions by Tom Stewart<br>
 
Reformatted by Katie Stewart<br><br>
 
<br>
 
The following lecture was given by Dennis Carroll.<br><br>
 
LECTURE LXII. <br>
 
<br>
 
<B>SANCTIFICATION.</B><br><br>
 
<FONT color="#000000"><B>VI. POINT OUT THE CONDITIONS OF THIS ATTAINMENT.</B>
 
  
<FONT color="#000000">1. A state of entire sanctification can never be attained by an indifferent waiting of God's time.
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by Tom Stewart
  
<FONT color="#440000">[<FONT color="#aa0000">"And ye shall seek Me, and find Me, when ye shall search for Me with all your heart" (Jeremiah 29:13)<FONT color="#440000">.]<br><br>
 
  
<FONT color="#000000">2. Nor by any works of law, or works of any kind, performed in your own strength, irrespective of the grace of God.
 
  
<FONT color="#440000">[<FONT color="#aa0000">"Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to His mercy He saved us, by the washing of regeneration, and renewing of the Holy Ghost"<FONT color="#440000"> (Titus 3:5)<FONT color="#440000">.]<br><br>
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Preface
  
<FONT color="#000000">By this I do not mean, that, were you disposed to exert your natural powers aright, you could not at once obey the law in the exercise of your natural strength, and continue to do so.
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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">[<FONT color="#aa0000">"For this is the Love of God, that we keep His Commandments: and His Commandments are not grievous" (1John 5:3)<FONT color="#440000">.]<br><br>
 
  
<FONT color="#000000">But I do mean, that as you are wholly indisposed to use your natural powers aright,
 
  
<FONT color="#440000">[<FONT color="#aa0000">"The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?"<FONT color="#440000"> (Jeremiah 17:9)<FONT color="#440000">.]<br><br>
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How Could This Happen?
  
<FONT color="#000000">without the grace of God, no efforts that you will actually make in your own strength, or independent of his grace, will ever result in your entire sanctification.
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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.]
  
<FONT color="#440000">[<FONT color="#aa0000">"Let us therefore come boldly unto the Throne of Grace, that we may obtain Mercy, and find Grace to help in time of need"<FONT color="#440000"> (Hebrews 4:16)<FONT color="#440000">.]<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">3. Not by any direct efforts to feel right. Many spend their time in vain efforts to force themselves into a right state of feeling. Now, it should be for ever understood, that religion does not consist in a mere feeling, emotion, or involuntary affection of any kind. Feelings do not result from a direct effort to feel. But, on the contrary, they are the spontaneous actings of the mind, when it has under its direct and deep consideration the objects, truths, facts, or realities, that are correlated to these involuntary emotions.
 
  
<FONT color="#440000">[<FONT color="#aa0000">"We having the same Spirit of Faith, according as it is written, I believed, and therefore have I spoken; we also believe, and therefore speak"<FONT color="#440000"> (2Corinthians 4:13)<FONT color="#440000">.]<br><br>
 
  
<FONT color="#000000">They are the most easy and natural state of mind possible under such circumstances. So far from its requiring an effort to put them forth, it would rather require an effort to prevent them, when the mind is intensely considering those objects and considerations which have a natural tendency to produce them. <br>
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Billy Graham: His Early Life and Ministry
<br>
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This is so true, that when persons are in the exercise of such affections, they feel no difficulty at all in their exercise, but wonder how any one can help feeling as they do. It seems to them so natural, so easy, and, I may say, so almost unavoidable, that they often feel and express astonishment, that any one should find it difficult to exercise the feelings of which they are conscious.
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<FONT color="#440000">[<FONT color="#aa0000">"Knowledge is easy unto him that understandeth"<FONT color="#440000"> (Proverbs 14:6)<FONT color="#440000">.]<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">The course that many persons take on the subject of religion, has often appeared wonderful to me. They make themselves, their own state and interests, the central point, around which their own minds are continually revolving. Their selfishness is so great, that their own interests, happiness, and salvation, fill their whole field of vision. And with their thoughts and anxieties, and whole souls, clustering around their own salvation, they complain of a hard heart, that they cannot love God, that they do not repent, and cannot believe.
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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">"Let no man seek his own, but every man another's wealth"<FONT color="#440000"> (1Corinthians 10:24)<FONT color="#440000">.]<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">They manifestly regard love to God, repentance, faith, and all religion, as consisting in mere feelings. Being conscious that they do not feel right, as they express it, they are the more concerned about themselves, which concern but increases their embarrassment, and the difficulty of exercising what they call right affections. The less they feel, the more they try to feel--the greater efforts they make to feel right without success, the more are they confirmed in their selfishness, and the more are their thoughts glued to their own interests; and they are, of course, at a greater and greater distance from any right state of mind. And thus their selfish anxieties beget ineffectual efforts, and these efforts but deepen their anxieties. And if, in this state, death should appear in a visible form before them, or the last trumpet sound, and they should be summoned to the solemn judgment, it would but increase their distraction, confirm, and almost give omnipotence to their selfishness, and render their sanctification morally impossible.
 
  
<FONT color="#440000">[<FONT color="#aa0000">"A fool hath no delight in Understanding, but that his heart may discover itself"<FONT color="#440000"> (Proverbs 18:2)<FONT color="#440000">.]<br><br>
 
  
<FONT color="#000000">It should never be forgotten, that all true religion consists in voluntary states of mind, and that the true and only way to attain to true religion, is to look at and understand the exact thing to be done, and then to put forth at once the voluntary exercise required.<br><br>
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1949-- A Year of Decision for Billy Graham
  
<FONT color="#440000">[<FONT color="#aa0000">"And thou, Solomon my son, know thou the God of thy father, and serve Him with a perfect heart and with a willing mind: for the LORD searcheth all hearts, and understandeth all the imaginations of the thoughts: if thou seek Him, He will be found of thee; but if thou forsake Him, He will cast thee off for ever"<FONT color="#440000"> (1Chronicles 28:9)<FONT color="#440000">.]<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">4. Not by any efforts to obtain grace by works of law. In my lecture on faith, in the first volume of the Evangelist, I said the following things:--<br><br>
 
  
<FONT color="#000000">(1.) Should the question be proposed to a Jew, "What shall I do that I may work the work of God?" he would answer, Keep the law, both moral and ceremonial, that is, keep the commandments.<br><br>
 
  
<FONT color="#440000">[<FONT color="#aa0000">"The young man saith unto Him, All these things have I kept from my youth up: what lack I yet?" (Matthew 19:20)<FONT color="#440000">.]<br><br>
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The Way of Balaam
  
<FONT color="#000000">(2.) To the same inquiry an Arminian would answer, Improve common grace, and you will obtain converting grace, that is, use the means of grace according to the best light you have, and you will obtain the grace of salvation. In this answer it is not supposed, that the inquirer already has faith; but that he is in a state of unbelief, and is inquiring after converting grace. The answer, therefore, amounts to this; you must get converting grace by your impenitent works; you must become holy by your hypocrisy; you must work out sanctification by sin.<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="#440000">[<FONT color="#aa0000">"And if by Grace, then is it no more of works: otherwise Grace is no more Grace. But if it be of works, then is it no more Grace: otherwise work is no more work"<FONT color="#440000"> (Romans 11:6)<FONT color="#440000">.]<br><br>
 
  
<FONT color="#000000">(3.) To this question, most professed Calvinists would make in substance the same reply. They would reject the language, while they retained the idea. Their direction would imply, either that the inquirer already has faith, or that he must perform some works to obtain it, that is, that he must obtain grace by works of law.<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".
<br>
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A late Calvinistic writer admits that entire and permanent sanctification is attainable, although he rejects the idea of the actual attainment of such a state in this life. He supposes the condition of attaining this state or the way to attain it, is by a diligent use of the means of grace, and that the saints are sanctified just so far as they make a diligent use of the means of sanctification. But as he denies, that any saints ever did or will use all the means with suitable diligence, he denies also, of course, that entire sanctification ever is attained in this life. The way of attaining it, according to his teaching, is by the diligent use of means. <br>
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<br>
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If then this writer were asked, "what shall I do that I may work the works of God?"--<br><br>
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<FONT color="#440000">[<FONT color="#aa0000">"28 <FONT color="#aa0000">Then said they unto Him, What shall we do, that we might work the works of God? 29 <FONT color="#aa0000">Jesus answered and said unto them, This is the work of God, that ye believe on Him Whom He hath sent" (John 6:28-29)<FONT color="#440000">.]<br><br>
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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="#000000">or, in other words, what shall I do to obtain entire and permanent sanctification? his answer, it seems, would be: "Use diligently all the means of grace," that is, you must get grace by works, or, with the Arminian, improve common grace, and you will secure sanctifying grace. Neither an Arminian, nor a Calvinist, would formally direct the inquirer to the law, as the ground of justification. But nearly the whole church would give directions that would amount to the same thing. Their answer would be a legal, and not a gospel answer. For whatever answer is given to this question, that does not distinctly recognize faith as the condition of abiding holiness in Christians, is legal.<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="#440000">[<FONT color="#aa0000">"4 <FONT color="#aa0000">Now to him that worketh is the reward not reckoned of Grace, but of debt. 5 <FONT color="#aa0000">But to him that worketh not, but believeth on Him that justifieth the ungodly, his Faith is counted for righteousness" (Romans 4:4-5)<FONT color="#440000">.]<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.]
  
<FONT color="#000000">Unless the inquirer is made to understand, that this is the first, grand, fundamental duty, without the performance of which all virtue, all giving up of sin, all acceptable obedience, is impossible, he is misdirected. He is led to believe, that it is possible to please God without faith, and to obtain grace by works of law.<br><br>
 
  
<FONT color="#440000">[<FONT color="#aa0000">"But without Faith it is impossible to please Him: for he that cometh to God must believe that He is, and that He is a Rewarder of them that diligently seek Him"<FONT color="#440000"> (Hebrews 11:6)<FONT color="#440000">.]<br><br>
 
  
<FONT color="#000000">There are but two kinds of works--works of law, and works of faith. Now, if the inquirer has not the "faith that works by love,"<FONT color="#0033ff"> [Galatians 5:6]<FONT color="#0033ff"> <FONT color="#000000">to set him upon any course of works to get it, is certainly to set him to get faith by works of law. Whatever is said to him that does not clearly convey the truth, that both justification and sanctification are by faith,
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A Chronology of the Compromise of Billy Graham With Babylon the Great.
  
<FONT color="#440000">[<FONT color="#aa0000">"Therefore we conclude that a man is justified by Faith without the deeds of the Law"<FONT color="#440000"> (Romans 3:28)<FONT color="#440000">.]<br>
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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).  
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<FONT color="#440000">[<FONT color="#aa0000">"To open their eyes, and to turn them from darkness to Light, and from the power of Satan unto God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins, and inheritance among them which are sanctified by Faith that is in Me"<FONT color="#440000"> (Acts 26:18)<FONT color="#440000">.]<br><br>
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<FONT color="#000000">without works of law, is law, and not gospel. Nothing before or without faith, can possibly be done by any one, but works of law.<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="#440000">[<FONT color="#aa0000">"Knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the Law, but by the Faith of Jesus Christ, even we have believed in Jesus Christ, that we might be justified by the Faith of Christ, and not by the works of the Law: for by the works of the Law shall no flesh be justified"<FONT color="#440000"> (Galatians 2:16)<FONT color="#440000">.]<br><br>
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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="#000000">His first duty, therefore, is faith; and every attempt to obtain faith by unbelieving works, is to lay works at the foundation, and make grace a result. It is the direct opposite of gospel truth.<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).
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Take facts as they arise in every day's experience, to show that what I have stated is true of almost all professors and non-professors. Whenever a sinner begins in good earnest to agitate the question, "What shall I do to be saved?"<FONT color="#0033ff"> [Acts 16:30]<FONT color="#0033ff"> <FONT color="#000000">he resolves as a first duty, to break off from his sins, that is, in unbelief. Of course, his reformation is only outward. He determines to do better--to reform in this, that, and the other thing, and thus prepare himself to be converted. He does not expect to be saved without grace and faith, but he attempts to get grace by works of law.<br><br>
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<FONT color="#440000">[<FONT color="#aa0000">"And they said, Believe on the LORD Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved, and thy house"<FONT color="#440000"> (Acts 16:31)<FONT color="#440000">.]<br><br>
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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="#000000">The same is true of multitudes of anxious Christians, who are inquiring what they shall do to overcome the world, the flesh, and the devil. They overlook the fact, that "this is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith,"<FONT color="#0033ff"> [1John 5:4]<FONT color="#0033ff"> <FONT color="#000000">that it is with "the shield of faith"<FONT color="#0033ff"> [Ephesians 6:16]<FONT color="#0033ff"> <FONT color="#000000">they are "to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked."<FONT color="#0033ff"> [6:16]<FONT color="#440000">. <FONT color="#000000">They ask, Why am I overcome by sin? Why can I not get above its power? Why am I thus the slave of my appetites and passions, and the sport of the devil? They cast about for the cause of all this spiritual wretchedness and death. At one time, they think they have discovered it in the neglect of one duty; and at another time in the neglect of another. Sometimes they imagine they have found the cause to lie in yielding to one temptation, and sometimes yielding to another. They put forth efforts in this direction, and in that direction, and patch up their righteousness on one side, while they make a rent in the other side.<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="#440000">[<FONT color="#aa0000">"No man also seweth a piece of new cloth on an old garment: else the new piece that filled it up taketh away from the old, and the rent is made worse" (Mark 2:21)<FONT color="#440000">.]<br><br>
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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="#000000">Thus they spend years in running round in a circle, and making dams of sand across the current of their own habitudes and tendencies. Instead of at once purifying their hearts by faith, they are engaged in trying to arrest the overflowing of the bitter waters of their own propensities. Why do I sin? they inquire; and casting about for the cause, they come to the sage conclusion, It is because I neglect such a duty, that is, because I do sin. But how shall I get rid of sin? Answer: By doing my duty, that is, by ceasing from sin. <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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Now the real inquiry is, Why do they neglect their duty? Why do they commit sin at all? Where is the foundation of all this mischief? Will it be replied, the foundation of all this wickedness is in the force of temptation--in the weakness of our hearts--in the strength of our evil propensities and habits? But all this only brings us back to the real inquiry again, How are these things to be overcome? I answer, by faith alone. No works of law have the least tendency to overcome our sins; but rather to confirm the soul in self-righteousness and unbelief.<br>
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The great and fundamental sin, which is at the foundation of all other sin, is unbelief. The first thing is, to give up that--to believe the word of God. There is no breaking off from one sin without this. "Whatsoever is not of faith is sin." [Romans 14:23]<FONT color="#0033ff"> <FONT color="#000000">"Without faith it is impossible to please God."<FONT color="#0033ff"> [Hebrews 11:6]<FONT color="#440000">. <FONT color="#0033ff"><br>
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<FONT color="#000000">Thus we see, that the backslider and convicted sinner, when agonizing to overcome sin, will almost always betake themselves to works of law to obtain faith. They will fast, and pray, and read, and struggle, and outwardly reform, and thus endeavour to obtain grace. <br>
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Now all this is in vain and wrong. Do you ask, shall we not fast, and pray, and read, and struggle? Shall we do nothing but sit down in antinomian security and inaction? I answer, you must do all that God commands you to do: but begin where he tells you to begin, and do it in the manner in which he commands you to do it; that is, in the exercise of that faith that works by love. Purify your hearts by faith. Believe in the Son of God. And say not in your heart, "Who shall ascend into heaven, that is to bring Christ down from above; or who shall descend into the deep, that is, to bring up Christ again from the dead. But what saith it? The word is nigh thee, even in thy mouth, and in thy heart, that is, the word of faith which we preach."<FONT color="#0033ff"> [Romans 10:6-8]<FONT color="#440000">.<FONT color="#0033ff"><br>
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<FONT color="#000000">Now these facts show, that even under the gospel, almost all professors of religion, while they reject the Jewish notion of justification by works of law, have after all adopted a ruinous substitute for it, and suppose, that in some way they are to obtain grace by their works.<br><br>
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<FONT color="#000000">5. A state of entire sanctification cannot be attained by attempting to copy the experience of others. It is very common for convicted sinners, or for Christians inquiring after entire sanctification, in their blindness, to ask others to relate their experience, to mark minutely the detail of all their exercises, and then set themselves to pray for, and make direct efforts to attain the same class of exercises, not seeming to understand, that they can no more exercise feelings in the detail like others, than they can look like others.<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).
  
<FONT color="#440000">[<FONT color="#aa0000">"Be ye therefore followers of God, as dear children" (Ephesians 5:1)<FONT color="#440000">.]<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">Human experiences differ as human countenances differ. The whole history of a man's former state of mind, comes in of course to modify his present and future experience; so that the precise train of feelings which may be requisite in your case, and which will actually occur, if you are ever sanctified, will not in all its details coincide with the exercises of any other human being. It is of vast importance for you to understand, that you can be no copyist in any true religious experience; and that you are in great danger of being deceived by Satan, whenever you attempt to copy the experience of others. I beseech you therefore to cease from praying for, or trying to obtain, the precise experience of any person whatever.
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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">"Looking unto Jesus the Author and Finisher of Our Faith" (Hebrews 12:2)<FONT color="#440000">.]<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">All truly Christian experiences are, like human countenances, in their outline so much alike as to be readily known as the lineaments of the religion of Jesus Christ. But no further than this are they alike, any more than human countenances are alike.<br>
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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).
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But here let it be remembered, that sanctification does not consist in the various affections or emotions of which Christians speak, and which are often mistaken for, or confounded with, true religion; but that sanctification consists in entire consecration, and consequently it is all out of place for any one to attempt to copy the feelings of another, inasmuch as feelings do not constitute religion. <br>
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The feelings of which Christians speak do not constitute true religion, but often result from a right state of heart. These feelings may properly enough be spoken of as Christian experience, for although involuntary states of mind, they are experienced by true Christians. The only way to secure them is to set the will right, and the emotions will be a natural result.<br><br>
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<FONT color="#000000">6. Not by waiting to make preparations before you come into this state. Observe, that the thing about which you are inquiring, is a state of entire consecration to God. Now do not imagine that this state of mind must be prefaced by a long introduction of preparatory exercises. <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="#440000">[<FONT color="#aa0000">"12 <FONT color="#aa0000">Take heed, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief, in departing from the Living God. 13 <FONT color="#aa0000">But exhort one another daily, while it is called To day; lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin" (Hebrews 3:12-13)<FONT color="#440000">.]<br><br>
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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="#000000">It is common for persons, when inquiring upon this subject with earnestness, to think themselves hindered in their progress by a want of this, or that, or the other exercise or state of mind. They look everywhere else but at the real difficulty. They assign any other, and every other but the true reason, for their not being already in a state of sanctification. The true difficulty is voluntary selfishness, or voluntary consecration to self-interest and self-gratification. This is the difficulty, and the only difficulty, to be overcome.
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KING: What do you think of the other [churches]... like Mormonism? Catholicism? Other faiths within the Christian concept?
  
<FONT color="#440000">[<FONT color="#aa0000">"If any man come to Me, and hate not his father, and mother, and wife, and children, and brethren, and sisters, yea, and his own life also, he cannot be My disciple" (Luke 14:26)<FONT color="#440000">.]<br><br>
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GRAHAM: Oh, I think I have a wonderful fellowship with all of them. For example...  
  
<FONT color="#000000">7. Not by attending meetings, asking the prayers of other Christians, or depending in any way upon the means of getting into this state. By this I do not intend to say, that means are unnecessary, or that it is not through the instrumentality of truth, that this state of mind is induced. But I do mean, that while you are depending upon any instrumentality whatever, your mind is diverted from the real point before you, and you are never likely to make this attainment.<br>
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KING: You're comfortable with Salt Lake City? You're comfortable with the Vatican?
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<FONT color="#000000">8. Not by waiting for any particular views of Christ. When persons, in the state of mind of which I have been speaking, hear those who live in faith describe their views of Christ, they say, Oh, if I had such views, I could believe: I must have these before I can believe.<br><br>
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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">"21 <FONT color="#aa0000">Peter seeing him saith to Jesus, LORD, and what shall this man do? 22 <FONT color="#aa0000">Jesus saith unto him, If I will that he tarry till I come, what is that to thee? follow thou Me" (John 21:21-22)<FONT color="#440000">.]<br><br>
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KING: You like this Pope?  
  
<FONT color="#000000">Now you should understand, that these views are the result and effect of faith in the promise of the Spirit, to take of the things of Christ and show them to you.
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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">"But when the Comforter is come, Whom I will send unto you from the Father, even the Spirit of Truth, which proceedeth from the Father, He shall testify of Me" (John 15:26)<FONT color="#440000">.]<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">Lay hold of this class of promises, and the Holy Spirit will reveal Christ to you, in the relations in which you need him from time to time. Take hold, then, on the simple promise of God. Take God at his word. Believe that he means just what he says; and this will at once bring you into the state of mind after which you inquire.
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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.
  
<FONT color="#440000">[<FONT color="#aa0000">"I believe God, that it shall be even as it was told me" (Acts 27:25)<FONT color="#440000">.]<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">9. Not in any way which you may mark out for yourself. Persons in an inquiring state are very apt, without seeming to be aware of it, to send imagination on before them, to stake out the way, and set up a flag where they intend to come out. They expect to be thus and thus exercised--to have such and such peculiar views and feelings when they have attained their object. <br><br>
 
  
<FONT color="#000000">Now, there probably never was a person who did not find himself disappointed in these respects. God says, "I will bring the blind by a way that they know not. I will lead them in paths that they have not known: I will make darkness light before them, and crooked things straight. These things will I do unto them, and not forsake them."<FONT color="#0033ff"> [Isaiah 42:16]<FONT color="#440000">.<FONT color="#0033ff"><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).
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<FONT color="#000000">This suffering your imagination to mark out your path is a great hindrance to you, as it sets you upon making many fruitless, and worse than fruitless attempts to attain this imaginary state of mind, wastes much of your time, and greatly wearies the patience and grieves the Spirit of God. While he is trying to lead you right to the point, you are hauling off from the course, and insisting, that this which your imagination has marked out is the way, instead of that in which he is trying to lead you. And thus in your pride and ignorance you are causing much delay, and abusing the long-suffering of God. He says, "This is the way, walk ye in it."<FONT color="#0033ff"> [Isaiah 30:21]<FONT color="#440000">. <FONT color="#000000">But you say, no--this is the way. And thus you stand and parley and banter, while you are every moment in danger of grieving the Spirit of God away from you, and of losing your soul.<br><br>
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<FONT color="#440000">[<FONT color="#aa0000">"And grieve not the Holy Spirit of God, whereby ye are sealed unto the Day of Redemption" (Ephesians 4:30)<FONT color="#440000">.]<br><br>
 
  
<FONT color="#000000">10. Not in any manner, or at any time or place, upon which you may in your own mind lay any stress. If there is anything in your imagination that has fixed definitely upon any particular manner, time, or place, or circumstance, you will, in all probability, either be deceived by the devil, or be entirely disappointed in the result. You will find, in all these particular items on which you had laid any stress, that the wisdom of man is foolishness with God--that your ways are not his ways, nor your thoughts his thoughts. "For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are his ways higher than your ways, and his thoughts higher than your thoughts."<br><br>
 
  
<FONT color="#440000">[Or, <FONT color="#aa0000">"For as the Heavens are higher than the Earth, so are My Ways higher than your ways, and My Thoughts than your thoughts" (Isaiah 55:9)<FONT color="#440000">.]<br><br>
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On Separating Obedience From Love, And Truth From Unity
  
<FONT color="#000000">But,--<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).
  
<FONT color="#000000">11. This state is to be attained by faith alone. Let it be for ever remembered, that "without faith it is impossible to please God," [Hebrews 11:6]<FONT color="#0033ff"> <FONT color="#000000">and "whatsoever is not of faith, is sin."<FONT color="#0033ff"> [Romans 14:23]<FONT color="#440000">.<FONT color="#0033ff"> <FONT color="#000000">Both justification and sanctification are by faith alone. Rom. iii. 30: "Seeing it is one God who shall justify the circumcision by faith, and the uncircumcision through faith;" and ch. v. 1: "Therefore, being justified by faith, we have peace with God, through our Lord Jesus Christ." Also, ch. ix. 30, 31: "What shall we say then? that the Gentiles, who followed not after righteousness, have attained to righteousness, even the righteousness which is of faith. But Israel, who followed after the law of righteousness, hath not attained to the law of righteousness. Wherefore? Because they sought it not by faith, but, as it were, by the works of the law."<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).
  
<FONT color="#000000">12. But let me by no means be understood as teaching sanctification by faith, as distinct from and opposed to sanctification by the Holy Spirit, or Spirit of Christ, or which is the same thing, by Christ our sanctification, living and reigning in the heart.  
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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="#440000">[<FONT color="#aa0000">"And such were some of you: but ye are washed, but ye are sanctified, but ye are justified in the Name of the LORD Jesus, and by the Spirit of our God" (1Corinthians 6:11)<FONT color="#440000">.]<br><br>
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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="#000000">Faith is rather the instrument or condition, than the efficient agent that induces a state of present and permanent sanctification. Faith simply receives Christ, as king, to live and reign in the soul. It is Christ, in the exercise of his different offices, and appropriated in his different relations to the wants of the soul, by faith, who secures our sanctification. This he does by Divine discoveries to the soul of his Divine perfections and fulness.
 
  
<FONT color="#440000">[<FONT color="#aa0000">"10 <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... 15 <FONT color="#aa0000">Let us therefore, as many as be perfect, be thus minded: and if in any thing ye be otherwise minded, God shall reveal even this unto you" (Philippians 3:10, 15)<FONT color="#440000">.]<br><br>
 
  
<FONT color="#000000">The condition of these discoveries is faith and obedience. He says, John xiv. 21-23: "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. Judas saith unto him, (not Iscariot,) Lord, how is it that thou wilt manifest thyself unto us, and not unto the world? 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." But I must call your attention to Christ as our sanctification more at large hereafter.<br><br>
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Conclusion
  
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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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Tom Stewart

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