Billy Graham on How to Become a Christian

[Saved-By-Grace]

In 2000 George W Bush wrote a book, "Decision Points", in which he relates a dinner he had with Billy Graham in summer of 1985, where there were about 30 people, including George Bush Sr, who asked Billy to answer some questions.

"The first question was from Dad. He said, 'Billy, some people say you have to have a born-again experience to go to heaven. Mother here is the most religious, kind person I know, yet she has had no born-again experience. Will she go to heaven?' Wow, pretty profound question from the old man. We all looked at Billy. In his quiet, strong voice, he replied, 'George, some of us require a born-again experience to understand God, and some of us are born Christians. It sounds as if your mom was just born a Christian.'"

This is over 30 years ago, and from what I understand, before Billy had any serious health issues, that might have affected his thinking? I also remember John MacArthur in a You Tube clip, where he says that Billy had been preaching this sort of stuff in the early 1960's.

If George W Bush has got this right, then Billy Graham was preaching a false gospel message; or, two different messages?

 

[Deacon]

I never had the opportunity to go to a Billy Graham event and I've never watched him on the television.

When picking bits and pieces from video snips or remembrances taken over the course of a persons life, you will find missed opportunities. I'm glad my life isn't a video record and I'm even more glad that the grace of God covers my sins.

The episode related above looks like a missed opportunity to share the gospel.

But personally, I've had the opportunity to interview those that desire to be come a member of the local church or to be baptized. Among their midst you frequently get those that have been a Christian for as long as they remember.

The phrase, 'born again' is a metaphor for the way we become a believer in Christ; sometimes it fits like a glove, other times it doesn't work so well.

Rob

 

[Saved-By-Grace]

I never had the opportunity to go to a Billy Graham event and I've never watched him on the television.

When picking bits and pieces from video snips or remembrances taken over the course of a persons life, you will find missed opportunities. I'm glad my life isn't a video record and I'm even more glad that the grace of God covers my sins.

The episode related above looks like a missed opportunity to share the gospel.

But personally, I've had the opportunity to interview those that desire to be come a member of the local church or to be baptized. Among their midst you frequently get those that have been a Christian for as long as they remember.

The phrase, 'born again' is a metaphor for the way we become a believer in Christ; sometimes it fits like a glove, other times it doesn't work so well.

Rob

what do you make of this interview?

 

[Deacon]

"...those that love Jesus..." = his followers

I'd surely have some follow-up questions but can see where he's coming from.

The answer perhaps is contextual, probably related to his audience and those that disagreed with the direction the ministry was taking at that time.

Rob

 

[HankD]

what do you make of this interview?

Some believe this, that the Spirit of Christ can speak to an individual without a revelation of His personality.

At one time in my walk with the Lord I contemplated it -
John the Baptist - filled with the Holy Spirit from His mother's womb, What kind of revelation did He have.

It's within the realm of possibility as all things are possible with God.
But what is the probability from Scripture?

 

[Saved-By-Grace]

Some believe this, that the Spirit of Christ can speak to an individual without a revelation of His personality.

At one time in my walk with the Lord I contemplated it -
John the Baptist - filled with the Holy Spirit from His mother's womb, What kind of revelation did He have.

It's within the realm of possibility as all things are possible with God.
But what is the probability from Scripture?

John the Baptist is a very unique case. He is the only person in the history of the world, who had the high privilege and honor of being the forerunner of the Messiah. Jesus called John, "more than a prophet" (Matthew 11:9).

Graham says that a person who loves Christ, or knows Christ, whether they are "conscience of it or not", are members of the body of Christ. Really? A person can be "born-again" without even knowing it?

 

[Saved-By-Grace]

"...those that love Jesus..." = his followers

I'd surely have some follow-up questions but can see where he's coming from.

The answer perhaps is contextual, probably related to his audience and those that disagreed with the direction the ministry was taking at that time.

Rob

would you say that the clip is Biblical?

 

[Nicolaus Mourer]

Billy "Baalam" Graham definitely preached a false gospel and led millions astray. He didn't even believe that Jesus was the only way to heaven.

 

[HankD]

John the Baptist is a very unique case. He is the only person in the history of the world, who had the high privilege and honor of being the forerunner of the Messiah. Jesus called John, "more than a prophet" (Matthew 11:9).

Graham says that a person who loves Christ, or knows Christ, whether they are "conscience of it or not", are members of the body of Christ. Really? A person can be "born-again" without even knowing it?

Just saying - no mater John the Baptist role and/or office he is a model of the capability of God to do whatsoever He pleases.

Note in a previous post I talked both possibility and probability.

 

[HankD]

Billy "Baalam" Graham definitely preached a false gospel and led millions astray. He didn't even believe that Jesus was the only way to heaven.

He did not say that Jesus was NOT the only way to heaven but that there is the possibility that some may end up in heaven BECAUSE God saved them by His grace through Christ though they (in this life) were not aware of it.

This really gets into complicated theology, personally I would say its possible but not probable

 

[Nicolaus Mourer]

He did not say that Jesus was NOT the only way to heaven but that there is the possibility that some may end up in heaven BECAUSE God saved them by His grace through Christ though they (in this life) were not aware of it.

This really gets into complicated theology, personally I would say its possible but not probable

If salvation only comes by believing in the heart and confessing with the mouth (Romans 10:9), how can a person be saved without knowing it? Either Billy was an ultra-Calvinist, or he was a false prophet, or both.

 

[HankD]

If salvation only comes by believing in the heart and confessing with the mouth (Romans 10:9), how can a person be saved without knowing it? Either Billy was an ultra-Calvinist, or he was a false prophet, or both.

Was John the Baptist saved in His mother's womb?

Personally I have also questioned Billy Graham Crusade strategy and methodology especially his "ecumenism".

This may be what led him to make some of these highly improbable statements.

But I don't know and won't in this life.

 

[Saved-By-Grace]

Billy "Baalam" Graham definitely preached a false gospel and led millions astray. He didn't even believe that Jesus was the only way to heaven.

can you expand on this with some definite examples? I have heard many messages over the years by him, and found them to be very much Bible-based, with a clear Gospel Message.

 

[Saved-By-Grace]

If salvation only comes by believing in the heart and confessing with the mouth (Romans 10:9), how can a person be saved without knowing it? Either Billy was an ultra-Calvinist, or he was a false prophet, or both.

some of this theology is not right, but much of his preaching was. I don't think you can call him a false prophet, unless you can justify this from things he said?

 

[agedman]

In a setting in which there is an audience, such a personal question as was asked by Bush and then asserted that the wife had no such experience is a problem to answer. Because of the following:

He did not further inquire as to if the wife had trusted Christ as her personal savior.

He did not further inquire as to if the husband understood what was mean by "born again" much less what it was to experience such.

Graham more often conformed his responses to the audience present.

That is in the presence of the pope, the pope was a great christian.

In the presence of the president of the US, his wife would be a christian.

In the presence of the audience of a stadium, he would assume the lost were present and needed the gospel.

Typically, the person can find security in such "changeable thinking" by looking to Paul who wrote, "Therefore I make known to you that no one speaking by the Spirit of God says, "Jesus is accursed"; and no one can say, "Jesus is Lord," except by the Holy Spirit." (1 Corinthians 12:3)

The effort of some to suggest that such a changeableness is teaching a "false gospel" is a false claim.

I was no friend of Graham primarily because of his ecumenical thinking and the lack of separation from modernism.

However, at least he did preach an uncompromising message of Christ.

 

[Saved-By-Grace]

Just saying - no mater John the Baptist role and/or office he is a model of the capability of God to do whatsoever He pleases.

Note in a previous post I talked both possibility and probability.

Indeed, the Lord, being Almighty, is free to do as He wills. However, He has prescribed in His Word, that, "unless and person is born-again, they cannot get to heaven".

 

[Saved-By-Grace]

In a setting in which there is an audience, such a personal question as was asked by Bush and then asserted that the wife had no such experience is a problem to answer. Because of the following:

He did not further inquire as to if the wife had trusted Christ as her personal savior.

He did not further inquire as to if the husband understood what was mean by "born again" much less what it was to experience such.

Graham more often conformed his responses to the audience present.

That is in the presence of the pope, the pope was a great christian.

In the presence of the president of the US, his wife would be a christian.

In the presence of the audience of a stadium, he would assume the lost were present and needed the gospel.

Typically, the person can find security in such "changeable thinking" by looking to Paul who wrote, "Therefore I make known to you that no one speaking by the Spirit of God says, "Jesus is accursed"; and no one can say, "Jesus is Lord," except by the Holy Spirit." (1 Corinthians 12:3)

The effort of some to suggest that such a changeableness is teaching a "false gospel" is a false claim.

I was no friend of Graham primarily because of his ecumenical thinking and the lack of separation from modernism.

However, at least he did preach an uncompromising message of Christ.

you say, "he did preach an uncompromising message of Christ". I don't think that his own testimony through his messages preached, would agree that his own preaching was, "an uncompromising message of Christ", at all times. It is indeed a false presentation of the true Gospel Message, if, for example at the time with the Bush families, that he said what he did, if this is indeed right. NO human can be "born a Christian", it is an impossibility.

Listen to John MacArthur on BG

 

[HankD]

Indeed, the Lord, being Almighty, is free to do as He wills. However, He has prescribed in His Word, that, "unless and person is born-again, they cannot get to heaven".

Many theologians teach that infants are regenerated by God if they die before accountability.

So if God wants to regenerate certain adults after accountability who have not heard (Infants have never heard) then that is God's business.
He doesn't need our permission in a systematic theology.

I think that is what Graham is saying.,

 

[poor-in-spirit]

Perhaps there are other Scriptural considerations about the Grahams of the world who have been revered, studied and followed by the religious lost and babes in Christ since our Lord's ascension. The message Graham spouted obviously changed throughout his life to match the fleshly desires of his audiences. Wolves in sheep's clothing are easy to spot when you match their messages to those of our Lord. Graham counted the costs for his audiences constantly and merely inoculated people to the real gospel sending countless to hell on a shutter (in Christ's name of course).

In Hell | The-real-gospel Heaven

 

[agedman]

On reflecting,

The typical non-cal Baptist will place importance upon the experience of being born again, where the more reformed thinking will place the emphasis upon being born from above, and the experience is determined by God.

As a result, the non-cal Baptist will look for a specific experiential time in which they were "born again."

Those who are more into the Doctrines of Grace will also be able to testify of such, but more often in terms of it being a conversion from and embracing of, then from the idea of some grand experience.


My own view is that no matter the term, some experience aside, if one is not born from above, they are not saved.

Therefore, GHW could say of his wife that she did not have such and "experience" yet still see her as saved, for she showed evidence of being born from above.

Different from what GW had to experience as he was born from above.