DITC Note: This article is posted to illustrate the ecumenical compromise that Billy Graham has been involved in for years. It must also be pointed out that the source of this article promotes some "foolish controversies and geneologies and arguments" (Tit. 3:9) such as Ruchmanism/KJV-Onlyism. It is always a good idea to be careful to examine our own belief systems before castigating others for theirs. However, this article does point out legitimate truth concerning Billy Graham and his unholy alliance with Rome.
While spending a day at Wheaton College recently doing research in the
college library and the Billy Graham Library, I made a tour of the Billy
Graham Museum. Graham has preached the gospel to more people than any other
single man in history, yet he has also done more to confuse the gospel
and to break down the walls of separation between true churches and false
than any
other man. It is very sad matter and a very great confusion to the
cause of Jesus Christ.
I expected to see Graham's ecumenical exploits featured at the museum, and I was not disappointed. Among the photo displays was one of a smiling Graham visiting a smiling Pope John Paul II, another of Graham with the head of the Russian Orthodox Church, and yet another of Graham with the Archbishop of Canterbury. Graham has never warned the world that the pope of Rome preaches a false gospel that will bring eternal damnation to those who follow it. Through his close and non-critical relationship with Rome and by turning over thousands of his converts to Catholic churches, Dr. Graham has left observers with the impression that Roman Catholicism is a friend of the truth. ...
It is not really surprising, then, that the Billy Graham Museum honors the first Roman pope as a great evangelist. This is in the Rotunda of Witnesses which is at the beginning of the tour. It is a circular room containing nine 20-foot tall banners or tapestries depicting various alleged fathers of evangelism. Museum literature says, "Each banner bears an individual witness selected from Christian history and was chosen on the merit of its revelation of Christ as Lord and Savior." The banners begin with the Apostle Paul and end with Oswald Chambers. Two of the men featured in this evangelistic hall of fame are Gregory the Great and Francis of Assisi. Both of these, of course, are Roman Catholics who preached a false sacramental gospel of faith-works.
Gregory VII, or Gregory the Great (540-604), was "the first of the proper
popes" and with him began "the development of the absolute papacy" (Schaff's
History of the Christian Church, I, p. 15). Gregory held to the standard
Catholic heresies such as infant baptism, baptismal regeneration, prayers
to Mary, veneration of relics, etc. It was Gregory who sent Augustin (or
Austin) to England to convert the Anglo Saxons from their apostolic Christianity
to the unscriptural Roman Catholic faith. Gregory
also persecuted the faithful Donatists in Africa. (See A History of
the Donatists by David Benedict, 1875, and A History of the English Baptists
by Joseph Ivimey, 1811 ...)
Francis of Assisi (1182-1226) is one of Rome's "saints." He was the
founder of the Franciscans, that Catholic order of monks who, together
with the Dominicans, brutally persecuted Bible believers during the Dark
Ages. The pope to whom Francis pledged his allegiance was Innocent III,
the very father of the wretched and bloody inquisition. While Innocent
III sent out
his henchmen to hunt out and torment the "heretical" Waldenses, Francis
of Assisi was his loyal subject. Before his death, in fact, Francis raised
up an army of spiritually blind papal loyalists. By the time of his death,
the order of Franciscan monks had grown to roughly 5,000.
It was not Rome and its popes and saints who evangelized the world during
the Dark Ages. Rome's "missionaries" did not preach the gospel of the free
grace of Jesus Christ; they offered a false promise of salvation through
baptism and sacraments and indulgences and the intercession of the saints;
they planted Catholicism at the point of a sword. It was persecuted
Bible-believing groups such as the ancient Waldenses who carried the
torch of gospel truth during the Dark Ages. At incredible cost they sent
missionaries to every corner of Europe and even to England from their homes
in the mountains in northern Italy and France. ...
It is sad and frightful that the Billy Graham Center and Wheaton College have chosen to honor false teachers instead of the true evangelists.