“Billy Graham the Idea” vs. “Billy Graham the Man”

The death of Billy Graham aroused a wide variety of emotions across the world of Christendom and the world of unbelievers. Some do not quite remember Graham, while others know somehow that they need to feel an inner warmness–a nostalgic feeling from a bygone era. The overwhelming response from the evangelical Christian world, especially the Southern Baptist Convention, was an overflow of gushing praise for the man who preached to millions and saw tens of thousands make decisions for Christ. Many in the secular media also poured out the accolades, and politicians in Washington honored Graham’s memory as his casket arrived in the U.S. Capitol rotunda for viewing.

Many believers trace their testimony of salvation back to one of his sermons and share testimonies of life changing conversions. I personally know one whose testimony is just that — and today he teaches at a Christian university. From what I understand, it is true Graham went through his life with no hint of a moral failing. He never was in it for the money either. Considering other well-known evangelists of the same era, those facts alone were a remarkable achievement. Graham was also ahead of his peers when it came to dealing with racial tensions and the work toward desegregation.

Despite these praiseworthy aspects of his life, sadly Graham resembled some of the kings in the Old Testament who started out strong for God but theologically shipwrecked by the end of life. For instance, Graham is on record for flat out denying John 14:6 in a 1997 interview. He affirmed unambiguously his belief that other religions, including Buddhism and Islam can lead people to heaven–people who do not even know the name of Jesus. He had already revealed another errant belief about salvation by embracing the possibility of salvation through general revelation alone. Graham also developed deep ties to the Roman Catholic Church — both in terms of personal friendships and in finding common ground with Catholic teaching on salvation.

The difficulty in evaluating his life’s work involves the difference between ‘Billy Graham’ the idea and the ‘Billy Graham’ who actually lived. We all love Billy Graham the idea. The idea being a humble preacher who is faithful to his wife, not out for money, one who faithfully proclaims the gospel to millions of people and tens of thousands are saved through his ministry, and he remains faithful to Christ and truth until his final breath.

The problem is Billy Graham the person falls well short of Billy Graham the idea. Many conservative leaders within the Southern Baptist Convention, not to mention some fundamentalists who have forgotten about Graham’s problems seem willfully blind on this and merge the idea with the person.

I dearly wish Billy Graham the idea was the same as Billy Graham the person. It brings me no joy to disillusion anyone about his extreme ecumenism and false teaching on the gospel. I wish Graham had stuck with John 14:6 instead of denying it. I wish he had not joined in ministry partnership with Christ denying religious organizations that lead souls to hell. What he has done is give false assurances to countless people who want to find their own way to heaven apart from Christ, while at the same time left defenders of a pure gospel message exposed to the ridicule of the world for being mean-spirited and close-minded instead of being like Billy Graham who accepts people’s beliefs as they are.

I rejoice for the many who came to Christ because they heard Graham preach. This is a credit to the power of the gospel message and the working of the Spirit in the hearts of sinners. Some may say, ‘well nobody is perfect.’ Very true. Every gospel preacher is flawed. Every one of us. We all struggle with besetting sins. We are all incomplete in the inward growth of the Spirit’s fruit. However, the erroneous view of the gospel Graham affirmed with his own lips clearly is like the kind Paul warned against, in the strongest possible words, when he spoke of those preaching another gospel. For this reason, I want to believe he never said these things and did not mean them.

Here is a list of quotations, Billy Graham in his own words, not in any way taken out of context, and all spoken long before he had any taint of mental disability:

May 24, 1966, Philadelphia Evening Bulletin 24:

“I find myself closer to Catholics than the radical Protestants. I think the Roman Catholic Church today is going through a second Reformation.”

1968, San Antonio, TX:

“A great part of our support today comes from Catholics. We never hold a crusade without priests and nuns being much in evidence in the audience.”

April 22, 1972:

Graham’s remarks upon receiving the Catholic International Franciscan Award for “his contribution to true ecumenism:”

“While I am not worthy to touch the shoe laces of St. Francis, yet this same Christ that called Francis in the 13th century also called me to be one of his servants in the 20th century”

October 21, 1973:

“This past week I preached in the great Catholic Cathedral a funeral sermon for a close friend of mine who was a Catholic, and they had several Bishops and Archbishops to participate. And as I sat there going through the funeral Mass, that was a very beautiful thing, and certainly straight and clear in the gospel. There was a wonderful little priest that would tell me when to stand and when to kneel and what to do”

October 1976, Southern Cross:

“I think that Protestants, in reaction to the Catholic position, have made far too little of Mary. Mary was the most remarkable and most blessed of all women.”

May 1977 address at Notre Dame University:

“I have no quarrel with the Catholic Church”

“Many of you want to come tonight and reconfirm your confirmation. You want to reconfirm the decision that you made when you joined the [Catholic] church”

The January 1978 issue of McCall’s magazine interview by James Michael Beam:

“I am far more tolerant of other kinds of Christians than I once was. My contact with Catholic, Lutheran and other leaders–people far removed from my own Southern Baptist tradition–has helped me, hopefully, to move in the right direction. I’ve found that my beliefs are essentially the same as those of orthodox Roman Catholics, for instance. They believe in the Virgin Birth, and so do I. They believe in the Resurrection of Jesus and the coming judgment of God, and so do I. We only differ on some matters of later church tradition.”

“I used to play God, but I can’t do that anymore. I used to believe that pagans in far-off countries were lost – were 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 the existence of God – through nature, for instance – and plenty of other opportunities, therefore, of saying ‘yes’ to God.”

October 11, 1979 on the Phil Donohue show, regarding Pope John Paul II:

“I think the American people are looking for a leader, a moral and spiritual leader that believes something. And the Pope does. He didn’t mince words on a single subject. As a matter of fact, his subject in Boston was really an evangelistic address in which he asked the people to come to Christ, to give their lives to Christ. I said, ‘Thank God, I’ve got somebody to quote now with some real authority.’”

1984, Foundation, Vol. V, Iss. 5, regarding the address by Pope John Paul II:

“I’ll tell you, that was just about as straight an evangelical address as I’ve ever heard. It was tremendous. Of course, I’m a great admirer of his. He gives moral guidance in a world that seems to have lost its way.”

1997 interview by Robert Schuller:

“I think that everybody that loves or knows Christ, whether they are conscious of it or not, they are members of the body of Christ… [God] is calling people out of the world for his name, whether they come from the Muslim world, or the Buddhist world or the non-believing world, they are members of the Body of Christ because they have been called by God. They may not know the name of Jesus but they know in their hearts that they need something they do not have, and they turn to the only light they have, and I think that they are saved and they are going to be with us in heaven.”

2005 interview by Larry King, upon the death of Pope John Paul II, who asked, “There is no question in your mind that he is with God now?”:

“Oh, no. There may be a question about my own, but I don’t think Cardinal Wojtyla, or the Pope — I think he’s with the Lord, because he believed. He believed in the Cross. That was his focus throughout his ministry, the Cross, no matter if you were talking to him from personal issue or an ethical problem, he felt that there was the answer to all of our problems, the cross and the resurrection. And he was a strong believer.”

That one from 1997 is perhaps the most troubling, as he is not saying people leave Islam or Buddhism to accept Christ. He is instead saying they are members of Christ’s body without knowing Christ while staying with their Muslim or Buddhist beliefs. As far as I know, Graham never publicly recanted what he told Robert Schuller or explained why he said it. Some may commend Graham for his larger body of work while ignoring this blatant denial of the gospel of Christ, but that is like asking Mrs. Lincoln upon the assassination of her husband, ‘other than that Mrs. Lincoln how was the play?’

I sincerely wish he had not affirmed those truth-denying positions over those many decades, but he did. I am baffled that some conservative leaders simply look the other way in regards to Graham, but otherwise are lions defending the gospel. I have heard from some who move within the Southern Baptist Convention that conservative leaders will privately admit to Graham’s problems, but will never speak of it in a public setting. This is because they so badly want the idea of Billy Graham to be true, even though they know the reality does not match.

There was an old Western film where the legendary hero was exposed at the end of his life for being a fraud, but the local press wouldn’t run the story, because, as the editor said, ‘When the legend becomes fact, print the legend.’ That is what we have with Billy Graham. There is such a strong collective desire for a powerful hero that many do not care that the hero himself undermined the gospel. I believe our young people desperately need clarity and consistency in what they are hearing in regards to the gospel, and that this is sort of a Numbers chapter 25 ‘Phinehas, grab your spear’ moment. Speaking of heroes, we do have one hero, Jesus Christ, who we as broken sinners get to proclaim to a world full of broken sinners. We do not need to prop up human heroes, and we certainly should not heap praise on any who malign, distort, or deny the gospel of Christ.

We are not about being mean-spirited, judgmental, unkind or any of those things. This is about taking seriously what Graham voluntarily affirmed as to his own beliefs throughout his long career, and coming to grips with how far removed his positions are from the truth of Scripture.

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Darrell Post lives in Virginia Beach, VA where he enjoys his ministry of teaching as well his hobby of studying ancient New Testament Greek manuscripts.

This post is an updated version of a comment that first appeared on Sharper Iron. At P&D, we thank Darrell Post for his contribution and permission to repost here.