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In 1948 Graham
said, ‘The three gravest menaces faced by
orthodox Christianity are Communism, Roman Catholicism
and
Mohammedanism’. |
- 1963: ‘I admire Pope
John tremendously... I felt he brought a new era
to the World’ (Chicago Tribune, 8/6/63;
Michigan
City News [Christian] Dispatch; 6/8/63)
- 1967: Billy Graham was awarded an honorary degree by
Catholic Belmont Abbey College. Graham told a
predominantly
Catholic audience: ‘Now we can speak to one
another, work with one another and be brothers to one
another...That gospel
that founded this [Catholic] school,
that gospel has brought me here tonight is
still the way of salvation’. (Gastonia
Gazette,
22/11/67; ‘Evangelical Action’, 1/2/68)
- 1968: ‘I believe there is a great deal to learn
from other religions in the Far East,
especially from Buddhism’. (Graham,
Japanese Press Conference; Christian Beacon, 1/2/68)
- 1972: On April 21st, Graham received the Fransiscan
(Catholic) International Award for Ecumenism.
- 1973: In the Key 73 Crusade, Graham recommended
Roman Catholic literature, including a biography of Pope
John Paul
VI, which contained many pages of devotion to Mary,
saint worship, the Mass and salvation through
sacraments, etc. Graham
advertised this book as ‘a classic devotion’.
(Key ’73: Congregational Resource Book; The Gospel
Standard, 2/86; Brown,
‘Billy Graham: Custodian of the faith or figure of
compromise?’ P.14)
- 1977: ‘We have received wondrous support from
the Catholic Church.’ (Christianity Today,
3012/77)
- 1978: October - Graham peached in Poland at Pozan’s
Catholic Church. He prayed that ‘The Holy Spirit
would unite the hearts of the Roman Catholics and
Protestants’.
- 1978: ‘I praise the greatness of the present
Pope Paul the sixth’. (Poland, 1978)
- 1978: ‘I am far more tolerant of other kinds of
Christians than I once was. My contact with Catholics,
Lutheran and
other leaders...has helped me, hopefully, to move in the
right direction. I found that my beliefs are essentially
the same as
those of orthodox Catholics. We only differ on some
matters of later church tradition. (McCalls
Magazine - interview, 1978;
The Baptist Challenge, 1/95).
- 1979 : ‘The visit of Pope John Paul II to the
United States is an event of great significance...for
all Americans - as well as the world. A new interest in
spiritual matters could be the beginning of a new wave
of spiritual revival in our nation. The Pope’s visit
comes at a critical time in our world. My prayers and
the prayers of countless other Protestants will
be with him as he makes his journey’. (Billy
Graham, Religious News Service, 27/9/79 - made available
by the Billy Graham
Evangelistic Association).
- 1979: Billy Graham appeared on the Phil Donahue
live show and said of the Pope: ‘I think the
American people are looking for a leader, a moral and
spiritual leader that believes something. And the Pope
does. Thank God, I’ve got somebody to quote now with
some real authority.’ (Phil Donahue Show, 10/11/79)
- 1980: ‘Pope John Paul the second is one of the
greatest moral and spiritual leaders of this century. He
is an evangelist.’
He has 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!’ (Written by
Graham in the Saturday Evening Post, Jan/Feb., 1980)
- 1988: ‘World travel and getting to know the
clergy of all denominations has helped mould me into an
ecumenical being’.
(US News and World Report, 19/12/88)
- 1993: ‘That’s why it’s so important for us to
have prayer groups and prayer meetings,
and join hands together, whether
we’re Protestants, Catholics, or Jews, and pray, because
we’re praying to the same God’. (Jan. 1993
interview with David Frost).
- 1993: ‘I’m delighted the Pope is coming [to
Denver]...I admire the Pope even though I don’t
agree with him on everything...’ (Graham,
7/12/93 interview by Joan Lunden, ABC - TV, ‘Good
Morning America’; More fully documented in Christian
News, 9/6/93; Australian Beacon, 10/93, P.8; Calvary
Contender, 1/10/93)
- In 1948 Graham commented about the World Council of
Churches meeting: ‘I believe they are going to
nominate the Antichrist’. Yet since 1968 he has
attended all WCC assemblies!
- 1972: Graham said, ‘There is a great need for an
ecumenical Christian body much broader in scope than
either the World Council of Churches or
the National Council of Churches’. (FEA
Nov,1972) A 1966 poll showed that Less than one quarter
of the NCC leaders believe in the virgin birth and
many do not believe in the deity of Christ.
The NCC is also pro-abortion and pro-homosexuality. More
than 100 of its leaders have been cited for aiding
communists organisations. (Report documented by Darrell
Turner, RNS Associate Editor, 17/8/91)
- 1991: At a National Council of Churches (NCC) meeting
on 27/8/91 Graham praised the group as follows:
‘There’s no group of people in the world that I would
rather be with right now than you all...we follow with
great interest the things you do...And I love everybody
equally and I have no problem in fellowship with anybody
who says that Jesus Christ is Lord’.
(Foundation, June/August, 1991, P.34)
- Preaching in Episcopal Bishop James Pike’s Cathedral,
at a Council of Churches meeting, Graham prayed for the
‘success of the current assembly of
National Council of Churches’. (This same
Bishop Pike denied the virgin birth, the incarnation,
the Trinity, claimed ghostly contacts with his suicide
son and was unofficially charged with heresy. In the
San Francisco Crusade Graham had Pike on the platform
and asked him to lead in prayer.)
- ‘Astrology is all right as long as it is not
taken too seriously’. (Graham in response to a
question about Nancy Reagon’s association with
Astrology, BBC Radio ‘Sunday’)
- ‘I believe that a miracle can happen in these
children so that they are regenerated, that is, made
Christian, through infant baptism. If you want to call
that Baptismal Regeneration, that’s all right with me’.
(Graham, ‘Lutheran Standard’ 10/10/61; Cited fully
by John R. Rice in ‘Dr. Graham’s Daring: Facing Both
Ways At Once!’, P.3)
- 1993: ‘When it comes to a literal fire, I don’t
preach it because I’m not sure about it’.
(Graham, Time Magazine, 15/11/93)
- 1997: When asked the question: 'What do you think
of the other [churches]...like Mormonism,
Catholicism...Graham replied: 'I have wonderful
fellowship with all of them...I like him [the Pope] very
much...he and I agree on almost everything.' (Larry
King - Live show (video evidence available) 21/1/97).
(how many really believe Jesus)?
THE END
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