Dr Paul Allen

This morning the world woke to the news that Billy Graham, arguably the most recognized evangelist in history, has passed into glory. Born November 7, 1918, and born again at age 16 at a revival meeting, Graham became a household name for his evangelistic crusades. It’s safe to assume that most Christians in America personally know someone who was saved at a Billy Graham crusade .   By the Lord’s grace, Graham had a formidable influence on the world for Christianity. These facts and statistics, gleaned from his  Wikipedia page , give only part of the picture: Graham preached to live audiences nearing 215 million people in over 185 countries and territories. An estimated 3.2 million people accepted Christ as their savior at Graham’s crusades. Graham met personally with every sitting president from Harry Truman to Barack Obama and had close friendships with some of them. With the help of John Stott , Graham founded the Lausanne Movement , a gathering of around 2,700 in

"Philip the Evangelist preaching the Gospel in Samaria" Deutsch:  (Photo credit: Wikipedia ) Luke has brought together for us two examples of Philip’s evangelistic labours, and it is instructive to compare and contrast them. The similarities are plain.  In both instances the same pioneer spirit was shown by Philip, who won the first Samaritans and the first African to Christ. To both audiences the same message was proclaimed, namely the good news of Jesus Christ , for there is only one gospel. In both situations the same response was given, for the hearers believed and were baptized. And in both cases, the same result is recorded, namely joy. The differences are striking too. I am not now thinking of how the Spirit was received, or of the apostolic delegation to Samaria which had no parallel in the conversion of the Ethiopian . I am thinking rather of the people evangelized and of the methods employed. Take the people evangelized. The people with whom Philip shared

CHINESE EVANGELIC CHURCH IN MADRID SUR (South Madrid) (Photo credit: Wikipedia ) In the sixteenth century Martin Luther spoke of the Protestant church as the Evangelical Church . The German adjective evangelisch means ‘evangelical, Protestant, Lutheran’.4 In many places in Europe and Russia today, ‘evangelical’ refers to any Christian who is not Roman Catholic or Eastern Orthodox . According to the Institute for the Study of American Evangelicals ( ISAE ), ‘evangelical’ is defined three ways. First, ‘evangelical’ refers to Christians who affirm certain doctrines and practices. Historian David Bebbington thus identifies four evangelical doctrines: • Biblicism: the Bible is the only authoritative spiritual guide; • Crucicentrism: Christ’s death on the cross is the heart of faith and life; • Conversionism: repentance from sin and faith in Christ are essential to salvation; • Activism: Christians must work together to spread the gospel to all nations.5 J

Billy Graham Crusade New York Prayer wheel.  Related articles Six Decades of Faith, Reverence BIlly Graham. (theyoushowblog.wordpress.com) Confessions of a Billy Graham Crusade Phone Operator (brgulker.wordpress.com) Billy Graham in Quotes - A Treasure! (pamelastephens.me) 1957 Billy Graham ● New York Crusade (The Service) (lunaticoutpost.com) Remembering George Beverly Shea, Billy Graham Crusade Soloist dies at 104 (rockingfunmusic.wordpress.com) My Hope with Billy Graham (rethinkingnews.wordpress.com) Billy Graham's Last Crusade??? (jesusavesisrael.org) A Good Set of Articles on Separation from the IFCA International (ilyston.wordpress.com) George Beverly Shea dies at 104, sang at Graham crusades (blogs.tennessean.com)

Cover of The Kingdom of the Cults A few months ago Franklin Graham found himself in all sort of evangelical hot water when he removed a page from the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association ’s website that had labeled Mormonism as a cult. The timing of the removal—a few weeks before the presidential election and a few minutes after Billy Graham gave his presidential imprimatur to Romney—made any nuanced reasoning behind the Graham’s move impossible. They compounded their problems when their defense of the action was “God has not called us to call other people names”—a defense which is about as thoughtful and persuasive as saying “Mormons really are nice people after all.” As Dan Phillips over at Pyromanics pointed out, how can you possibly argue with someone when they say that God has not called them to do what you think they should be doing? Doesn’t that mean you are arguing with God? Who, exactly, do you think you are? But there remains an obvious question that bears explori