Ken Silva posted this short piece back in 2012 to warn the Church about evangelical inclusivism. “There are those who feel that reporting on issues like this brings pleasure, well, it truly doesn’t,” Ken wrote, clearly disheartened over apostate evangelical leaders he once respected. “Billy Graham was always someone I had looked to as an example and someone I greatly admired in Christ. That is until troubling quotes and questionable associations he’d been making through the years kept coming up in research. Some of what you will see here has been available in different formats but it seemed good in the Lord to put it together in a more accessible form.”
And he did just that. Here’s his piece:
Apprising Ministries brings you the audio clip below where Dr. John MacArthur gives some background on the current apostasy in which evangelicals are now accepting apostate Roman Catholicism as genuine Christianity. He also quotes from the transcript of an appearance by Billy Graham on Hour of Power with Robert Schuller.
This is program #1426 entitled Say “Yes” To Possibility Thinking, which was originally broadcast May 31, 1997:
Schuller: Tell me, what do you think is the future of Christianity?
Graham: Well, Christianity and being a true believer–you know, I think there’s the Body of Christ. This comes from all the Christian groups around the world, outside the Christian groups. I think everybody that loves Christ, or knows Christ, whether they’re conscious of it or not, they’re members of the Body of Christ. And I don’t think that we’re going to see a great sweeping revival, that will turn the whole world to Christ at any time. I think James answered that, the Apostle James in the first council in Jerusalem, when he said that God’s purpose for this age is to call out a people for His name.
And that’s what God is doing today, He’s calling people out of the world for His name, whether they come from the Muslim world, or the Buddhist world, or the Christian world or the non-believing world, they are members of the Body of Christ because they’ve been called by God. They may not even know the name of Jesus but they know in their hearts that they need something that they don’t have, and they turn to the only light that they have, and I think that they are saved, and that they’re going to be with us in heaven.
Schuller: What, what I hear you saying that it’s possible for Jesus Christ to come into human hearts and soul and life, even if they’ve been born in darkness and have never had exposure to the Bible. Is that a correct interpretation of what you’re saying?
Graham: Yes, it is, because I believe that. I’ve met people in various parts of the world in tribal situations, that they have never seen a Bible or heard about a Bible, and never heard of Jesus, but they’ve believed in their hearts that there was a God, and they’ve tried to live a life that was quite apart from the surrounding community in which they lived.
Schuller: I’m so thrilled to hear you say this. There’s a wideness in God’s mercy.
Graham: There is. There definitely is.
Below is the segment with Billy Graham and his friend Robert Schuller referenced above. See it for yourself:
Well, the sad fact is this “Evangelical” Inclusivism is Older Than You Think. And it’s also the root rot of the Church Growth Movement as evidenced e.g. by sinful Southern Baptist ecumenicist Rick Warren and his Emergent counterpart Living Spiritual Teacher and EC guru Brian McLaren who’re following Graham’s footsteps.
For example, Warren has said, “It really doesn’t matter your denomination, folks. We’re all on the same team if you love Jesus.”[1] And McLaren has opined that if people are “happy being Muslim, or Buddhist or Jewish or atheist,” he doesn’t think it’s right to try to “shoe-horn them out of their religion” into Christianity.[2]
That’s why John MacArthur is dead-on-target in what he says about this evangelical inclusivism below:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vYfC92oe5nY
End notes:
[1] http://bit.ly/L3VkR7, accessed 5/8/12.
[2] http://bit.ly/IWeMmq, accessed 5/8/12.
See also:
SOUTHERN BAPTISTS ASSIST THE ROMAN CATHOLIC CHURCH TO INFILTRATE EVANGELICALISM
ROB BELL DEFENDING LOVE WINS MYTHOLOGY