BILLY GRAHAM

BILLY GRAHAM

                When it comes to Billy Graham, I think that he preached the truth. He called people to the foot of the cross. He taught repentance and forgiveness of sins and a New Birth. In other words He taught the Gospel and his life was consistent with what he taught.                                     

                The Bible says that by their fruits we shall know them and Billy Graham bore a lot of fruit. He led thousands, even millions of people to Jesus Christ. It was a universal call to Christ in which people, having come to Christ would then find a church in which to be baptized. Usually all denominations and  denominational pastors were involved in his crusades and so in many cases the pastors doing follow-up would bring them into their particular denomination.

                In a broad general sense this may have contributed to ecumenism, but what I see going on in churches today is really not the same as what Billy Graham did. He preached the true Gospel. He brought people to the foot of the cross. He brought them to salvation through the blood, cross and resurrection of Jesus.

                But what we have going on in many Christian movements today is rather a departure from the Gospel, from repentance,  from turning away from sin, from the cross, the blood and the resurrection power of Jesus Christ. It is a different gospel that fuels the ecumenical movement of today.

                In a way Billy Graham was the last man standing of the old guard. As a man of God he was faithful to his calling and never deviated from his message. He stood as a sort of watchman over the dying embers of a Christian America and he decried the atrocities that he saw moving into our nation. Eastern religions, drugs, a sexual revolution, the generation gap, violence and a host of other ills were spreading like a cancer at an alarming rate.

                Should we take pot shots at this man’s devotion to his mission? I say it is not ours to judge. It is easy to be armchair quarterbacks. He was a pastor to the presidents and as such he moved in their circles. He held an audience with the Pope and we can only speculate as to the meaning of these things. So whether he was a part of the problem or if He was assigned by God to identify the problem, America has moved inexorably in a direction of nominal Christianity.

                It might even be said that we have generations coming up that have no idea as to what Christianity is supposed to be. How far have we come from the disciples who took up their cross and followed after Jesus, giving their lives for their faith?

                I believe that God is once again calling for a Remnant of humble and obedient disciples, willing to live or to die for the cross of Jesus Christ.

                The book of Revelation paints a shocking picture for us of the situation in these last days. It is a 2000 year old video so to speak. In Revelation 12 we see a woman (Israel) giving birth to a man child (Jesus) who is caught up to the throne in heaven. From there on we see the woman fleeing into the wilderness being chased by the dragon (This probably refers to the scattering of the Jews into all of the nations of the world along with unthinkable persecution.) But then another group is seen, A remnant of her seed, who keep the commandments of God and hold to the testimony of Jesus. This group would have to represent Messianic Jews who had to flee first from traditional Jews and then later from pagan Emperors and eventually from a monster known as pagan/Christianity. This religion became the most despotic of all as it took over the reins of both pagan and Christian power, ruling over the kings of the earth and putting to death about 60 million non-compliant Messianic Christians who wanted nothing to do with this pagan/Christian mixture.

                This was a point of consternation to John the Revelator because in Revelation 12 God shows him His people fleeing into the wilderness. She goes into the wilderness as a chaste bride, but when he sees her again in Revelation 17 she has become a harlot and the mother of harlots. She is riding on a global beast governmental and she is drunk with the blood of the saints.

                I think Daniel may have seen this same thing and he was sick for many days. He sees the final abomination of desolation and asks how long it will be until the sanctuary is finally cleansed. Much of what Daniel is told is sealed and left to be unsealed at the end of time when knowledge and travel would be increased. In other words, at a time when technology and global connectivity would finally catch up with the prophecies… at a time when the buying and selling done by every human on the planet could be controlled, when wars would be conducted on a global scale. Such things as this would have to be in place in order to bring Satan’s global kingdom to a climactic end.

                The Reformers that came out of the Catholic (Universal) church rightly understood that this pagan/Christian organization had become and would would become an integral part of the antichrist system. Firstly, it fit all of the descriptions of end time Bible prophecy. The woman riding the beast is a religious power that rides upon the secular powers of the world. She holds the dual keys of religious and political power.

                Secondly, because of the very nature of popery, it operates in the place of Christ, which is the very definition of antichrist. (In the place of Christ.)

                But Satan has done a masterful job of covering up what our church forefathers once knew. In this modern age of instant worldwide communication, the pagan church has had to stop her inquisitions and learned to play nice, but her plans and her intentions have not changed.

                But somehow, at this most critical point in history when all of the biblical prophecies are coming into their final form, the Protestant churches have drifted from fundamental truth. They have stopped preaching the full and complete Gospel and they have abandoned the study of Bible prophecy by which our forefathers came to understand what was and is happening in our world.

                Many Protestant denominations, no longer understanding the keys to Bible prophecy, can no longer see any need to be separated from the mother of harlots and so they are coming back to her to form a universal global religion thinking that this will bring peace and security.

                At this point I would like to remind you that we are talking about religious systems here and not the people. God has a remnant people in every form of Christianity and He also has many sheep that are not of this fold. After all Muslims, Hindus, Buddhists and others are receiving dreams and visions and are coming to Christ by the thousands right now. But sadly a large portion of the church is falling away and it is their weakness and moral relativism that is paving the way for the rise of the antichrist.

                Like I said earlier, around 57% of young Christians no longer believe that Jesus is the only way to salvation. So even as Jesus is now calling in His “other sheep” many that used to be His sheep are now falling away and joining forces with the wolves. The daughters of the harlot are coming back to Rome.

                I shared that video concerning Billy Graham, not to cast any blame upon Him, but to show that a major trend was set as discipleship was replaced by membership and church growth replaced fundamental truth. Evangelism lost its prophetic edge and so the church has been universally infiltrated by those who hide the prophetic truth from us… the truth that the Reformers once preached.

                This scenario is so clearly pictured in Bible Prophecy that it is astounding to see Christianity living in complete ignorance of Satan’s plans to take over the Body of Christ and to rule the world in the place of Christ.

                The Jews suffer from a similar ignorance even as for the sake of expedience they will eventually invite the New World Order antichrist to rule over Jerusalem, where he will take his seat in the Holy place declaring himself to be God.

                We are about to enter a time of great shaking when everyone that doesn’t truly belong to the Body of Christ will be shaken out and those “Other Sheep” will be drawn in in the last great harvest.

                My question is: When are the Pastors going to wake up and realize that we are now in the middle of the last days even as they have rocked their people to sleep with false peace and security?

                To you I would say: Call out to the Lord while He may be found. Ask Him for the eye salve that will open our blind eyes. Cry out for a living and vital relationship with Jesus who is the substance and reality of all of our rituals and traditions. Only Jesus can save us and He must do it from the inside.

                In these last days the watchmen and the prophets, as in times past, are tasked, not with a get rich, feel good message, but a warning that Babylon is indeed falling and we must by all means come out of her lest we partake of her sins and receive of her plagues.