5 things I admired about Billy Graham

It's  been a few days since the death of Billy Graham, many people in reformed circles have shared my concerns about his ministry for the length of it, such as appeals, relationship with ecumenicalism etc. Now is not the time to get into that, rather to reflect on the life of the  most influential evangelical of the C20th. I'd like to share some things I admired about him.

The first thing I admired is that he loved God and the Gospel. I have listened to him a fair bit over the years and he majors on the major, I've  just listened to him preach  'I will boast in nothing but the Cross' and that sums up his life. He was an old fashioned Gospel preacher, forget the appeals and just listen to the message, he glories in the Christ and in His Cross, not seeing any other means of us getting back to God, loving the fact that in the person of His Son, God has reached down to us. He quotes from the Bible throughout his message, knowing the Scriptures well.  I have been in lots of churches across the UK and I often meet people who were converted under his ministry.

He scandal free life- Billy Graham has been involved in controversy because of his love for truth, such as standing up against segregation in America or Apartheid in South Africa, so he was no coward but in his own walk there has been no scandal, he loved his wife, and put means in place to avoid any temptation or any appearance of evil. 

His humility- Another thing that comes through especially when you see the televangelists is Billy Graham was a humble man, he knew that he was a sinner, he must have known how well regarded he was, packing stadiums around the world having the ear of the Queen, Prime Ministers including Churchill and his own Presidents yet despite all that he comes across as so self effacing, call me Billy he said to his friends and to acquaintances alike.

Training- Whenever the BGEA were in town they would train the counsellors from the local churches to be ready to walk people through when someone had come to the front. Setting up a partnership with local churches so they would be equipped to do the work of discipleship when BGEA left town. They came to my wife's home town and they were there meeting with folks months before the 3 day event itself. Not only this but the BGEA has used it's to resources to train other evangelists around the world, equipping people for the work to continue. 

He loved others- part of his appeal is that he clearly loved people around him. This came out of his humility but he seemed to reflect the nature of His Saviour when he met people he gave them his attention. Seeming to want to give the benefit of the doubt to all people, I think this is where he had clay feet and it is what gets him into trouble with conservative evangelicals but it's because he loves. He saw the log in his own eye so ignored the speck in other people's eyes. 

I for one am grateful for the powerful Gospel preached by this man, raised up by God for his generation and I am praying that God would raise up more men to preach this glorious gospel.

God Bless

Stephen <><

Defining Deception- Costi Hinn and Anthony G Wood

I have just finished reading this important book, if you ever visit a Christian book store or if you have ever been part of the Charismatic movement the name Hinn will be well known to you, Costi Hinn the nephew of Benny Hinn is one of the authors. In 2012 God plucked Costi out of the Word Faith movement and saved him. Anthony Wood also spent time as part of TBN mixing with Word Faith Movement Leaders. Their concern in this book is both evangelistic and apologetic to winsomely point out the historical errors of this movement and how it is becoming mainstream via Bethany House. They chart how Bethany House is full of the same errors that the Word Faith movement is. Firstly in this book they trace the catalogue of errors through 'God's generals' the early proponents of Word Faith Theology, this has been done elsewhere especially in depth in Christianity in Crisis. The books strength lies elsewhere, in the raw passion and compassion found in it, you can feel that they have been part of it and love those in it. This came out very clearly when Costi was talking about his uncle Benny and the Hinn family still very much part of the Word Faith movement. It was also balanced as they disagreed very much with John Wimber's theology but go to great lengths to point out how his theology departed from fourth wave Charismatic theology in good ways, and how he travelled to Airport Vineyard church to remove them from Vineyard because of their strange practises.

 

A couple of downsides to this book are, 1) It could have done with proof reading better, for example 'which came first the chicken and the egg' and more importantly 2) it's too short, I would like to see an expanded version, in that version I would like them to examine the theology of Joyce Meyer who in the UK at least is even more mainstream than Bethany House, though she is a Word of Faith teacher.

 

I was in a Charismatic church for three years back in my youth, I wasn't much into but I wanted to experience Acts for today, I went to hear/see Benny Hinn do his thing and his theological errors were more they I could bare, this was a lonely 18 months as I found no-one of the same mind. I was eventually helped by Christianity in Crisis- I remember trying to give out the tapes to people around the tape ministry in the church, the tape ministry was full of faith teachers messages. It was the end of being a Charismatic for me, it took a long time to settle after but I am thankful for people then who wrote about these errors.  I hope this book is greatly used to help people move away from these errors. I was moved by the testimonies at the end of the book of people who were victims of Word Faith theology but have now come to know the real Jesus and see how precious His Gospel is.

 

My prayer is that God would use this book to deliver people from Deception to find the truth as it is in Jesus.

 

God Bless

Stephen <><