Probably no name is more revered among Protestants than that of Billy Graham. He is widely respected and perhaps better known than anyone else (after the pope). His nearly universal ability to draw admiration, as a magnet draws nails, stems from his many years of preaching. He calls for his audiences to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ as their own personal Savior, and soon the aisles are flooded with people coming forward. How could anyone find fault with such an influential man?
He, as the rest of us, must have his message tested by the Word of God. Before anyone e-mails a vigorous complaint about this article, he (or she) ought to realize that no one’s doctrine is above question–not even the apostle Paul’s. The Bereans who heard him speak were called noble because they “searched the Scriptures daily to find out whether” the doctrine Paul was teaching was, in fact, the Truth (Acts 17:11). If Paul did not mind having his gospel scrutinized, neither should Billy Graham or those who admire him.
But before we examine his teaching regarding salvation, let’s consider another situation. Suppose a man called Abimelech sees a beautiful woman that he might want to marry. Abraham says, “She is my sister”; so Abimelech takes her with sexual purposes in mind, but God intervenes by telling him she is Abraham’s wife. Abimelech protests that what he did (and would have done) was based on Abraham’s false declaration (Gen. 20:5). God acknowledges that Abimelech acted in the integrity of his heart and then commands him to restore Sarah to Abraham, which he does (Gen. 20:7). Abimelech is angry with Abraham and questions him:
“What have you done to us? How have I offended you, that you have brought on me and my kingdom a great sin? You have done deeds to me that ought not to be done” (Gen. 20:9).
Now the text does not say that Abimelech asked, “Who is that beautiful woman traveling with you?” But if he had, we know Abraham’s answer: “She is my sister.” Although she was his half-sister, Abraham’s statement is calculated to deceive and mislead. We would all be upset with anyone who treated us that way.
Billy Graham does not tell the whole truth regarding salvation; people ought to be outraged at his dishonesty! Probably he has misled those desiring salvation through a number of oral and printed media. The one we are looking at comes from his book, Angels: God’s Secret Messengers. This book has sold over 2 and 1/2 million copies.
Near the conclusion of it (186), he affirms that angels are interested in the salvation of people; he then devotes two pages to explaining how men are saved:
A rich young ruler came running to kneel before Christ one day, and asked, “Good Master, what shall I do that I may inherit eternal life?” (Mark 10:17). When Peter had preached his great sermon at Pentecost, Luke says the people were “pricked in their heart, and said unto Peter, . . .what shall we do?” (Acts 2:37). The African nobleman riding in the chariot across the desert talked with Philip the evangelist. Suddenly the nobleman stopped his chariot and said, “What doth hinder me?” (Acts 8:36). At midnight the Philippian jailer asked Paul and Silas, “Sirs, what must I do to be saved?” (Acts 16:30).
After Graham affirms that modern man is asking this same question and setting forth the simplicity of the gospel, Graham then answers all four questions that he had cited by giving Paul’s answer to the jailer in Acts 16:31: “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved.”
Now someone not familiar with the Scriptures would assume that the answer that Graham cites is the same answer given to all four questions in the Scriptures. After all, he did write: “Modern man forever asks this same question. It is old, but always new. It is just as relevant today as it was in the past” (186). This comment certainly leaves the impression that there is one answer to all four questions. But let’s go to the Scriptures to see whether these things are so.
When the rich young ruler asked what he should do to inherit eternal life, here is what Jesus answered (after making some comments on the word good: “You know the commandments: ‘Do not commit adultery,’ ‘Do not murder,’ ‘Do not bear false witness,’ ‘Do not defraud,’ ‘Honor your father and your mother'” (Mark 10:19). Jesus did not say simply to believe on Him; he told the man to keep the commandments. In Luke’s account Jesus told the man if he would keep those commandments, He would live. Graham said nothing about keeping God’s commandments.
Furthermore, this entire event occurred before the cross and Jesus’s death for our sins. This conversation took place under the old covenant; we ought to look for teaching about salvation after Jesus was raised from the dead.
The second Scripture Graham cited was Acts 2:37, but he failed to tell the reader Peter’s answer in the next verse: “Repent, and let every one of you be baptized for the remission of sins; and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit” (Acts 2:38). Never in any of his “crusades” does Graham ever give this answer. He wants nothing to do with either repentance or baptism; he will detour around them every time.
The reader will have to ask himself how honest this approach to the Scriptures is. Graham borrows the question from verse 37 but omits the answer from 38. Can anyone affirm that this is an example of integrity?
Worse yet (for Graham) is the fact that this question was asked on the day of Pentecost, which was the first public sermon preached after Jesus’ resurrection and ascension into heaven. This is the first answer given to people telling them what to do about their salvation: “Repent, and let every one of you be baptized.” Graham “passed over” it, obviously in some hurry to get to Acts 16:31, an event occurring years later. These people on Pentecost believed and were ready to make the appropriate response to their sins. Why does Graham not give the same answer Peter did?
The third question Graham misquoted from Acts 8:36. The nobleman did not say: “What doth hinder me?” (notice there is no . . . given for words omitted). The nobleman asked: “See, here is water. What hinders me from being baptized?” Is the reader beginning to feel like Abimelech when he found out the details that Abraham omitted?
Graham has, apparently, such an aversion to baptism that he could not even include it as the part of the question that it is. Philip had “preached Jesus” to this man, and he wanted to know if there was anything standing in the way of his being baptized. Graham would stand in his way. He would tell him he just needed to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ.
But then if Billy Graham had been “preaching” Jesus to the nobleman, he would not have asked the question, would he? Graham never mentions baptism; so the nobleman would not have known to ask about it. The reason is that Graham does not preach Jesus correctly. If he did, people would ask him when they could be baptized. But nobody asks him because he ignores what the Scriptures teach on this subject.
If Jesus is truthfully preached, then people know that Jesus died for their sins on the cross, that He was buried, and that He was resurrected the third day, according to the Scriptures (1 Cor. 15:1-4). They will also know that they need to die to their sins and be buried with Jesus in baptism (Rom. 6:3-5) so that they can be forgiven, having obeyed a form of the gospel (doctrine, Rom. 6:17-18).
“But didn’t Graham quote Acts 16:31 correctly? And if he did, how does this verse square with all the other passages?” It should be remembered that the others come first, which means that the ideas taught early in the book should be in the reader’s mind by the time he gets to later chapters.
While Graham did quote the gist of Acts 16:31, he omitted Acts 16:32, which sheds a great deal of light on the situation: “Then they spoke the word of the Lord to him and to all who were in his house.” When Graham “preaches,” he winds things up by telling people to believe. Such is the conclusion of his message. When Paul told the jailer to believe, it was the beginning of his message.
We do not know if the jailer had ever heard the name Jesus or what it meant. Paul explained who He was as he proclaimed the word of the Lord to him. Graham also admitted verse 33: “And he took them the same hour of the night (see v. 25, gws) and washed their stripes. And immediately he and all his family were baptized.” Obviously, baptism was preached to the jailer–just as it had been to the nobleman and those on the day of Pentecost. Graham did not see fit to mention the results of Paul’s preaching on this occasion.
It is clear to see that Graham’s handling of the subject of baptism is about as forthright as Abraham’s handling of his wife Sarah. But worse than his denial of baptism, the final act of obedience (called God’s operation, Col. 2:12), in which the blood of Christ cleanses us from all sins (Rev. 1:5; Acts 22:16), is his repudiation of repentance.
There can be no successful denial that repentance is essential to salvation. Jesus said: “. . .but unless you repent you will all likewise perish” (Luke 13:3). Such a statement is scarcely ambiguous. Neither is this one: “Truly, these times of ignorance God overlooked, but now commands all men everywhere to repent” (Acts 17:30). Repentance was part of the message Peter gave to the people on Pentecost, also (Acts 2:38). But Graham denies its necessity:
The one and only way you can be converted is to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ as your own personal Lord and Savior. You don’t have to straighten out your life first. You don’t have to try to give up some habit that is keeping you from God. You have tried all that and failed many times. You can come “just as you are” (187).
This is absolutely the most damning thing anyone could be told–that they do not need to repent. John did not preach this message; he said: “Therefore bear fruits worthy of repentance. . .” (Luke 3:8). So they asked him what they should do, and he told them (Luke 3:9-14). Jesus did not omit repentance (Luke 13:3); neither did Paul. He declared “to the Gentiles, that they should repent, turn to God, and do works befitting of repentance” (Acts 26:20).
Repentance and baptism for the forgiveness of sins are part of God’s plan of salvation. The Scriptures teach these things, but Billy Graham removed them from his message. Paul says that anyone who preaches any other gospel than what he preached (which included these two actions) is accursed (Gal. 1:8-9). People may admire Graham now, but how will they view him in the judgment when they are lost because they listened to him rather than God’s holy word?
How thunderously does this analysis demonstrate the importance of each individual’s reading and studying the Scriptures for himself! We should be able to profit from the mistake of the man of God, who disobeyed the clear Word of God when someone claiming to speak for Him spoke a contradictory message (1 Kings 13), and follow the example of the Bereans (Acts 17:11). Any man can lift a verse from various Bible texts and build a false teaching upon it–even a false plan of salvation. Eternity is too long to trust any human being with one’s soul. Many intelligent and sincere people will be lost; they cannot be our standard. “It is better to trust in the Lord than to put confidence in man” (Ps. 118:8). Graham knows he lifted verses out of their context. More importantly, however, we must know it, too.