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Reverend Billy Graham, arguably the most well-known and respected evangelical preacher of the last 50 years, said in a recently published commentary that America was “founded by men who believed in prayer” and that prayer can turn “the tide of history,” adding that while “America is just as wicked as Sodom and Gomorrah” and deserves “the judgment of God,” this judgment can be lessened through prayer.
Yes, he's also on record as saying that he was sorry that 95% of the people who came forward in his years of crusades--aren't really Christians. I would say a good portion of them are in churches now teaching another gospel than the one Graham expounded. The sin of Sodom and Gomorrah was far less about sodomites than it was about the desire to "control" the lives of others and force them into doing what they did not wish to do.
In other words, it was exactly like most of evangelical Christianity.
Yes, he's also on record as saying that he was sorry that 95% of the people who came forward in his years of crusades--aren't really Christians. I would say a good portion of them are in churches now teaching another gospel than the one Graham expounded. The sin of Sodom and Gomorrah was far less about sodomites than it was about the desire to "control" the lives of others and force them into doing what they did not wish to do.
In other words, it was exactly like most of evangelical Christianity.
Do you have anything to back that up with as I was part of the 2000 crusade as a counselor, that sounds like a pretty high percentage
Do you have anything to back that up with as I was part of the 2000 crusade as a counselor, that sounds like a pretty high percentage
I actually saw the quote on another sub-thread of Christianity. And my memory recalls a link to Graham's actual words. But I'm going to have to retract, because all I can find is the statement of others ABOUT Graham--and, imo, that's insufficient. And what I've found is more about church members that Graham was talking about as opposed to his own crusades:
Quote:
Many modern day church members who think they are saved are really only deceived. James Moffett said, "Within every congregation there is a small nucleus of people who believe, and they are surrounded by a much larger group who believe that they believe." It is reported that Billy Graham said on national television that 75-85% of church members are lost. It is also reported that Vance Havner said that over 65% of church members are lost. Shelton Jones is reported to have said that 80% of Baptist people are lost. R.A. Torrey said, "only about 10% of church members are saved." Bill Bright in a Sunday morning sermon at Montreat Presbyterian
Quote:
Church in Montreat, N.C. said in July of 1984, "over 50% of the 85 million people in church this morning have never been born again." E.J. Daniels said, "I doubt seriously that 50% of all the different people who have named the name of Jesus and call themselves Christians have really been born again, and have really had an experience with God and are really saved." In a radio message Dr. J. Harold Smith said, "75% of people that attend church won't make it to heaven. I won't be afraid to say 80% won't make it." Now, while it is true that no one knows the percentage of lost people in the church, we have reason to believe that it is very high
For some reason I cannot correct the formatting above. My apologies for this as well!!
First, some people quote Billy Graham as saying that the percent is up to eight-five percent! Whoa!
Second, one blog I discovered addressed this issue. Joe McKeever is the man’s name. This one particular post addresses the issue of accuracy (or inaccuracy) when it comes to preachers quoting others. He goes into detail about this supposed quote from Billy Graham.
He tells about putting the question of the source of this quote up on his Facebook page. He asked people to help him with this question, and a pastor from Alabama responded. This pastor had sent an inquiry to the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association asking them when and where Billy Graham had made this assertion about lost people in the church. He received the following reply from
them:
"We appreciate your inquiry concerning a quote attributed to Mr. Graham. Unfortunately, though we hear this question from time to time, we do not have any further information confirming that Mr. Graham ever claimed that a high percentage of church members (as much as 85%) are not saved."
"We would suppose that some denominations which stress the need for the new birth would have a much higher percentage of born again believers. A poll by the Barna Research Group several years ago may shed some light on this subject. They indicate that 'Protestant church attenders are two and a half times more likely than are Catholic attenders to be born-again Christians (60% to 23% respectively)'"
(www.joemckeever.com,
accessed August 25, 2012).
Humm. So, I stand corrected. Somehow, I feel that I must tell my congregation this. McKeever makes an excellent point. We must be careful when we attribute a quote to someone. I should have learned this from my PhD days.
Is Internet porn a symptom of moral decline -- or a symptom of artificial repression of healthier ways of expressing human sexuality? Ironically, your desire to control the bedroom behavior of people and their innermost thoughts and desires is likely creating the very monster you point to as evidence that you should be doing MORE of what you're doing. If you want people to obsess about something, forbid it and make it edgy and mysterious. Go ahead. Keep it up. If I were in the porn industry, I'd be cheering you on.
Edit: coincidentally this came up on one of my internet feeds just now, and illustrates my point:
Another study said that conservatives had lower IQs than liberals, so not too surprising that conservatives would engage in stupid activities like porn. They also do a lot of other stupid activities like smoking. Only 15% of people smoke these days, but when I visit a blue collar construction site (which is where conservatives get their base), smoking rates are probably closer to 80%.
Another study said that conservatives had lower IQs than liberals, so not too surprising that conservatives would engage in stupid activities like porn. They also do a lot of other stupid activities like smoking. Only 15% of people smoke these days, but when I visit a blue collar construction site (which is where conservatives get their base), smoking rates are probably closer to 80%.
Another study said that conservatives had lower IQs than liberals, so not too surprising that conservatives would engage in stupid activities like porn. They also do a lot of other stupid activities like smoking. Only 15% of people smoke these days, but when I visit a blue collar construction site (which is where conservatives get their base), smoking rates are probably closer to 80%.
Probably a study done by Liberals. That is guaranteed to come to such a conclusion.
There is a vast difference between IQ and functional intelligence. Most Liberals don't quite grasp that simple truth. But then neither do most Conservatives.
As a child, I went to one of Billy Graham's events in the mid/early 80's. I think they called it the Billy Graham crusade. I think there were close to 20,000 people at the event. You people expect perfect people or perfect Christians. Of all the evangelists, Billy Graham was probably the best America had. He really tried. He admitted he wasn't the best father. He really is about as honest a Christian man there is in America.
There really is such thing as a Christian birthright. Christian males from birth born Christian and baptized as infants. The story goes back to Jesus. When a tortured soul calls out for Jesus, the angels in heaven and angels in hell are obligated to bring the son of god to any man in distress or need.
I agree with him and eventually it will be come weak and destroy itself if it continues. But as we have seen so many times things do change. Often repeats of the old mistakes. For example the 20's were pretty much like the mid 60's . Both were pretty much whatever turns you on times. But events happened that change minds and gave a appreciation for life.
Probably a study done by Liberals. That is guaranteed to come to such a conclusion.
The study mentioned by mordant also shows that conservatives are dumb because they have to search for porn. Liberals know the addresses of the porn sites, and thus don't have to Google them. Another interesting thing is that these states are Baptist states (of which Billy Graham is I think?).
Now, the study doesn't take into account economic and race differences either, but who cares. It's always fun to bash conservatives every change you get even when you're doing it on false pretenses.
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