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Evangelist Billy Graham Just Issued A Scary Warning To Every Church In America


waving flagPosted by Jack Davis November 5, 2015

URL of the original posting site: http://www.westernjournalism.com/evangelist-billy-graham-just-issued-a-scary-warning-to-every-church-in-america/?utm_source=Email&utm_medium=ConservativeHeadlinesEmail&utm_campaign=AM2&utm_content=2015-11-07

Image Credit: Anthony Correia/Shutterstock.com

Image Credit: Anthony Correia/Shutterstock.com

The words were first penned the dawn of the Cold War in 1957 when the foundations of American society were being shaken. The Rev. Billy Graham has shared them again in 2015, when the threat of persecution is no longer from a godless communist rival across the globe, but from a society that daily makes war on Christianity.cp 11

In this month’s Decision magazine, under the headline, “Prepare for Persecution: A Message from Billy Graham,” Graham urges Americans to prepare for the trials to come.

“As a whole, our nation does not know what privation is. We do not know what sacrifice is. We do not know what suffering is. Suppose persecution were to come to the church in America, as it has come in other countries,” he wrote, noting that such an exemption from persecution is unusual.

“Christ strongly warned Christians that to follow Him would not be popular, and that in most circumstances it would mean cross-bearing and persecution,” Graham wrote.

Graham understood that privations will force many to compromise their beliefs.

“… it is likely that under pressure many would deny Christ. Those who shout the loudest about their faith may surrender soonest. Many who boast of being courageous would be cowardly,” he wrote.

Graham offered five ways for faith to survive the coming trials.

“Make sure of your relationship with God,” he wrote. “Even though most Americans see the storm clouds gathering on the horizon, by and large we are making few preparations to meet God. This is a time for repentance and faith. It is a time for soul-searching, to see if our anchor holds.”

He urged Christians to walk with God daily. “If you are not strengthening the inner man or woman by daily walking with God now, when a crisis comes you will quake with fear and give in, having no strength to stand up for Christ,” Graham wrote.

Reading the Bible, and reading it deeply, are essential activities, he said. “Too many Christians today are entangled with the affairs of this world, caught in a net of material interest and diversion. Scripture, to many, is little more than a reference book for biblical facts. It is seldom opened and rarely relished as the spiritual staff of life that it is,” he wrote.

Prayer is vital, Graham wrote. “If Christianity is to survive in a world filled with materialism, the church must have a revival of prayer. As individuals, we must repent of prayerlessness. The prayer meeting must become the vital institution it was when evangelical Christianity was the mightiest force in the world,” he wrote.

“Christ must be vitally real to us if we are to prove loyal to Him in the hours of crisis,” he also wrote.

Graham’s warning concludes with a plea that Christians put their trust where it belongs. “Our nation ranks as the greatest power on the face of the earth. But if we put our trust in armed might instead of Almighty God, the coming conflict could conceivably go against us. History and the Bible indicate that mechanical and material might are insufficient in times of great crisis,” he wrote.

“The wheels of God’s judgment can be heard by discerning souls across the length and breadth of nations. Things are happening fast! The need for a return to God has never been more urgent,” Graham wrote.

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Rev. Billy Graham: ‘America is Just as Wicked as Sodom and Gomorrah Ever Were’


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By Michael W. Chapman ~~~ October 16, 2014

http://cnsnews.com/mrctv-blog/michael-w-chapman/rev-billy-graham-america-just-wicked-sodom-and-gomorrah-ever-were

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Rev. Billy Graham. (AP)

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.

“Even though America is just as wicked as Sodom and Gomorrah ever were, and as deserving of the judgment of God, God would spare us if we were earnestly praying, with hearts that had been cleansed and washed by the blood of Christ,” said Rev. Graham in his commentary for Decision magazine, published by the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association.

“The problems of the world will never be settled unless our national leaders go to God in prayer,” he said. “If only they would discover the power and wisdom that there is in reliance upon God, we could soon see the solution to the grave problems that face the world!”

Graham is 95 and reportedly often bedridden at his home in Montreat, N.C. His commentary in the October issue of Decision, under the headline “Turning the Tide of History,” was reprinted from a sermon he delivered Jan. 7, 1962 on the Hour of Decision radio program.

 

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AP Photo

Reverend Graham’s comments start off in saying, “Our nation was founded by men who believed in prayer,” and notes that Benjamin Franklin, in addressing the 1787 Constitutional Convention, said that “God governs in the affairs of men.”

“Today the world is being carried on a rushing torrent of history that is sweeping out of control,” said Rev. Graham.  “There is but one power available to redeem the course of events, and that is the power of prayer by God-fearing, Christ-believing people.”

He continued, “One of the reasons the United Nations has become so ineffective in handling world situations is that there is no prayer, no recognition of God. Unless the leaders of nations turn to God in prayer, their best plans will fail, just as did the plans of those who built the tower of Babel.”

Rev. Graham then noted numerous instances from the Bible where people “turned the tide of history by prayer.”  For example, he notes,

  • Elisha prayed and a young man was raised from the dead;
  • Jesus prayed and Lazarus rose from the dead;
  • the thief on the cross next to Jesus prayed and Jesus told him he would go to paradise that day;
  • John Wesley prayed and religious fervor grew in England,
  • and the same happened with Johnathan Edwards in Northampton.
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Rev. Billy Graham, left, and one of his sons, Rev. Franklin Graham. (AP)

“I tell you, history could be altered and changed again if people went to their knees in believing prayer,” said Rev. Graham.

Rev. Billy Graham, whose wife Ruth died in 2007, has five children and 19 grandchildren. He has been listed as one of the most admired men by Gallup almost every year since 1955. Over the decades, his evangelical Christian message was heard, in person, on radio, and through television, by an estimated 2.2 billion people. Rev. Graham is often referred to as “America’s pastor.”

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