The Lord is blessing you, Carol, opening your heart to receive. He has shown you favor. It is a rare privilege. I am thankful, and hopeful that you will continue. Trials must come, and fire must try everything, particularly the faith we have been given. If it comes through the fire, then it will be proven of sure value before God. Before men, our profession of faith may be awesome, but the fires prove and make manifest the truth of everything.
Speaking of "awesome faith" before men (though not before God), we received
a half-page newspaper article on Billy Graham today, for example, speaking
of
his last "revival" to
be held this week in New York. It was thirty years ago this summer, in England,
that Marilyn and I were guests in a home where a lady forced a magazine on
me to read. It was unusual. She did not tell me what it was she wanted me to
read. I declined twice, but she insisted, so I opened it up, and in it was
a small article of an interview with Billy Graham. Six months or more earlier,
we had been baptized in the Holy Spirit (Jan 1, 1975). Immediately after that,
I was asking the Lord about Billy Graham. "What about Billy Graham, Lord? He
never talks about the gifts of the Spirit, tongues, prophecy, miracles, etc.
He never raises his hands in praise to You. He never speaks about the baptism
in the Spirit. He never says, 'Praise the Lord' publicly. What about him, Lord?
Does he not reach millions for You?" I was asking these questions because when
having received the Spirit, and telling others about it, they would immediately
use Billy Graham as proof that I was in error, seeing he never attested to
all
these things, so boldly and clearly spoken of in Scripture, particularly in
Acts, and in the gospels and epistles as well. Going to the Lord, He
answered, first by this lady. (She did not even know
what she
was
doing,
because
I asked
her why she was giving me that magazine, and she could not say. "Just read
it," she said.)
I wonder if she was not trying to tell me something about Billy Graham, yet
the article was quite small and insignificant, on the whole. But to me it wasn't!
Right there, he was declaring that the gifts of the Holy Spirit were not for
today, that those gifts that were manifesting anywhere were not of God. I had
my answer from the Lord! I realized that anyone who would condemn the Spirit
and His work and gifts was not of God. He was erring against the Spirit. I
knew the gifts were true and for today. We were in England months after Marilyn
had prayed in tongues, and asking for interpretation, heard that we would be
going to England. We had no such idea or capability of any kind to be going
anywhere. Then a lady in our church had money she wished to give to Operation
Mobilization. She said, "Why don't I give you this money and you go, seeing
you are free to go?" There it was, except for England. OM was to go to Belgium,
and from there, Marilyn and I went to Austria, but it came about that they
needed chaperones in England, so off to England we went, and thus were the
tongues and interpretation fulfilled. As we sat in that lady's living room,
we knew God had brought us there, that His gifts by the Spirit, that Billy
Graham was denying, had declared so in advance. Here we were, in England, reading
about Billy Graham, "by force," so to speak, who was being exposed to us for
the false believer he is.
We were in England to work with Operation Mobilization. OM, an international
evangelization organization working with youth, is founded by George Verwer,
and George is...a Billy Graham "crusades" convert. When we got acquainted with
OM, we discovered that it also stood against, and not only stood against, but
mocked and scoffed at, the gifts of the Spirit. George took great pride in
wearing rags for clothes, displaying his commitment to evangelization and piety.
He worked very hard, and had his people work hard, and it was and is all works
of the flesh, and not of the Spirit. He had no use for the Spirit. We discovered
that the books they were selling on the street were antiChrist, antiSpirit,
antiScriptural, though these books are very common and popular among evangelicals,
but not among charismatic or Pentecostal evangelicals.
George once asked me in his office if I was "having problems with the Spirit." A girl on our team had reported us, complaining that we were causing division by speaking of the baptism in the Spirit and of receiving gifts. I said, "No, not at all!" He did not push it, but assigned us below more senior supervision to monitor our lives while with them. They were ready to ship us out, but God kept us there, and eventually, we were able to witness to several people. Some we led to receive the Spirit, and some we served to strengthen in their walk in the Spirit.
George was, in effect, "twice the child of hell" Billy Graham, the great proselytizer,
is. "Christians" in the dark think of "children of hell" as being dark, nasty
souls, but not so. They are commonly, if not predominantly, the smilers, the
friendly, the "Bible-believing," the
devout, the "evangelical" (proselytizers do not win by being negative), the
sincere, the "Christlike." Are not Satan's ministers transformed to ministers
of righteousness, serving the "angel" of "light"? Of course!
It is argued by some that Billy Graham is a minister of God at a lower level, serving "in the outer court of the tabernacle," so to speak, but that others, like charismatic leaders teaching the gifts, are called to minister on higher levels, in the Holy Place and the Holy of Holies. I know this is not true because those who truly ministered in the outer tabernacle of Moses knew full well there was a Holy Place and the Holy of Holies. They would not tell you those were not there or that they were not for that day. Billy Graham is a false minister, a star performer of Mystery, Babylon the Great, the mother of harlots. He is a super deceiver, wittingly or not, intentionally or not. The effect is all the same on those he "converts to Christ."
People speak of his great sincerity, and of his having won millions to Christ.
Many are sincere...Mormons, JWs, Catholics, Muslims (to the point of blowing
themselves up), Buddhists, Hindus, Sikhs, Communists, Satan worshippers, and
many more. As to winning souls to Christ, I was at a crusade
of his in which my roommate and I went forward in 1965, in Winnipeg, Manitoba.
I was drawn to Billy Graham, thinking God was drawing me. His personality was
magnetic, compelling, and so attractive. Many went forward, as they always
do. I was very disappointed when all I got was an older, ordinary, evangelical
minister of some church, without attractiveness or personality. My "conversion" lasted
about three days, while I tried to put away all the vices of the world. My
roommate and I packed it in and went back to the old, which in heart, we had
never really left. My point is not to belittle that worker at the meeting.
My point is that Billy Graham and not Jesus Christ was the attraction. He has
been anointed all right, but not by the Holy Spirit of God. My conversion was
spurious, as are all those at Billy Graham "crusades." (I am not judging Billy
strictly by my own experience.)
The term "crusade" itself is abominable to God. The murder, rape, and plundering of the Middle East at the direction of the popes of Rome, in the Name of God and redeeming the "holy land," was one of the greatest, if not the greatest atrocity in the history of mankind, and that in the Name of Christ. Muslims were slaughtered, Jews were slaughtered, even nominal Christians were slaughtered, their wives and children raped, killed, their lands plundered, and all their valuables confiscated by an army of ruthless and drunken butchers. These were called "The Crusades."
Yes, Billy Graham has continued the tradition, as a faithful servant, not
of Jesus Christ, but of Rome, of Mystery Babylon the Great, the mother of harlots,
drunk with the blood of prophets (those exercising the gifts of the Spirit)
and saints (likewise) shed from the beginning of the world. Billy Graham, in
the most attractive and "pious" of ways, is a butcher of millions of souls.
He is a star pupil of Nimrod, the mighty hunter of souls before God. He has
killed millions in the Name of Christ. People think to be closer to Christ
because of his preaching, but, in truth, they have been deceived, lulled into
a false assurance. He leads them into thinking or
believing they have all that is possible
in
this life,
which is a lie. Greater spiritual power of darkness posing as light has been
known by few, if any, others. Billy Graham is an incarnation of the angel of
light, "whose ministers transform themselves as ministers of righteousness,
whose end will be according to their works." We should not marvel at this,
Paul says (2 Corinthians 11:13-15).
That same year or one later (1975, 1976, or 1977), I believe, as we were checking out at a grocery store, I noticed a People magazine with Billy's face filling the front cover. ("That which is highly esteemed among men is abomination with God," said Jesus.) Opening it, there was an interview with Billy Graham and his wife, Ruth. The interviewer asked him how he heard God speak to him about becoming a minister. He said that the Lord spoke to him through his wife, Ruth. Surprised, his wife turned to him and said, "I thought God spoke to YOU!" "But I thought He spoke through you," he repeated. (I could have the details somewhat inaccurate here, Carol, but the gist of it was clear...he did not know or recall the Lord commissioning him, and though he thought it was by his wife, she denied knowing anything.) Can you imagine Moses saying, "Yes, God spoke to me through Zipporah," and Zipporah says, "But I thought God spoke to you directly!"
When God calls a man, he knows it! If God calls a man, and not his wife, He speaks to him and not to his wife. Men are called to forsake their wives for Him, not to follow them!
In this paper article we have before us today, Billy Graham is asked about gay marriage. He refused to comment because controversial. Can you imagine the apostle Paul refusing to comment? What did Paul have to say about it to the Romans in the first chapter? What did Moses have to say about it in Exodus and Leviticus? What did God do with Sodom and Gomorrah? Do you think that homosexuals are happy that Billy says nothing? You can place a sure bet they are! What does that tell you about Billy's "leaven"? Billy Graham refuses comment sanctimoniously, claiming he is a servant of Christ, being Christlike by not getting into anything controversial! Controversial! I wonder if Paul and the other apostles were all persecuted and martyred because they avoided controversy! Graham is a hypocrite, a spiritual sleaze of the first order. He adds sin to sin by preserving his image and reputation before the world, saving his proud and selfish skin, all in the Name of Jesus Christ.
After 9/11, all he could do was denounce the wickedness of those who destroyed the World Trade Center. What about calling America to repentance before God, informing them that such was the judgment of God, and warning them that there was more where that came from if they did not repent? No, Billy Graham is a self-preserving liar and hypocrite, a false "prophet." Such words would not do for his popularity among men, particularly fellow Americans.
He testifies that his eyes were glued to the televised funeral of the pope. Of the pope, he said, "He taught us how to live, how to suffer, and how to die." "How to live"? The pope is the pompous incarnation of all that is evil and abominable in God's sight! This last pope was the greatest champion of prayer to, and faith in, Mary, "the Mother of God," that the Catholic Church has been reputed to have! Jesus comes poor; the pope comes rich. Jesus rides on a donkey, delivers Himself into the hands of His murderers, laying His life down for us; the pope rides in a bulletproof "Popemobile," surrounded by high security. Millions of Catholics live in abject poverty while the RCC remains the wealthiest private organization in the world, the pope having every luxury he can think of! The Catholic Church aided and abetted in the massacre of Rwanda. It kills evangelical people in South America every day, runs a world banking system, which is utterly corrupt (Read In
God's Name by David Yallop, Corgi Books), sexually abuses its own congregants by its priests and bishops, and these, the pope hides from justice or promotes to higher positions! These are not few or isolated cases. The pope claims to be the sole vicar and representative of Jesus Christ, with full temporal and spiritual authority over all the earth! "He taught us how to live"?! He has taught others how to suffer...I can believe that, and how to die...I can believe that, but how to live? I do not think so. The pope is antiChrist, as are all those who bear favorable witness to him, Billy Graham above all, because he is so popular, and doing so in Jesus' Name.
Carol, I have written an unexpected letter to you, given the recent events
as mentioned, including a letter we received from a man who has declared himself
a long time supporter of Billy Graham, praising him for his "pureness of heart" and "simplicity
of message." Raymond, I submit this letter to you. You may also read Our
Testimonies.
As well, read the "Diabolical
Doctrine" 3) "Gifts of the Holy Spirit are not
for today."
Concerning your comment of spending all eternity in torment, also read, in "Diabolical
Doctrines," 15) "Those who do not believe in the Lord Jesus Christ will be fearfully and forever tormented, without end."