Billy Graham is probably the greatest Protestant evangelist of our time. Yet even he has become a supporter of the ecumenical movement seeking reunification with Rome. In 1981, the Religious News Service reported that "Pope John Paul II was closeted for almost 2 hours with the Reverend Billy Graham, the world's best known Protestant evangelist."i
The Star quotes Billy Graham as saying that the Pope is almost an evangelist.ii Graham praised the Pope for pushing forward the religious revival worldwide. On receiving an honorary degree from the Roman Catholic Belmont College, Billy Graham told his audience, “The gospel that founded this college is the same gospel which I preach today.”iii
Evangelicals in the United States have subsequently accepted reunification with Rome. Thirty-nine leading evangelical Protestants and Roman Catholics affirmed each other as Christians, and vowed to reduce conflict between the groups. Such prestigious leaders as former Archbishop of New York Cardinal John O’Connor and Pat Robertson of the Southern Baptist Home Mission Board, as well as other distinguished archbishops, bishops, and scholars signed Evangelicals & Catholics Together: The Christian Mission in the Third Millennium, a 25-page document expressing these views:
After nearly four centuries of division and hostility, Protestants and Catholics have taken an important step toward unity. Forty key Evangelical and Catholic leaders signed a statement at the Institute on Religion and Public Life in New York City, on March 29, 1994, urging their followers to accept each other as Christians, put aside differences and contend for common civil causes.iv
The drafters of the document included Catholic Richard John Neuhaus, head of the Institute on Religion and Public Life; Charles Colson, founder of Prison Fellowship; Catholic George Weigel, director of the Ethics and Policy Centre; and Kent Hill, president of Eastern Nazarene College.
The document accepts that Protestants and Catholics alike who accept Christ as Lord and Saviour are fellow Christians and members of one Church of Christ. It also recognizes that their "communal and ecclesial separations are deep and longstanding, and that they may never be resolved short of the Kingdom come."
Nevertheless, they promise to work together for Christ. The document calls for a strengthening of the relationship of trust:
Christians individually and the church corporately also have a responsibility for the right ordering of civil society…In the exercise of these public responsibilities there has been in recent years a growing convergence and cooperation between Evangelicals and Catholics. We thank God for the discovery of one another in contending for a common cause…We promise one another that we will work to deepen, build upon, and expand this pattern of convergence and cooperation. Together we contend for the truth that politics, law, and culture must be secured by moral truth.
Robert Schuller, renowned televangelist and founder of the Crystal Cathedral in Garden Grove, California, is reported to have said, “It is time for us Protestants to go to the Holy Father in Rome and ask him how we can come home.”v Schuller has watered down the truths of the Bible and incorporated New Age teachings into his theology. This is attractive to many nominal Christians and even New Age worshipers.
Spiritual formation brings a common understanding between Christianity, the New Age movement, and other world religions. However, they are worlds apart and cannot be combined without serious compromise and consequences. Learn more in Unity across Religions
i. Religious News Service (1981).
ii. Billy Graham, as quoted in Pete Kovacs, Dwelling Place of the Father's Seal, champs-of-truth.com.
iii. The Star (June 26, 1979).
iii. Christian American (May/June 1994)
iv. Evangelicals & Catholics Together: The Christian Mission in the Third Millennium, ewtn.com.
v. Robert Schuller, as quoted in Kevin Morgan, Sabbath Rest (TEACH Services Inc., 2002): 72.
|
This article is adapted from Truth Matters by Professor Walter J. Veith, an international speaker who has studied Biblical issues in-depth in his quest for truth. His popular series Genesis Conflict brings the debate between Creation and evolution to a new climax as he dissects the arguments with a scientific eye. His highly-acclaimed series Total Onslaught sheds light on the state of the world today as we move to a one-world government and an anticipated apocalypse.
|
It is our sincere desire to lay the clear Word of God before you, the truth-seeking reader, so you may decide for yourself what is truth and what is error. If you find herein anything contrary to the Word of God, you need not accept it. But if you desire to seek for Truth as for hidden treasure, and find herein something of that quality, we encourage you to make all haste to accept that Truth which is revealed to you by the Holy Spirit.
Creation and Evolution: Is Compromise Possible?
How Can We See Stars That Are Billions Of Light Years Away?
Understanding the Creation Week
The Rise of Evolutionary Thinking
Geocentricity: It's Time to Face the Facts
Earth's History: Conflicting Paradigms
Lamarck Proposes Natural Selection
Age Of The Earth Is Carbon-Dating Accurate?
Flood Chronology
Read several authors' thoughts on papal Rome's history.
This article highlights quotes from historical and Catholic sources proving the Papacy's aggressive nature.
Persecution in the First Centuries
An Era of Spiritual Darkness The Waldenses
John Wycliffe Huss and Jerome
Luther's Separation From Rome
Luther Before the Diet The Swiss Reformer
Progress of Reform in Germany
Protest of the Princes The French Reformation
The Netherlands and Scandinavia
Later English Reformers
The Bible and the French Revolution
The Pilgrim Fathers Heralds of the Morning
An American Reformer Light Through Darkness
A Great Religious Awakening A Warning Rejected
Prophecies Fulfilled What is the Sanctuary?
In the Holy of Holies God's Law Immutable
A Work of Reform Modern Revivals
Facing Life's Record The Origin of Evil
Enmity Between Man and Satan
Agency of Evil Spirits Snares of Satan
The First Great Deception
Can Our Dead Speak to Us?
Liberty of Conscience Threatened
The Impending Conflict
The Scriptures a Safeguard The Final Warning
The Time of Trouble God's People Delivered
Desolation of the Earth The Controversy Ended
Is Revelation a Sealed Book?
Revelation 1: Jesus, The Heart of Revelation
Revelation 1 Commentary: The Revelation of Jesus
Revelation 2-3: Letters to Seven Churches
Revelation 2 Commentary: Ephesus, Smyrna, Pergamos, Thyatira
Revelation 3 Commentary: Sardis, Philadelphia, Laodicea
Revelation 4 Commentary: The Throne in Heaven
The Lamb and the Sealed Book
Revelation 5 Commentary: The Scroll and the Lamb
Revelation 6 Commentary: The Vision of Seven Seals
Revelation 7 Commentary: The 144,000
Revelation 8 Commentary: Seven Trumpets
Revelation 9 Commentary: The Bottomless Pit
Revelation 10 Commentary: A Little Book
Revelation 11 Commentary: Two Witnesses
Revelation 12 Commentary: The Woman and the Dragon
Revelation 13 Commentary: Two Beasts
Revelation 14 Commentary: Three Angels' Messages
Revelation 15 Commentary: Seven Angels, Seven Plagues
Revelation 16 Commentary: Seven Bowls of God's Anger
Revelation 17 Commentary: A Woman Rides the Beast
Revelation 18 Commentary: Babylon Falls
Revelation 19 Commentary: The Rider on the White Horse
Revelation 20 Commentary: Millennium and the Judgment
Revelation 21 Commentary: The New Jerusalem
Revelation 22 Commentary: Invitation and Warning