An article in the UK Guardian suggests that Billy Graham is risking his legacy with his “lurch” toward Mitt Romney. Here is an excerpt from that article by Jonathan Wynne-Jones:
“As America’s pastor for the past half century, Billy Graham has earned a reputation as a wise and holy man. But the respect he has gained as a man of unflinching, unerring principles has been severely compromised by his Evangelistic Association’s decision to remove a reference to Mormonism from its website.
The faith had been listed as a cult along with Scientology and Jehovah’s Witnesses in a section called Billy Graham’s My Answer, but the comment was taken down shortly after he and his son Franklin met with Mitt Romney, America’s most famous Mormon.
Not only does the move represent a sacrificing of values for political expediency, but it also smacks of double standards, given Franklin Graham’s treatment of President Obama. Asked on Piers Morgan’s CNN show this week whether Romney could be regarded as a Christian, he refused to answer, arguing he felt it inappropriate to speculate on the Massachusetts governor’s faith.”
The article then went on to describe the treatment given to the two Presidential candidates by Billy Graham.
The contrast between the Grahams’ treatment of the two presidential candidates has been highlighted further by the statements they gave following their recent meetings with Obama and Romney.
While April’s meeting with the president was described as “very cordial, very nice”, Billy Graham described it as “a privilege” to pray with Romney, and said he would do all he could to help him.
Visiting Billy Graham is something of an obligatory pilgrimage for presidents and White House hopefuls, but he has never before been so openly political by apparently endorsing one of the candidates.
Billy Graham described it as a “privilege” to pray with Mitt Romney, but the fact of the matter is that the Jesus of the Mormons, and the Jesus of the scriptures are two completely different people. I pointed out the differences between the Mormon Jesus and the Jesus of Mitt Romney’s Mormon faith, in this article which I encourage you to read: Is the MORMON “god” of MITT ROMNEY and GLENN BECK, the TRUE GOD or a FALSE “god”? Is JESUS the brother of LUCIFER? In that article I quoted a reference from a book which describes the Mormon Jesus as the spirit brother of Lucifer:
“According to the Mormons, Jesus Christ is a created being. He is the “First born Spirit Child” of a long line of children who were sexually conceived in the spirit form by a Heavenly Father, who is the God of this universe, and a Heavenly Mother . . .
“ . . . In the spirit world Jesus, or Jehovah as He was then known, was the brother of Lucifer.”
Counterfeits At Your Door By James Bjornstad, pages 110-11
Not only that but the best selling book “The Kingdom of the Cults, by Walter Martin, Edited by Ravi Zacharias” has always referred to Mormonism as a cult. It has become quite clear over the decades that the Billy Graham ministry has established a “legacy of compromise” in it’s dealings with “religions” such as Mormonism and Roman Catholicism. In another article I quoted from a book by Dr Cathy Burns where she points out the fact that Billy Graham removed the warnings about Roman Catholicism from the best selling Halley’s Bible Handbook over 50 years ago.
“A well documented book by Dr Cathy Burns reveals that Billy Graham removed the warnings concerning Roman Catholicism from his own Crusade Edition of the Halley’s Bible Handbook. “The original Halley’s up until the 22nd edition (1959), warned about the Jesuits. There are chapters about the Roman Papacy, and the Jesuits. According to Mrs Halley, Mr Halley spent years working on those chapters and never would have permitted the book to be changed. However when he died, Billy Graham bought the rights, and removed all the research and warning about the Jesuits in the editions Billy Graham printed.” [Billy Graham And His Friends: A Hidden Agenda? By Dr Cathy Burns, page 440, Published By Sharing]“
Prior to that Billy Graham took a stand against the Roman Catholic system and even described it as “one of the three gravest menaces facing Orthodox Christianity:”
In 1948, Graham called Roman Catholics “one of the three gravest menaces facing orthodox Christianity.” Today, he works arm in arm with them, having become an all-out supporter. He has received numerous Catholic awards, and is one of Pope John Paul II’s greatest admirers and boosters, as evidenced by his full support of a 1989 Charismatic plan to award the Pope the “Prince of Peace Prize” (which the Pope subsequently turned down), and by his having referred to the Pope as, “the greatest religious leader of the modern world,” and as a “statesman, a pastor, and an evangelist.” [rapidnet.com Billy Graham-General Teachings/Activities]
As a formerly deceived, and hell-bound, Roman Catholic, I have warned people about that false system ever since I was born again in 1989. I have seen the modern day “church” simply gloss over the differences between Roman Catholicism and Biblical Christianity as being “no big deal.” Why? Because the Pastors and leaders in the modern day church have followed people such as Billy Graham, and many others, in soft-soaping the dangers of the false gospel of Rome, and accepting them as true Christians. I am not surprised by the recent actions of the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association and their scrubbing of their website calling Mormonism a cult, because his gross compromise is legendary. This sort of compromise is not something new, and has been going on for many decades, with Graham and many other Christian ministries also. The late Musician/Author Keith Green went much farther than any of the modern day preachers, pastors and “leaders” and described the Roman Catholic Church as follows:
To merely call such a system “a cult”, would be to throw it into the vast category of religions and quasi-religions that are currently making the rounds of our college campuses and city streets, snatching up many an unsuspecting youth. No, the Roman Church is not a cult. It’s an empire!
Mouths that used to speak out boldly against the Church of Rome have been quieted by the times. It no longer is in vogue to speak of the pope as “the antichrist” (Although the following people unhesitatingly did: Martin Luther, John Bunyan, John Huss, John Wycliffe, John Calvin, William Tyndale, John Knox, Thomas Bacon, John Wesley, Samuel Cooper, John Cotton, and Jonathan Edwards.) or the Catholic Church as the “whore of Babylon”. Now Protestants unwittingly believe that “our differences are not so great”. Ah, that is just what She needs us to think!
I’ve never completely understood why God led me to write these articles. But it becomes more clear with each day of study, and each page of research. Never has something so black and wicked, gotten away with appearing so holy and mysteriously beautiful . . . for so long! [The Catholic Chronicles by Keith Green]
The Jewish apostle Paul was once a very deceived and hell-bound man until he came to meet the real Messiah named Jesus. He knew what it was like to be under the deception of the devil, and he knew the value of the true Gospel of Jesus Christ. Paul held nothing back when he preached, and he even withstood the Jewish apostle Peter (First Catholic Pope?) to his face (Galatians 2:11) because he compromised with the Judaizing “Christians” and was leading others astray. We as Christians should take the Jewish apostle Paul as a great example for our modern day too. These are his own words:
But though we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel unto you than that which we have preached unto you, let him be accursed. As we said before, so say I now again, If any man preach any other gospel unto you than that ye have received, let him be accursed. For do I now persuade men, or God? or do I seek to please men? for if I yet pleased men, I should not be the servant of Christ. (Galatians 1:8-10)
For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth; to the Jew first, and also to the Greek. For therein is the righteousness of God revealed from faith to faith: as it is written, The just shall live by faith. (Romans 1:16-17)