The answer is:
Posted on 03/05/2018 6:41:26 PM PST by metmom
Evangelist Billy Graham lived 99 years, wrote 30 books, met with 12 sitting American presidents and preached the gospel to millions. But when he is buried this Friday, March 2, in his hometown of Charlotte, North Carolina, he will be remembered not only as a world-changing hero of faith but as a humble preacher whose personal integrity set the gold standard for every minister in this country.
Why was this man so respected? How was he able to keep his ministry free from scandal for more than 75 years?
In 1948, when Graham was just 30 years old, he and his small ministry team met for Bible study and prayer at a tiny motel in Modesto, California. The other men in that meeting including assistant evangelist Grady Wilson, singer George Beverly Shea and song leader Cliff Barrows. Graham challenged them to pray about what codes of behavior they needed to adopt in order to keep the ministry clean.
The results of that meeting were profoundly prophetic. The men outlined what would become "the Modesto Manifesto"—a list of core ministry values that became the guiding principles of the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association. The BGEA was founded two years later, in 1950, just one year after media coverage of Graham's eight-week gospel campaign in Los Angeles made him a household word.
Here are the four key components of the Modesto Manifesto, along with notes that Cliff Barrows jotted down in their meeting:
Honesty: "It was resolved that all communications to media and to the church would not be inflated or exaggerated. The size of crowds and the number of inquirers would not be embellished for the sake of making BGEA look better."
Integrity: "It was resolved that financial matters would be submitted to a board of directors for review and facilitation of expenditures. Every local crusade would maintain a policy of 'open books' and publish a record of where and how monies were spent."
Purity: "It was resolved that members of the team would pay close attention to avoiding temptation—never being alone with another woman, remaining accountable to one another, etc. A practice of keeping wives informed of their activities on the road and helping them feel a part of any and all crusades they undertook would be encouraged."
Humility: "It was resolved that members of the team were never to speak badly of another Christian minister, regardless of his denominational affiliation or differing theological views and practices. The mission of evangelism includes strengthening the body of Christ as well as building it!"
Graham has always been a spiritual hero to me for this reason. Early in his ministry—in fact, before he ever became famous—he realized that his ministry was a stewardship from God and that he could not run it any way he wanted. He had to manage it according to clear biblical principles.
Graham never forgot his humble roots, and he never let popularity change him into an egotistical monster. Even though he was invited to dine with presidents, queens and celebrities, his passion was taking the message of Christ to the common person. And when an usher tried to segregate black and white sections of an auditorium in Chattanooga, Tennessee, in 1953, Graham removed the barriers himself. Related Articles
"I am not a great preacher, and I don't claim to be a great preacher," he once said. "I've heard great preaching many times and wished I was one of these great preachers. I'm an ordinary preacher, just communicating the gospel in the best way I know how."
He also carried with him a healthy fear that he might try to touch God's glory or take credit for evangelistic results.
Graham said: "So many people think that somehow I carry a revival around in a suitcase, and they just announce me and something happens—but that's not true. This is the work of God, and the Bible warns that God will not share His glory with another. All the publicity that we receive sometimes frightens me because I feel that therein lies a great danger. If God should take His hand off me, I would have no more spiritual power. The whole secret of the success of our meetings is spiritual—it's God answering prayer. I cannot take credit for any of it."
So much of what we call ministry today has been compromised by ego, marketing and man-made agendas. Some of our own "Spirit-filled" preachers are happy to sell a healing or a financial miracle for $29.95. Others claim spiritual superiority because they have the largest following on social media or because so many lined up to attend their packed conferences.
We have exchanged honesty, integrity, purity and humility for hype, fake anointing, manipulated photos, inflated attendance reports, sensuality and boastful swagger. God forgive us.
Billy Graham raised the bar for all ministers. I pray we will never forget his legacy.
I understand.
But, what does it really matter?
You and Metmom may as well be discussing how many angels can stand on the point of a pin - for all that it matters.
The man has transitioned. He lived a good life, did lots of good works. And he’s in God’s hands, now.
It’s just an interesting point of discussion for me.
My mistake was not realizing that people were not ready to discuss the various aspects of his life that I found interesting.
For that, my apologies.
I understand that you are interested in facts.
But ‘facts’ don’t often give us a view to the whole story and the ultimate *meaning* of the story.
God Bless!
The answer is:
I do like facts. :-)
LOL! “42 Will Do”.
My husband is a great Douglas Adams fan. He’s just gone to bed, but he’ll be tickled when I show that to him in the morning :-)
Galatians 5:12
As for those agitators, I wish they would go the whole way and emasculate themselves!
I have a copy of the Catechism. Please give me the citation in it that defines the point that infant baptism does not confer salvation.
Thank you.
Proper doctrine would say that those to whom sin and sinfulness is not imputed are the "of such" who would be included in the Kingdom of Heaven or Kingdom of God.
It is not likely that, in offering the Gospel that saves, he would stray into the badlands of the finer points of sanctification that can be quarrelsome. As a result, both denominational and non-denominational constituents tended to support his efforts, even as integrated parts of each Crusade team.
Dr. Graham certainly knew that he, like the rest of us, was fallible, hence the often presence of witnesses and fellow overseers to exert a cautionary function, as well as a stated guideline for stainless personal behavior in the formal organization that bore his name/reputation.
You're a hard marker, my man. I would say that your doctrine of salvation as well as the walk beyond it needs pointing up. See to yourself, my FRiend.
For sure, Graham does not believe, teach, or preach the essential doctrine of separation.
Maybe tolerable for you, but not for God, nor for most people who need to be able to trust their lawyer, banker, doctor, pastor, or wife in their various disciplines. What does it matter to the infant whether he/she is baptized? At some point, everyone capable of being accountable must be faithful, trustworthy, and that is what counts. A vacillating belief in Jesus is not a saving faith, if the present tense in the Greek means what the Holy Spirit is trying to tell us in John 3:16.
Babies are born criminals, children of the Devil (Eph. 2:2,3), but God determines when they become accountable, when they become aware of the law written in their hearts (Romans 2:14-16).
My mistake was not realizing that people were not ready to discuss the various aspects of his life that I found interesting.
............
No. Your mistake is being a troll. If you want to discuss aspects of his life that YOU find interesting, then start a thread and begin your discussion. Instead you just continue to troll someone else’s thread on a different subject. It is ignorant and rude. Or worse.
I’ll copy this off and circulate it to friends. Thanks.
Reading this carefully, this does NOT say that the infant was made a Christian BY infant baptism, or even at the moment the infant was baptised. You need to search out what prepositions mean in any language. For sure, you'll never be able to read a contract and understand what it can be made to say and what it cannot; ditto for Scripture.
Disingenuous, ambiguous, or not (="weasel words"), most likely Graham was preserving his focus on the salvational message, which does not include water baptism as a non-negotiable essential part of the process (despite what Romanists and Seventh-Day Adventists cling to).
You can jump through as many hoops as you feel led to jump through, but when the man says he believes infants are regenerated and made Christian through infant baptism, you can mark it down that it’s very clear what he said/believes.
It’s a valid part of a discussion on the topic, the supposition that he was scandal free.
Stop calling people names. Didn’t your mother raise you better?
. . . where ignorance is bliss,
'Tis folly to be wise.
(concluding phrase of "Ode on a Distant Prospect of Eton College" by Thomas Gray)
=====Last stanza===
To each his suff'rings: all are men,
Condemn'd alike to groan,
The tender for another's pain;
Th' unfeeling for his own.
Yet ah! why should they know their fate?
Since sorrow never comes too late,
And happiness too swiftly flies.
Thought would destroy their paradise.
No more; where ignorance is bliss,
'Tis folly to be wise.
======
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