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The Modern Moses
Billy Graham passed from this world into the next at the amazing age of 99. I heard a quote by him today that is even inspiring amidst news of his passing. It was adapted from someone Rev. Graham admired, a 19th-century evangelist named Dwight L. Moody:
“Someday you will read or hear that Billy Graham is dead. Don’t you believe a word of it. I shall be more alive that I am now. I will have just changed my address. I will have gone into the presence of God.”
His legacy inspired and brought hope to presidents, and those of every race, creed and gender, even Dr. Martin Luther King, who told him, “You take the stadiums, I’ll take the streets.”
I read a story where the Bush family invited Billy Graham to Kennebunkport to meet with their son, George. George W. Bush described the walk they took through the rocky family compound, where he posed questions and doubts to Reverend Graham.
He said after that meeting, he made the decision to give up drinking and put his life and future in God’s hands.
Some in the media have made fun of people of faith, like that of Vice President Mike Pence, laughing when he says he talks to God and God talks back, likening it to a mental illness. Billy Graham would have answered that the Holy Spirit does speak, guides, comforts, admonishes, prompts, teaches, and moves mountains.
Ask the Pope, George W. Bush, or Mike Pence, and they’ll tell you what Billy Graham told millions. All you need to do is ask for help and watch the impossible unfold. Billy Graham was just the messenger. The message is still with us. God bless Reverend Graham and his family.
Update on Billy Graham’s funeral arrangements:
Published in GeneralAccording to news reports about Mr. Graham’s funeral, plans are incomplete. What IS known is that he will be buried beside his wife at the Billy Graham Museum and Library (Charlotte, NC) in a simple plywood coffin made by prison inmates. Richard Liggett, who was serving a life sentence for second-degree murder, had found God in prison, and led a team of prisoners who built the coffins for the Graham family. Dr. Graham’s grave marker will read, “Preacher of the Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ.”
My mother-in-law, as a young teenager, was contemplating suicide when a friend invited her to a Billy Graham Crusade. She became a Christian that day and set aside the suicidal thoughts. In a sense, I owe my lovely wife and family to Billy Graham’s ministry.
I dig.
Still, I think it’s not quite right for a Christian to say that death does not really happen to us. That’s an idea from Socrates in Plato’s writings. The Christian idea is that the bodily resurrection overcomes death; in the meantime, “to depart and be with Christ . . . is better by far” even than to live! But the resurrection is where we place our eschatological hope.
Thank you for the link to Cal Thomas’ piece.
Wow! That is a powerful comment – thanks for sharing it.
Very moving.
Death doesn’t really happen, though, does it? Even people who go to hell are still alive in the correct sense of the word, aren’t they? The point that Mr. Graham was making that the death of the body is not death of the soul or person. If bodily resurrection occurs as well — that’s all to the good.
He was a hero of mine. What a blessing he was to so many.
In some sense, yes. It gets tricky though because of passages like John 3:16:
Do those in hell have “eternal life” too, or have they perished?
Yes, great question. What does perish mean? What is the original word and who translated it? What does it mean now as translated and what did it mean then?
If you want me to check the Greek, ask later.
Hell is clearly said to be a second death. Um . . . in Revelation, I believe.
What does that mean? Well, the Augustinian answer is that the life of the soul is G-d. A soul in hell is a soul cut off from G-d. So it’s basically a dead soul. (Augustinian answers are good, but biblical answers are better. At the moment I’m taking what I can get!)
Defined properly–as the soul’s being severed from the body–death surely does happen.
See above.
An accurate point, drawn from Philippians and elsewhere in Paul. But he spoke inaccurately, or at least imprecisely–death does happen.
Is it alright if I just see this as a semantics problem?
If you mean Graham’s remark, I’d say that sounds fine.
I think everything else is more than semantics. We’re talking about real theological differences.
I suspect right now Mr. Graham is pleased that he’s still inspiring people to ponder and debate such questions even after his (physical) death.
Here are my thoughts about Billy Graham and his place in church history. It seems that liberal strategies do not change much over the years.
Today (Saturday) his body will be moved from the Cove in Asheville to the BG library in Charlotte. Employees will have an opportunity to pay respect before eight and then that day it is open for people to come by.
https://billygraham.org