Billy Graham and Rome Copyright 2006 by David Cloud This edition October 26, 2014 ISBN 1-58318-098-2 This book is published for free distribution in eBook format. It is available in PDF, Mobi (for Kindle, etc.), and ePub formats from the Way of Life web site. We do not allow distribution of this book from other web sites. Published by Way of Life Literature PO Box 610368, Port Huron, MI 48061 866-295-4143 (toll free) - [email protected] www.wayoflife.org Canada: Bethel Baptist Church 4212 Campbell St. N., London Ont. N6P 1A6 519-652-2619 Printed in Canada by Bethel Baptist Print Ministry ii Table of Contents Introduction .................................................................................1 Has Rome Changed? ..........................................................2 Evangelical Catholics .........................................................8 The Great Change in Evangelicalism .............................10 The New Evangelicalism ..................................................14 The Last Days ...................................................................20 When Did Graham’s Compromise Begin? ............................23 A Year by Year Survey ..............................................................35 Franklin Graham and Anne Graham Lotz ..........................105 Conclusion ...............................................................................110 The Council of Trent Reaffirmed ..........................................111 About Way of Life’s eBooks ...................................................120 Powerful Publications for These Times ................................121 iii iv Introduction “It is one thing to invite unconverted Roman Catholics to a gospel meeting to hear the gospel preached, but it is quite another matter to go to a meeting where Roman Catholics, and Roman Catholic priests that are still firmly in Rome, are preaching from the platform.” -- Christian News, June 26, 1988 Nothing more plainly evidences the bankruptcy of today’s evangelicalism than its flirtations with Rome, and no man epitomizes this bankruptcy more than Billy Graham. Billy Graham has been evangelicalism’s foremost personality since the middle of the twentieth century. Harold Ockenga said that Graham “on the mass level is the spokesman of the convictions and ideals of the New Evangelicalism” (cited from John Ashbrook, New Neutralism II: Exposing the Gray of Compromise). An article in Christianity Today for Oct. 5, 1992, entitled “Can Evangelicalism Survive Its Success?” noted: “IT WOULD BE DIFFICULT TO OVERESTIMATE BILLY GRAHAM’S IMPORTANCE IN THE LAST 50 YEARS OF EVANGELICALISM. ... Graham personally embodied most of the characteristics of resurgent evangelicalism. ... de-emphasizing doctrinal and denominational differences that often divided Christians. ... For evangelicalism, Billy Graham has meant the reconstitution of a Christian fellowship transcending confessional lines--a grassroots ecumenism that regards denominational divisions as irrelevant rather than pernicious.” Thus, when we look at Billy Graham, we are looking at today’s evangelicalism, and for fifty years Graham and evangelicalism have associated with the Roman Catholic Church in an ever deepening affiliation. 1 Has Rome Changed? Some claim that Rome has changed and we can no longer say it is heretical. While the declarations of the Second Vatican Council of the 1960s did bring changes to the Catholic Church, it did not change its foundational dogmas. Not only did Vatican II uphold Rome’s false teachings, it actually strengthened them. The 2,400 bishops attending Vatican II reaffirmed such Roman heresies as salvation through the sacraments, papal supremacy, the Roman priesthood, the mass as a re-sacrifice of Christ, Catholic tradition on equal par with Scriptures, Mary as the Queen of Heaven and co-redemptress with Christ, auricular confession (confession of one’s sins into the ear of a priest), pilgrimages to “holy shrines,” purgatory, and prayers to and for the dead. All of these were reaffirmed by the Vatican II Council, which produced one of most authoritative statements of Catholic teaching in modern times. At the opening of Vatican II, Pope John XXIII stated, “The greatest concern of the Ecumenical Council is this: that the sacred deposit of Christian doctrine should be guarded and taught more efficaciously.” Thus the Second Vatican Council did not change the doctrinal foundation of the Roman Catholic Church. Billy Graham said that he preaches the same gospel as Rome, but this is a statement either of grave ignorance or willful duplicity. Graham preached salvation by grace alone through faith alone without works solely on the merit of Christ. The Roman Catholic Church denies this doctrine. Since there have been ecumenical statements in recent decades stating that Catholics and Protestants have agreed on justification by faith alone, let us document some of the ways that this flies in the face of Rome’s official teaching. 2 In the following statements, we are not depending on some lone spokesman or apologist for Rome. These are Rome’s most official doctrinal statements. Salvation by Grace Alone Denied by Trent At the Council of Trent (1545-1563), the declarations of which are still in force, the Roman Catholic Church formally condemned the biblical doctrine of salvation by grace alone through faith alone without works or sacraments. Consider the following declarations of Trent: “If anyone says that justifying faith is nothing else than confidence in divine mercy, which remits sins for Christ's sake, or that it is this confidence alone that justifies us, LET HIM BE ANATHEMA” (Sixth Session, Canons Concerning Justification, Canon 12). “If anyone says that the justice received is not preserved and also not increased before God through good works, but that those works are merely the fruits and signs of justification obtained, but not the cause of its increase, LET HIM BE ANATHEMA” (Sixth Session, Canons Concerning Justification, Canon 24). Salvation by Grace Alone Denied by Vatican II In its most formal and authoritative statements since Trent, Rome has continued to deny that salvation is by grace alone through faith alone because of Christ’s atonement alone without works or sacraments. Consider the following statements of the authoritative Second Vatican Council of the mid-1960s: “... [Christ] also willed that THE WORK OF SALVATION which they preached SHOULD BE SET IN TRAIN THROUGH THE SACRIFICE AND SACRAMENTS, AROUND WHICH THE ENTIRE LITURGICAL [RITUALISTIC] LIFE REVOLVES. Thus by Baptism men are grafted into the paschal mystery of Christ. ... They receive the spirit of adoption as 3 sons” (Vatican II, Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy, Chap. 1, I, 5, 6, pp. 23-24). “FOR IT IS THE LITURGY THROUGH WHICH, ESPECIALLY IN THE DIVINE SACRIFICE OF THE EUCHARIST, 'THE WORK OF OUR REDEMPTION IS ACCOMPLISHED,' and it is through the liturgy, especially, that the faithful are enabled to express in their lives and manifest to others the mystery of Christ and the real nature of the true Church” (Vatican II, Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy, Introduction, para. 2). “FROM THE MOST ANCIENT TIMES IN THE CHURCH GOOD WORKS WERE ALSO OFFERED TO GOD FOR THE SALVATION OF SINNERS, particularly the works which human weakness finds hard. Because the sufferings of the martyrs for the faith and for God's law were thought to be very valuable, penitents used to turn to the martyrs to be helped by their merits to obtain a more speedy reconciliation from the bishops. INDEED, THE PRAYERS AND GOOD WORKS OF HOLY PEOPLE WERE REGARDED AS OF SUCH GREAT VALUE THAT IT COULD BE ASSERTED THAT THE PENITENT WAS WASHED, CLEANSED AND REDEEMED WITH THE HELP OF THE ENTIRE CHRISTIAN PEOPLE” (Vatican II, Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy, Apostolic Constitution on the Revision of Indulgences, chap. 3, 6, pp. 78, 79). Rome Denies Salvation by Grace Alone in Its Definition of Justification Rome’s gospel is a confused combination of faith plus works, grace plus sacraments, Christ plus the church. It redefines grace to include works. It confuses justification with sanctification. It confuses imputation with impartation. It views justification not as a once-for-all legal declaration whereby the sinner is declared righteous before God and is 4 granted eternal life as the unmerited gift of God solely on the basis of Christ’s cross-work, but as a PROCESS whereby the sinner is gradually saved through participation in the sacraments. There is no eternal security in the Roman gospel because salvation always depends partially upon an individual’s works. According to Roman Catholic theology, Christ purchased salvation and gave it to the Catholic Church to be distributed to men through its sacraments. This is not only a false gospel, it is a blasphemous usurpation of Christ's position as only Lord and Savior and Mediator. The authoritative Addis and Arnold Catholic Dictionary, with the imprimatur (ecclesiastical authorization for printing) of E. Morrough Bernard, 1950, says justification “consists, not in the mere remission of sins, but in the sanctification and renewal of the inner man by the voluntary reception of God’s grace and gifts.” This dictionary plainly states that the Roman Catholic doctrine of justification is contrary to that of the Reformation, noting that “the Council of Trent was at pains to define most clearly and explicitly the Catholic tradition on the matter, placing it in sharp opposition to the contrary tenets of the Reformers.” Our Sunday Visitor’s Catholic Encyclopedia, published in 1991, defines justification as “THE PROCESS by which a sinner is made righteous, pure and holy before God.” This encyclopedia says: “Justification in the Catholic Tradition comes about by means of faith in Christ, AND in a life of good works lived in response to God's invitation to believe. ... That works are clearly required in the New Testament for union with Christ is seen in the many parables such as the Good Samaritan, Lazarus and Dives, and others” (emphasis added). Rome Denies Salvation by Grace Alone in Dozens of Other Ways In dozens of other ways Rome denies the once-for-all sufficiency of Christ's atonement, His sole Mediatorship, and 5 the doctrine of salvation by grace alone through faith alone without works. Rome denies justification by grace alone BY ITS DOCTRINE OF BAPTISMAL REGENERATION. The New Catholic Catechism (1994) dogmatically declares: “The Church does not know of any means other than Baptism that assures entry into eternal beatitude; this is why she takes care not to neglect the mission she has received from the Lord to see that all who can be baptized are ‘reborn of water and the Spirit.’ God has bound salvation to the sacrament of Baptism...” (1257). Rome denies justification by grace alone BY ITS DOCTRINE OF THE MASS. “As often as the sacrifice of the cross by which ‘Christ our Pasch is sacrificed’ ... is celebrated on the altar, the work of our redemption is carried out” (Vatican II, “Dogmatic Constitution on the Church,” Chapter 1, 3, p. 324). Rome denies justification by grace alone BY ITS DOCTRINE OF THE SACRAMENTS: “The Church affirms that for believers the sacraments of the New Covenant are necessary for salvation. ... The fruit of the sacramental life is that the Spirit of adoption makes the faithful partakers in the divine nature by uniting them in a living union with the only Son, the Saviour” (New Catholic Catechism, 1129). Rome denies justification by grace alone BY ITS DOCTRINE OF PURGATORY, claiming that “the doctrine of purgatory clearly demonstrates that even when the guilt of sin has been taken away, punishment for it or the consequences of it may remain to be expiated or cleansed” (Vatican II, “Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy”). Rome denies justification by grace alone BY ITS DOCTRINE OF CONFESSION. “One who desires to obtain reconciliation with God and with the Church, must confess to a priest all the unconfessed grave sins he remembers after having carefully examined his conscience” (New Catholic Catechism, 1493). 6