Billy Graham & The Rise of Neo-Evangelicalism

So this will be the final lesson part 4 of lesson 13 the battle for the

Bible.

We're picking up with the.

Fundamentalist.

Modernist Controversy, so this is section number 4

fundamentalism versus modernism.

I'll just read here.

It says in the early 1900s an Ideological battle was fought within the

mainline American denominations between Bible believing Christians and

Theological liberals, this is known as the fundamentalist modernist

Controversy.

Okay.

So we see here that the term modernist and Theological liberal

it's it's the same thing.

So the modernists were the liberals and they were battling with the fundamentalists or the Bible

believers.

That controversy was especially heated in Presbyterian circles.

The conflict began to brew when several Presbyterian seminary professors were

removed because they denied the doctrine of biblical

inerrancy.

And we remember what inerrancy means.

It means yeah, the Bible is without error.

So all of the Word of God is true without error.

So these.

Professors didn't believe that so they were Fired or removed from their position.

In 1922 Harry Emerson Fosdick a liberal Baptist minister preached

a sermon at the First Presbyterian Church of New York Entitled shall

the fundamentalists win and he adamantly insisted that they should

not win.

14 years later in 1936 J Gresham

Machen if who lived from 1881 to 1937 He left the Presbyterian

Church USA or PC USA to establish the Orthodox

Presbyterian Church, which is also known as the OPC.

Machen was one of the last theological conservatives to teach at Princeton

Seminary when Princeton grew increasingly favorable towards liberalism.

Machen left this controversy within Presbyterian circles was

representative of what was happening in all of American Christianity.

As a result of these struggles American Protestantism was split into.

Quote the mainline Protestants on the one hand and the fundamentalists on the

other.

Okay, so let's Think about this for a moment.

When you hear the term mainline denomination, what do you think of.

What churches are part of the mainline?

Churches.

Congregationalist.

Congregationalist UCC that would be considered mainline.

The United Methodists would be considered mainline Southern Southern

Baptist.

I don't know if Southern Baptist would fit because The the mainline

churches don't believe the Bible is inerrant.

So so they're the liberals a lot of them don't believe Jesus rose from the dead.

They don't they reject the idea of hell for sure.

Some of them reject the idea of heaven.

So they are very liberal in the mainline churches.

These are the churches in New England where you see the rainbow flag out front if you see the rainbow flag in

front of a church.

Pretty safe bet.

That's one of the mainline denominations the Southern Baptists are.

More conservative generally, although they are starting to slide in the liberal

direction as of late.

The Southern Baptist split Rick Warren's.

Right to my knowledge the Southern Baptists have not split.

Some congregations have been kicked out.

Last year.

It was a huge story.

Rick Warren's Saddleback Church was kicked out of the Southern Baptist Convention because

They were getting too liberal.

So the denomination kicked kicked out their church and several others.

But the Southern Baptists are still intact and for the most part There's there's still a lot of

conservatives within the denomination.

So I would say the Southern Baptists are Bible believing but as of now for the most part,

but The mainline churches are are very liberal.

So yeah, the UCC United Methodist the Episcopalians.

The.

PC PC.

USA, so the Presbyterian Church USA the Evangelical Lutheran Church

of America, I think ELCA.

They're super.

Progressive Wow.

Yeah, they use evangelicals in the name, but they're not evangelical at all.

So it's just left over from the past.

So it's really helpful to understand the differences between Churches and this has been

a long time coming because you're going back to the 1920s 1930s and that divide was

already forming and I've told the story, you know a thousand times about our church.

We're back in the 1940s.

This church was part of the Congregationalists and we had to break away because the denomination was

denying the blood of Christ.

So we became independent you.

Actually said it literally 1 ,000 times.

Probably not.

Maybe a lot maybe a hundred closer to it.

So that's the divide and like I said, it's been going on a long

long time.

Yes.

Free is that a denomination or is it evangelical.

Free is a.

I.

Think it's a smaller denomination.

I believe I don't quote me on that because I'm not all that familiar with them.

Yeah, I mean there's a lot of denominations that I.

Right.

Conservative.

Yeah, you see CC is more conservative.

You CC with two C's is the rainbow the rainbow churches.

So public opinion against fundamentalism increased as the result of the

scopes monkey trial of 1925.

Who has heard of the scopes monkey trial.

All right, let me explain that John T scopes a

substitute high school biology teacher in Tennessee was accused of teaching the theory of

evolution in a public School which violated Tennessee law so teaching

evolution was illegal back back in the 1920s.

The prosecution was led by William Jennings Bryan a three -time presidential candidate.

So a lot of attention was on this trial.

Obviously the defense attorney Clarence Darrow was also well known which brought national

attention to the trial.

Although scopes was found guilty the trial itself generated negative

publicity for the fundamentalists and their creationist views which were

perceived to be outdated and contrary to Scientific

progress.

So what was the scientific progress?

Well.

Yeah, the Bible, you know, you can't take the Bible literally.

God didn't really create the the world it was.

Well, the Big Bang I think came later, but it's the idea that the Genesis account is not

literally true.

Evolution is true and then the Big Bang and that leads eventually to just an outright denial

of The Bible because if the beginning of the Bible isn't true and those same people who don't believe the

first few chapters of Genesis They certainly don't believe the book of Revelation is to be taken literally.

So if the beginning isn't true in the end isn't true.

Then how how do you believe anything in between and that's it's that's the slippery slope.

So sadly in both the mainline denominations and the court of public opinion

Fundamentalism began to lose support.

It seemed as if Bible believing Christians were being marginalized in American

society in leaving the mainline denominations fundamentalists started new

Organizations such as the Orthodox Presbyterian Church That's OPC the Presbyterian Church in

America PCA and the Conservative Baptist Association of America

and the General Association of regular Baptists, okay, and then

later on in the next section.

We're going to be talking about the rise of what is called new evangelicalism, which is really a blending

of fundamentalism a little bit of fundamentalism with Liberalism and it's it's a

blending of the two and who is the most famous new neo evangelical.

New evangelical the name most famous Christian of the 20th century Billy

Graham, that's right.

My opinion.

I think Billy Graham saw all of this because Billy Graham grew up as a fundamentalist and then he

Had a crisis of faith and kind of went in the other direction.

He still held to the inerrancy of Scripture to be fair and he preached at his Crusades that Christ was

the only way but When he would get in front of a different audience, he would kind of say the opposite at

least that's how it how it seemed.

So.

What I can tell after studying and I've studied this a lot it seemed as though

Billy Graham Miscalculated I think he really believed that fundamentalism was

dying and would be dead.

So we had to kind of go in this new enlightened direction.

But by the time Billy Graham was an old man I think he probably realized that that's not really the case that

the fundamental that you can't get rid of the fundamentalists.

Because at the end of the day the fundamentalists are the true Bible believers and there's always gonna be that remnant

and I'm not saying Billy Graham wasn't a Bible believer.

I'm just saying he he compromised in a lot of these areas and I have the video

to prove it for those who you know want to say that that's not not the case, but

Here's the discussion question.

One of the challenges Fundamentalists faced during this time was when to

separate from a denomination that was slipping into theological liberalism so let's

read or let's turn to 2nd Corinthians chapter 6 and this really is

a Big question and a difficult thing because it's one thing to say, okay,

that is wrong or this teaching is wrong.

But when you actually have to put it into practice and Separate from maybe even people,

you know, or even leave your church or a church leaving a denomination I mean that can be that can be a really

difficult Decision, but that's it's real life.

And this is where you have to take Biblical doctrine and actually put it into practice

and that's where it really matters.

So it says here read 2nd Corinthians chapter 6

verses 14 Through 18, so I'm gonna read that and then there's going to be a question.

All right 2nd Corinthians 6 14 through 18 the Apostle Paul says do

not be unequally yoked together with unbelievers for what fellowship has

righteousness with lawlessness in what communion has light with darkness in What

accord has Christ with Belial that is?

Satan or what part has a believer with an unbeliever in what agreement has the

temple of God with idols?

For you are the temple of the Living God.

As God has said I will dwell in them and walk among among them and I will be their God and they

shall be my people therefore Come out from among them and be separate says the

Lord do not touch what is unclean and I will Receive you.

I will be a father to you and you shall be my sons and daughters says the Lord Almighty

so do not be unequally yoked and this applies to several areas of life a

Christian should not get married to an unbeliever.

Okay, but it applies to that I think a Christian probably would be it would be unwise to

even go into a legal Partnership like in a business with an unbeliever.

So do not be unequally yoked, but the primary context is Ecclesiastically,

you cannot have religious fellowship with People who are not saved.

I mean, that's the primary Meaning here.

So with that in mind What does that passage teach about separating from

unbelievers and apostates?

Well, what does it teach we should do it.

You should do it.

What yeah, but what if it's hard and you're friends with someone who is an unbeliever?

Or an apostate do it.

Anyways, do it anyways see that that's where it's hard.

That's where people have loyalties to men instead of God.

They're siding with men.

They have a fear of man over God listening to the Bible listening to God.

That's the right thing to do.

But sometimes it's the hard thing to do and people would rather Go along to get along.

Okay.

Here's the other question.

How do you think those verses were?

Interpreted and applied by fundamentalist leaders in the 1920s and 1930s.

Well, I think they were interpreted literally and they were applied correctly because they they

followed through and they broke fellowship with the Theological liberals so if I can just

you know, what would that look like right here and now?

Morris Corner Church, we would have fellowship with the other Bible -believing churches in the

area and that includes some independent churches some Baptist churches and maybe even the Presbyterian

Church or two I could have fellowship with those churches.

We cannot have fellowship with the Episcopalians though.

We cannot have fellowship with the UCC.

So and.

It really comes down to does do you guys believe the Bible?

Do you believe in the inerrancy of Scripture?

Yes.

Okay, we can fellowship with you.

You don't believe it then we then we can and that's really the bottom line

Larry.

Area too, but he said, you know, I think he's referring to

Don't be unequally yoked with unbelievers, but he also then goes on and

says But I'm not saying Separate from the

unbelievers You know to draw them to Christ because then we have to go

out of this world.

Yeah, you're talking about, you know sitting down and eating with someone.

To maybe you know, can you be friends sit down and share a meal with a brother who's under excommunication?

No.

Can you sit down and have a meal and be friends with an unbeliever?

Yes but you shouldn't yoke with them and have some binding

agreement with them.

You cannot enter into a Covenant with an unbeliever whether it's marriage business

legal contracts.

This goes back to the Old Testament.

Israel was to enter into no covenant with the heathen and then of course, they didn't listen to God and

they they broke God's law and.

Created a.

Endless amount of trouble but this is why God tells us these things not to just give us rules to make our lives

Difficult because we can't do all this stuff I mean this is to protect us because God knows if you go down

this road, it's gonna be painful.

It's gonna leave the problems.

All right.

Now we're moving into the next section the rise of new evangelicalism, so

you had to take that biblical teaching on separation and Rightly interpret it

and apply it so separate from the unbeliever.

And this is where Billy Graham really did fail.

And listen, I grew up just to let you know I grew up thinking Billy Graham was the

greatest Christian who ever lived Except the Apostle Paul, you know that that was the idea I

had and when I first started hearing people saying things like negative about Billy Graham, I thought you know

How can you do that?

But then I then I saw some of the interviews that he gave and then I understood so Billy

Graham was criticized and The fundamentalist broke fellowship with Billy

Graham because he would fellowship with Theological liberals with the mainline denominations and with

the Pope in the Catholic Church.

So this is when we're talking about the rise of new evangelicalism Billy Graham is kind of that

that face of the movement so he all that to say this he tried to bridge the gap and

You can say that he you can believe in your heart that Billy Graham had The best

intentions trying to bring people together because he thought it would be the best for the furtherance of the gospel.

But I think in the end Well, there were some problems even if you believe that's true.

There were still Problems that came along with that.

So the book says this group the new evangelicals began to identify

themselves that way.

In.

1942 they established an organization called the National Association.

Of.

Evangelical so evangelical way back when meant It

meant fundamentalist Bible believer today the word evangelical.

It could mean that you could find some evangelicals who are fundamentalist.

But you can also find some evangelicals who are you know way out in left field.

I mean evangelical.

The term has sort of lost its meaning today because it's been blended with a bunch of other things.

So these early evangelicals openly affirmed their belief in the inspiration and

Inerrancy of the Bible which Billy Graham did do that the deity of Christ is atoning death on the cross is bodily

Resurrection from the grave.

So it all sounds good so far.

However, they insisted that their tone needed to be more friendly than that

of the earlier fundamentalists.

In the 1950s and 1960s a preacher named Billy Graham.

Emerged as a popular evangelist though Graham grew up in fundamentalist circles

his willingness to partner with theological liberals and Roman Catholics in his evangelistic

crusades caused many fundamentalists to separate from Graham.

By contrast many American evangelicals viewed Graham as a Spokesman for their

movements.

You can see that I would say the majority of people love Billy Graham thought what he did was wonderful.

The majority but there was this healthy segment that thought what he was doing was

Bad enough to break fellowship with him.

So the term Evangelical that's what you should have filled in in your book.

The term Evangelical comes from the Greek word.

For what?

The gospel.

Right, so.

The.

Evangel a Juan Galeon, I think.

And then it goes through the language.

Evangel means gospel.

So an evangelical is somebody who what?

Yeah believes the gospel preaches the gospel.

So that that means a non -evangelical.

What are they preaching.

Be nice and you might go to heaven if there is such a place.

Yeah, a non -evangelical is not preaching the gospel that they tend to

preach what is called the social gospel, which you know, it's it's a

Social activism trying to make the world a better place do good and you know, there's you could say some

It's good to do good.

Okay, but If the gospel of Jesus Christ is removed or worse yet

denied.

Which I shared before the class there was that article on Easter Sunday.

Or the Saturday before Easter in the in the paper where a mainline minister she basically

said that she didn't believe in the the the resurrection of Jesus.

She said some people do believe it basically and if you believe it, that's okay.

But we kind of know Ben.

She she rejected the resurrection on Easter, but that that's the thing about these churches.

They they don't really Believe that Jesus was the Son of God who

died on the cross for our sins who rose again the third day they reject that.

Which that that is the gospel so they end up having to preach.

You know, whatever whatever else basically, you know gay rights and civil rights and

Social activism climate change, you know, whatever kind of the spirit whatever the things they're popular in the culture

the new causes in the culture.

That's what they end up preaching to kind of stay relevant and a lot of people a lot of people like it.

Of course, I think people realize that that's not really Christianity.

So he even those churches are in decline.

But any comments on on this?

But as long as every and I think the members of this church understand that there is a

great divide just because a Building has the the word church on the

sign.

I mean that There's a great difference between Bible believing churches and these

other mainline churches.

So in their quit back to the book in their quest for influence Evangelicals have

sometimes Compromised their fidelity to biblical truth too often.

Success is measured in terms of numbers or popularity rather than in

terms of faithfulness to God.

Do you think that's true?

Yes I've been told okay over the years I've been told Mike if you

want this church to grow there's a few things you need to do number one.

Guess We have coffee, okay we have what.

Okay, the one thing I've been told is you need to get rid of the hymns and you need to bring in a praise

band.

So you need the drums and the electric guitar and all of that, which let's be fair.

That's not a doctrinal issue.

I suspect some people probably would like that and some people wouldn't like that.

I'm not so sure that's compromising the truth of the gospel.

That's more of a Maybe a superficial type of thing, although it's connected to a lot of

other issues but the the main thing I've been told is you need to

change your position on LGBT that that's the one thing I've been told

and needless to say those people who have told me that Do not attend here anymore.

Okay.

Not because I told them to it's just they wanted to see the church go in an other direction and they realized

that.

As long as I'm alive as long as I'm here that ain't gonna happen.

Yes, may I make a comment about hymns and hymnals?

Yeah, one of the purposes.

There's many purposes.

The message of the gospel is so beautiful That this is why we try to put it to

music because music is beautiful to the ear or should be.

But hit him know because I just went through this at my cousin's husband's funeral yesterday.

I was asked to leave and They did not have the music nor did the

accompanist know the tune.

Him okay.

So another one of the purposes of hymnals is Unity among us

not one person trying to seem louder than everyone else His own way

holding verses are holding words where it is.

It's not written.

The notes are written there.

And so and we should be striving.

I mean, this is what we do in the quartet.

Honestly, that's not the most beautiful Quartet I've ever heard but we strive to blend.

We strive to blend our voices and when we sing and you need the hymnal now I know not

everyone can read music the solid black ones are the ones with a hole or what the daughter the flag

means or all that stuff, but the purpose is is unity and unity in the

church is One of the main things of the whole New Testament.

And I like the congregational singing for a reason.

Now I want to be clear.

I'm not I'm not against someone with a guitar up because we have that, you know.

We've had in the past.

We'll have in the future.

I'm it's it's not really about guitar versus piano or organ.

It's that the the hymns and certain types of music.

It's easy for everyone to sing along to.

That's what's important to me.

That the words are doctrinally sound and that everyone can sing along because this is

corporate worship.

We're all doing it together.

Because if it's just a concert you're sitting there why if it's only you observing.

Then it's more of a show.

I want everyone involved because worship everyone should be involved.

So that's why I think this way is Better in my opinion.

Yeah.

And the other problem is the fact that people are coming for the experience instead of getting to know

God.

Yeah, that's really one of the reasons we chose this church was because of the fact that there were hymns being sung.

Yeah, it wasn't a performance.

It wasn't perfect.

It wasn't about The music.

The music was about God.

Yeah.

And that was really important to us as we've been in many churches where it had become

about the band, right?

And oh, I like the way it makes me feel.

Well, it's not about how I feel.

It's about the worship that it is true worship in spirit and in truth, right?

I think that's a really fine line to walk for anybody that's leading music at least for me whenever I do stand up to lead.

To make sure that I'm worshiping.

Yeah, everybody else is able to follow in worship as well.

It's not about Whether I sing the note perfectly, right?

I read the music perfectly.

Yeah.

Yeah, well said and.

Really?

I mean this type of stuff is what often is kind of most visible.

You know the way people dress the style of music that type of thing.

That's not really what's the most important.

It's you know holding on to the truth of the gospel in God's Word and

the tendency among Whatever liberals modernists.

They want to cut.

They want you to compromise on all the big issues of our time.

And.

That means you have to compromise what the Word of God says because the Bible is so.

It's so the Bible is out of step with modern culture.

I mean, let's let's face it because this world is under the power of the Prince

of the airs, I mean, that's just the way it is, but okay, so.

This is the discussion question.

What comes to mind when you hear the term evangelical?

There's no wrong answer here, it's just whatever comes to mind for you.

I always thought it was somebody, you know, giving people the opportunity to be saved.

Someone who preaches the gospel, yeah, right.

Yeah, and that's still technically true.

But like I said over time the word seems to be losing its meaning because it's applied to

people who sometimes don't like like that denomination the Evangelical Lutheran Church

in America, I think right.

ELCA I mean evangelical is in the name, but they are not evangelical at all.

So that's that's a common thing.

All right, if there's no other.

If there's no other comments or questions, we'll move on to the final section.

It looks like we're actually going to finish Lesson 13.

So yeah part four.

So we've been we've been on this for a while and remember.

Next week is a whole new Sunday school class so this will be the end

of this and we're on to something new about uh, you know honoring God with your finances,

so that'll be a Good a good change.

Yes.

All right number six.

Standing firm in this generation.

Here's how we're going to end.

We need the admonition here the exhortation to stand firm.

If.

Evangelicals are to stand firm in this generation.

They must ground their convictions in the doctrinal pillars Articulated

by the New Testament.

See already you're you're gonna lose somebody because they hear the word doctrinal and they're like, ah, yeah.

So you're already losing somebody with this.

Hopefully none of you.

Because yeah, you're still here after after all of all of this doctrinal

these doctrinal studies, so.

Good for you.

First we must hold fast to the authority of God's Word without wavering.

You agree with that.

The Reformers commitment to Scripture alone Should be our commitment as

well.

I realize there's people who'd say that the Protestant Reformers Themselves weren't always holding to

Scripture alone and that's a different debate.

But in principle.

Yes, we we should do that scripture alone is the authority as we've talked about before if it's not the

scripture That's our authority.

What is it?

The Pope the culture me you like.

It has to be a solid foundation of God's Word holding to doctrines like the

Inspiration inerrancy and sufficiency of Scripture may make us unpopular.

You agree with that?

Yes with the world it will make you unpopular but if our goal is Faithfulness

the choice between honoring God and pleasing men is a clear one to make

and then it References.

Acts chapter 5 verse 29 where you probably know that passage remember the disciples

standing in front of the Jewish Council and.

The.

The Sanhedrin told them do not preach in the name of Jesus and

Peter and John were like, okay, we'll listen to you.

We just want to obey the rules now.

Is that what they did?

No, they they said well.

Who should we obey God?

Or men should we obey you or should we obey God you be the judge and

obviously that's a rhetorical Question.

So if you're interested in being faithful to God, this is a no -brainer.

This lesson is titled the battle for the Bible.

Historic fundamentalism contended earnestly for the truth of Scripture in the face of liberal

attack evangelical isms heritage going back to the Reformation and earlier is

similarly rooted in a commitment to the authority and Sufficiency of God's Word.

If we are to be faithful we must Similarly take our stand on

the truth of God's Word.

Second.

We must contend for the purity of the gospel.

Sinners are saved by grace alone through faith alone based on the finished work of Christ alone.

Our love for Christ should motivate our witness in the world.

At times our commitment to the truth of the gospel Will mean we cannot condone or partner

with groups or movements that distort the gospel.

Galatians 1 6 through 9.

Gospel clarity is what the world around us Desperately needs in an age where we are

told that the truth is relative and all belief systems are equally valid.

It requires gospel courage to proclaim the exclusive message of salvation Through

Jesus Christ, but that is the very message people need to hear.

It's been so obvious to me that whenever You know whether it's Oprah or

NBC or you know, there's some mainstream Media source when they bring on

the evangelical preacher.

Have you ever seen these interviews?

They always ask them the same questions.

Do you really believe Jesus is the only way and Then the whole, you know

LGBT they always ask those two questions.

Because they want to see is this guy really gonna say something that unpopular on national

television?

Because if he does we got him we can make him look bad to the whole world, right?

But and sometimes they do hold firm which usually the people who hold firm don't get invited back.

Because they could because they're proclaiming the truth of the gospel on TV or some major platform usually they get the

preachers who they know will cave in and That that's why the word evangelical is

losing its meaning because the the popular Evangelicals tend to be the ones on TV who are

you know caving in?

But what does the Bible say acts 412 and there is salvation in?

No one else for there is no other name under heaven Has been given among men by which

we must be saved.

Finally, we ought to do all of this as an act of worship for the glory of God

alone.

Doctrinally, we look to God's Word to understand who he is so that we can worship him accurately.

The truth of Scripture ought to govern both our private devotion and our corporate worship

accordingly churches should look to God's Word to determine how They should conduct their

services rather than giving into Entertainment driven trends as noted

above faithfulness must be the goal not popularity.

Morally, we must seek to obey God's commandments out of a love for him.

We want our entire lives to be an act of Acceptable worship.

Romans 12 1 and 2.

You agreeing with all this so far.

See a true evangelical who believes the inerrancy of Scripture would never Disagree

with this and then finally as we discussed in lesson 1 we desire to be characterized

by a right understanding of The Word of God the work of God and the

worship of God armed with biblical convictions.

We stand firm in this generation of church history.

We recognize the strength to do this does not originate in us it is found in

Christ.

He is both the Lord of the church and the Lord of history to him be the glory

forever and ever.

Amen.