John MacArthur CORRECTS Billy Graham!

Fight For Truth

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Hey guys, Colin here, and welcome back to the channel where the Bible and critical thinking meet to give you real

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Christian commentary about the things that matter. Thanks so much for watching, let's get into the video. So Billy Graham is one of the most popular

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Christian speakers of all time. He's without a doubt the most popular Christian preacher in the United States of the past 100 years.

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You see, Billy was a passionate communicator who led many people to Christ, and I'm sure that's true. Although, this often happened despite Billy's teaching rather than because of it.

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He had some seriously concerning theology and some deeply unbiblical tactics that you should know about.

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But unfortunately, most people will never call him out on this stuff. Why? Well, because as you'll probably see in the comment section of this video,

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Billy Graham is a bit of a sacred cow for many Christians. You can correct other people, just don't come after our

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Billy Graham. That's off limits. And this is a natural side effect of what happens when we idolize a man and respect his passion and hard work more than we analyze his doctrine to see if it's sound.

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That's pretty much what's happened here. And with that said, John MacArthur is one of the few teachers in modern evangelicalism who has the backbone to correct

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Graham and his wayward teaching. And that's what we're going to talk about in today's video. Here's the clip of Billy Graham's teaching where he says that all religions can lead to the

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Christian God. Watch this. And that's what God is doing today. He's calling people out of the world for his name, whether they come from the

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Muslim world or the Buddhist world or the Christian world or the non -believing world.

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They are members of the body of Christ because they've been called by God. They may not even know the name of Jesus, but they know in their heart that they need something that they don't have.

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And they turn to the only light that they have. And I think that they are saved and that they're going to be with us in heaven.

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So Billy Graham says in this interview that people who do not know Christ can be a part of his body of believers.

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If someone's a good Muslim or a good Buddhist and practices their religion with love and compassion and zeal, then that person is a

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Christian, even if they think Jesus was wrong about everything he taught. And there's no other way to say this, folks.

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What Billy Graham is teaching here is some of the most dangerous false teaching that anyone could possibly offer.

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And aided by John MacArthur, I'm going to offer you three biblical points that demonstrate how truly unbiblical

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Billy Graham's inclusivist position is. Number one. Here's the first clip of John MacArthur responding to Billy Graham's view of salvation.

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And in this clip, John is also going to bring up the Catholic Church because his view is similar, if not identical, to theirs.

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Watch this. The Pope is taking an inclusive view of salvation. The biblical teaching that salvation only comes in response to faith in Jesus Christ is rejected as unreasonable and cruel by people who believe this.

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The heathen are saved if they just live good lives, if they're just poor in spirit, if they are pure in heart, and if they pursue what is right.

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They live good lives and they're sincere. It doesn't really matter what they believe. Here John accurately summarizes the position of Billy Graham and the

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Catholic Church as well, or at least many people in the Catholic Church. He rightly says that in their theology, it doesn't really matter what you believe if you're an unbeliever.

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Even if you're an unbeliever, all you've got to do is be a good person. All you've got to do is be poor in spirit, be joyful, be loving, and you'll be saved no matter what you believe.

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And this, ladies and gentlemen, is just a convoluted version of works -based salvation. I'm sure you've heard of it before.

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Having faith in Jesus doesn't save you. Rather, having good behavior does. And this is totally unbiblical.

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For instance, Romans 4, 5 says this, quote, This verse explicitly teaches that regardless of your behavior, your works, you can be saved by faith in Christ alone.

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And in a beautiful case of irony, being saved by faith alone actually leads to doing good works.

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It is the impetus for those good works. But the good works themselves don't actually do the saving. Jesus does.

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That's the point of the passage. So the first reason Billy Graham is wrong, and the first correction offered by John MacArthur, is that Billy's view here is technically a form of works -based salvation.

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And this brings me to point number two. John MacArthur doesn't stop there. Let's see what else he had to say about Billy Graham and the

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Catholic Church. Watch this. That is why Catholic apologist Peter Kreeft, who wrote the book

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Ecumenical Jihad, can say that there are Buddhists and there are Hindus and there are Confucianists and there are

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Muslims and there are atheists and there are Orthodox Jews, all in heaven, because Christ is not the issue, the

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Gospel is not the issue, the Bible is not the issue, sincerity and goodness is the issue. Now this is a fantastic point made by John.

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He says that for people like Billy Graham, the Bible's not the issue, Jesus is not the issue, sincerity and goodness are the issue.

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And that is the second reason that Billy Graham's perspective here is wrong. It takes one's attention off of Christ and off of Scripture and puts it on oneself.

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It takes our eyes off of the Lord and off of His mercy and grace, and it puts it on our performance. Hebrews 12, 1 -2 says this,

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When it comes to our ultimate faith and hope, our eyes are on Jesus. A Christian lives their life saying,

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I know I'm a horrible sinner, but because of Christ, I can be washed clean. But Billy Graham is saying something completely different.

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He's saying, I know you're a sinner, but through being a good Muslim or Buddhist who is kind and compassionate, you can be saved.

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So you see, the second problem with Billy Graham's teaching is that it takes our attention off of our

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Savior and puts it on ourselves. This brings us to point number three. There is yet another great point made by John MacArthur that I've just got to show you.

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Watch this. And this is the natural theology idea that man by his natural powers, his reasoning powers, and some innate goodness can ascend to the knowledge of God and the will of God and please

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God and earn salvation whether he ever sees a Bible or ever hears about Jesus Christ. The Pope simply affirming what

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Catholic theology has long believed. This is one of the most important corrections that John offers in his rebuttal.

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In Billy Graham's inclusivist view of salvation, the ultimate reason a person is saved is because there's something innately good, something innately special about them.

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Say there's a group of ten Muslims, for instance, and none of them have ever heard the Gospel of Christ. According to Billy, the only reason one of those

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Muslims is going to be saved is going to go to heaven is because they were so smart, so reasonable, so kind, and so righteous that they lived their life in a biblical way without even knowing

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Christ's name, without even hearing of the Bible. There must have been something special about that Muslim which caused them to act differently compared to the other

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Muslims, even despite the fact that they had the exact same beliefs that these other Muslims had. There had to be something different about them.

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That's the point. The Bible, on the other hand, paints a very different picture of salvation. Ephesians 2, 8 -9 says this,

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So in John MacArthur's view of salvation being contrasted with Billy Graham's, here's what's really happening.

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Say you have that same group of ten Muslims that we talked about earlier, but this time, two of them have actually heard the

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Gospel of Christ, but only one of them believes in Jesus and has faith in Him for their salvation.

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What is the ultimate difference between these two? Well, the first difference here is that there was an actual exposure to the true

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Gospel, and the second is that one of them believed that Gospel by God's grace and His sovereign will. In other words, that man's performance did not save him,

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Christ did. And here's my point. In Billy Graham's view, there is something innately moral or intelligent about the particular people in other religions who are saved without knowing

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Christ. In John MacArthur's view, on the other hand, no one is saved without knowing Christ, and therefore all salvation is a work of Christ Himself, and there is no room at all for anyone to boast that he's more moral or intelligent than anyone else.

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So in conclusion, I believe that God used Billy Graham to accomplish things. However, many times

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God used Billy despite his ideas being unbiblical, rather than because his ideas were biblical. John MacArthur's critique of Billy Graham's view of salvation is quite eye -opening.

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It shows us that Billy was effectively teaching a form of works -based salvation, especially with regards to people in other religions who have not heard the

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Gospel. And this view is completely unbiblical, dangerous, and destructive. And it is entirely unacceptable that Billy Graham would ever offer this foolishness to his massive audience.

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So let's pray for any Christian who still believes this nonsense, that they would repent and turn to the truth of God's Word.

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Thank you so much for watching. If you liked that video, please like, comment, share, subscribe, and hit the notification bell so that you never miss another one.

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If you didn't like that video for any reason, then I invite you to watch my Frequently Asked Questions video, link in description, where I deal with common objections and define the purpose and goal of my channel using

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And until next time, fight for truth, never surrender, and keep your eyes open. Thank you, and God bless.