Why Were the High Places Allowed in Ancient Israel?

Hello, just a quick video here. Have you ever wondered why the high places were allowed in ancient Israel? You read through the Old Testament and there might even be a godly king, but it'll say, nevertheless, you know, he did not remove the high places.

The High Places in Ancient Israel and the Problem of Tolerated Idolatry

So, the high places is where the ancient Israelites, some of them would worship idols and false gods, and yet nobody seemed to do anything about it. Obviously, there were good kings who allowed these high places to stay there, and they were totally against the Word of God.

They were against God's law, and the king would have been justified. He would have done the right thing by tearing down the high places, and some of the kings did, of course. But oftentimes, they were allowed to remain, and you just read through that and you wonder, how did they not see that?

How did they tolerate the high places? Well, here's the thing. That type of situation is still going on today. I was in a pastor's meeting just a couple days ago, and the subject of Billy Graham came up, and somebody made a statement.

Billy Graham, Popularity, and the Refusal to Confront Error

Basically, one of the pastors said, nobody could ever, you know, disagree with Billy Graham. Basically, Billy Graham is so amazing, nobody could possibly disagree with something that he did. Like, it's kind of an over-the-top statement.

I mean, who even says that, right? I don't want to be too hard on the person. I actually forget which guy said it, but, you know, you only say that about Jesus. Only Jesus is totally above reproach to the degree where you can't even question him.

Like, just perfect. No man. I mean, I wouldn't say that about anybody, you know, that no one could possibly question this person. But anyways, it was said, and I kind of thought since I had posted a few videos about Billy Graham, I figured maybe they saw one of those or a couple of them, and they were saying that to see what I would say, right?

And I did speak up, you know, respectfully, of course. So they said, well, nobody could ever speak against, you know, disagree with something Billy Graham said. I'm like, well, I mean, I disagree with a couple things.

For example, Billy Graham told Larry King that he had wonderful fellowship with the Mormons, and, you know, he, of course, embraced Catholicism. And, yeah, let's just stick with the Mormon thing. I mean, obviously, Mormonism is not Christianity, and all the pastors I know would agree.

It's a cult. It's a false gospel. And it's heresy, that doctrine. And yet, a guy like Billy Graham could have wonderful fellowship with the Mormon church, and I have the video. It's on my channel. Talked about it before.

And what does fellowship mean? It means if you have fellowship with somebody, you're saying they're saved, you're saved, because we have fellowship, right? So here's, what does that have to do with the high places?

Fellowship, Ecumenism, and the Danger of Unbiblical Tolerance

Well, the high places were alive. It's totally unbiblical, but, you know, it was popular among the people. So even some of the godly kings didn't want to risk it, because tearing down the high places would have been a, yeah, risky thing to do.

Would have made people upset. Well, Billy Graham is popular. He's loved. And if you disagree with that, and I didn't, I've never even really said anything, you know, mean-spirited or overly critical.

I just brought it up. It's like, this is wrong. I disagree with that. It's like, how dare, how dare you? And somebody said, that's, this is divisive, you know. You can't say, you can't be doing this. Well, that same type of thing.

Like, you can't touch the high, even though it's wrong, the high places are there. It's right. You need to allow it. Don't do anything about it. Same thing with this issue with Billy Graham, having fellowship with the Mormons, or embracing Catholicism, endorsing the Pope.

It's clearly wrong. Everyone agrees that it's wrong, and yet nothing is ever done about it. And if somebody tries to speak up or do anything about it, they're the bad guy, right? It's the same type of thing.

So, have you ever wondered why the high places were allowed to continue in Israel? Well, it's that same type of spirit, that same type of attitude. So, Billy Graham, you know, he also made those comments to Robert Shuler, that Muslims, and Buddhists, and unbelievers, they're saved, and they'll be with us in heaven, even if they've never heard the name of Jesus.

They'd never believe the gospel. It's basically, as long as they do the best they can, they're saved. That's what Billy Graham said. He lived another 20 years. He got a lot of criticism for that. Lived another 20 years and never apologized, never clarified, never recanted.

Was he ever held accountable? You know, the high places were ungodly. It was unbiblical, but no one dared do anything about it because they were popular among the people. A lot of the Israelites worshipped at the high places.

Billy Graham made these statements that were clearly unbiblical, even some would say heretical, and yet, was he ever held accountable? No. What church was he a member of? Did Billy Graham even go to church?

I don't know. I tried to find out and couldn't get any information, but some say he was a member of the Southern Baptist Convention, or even his board, like whether it's the convention, his own board.

Did anyone hold him accountable? No. And then, if you're just some lowly pastor out in western Massachusetts, a guy like myself, all I do is just bring it up, and I'm speaking respectfully to people, and talking in a calm voice.

All I do is bring it up and say, hey, that's not right. And all of a sudden, well, see, I'm the bad guy. Well, that's the same type of thing, I believe, happened in ancient Israel. The high places were there, totally against the word of God, but if anyone dared say anything about it, you know, they were the divisive ones.

They were the bad guys. And because of that spirit that doesn't allow dissent, you just have to go along with everything. You have to be tolerant, right? That's the word. You have to just tolerate everything, and if you say anything, you're the bad guy.

That's the type of spirit that allowed for the high places, and quite frankly, it's allowing for a lot of heresy within evangelicalism. All right, that's it. Have a great weekend.