I watched several of the late great Reverend Billy Graham’s sermons on YouTube this past Sunday. It is so disappointing that no one has been able to equal or even come close to replicating what he was able to do as an evangelist. I went to one of his revival meetings in Atlanta and was mesmerized by the eloquent way he presented the word of God. Though I was a Christ follower at the time I went down the aisle at the end of the service anyway and prayed the “Sinners Prayer”. It was much like being baptized in the Jordan River where they think Jesus was baptized. I had been baptized earlier but it had special meaning to wade out into that ice-cold river near where Jesus was baptized and do it again.
One of my bucket list items was to pray with him and I had a couple of chances. Once when he was hospitalized in Jacksonville and our pastor who was friends with him invited me to accompany him to visit with him and all of us pray together while he was in the hospital. Unfortunately, I was called out of town on business and missed that meeting. The other time was with founder of Chic Filet Truett Cathy who at the time was mentoring me. We were to fly up to see him on his family’s private jet, but the reverend had Parkinson’s disease by then and the Graham family heavily restricted anyone from seeing him including me.
The closest I ever got to him was in the rotunda of the Capitol in Washington D.C. where his body was laid in state in a beautiful casket crafted by inmates in Angola prison after passing on to glory. His entire family was lined up meeting the thousands of folks filing by to pay tribute to this anointed man of God.
One of the mini-documentaries that I watched this past Sunday was about heaven. He was talking about how much he looked forward to being there with his wife and many friends who had gone on before him. He was old and white-headed at the time of the interview, but his eyes lit up when he talked of heaven. Though he was in very poor health and stricken by that insidious disease he preached literally as long as he could stand before a pulpit. After that, he spent his time writing books and letters of encouragement to those of us in this world.
All of the sermons I watched impressed me with his earnest inclusive attitude. He did not care what anyone’s background was or the color of their skin, or the size of their wallet and he was as humble a man as anyone could encounter. He just wanted to see people come to Jesus.
Contrast it with most preachers today and it is like black and white. My wife and I are still looking for a church home and attended a service and the pastor could not get enough of kneeling and looking directly into the camera and putting on a show. It was nauseating and he wasn’t even a good actor.
Another church we attended held a somber “meeting” at the end of the service to inform the congregation that the worship leader had sexually abused a young girl. This coming right on the heels of their last pastor embezzling a couple of million dollars. There are two other churches that we attended that had similar problems.
I have heard that Satan doesn’t attack those who do not know Jesus but saves his attacks for those who do. Billy Graham didn’t have a bouffant hairdo nor wear tight pants or parade around like a peacock living the life of a rich man. He didn’t use theatrics or stare into the camera faking sobs of remorse. He simply prefaced his comments with, “The Bible says . . .” He asked us to come just as we are and to ask God for forgiveness and reassured us that He would.
I sincerely believe if judgment is to be averted at least temporarily in these last days it must come from revival. I pray for God to send another outpouring of the Holy Spirit utilizing someone like Billy Graham to evangelize this country and the world at large. There’s no teaching in the Bible that I’m aware of that says a great rebellion will come by a steady, irreversible decline of the church through history. We have no authority for saying there can be no great revival.
The gospel has advanced in the last two thousand years in history mainly by great awakenings and great declines. I just assume that’s the way it’s going to happen until Jesus comes. There will be seasons of remarkable awakening, and there will be seasons of sad decline. We have no teaching about a gradual worsening with no interrupted blessing.
The twenty-fourth chapter of Matthew contains the Messiah’s most comprehensive teaching on His Second Coming. In it He gave us specific signs to look for that would immediately precede His return. Some of the signs include false prophets and false messiahs, wars, earthquakes, famine, the persecution of God’s people, the moral decay of society, a great apostasy, or falling away from true Faith, the rise of the Anti-Christ, the rebirth of Israel, the rebuilding the Jerusalem Temple, a final outbreak of anti-Semitism, and unprecedented destruction on a worldwide basis.
When you hear these precursors of His return, some might object, “we have always had these things”. We have had wars and rumors of wars from time immemorial. There have always been earthquakes and famines. Even in the first century, there was the persecution of Messianic Believers. Humanity has usually been morally corrupt. There has been anti-Semitism since the time of Pharaoh. The people of God have always been plagued by false prophets and false messiahs.”
It’s true that throughout history we have experienced many of these signs. But God gives us the key to understand these signs when He compares them to a woman in labor. He says that “all this is but the beginning of the birth-pains” (Mt. 24:8). Why do our righteous Lord Jesus compare the Last Days to a woman in labor?
A woman’s labor pains increase in two ways: in intensity and in frequency. The labor pains become more intense, and the contractions come closer and closer together until the very end when the pain is most agonizing, and the contractions almost continuous, one right after the other, and then the child is born. The Bible is telling us that the world is going to go through more troubles and disasters, which will increase in frequency and intensity, until the very end, when they are almost unbearable and nearly continuous, one coming right after the other. Then He will return, bringing with Him a delightful new time in history, the golden age of man. I eagerly await that, but like Billy Graham, I wish to see more and more people come to Jesus to enjoy it.
1 Thessalonians 5:2
For you, yourselves are fully aware that the day of the Lord will come like a thief in the night. While people are saying, “There is peace and security,” then sudden destruction will come upon them as labor pains come upon a pregnant woman, and they will not escape.