April 17, 1958
Dear Brethren in Christ:
We, as individual brothers, feel constrained to write you a letter regarding the evangelistic campaigns of Billy Graham, as he is soon to open one in the Cow Palace of San Francisco. We are not unmindful of the exercises of those of a past generation regarding the dangers of being drawn into such movements.
J.N.D. wrote in 1865: "Going about to hear preachers I believe a very unprofitable and positively injurious thing souls never make progress who do so. They hear what is inconsistent with truths they know, or a path they are bound to by God, and they lose their hold on the truth instead of going on to more. It ends in uncertainty what truth is, and more or less indifference to it.”
Our much beloved and late brother, Mr. Walter Potter, used to say about similar activities in Christendom that he left those things pretty much where he found them, as sooner or later their tendency became more apparent to the gathered saints. But after much consideration and waiting on the Lord, it seems to us that some sober and factual information should be disseminated among ourselves, because the present use of mass media for promotion has given many Christians the idea that all such work as the Graham campaign is sacrosanct and must not be spoken against.
What we propose to examine is whether these campaigns are being conducted according to the Word of God, or not, and what some of the results are. The Apostle could rejoice in his day if the gospel were preached, whether in pretense or in truth, although he himself never departed from communicating "spiritual things by spiritual means." We can thank God if any souls are truly blessed and saved, but what should our opinion be? How can we feel about it?
Let us look back to what Mr. Graham's followers claim to be the biggest revival of all time the one in New York City last year. You may not know it, but that campaign was sponsored by the Protestant Council of Churches in New York City, which is the local affiliate of the National Council of Churches, which in turn is the affiliate of the World Council of Churches. This means that the Crusade in New York was sponsored by modernists, liberals, and avowed opponents of the gospel of God concerning His Son. Actual enemies of the cross of Christ were sponsoring the work supposed to be the work of the Lord. Many co-operating leaders sought nothing more than an increase in church membership.
Did Paul so work? Would he accept the help of a woman in league with the devil? Would he let her advertise his meetings? No; he cast the demon out of her and would not let Satan ally himself to the work. The devil had been fighting the spread of the gospel in The Acts, but in the 16th chapter he assayed to join it. Remember that Satan does transform himself into an angel of light, but the faithful Apostle rejected such an alliance. This cost him his liberty, and he and Silas were sent with their backs bleeding to the cruel stocks; but we daresay that the work of Christ was advanced far more through his refusal of such demoniacal help than had he acceded and made his preaching more popular.
Those who defend Mr. Graham's co-operation with those who deny the very elements of God's gospel misuse the 17th chapter of The Acts and claim that Paul preached under the auspices of the Epicureans and Stoics in Athens. But examine that and you will see that he did no such thing. He merely went to a place where he could speak without interruption, and his faithful preaching brought antagonism to his message.
But did Mr. Graham stop with this unholy sponsorship? No; he had these men of no faith on the platform with him, and gave public approval to them as though their denial of the faith meant nothing, and that they were still good Christians for all that. He had some such on the platform to pray each and every night. Did Paul ever ask the unsaved to pray for him and his work? Did he unite the Stoics with his testimony?
We could mention numbers of this category who aided in Billy Graham's work. But let us name just one or two: Dr. John Sutherland Bonnell is one. This man in 1951 refused to sign a statement of his faith in the basic elements of the gospel, and withdrew from those Christians who were seeking to get Mr. Graham to come to New York. Later, when the control passed into the hands of the ecumenical group of doubters and liberals, this man became an ardent Graham supporter and actively engaged in the Crusade. He is the modernist who in 1954 wrote an article for Look magazine, entitled, "What is a Presbyterian?" In this he said that most Presbyterians do not believe in "a material heaven or hell," nor do they believe "in the literal inerrancy of the Scriptures." He further rejected for most Presbyterians (not excepting himself) the fact of "the virgin birth" of the Lord Jesus, and in substance rejected the Trinity, and cast away the resurrection of the literal body. (Think how Paul excoriated those who denied the resurrection.)
Here is another example of Billy Graham's acceptance of modernists. In an interview with U.S. News and World Retort, Mr. Graham claimed that not all of Billy Sunday's converts remained faithful, but cited what he called a classic example of the faithful Dr. Henry Van Dusen, president of Union Theological Seminary. He thus publicly put his approval on Dr. Van Dusen, who is president of a foremost modernist seminary, a man who refused to affirm his belief in the virgin birth of the Lord. Can a man who rejects the Christ of God be a saved man? The answer is, No. And God's Word makes it plain that if a man comes with another doctrine, he is not to be accorded the pleasantry of a "good-by" a contraction of "God-be-with-ye." (2 John.) Yet this man was approved before Christians and unbelievers alike by Mr. Graham. What utter confusion and plain disobedience.
Surely comparable times to the days of Malachi are here, when "We call the proud happy; yea, they that work wickedness are set up (that is, they are made models and examples); yea, they that tempt God are even delivered." Mal. 3:1515And now we call the proud happy; yea, they that work wickedness are set up; yea, they that tempt God are even delivered. (Malachi 3:15).
The New York Crusade last year was mainly a co-operative movement of doubters, liberals, and downright infidels in clerical robes, together with some real but misguided Christians. Is this the way the gospel was sent forth in the beginning? Is this according to the Word of God? Nevertheless, many Christians excuse the alliance of saved and unsaved in a thoroughly unequal yoke on the ground of expediency. They say, "but souls were saved." When are we ever to "do evil that good may come"?
Let us remember the time that godly King Jehoshaphat went down to visit the idolaters, Ahab and his wife a place where he should not have been. He, having taken a wrong step, was induced by Ahab to join him in a military venture that could well be argued as a good thing on the same basis that Billy Graham's alliance with the ungodly is exonerated today. Was not Ahab a son of Israel? Even though he headed the ten tribes who departed from the right path of allegiance to the descendants of David, he was for all that of the seed of Jacob. And the military expedition was to recover a part of Israel's God-given land Ramoth-gilead. And the devil had his agents well placed to encourage the adventure. But what said the prophet of God to Jehoshaphat when he returned from the battle? "Shouldest thou help the ungodly, and love them that hate the LORD? therefore is wrath upon thee from before the LORD." 2 Chron. 19:22And Jehu the son of Hanani the seer went out to meet him, and said to king Jehoshaphat, Shouldest thou help the ungodly, and love them that hate the Lord? therefore is wrath upon thee from before the Lord. (2 Chronicles 19:2).
Today it is common in many circles to measure everything by how many souls get saved, or how many people sign cards; but that is not God's measuring stick. He measures His people's conduct by their subjection to Him and to His Word. "A man...is...not crowned, except he strive lawfully." 2 Tim. 2:55And if a man also strive for masteries, yet is he not crowned, except he strive lawfully. (2 Timothy 2:5).
But let us look a little closer at the New York Crusade. No doubt it was a masterpiece of organizational effort, and many true Christians participated; but just what fruit was there for God in it? Let us suppose for the moment that real seekers after God came forward at the close of Mr. Graham's meetings. How were they met? How were they handled? They were turned over to counselors who had been instructed to send them to "the church of the seeker's choice." Under no circumstances were they to depart from the rule, or they would have their badges taken from them. The cards of those inquirers who did not express a church preference were sent up to a committee who allocated them to the participating churches. Then what if the honest seeker had come from a church where the Word of God was blasphemed by an ungodly preacher? What if he came from a Roman Catholic Church where deliverance is never proclaimed? What if he were a Jew and knew only the synagogue, where Christ is blasphemed? or a Seventh-day Adventist under law-keeping requirements? He was to be sent back to the infidel preacher, the Catholic darkness, or the Jewish religion which rejects outright the Lord Jesus, or to the Adventists to be kept under law, etc. This is a fact, and in all probability more damage was done to real seekers who were turned over to blind leaders of the blind than all the good accomplished with others. There were real dedicated Christians as counselors, who did the best they could under rules laid down by the "mixed multitude" who sponsored the Crusade. Some people who were close to the situation estimate that a substantial percentage of the counselors were themselves unsaved.
We have been unable to get the full data as to just how much the Seventh-day Adventists played in the affair, but we have it on reputable authority that some of them worked as counselors and that the SDA organization sent in large quantities of their printed matter to be used at the Crusade. It was also true that some Bible studies were proposed by Crusade leaders, and these were to be held in SDA churches. We suppose they were held. What a babble of confusion, and that in the holy name of our Lord Jesus Christ.
But people excuse the violation of scriptural truth on the basis of a frequently made statement that Billy Graham did preach the real gospel. This he did, but nevertheless his hands were tied, and he refrained from offending his sponsors. He never once cautioned young believers or any of his audiences to beware of wolves in sheep's clothing. He left out many things that might have been said profitably if he were unshackled. Ten years earlier, he refused assistance from the ungodly, and condemned the World Council of Churches. Now he has fallen in with the great ecumenical movement that wants to join all churches together getting ready for Babylon the Great. His mouthpiece, Christianity Today, endorses these unholy alliances. And at the end of last year, Billy Graham, along with Dr. Donald G. Barnhouse, spoke to the Inter-Varsity Christian Fellowship conference in Urbana, Illinois, on the ecumenicalist's line "One Lord, One Church, One World." And it is stated that Dr. Barnhouse at that time ridiculed those who reject compromise and stand against fellowship with unsaved professors. We understand that what is called fundamentalism came in as the butt of numbers of his jokes. Christendom today is marching rapidly down the road to the great inclusivist menage "the habitation of devils, and the hold of every foul spirit, and a cage of every unclean and hateful bird." The sad part of it is that men who once were free from this trend have embraced it and are using all means at their command to accelerate it.
Another thing that probably should be mentioned is that not all the publicity by public relations experts regarding the number who attended the meetings and the number saved in the New York Crusade is correct. The thousands of singers, counselors, and others who were present each night, and all those who repeatedly came, are counted over and over again as so many individuals who came to hear. And the cards filled in by the counselors did not represent real anxious inquirers, except in a relatively few cases. The invitations to come forward were so broad that people could do so for a variety of reasons having nothing to do with the soul's salvation. In short, it is not what it was claimed to be. How much better had no counting been done, and results, if any, left in the Lord's hands. Suffice it to say that any results were grossly exaggerated, and the number side-tracked and stumbled by being referred to apostates was probably high.
To note one example of where inquirers were sent: 333 of them were sent to the Marble Collegiate Church of the famed Dr. Norman Vincent Peale. What gospel will they get there? The noted preacher rejects the atonement by Christ's precious blood and substitutes psychiatry and his religious tranquilizers, that all the more easily lull men and women into a death slumber until they pass the point of no return.
And who is to say that if true Christians in their respective places had just gone on speaking of the Lord to some whom they met, that as many would not have been saved in the same length of time anyway. One thing is certain, that the Crusade did not bring with it a lessening of crime and depravity in New York City. When the Spirit of God moved the hearts of men in the previous century, the law enforcement people discovered the change; but New York's crime rate continues at an even higher level.
The New York Crusade split so-called fundamentalist Christians and caused a real rift among them. The well-known New York Christian attorney, Mr. James E. Bennett, broke completely with Mr. Graham over his acceptance of modernist support, and his definite course of accrediting unbelievers. He said that Mr. Graham has declared publicly in print that the "badge of a Christian is not orthodoxy but love." Mr. Bennett has been led to the conclusion that "The Crusade has certainly created the impression that all churches and all 'Christians' are equal before God, even though they do not believe in the virgin birth or the deity of Christ as the Son of God, or in the resurrection of the body of Jesus Christ, or in the cleansing power of His blood shed on Calvary, or in the three persons of the Trinity, or in actual heaven or hell, or the return of the Lord to set up His kingdom on earth." Christian Beacon.
Mr. Bennett also wrote that Billy Graham told him personally that he could not warn people against unbelief because that would not be ethical when he was sponsored by so many unbelieving pastors. He had Dr. Robert J. McCraken, the successor of the bold infidel, Dr. Harry Emerson Fosdick, on the platform with him, and called on him to pray. This man rejects all the basic elements of the gospel, as did his notorious predecessor; but he is only one of the many such who were given public recognition by Billy Graham.
We might add one other bit of information. We have heard the report that is being circulated that the psychiatrist, Dr. Norman Vincent Peale, made a public confession of faith during the campaign in New York. Mr. Bennett wrote to Dr. Peale for information about this, and Dr. Peale wrote back that it was not so. Advocates of fellowship with apostasy claim that they are thus showing their love for unbelievers, and seeking their blessing, and cite the Lord's dining with publicans and sinners as support for their course. They fail to note, however, that He never dined with Sadducees, and that in the four gospels and The Acts not one of those modernists is reported to have received blessing. Did Paul invite the Greek philosophers or the infidel Sadducees to his platform and publicly endorse them as seeking or possessing truth? This would be comparable to what is being practiced today.
And now comes the great San Francisco campaign of Billy Graham! And who is sponsoring it? The same kind of inclusivists that banded together in New York. We quote from the San Francisco Examiner: "Heading arrangements are Mrs. William Lister Rogers and Lowell Berry, both members of the executive committee of ministers and laymen who are sponsoring the Graham Crusade in San Francisco." Now who is this woman who is leading the way for the unholy alliance of the San Francisco Council of Churches? She is the president of the San Francisco Council of Churches. Let us look back on her record: In 1955 there was an iniquitous affair held in the same Cow Palace in San Francisco; it was called The Festival of Faith. It was connected with the United Nations and it brought together in common fellowship Christian, Jew, Moslem, Buddhist, Hindu, and Confucian. These were joined in a common service, and, the National Council of Churches reported: "They called God by different names speaking to Him in different tongues, but the dream for peace in their hearts was the same." This ecumenical body also reported: "Tne high point of the prayer meeting was the recitation together of Responsive Reading composed from sacred books of the six faiths represented" (those mentioned above).
This Mrs. Rogers was the guiding light of that betrayal of Christianity in the Festival of Faith; she was the one who initiated the idea and, as president of the San Francisco Council of Churches, largely executed it, and was on the platform to welcome the delegates to the United Nations. Now, she and the local affiliates of the National Council of Churches are backing the Graham Crusade in San Francisco.
Dear fellow Christians, these things are shocking beyond our power of description. It is apostasy. No doubt we should have a zeal for the salvation of the lost, but we cannot see how any informed Christian can be present at or show fellowship in Any form to this coming man-made, man-forced, inclusivist Crusade. May God enlarge our hearts toward the unsaved, and may we be more faithful in seeking the lost; but let us never depart from what is written, no matter how promising the results. We are sure that in the comparatively few cases where people were really saved in the New York Crusade, the tone of their Christianity will be materially lowered by the basic compromise of good and evil. Men who are really saved are left where they are in the world and in the false churches. It was not so when God worked in days gone by. Christians were known by their intense separation from the world. A change was wrought in their lives that became self-evident. At the beginning, no man dared join himself to the Christians unless he was real (Acts 5:1313And of the rest durst no man join himself to them: but the people magnified them. (Acts 5:13)). Salvation is made easy today so that people can profess faith in Christ, and there be nothing to indicate it in their lives.
We should remember that God is sovereign, and He can use His own Word to the salvation of souls if He chooses to do so; but we, as servants, have no right to depart from the rules. Souls probably are saved in spite of the man-made difficulties thrown in their way. For ourselves, we can have no fellowship with such an unholy mixture, even to any public prayer for it We may pray privately that God would so overrule that souls may be truly saved, and for their later growth; but we would not be free to pray publicly for it. Furthermore, we who have by grace been gathered to the precious name of the Lord Jesus Christ need to be specially on our guard in these last days. May we be found faithful so that another shall not take our crown. The Lord will have a testimony to the end until His coming but if we get out of the path, He will raise up others (Rev. 3:1111Behold, I come quickly: hold that fast which thou hast, that no man take thy crown. (Revelation 3:11)). The call to the path of separation sounds louder and louder as confusion increases.
We write this letter with no malice toward any, and with grief that Mr. Graham has departed so far from what he once professed. And when anyone gives up what he knows and takes another course because of expediency, or for public favor, he is apt to lose what he has.
With love in Christ,
W.F.C. Brathwaite
Carl Schnell
A. W. Rule
Paul Wilson