Thursday, November 14, 2024

Billy Graham's......Storm Warnings

Preface: The following post is from December 6 of 2023: 

                   Billy Graham was seventy-three years old....my age....when he wrote a book that he titled....Storm Warning. Eighteen years later....at the age of ninety-one....that book was....according to the cover...."completely revised and updated." Tonight I had a small stack of books that I was paging through....on a research mission....and I came across a few paragraphs that I want to bring out in this short post.

                I used to have a copy of the 1992 edition....no more.....I'm sure that I gave it away....but I would think that these words that I'll relate to you were added in the 2010 edition. I say this because Billy Graham's overall message became much more serious as the years went on. His son Franklin remarked that his father did not speak much in his last year....that would be when Billy was ninety-eight and turned ninety-nine....this in 2017 to February in 2018 when Billy Graham went to be with his Lord and Savior. So here are those words that stood out to me. The first few sentences are from....page 73....

"I look back at my many years as an evangelist and wonder, Have I made the Christian faith look too easy? (Italics his)....in my eagerness to tell the world about the greatest gift that comes only from God, I ask myself if I have comprehended the price He paid for our freedom. Have I adequately explained the price we must pay in humbling, turning our backs on pride, and sacrificing our earthly desires out of obedience to the Lord?"

             The second set of remarks conclude that chapter five on page 75....

"I hear the distant thunder. I see lightning striking in many places of our world; I know that the coming storm will someday engulf the whole world. I see the storm clouds mounting in the lowering sky. For the length of my days, I will always be sending out the call of an evangelist to proclaim hope that redemption-new life-can be found in Christ and to sound the alarm that there is serious trouble ahead for our world and for all who live in it. These are the elements what make up the images of the Apocalypse-a storm warning that carries a booming jolt of truth-Trouble Ahead; Prepare To Meet Thy God!-followed by the voice of the Gentle Shepherd-Come!"

            I wonder at times what was going through Billy Graham's mind during that last year? Did he possibly come to realize that evangelicals put in power....in Donald Trump....a false prophet....and an antichrist....as John describes them....and folks....maybe even worse? Did he lament anew how he might have missed this? Did he look back at the idolatry of sports that took captive that same evangelical? In the so-called Bible Belt....college football stadiums are packed with evangelicals....living not in the discernment of the gospel....as their country rumbles and shakes as a volcano about to erupt....but for this god of the gridiron.
            Did he see his son making the very same mistakes that he had made in his earlier years....but no longer have the physical ability to warn him? What would he say if he were with us today....fully capable of warning as he had been....and this with Donald Trump having long since shown to anyone with discernment....that there is punishment written all over the legacy of this vengeful and egomaniacal man who....and this has to be supernatural....is still beating down the evangelicals....with almost no pulpits warning the sheep....those pastors concerned that many would leave should they go against the powerful force that had infiltrated all the congregations?