Saturday, August 9, 2014

Grahams reflecting on heaven and hell


Heaven and hell are in the news again, thanks pretty much to one North Carolina family:

  • Billy Graham will offer a message about heaven in a new film set to air in November, when the Charlotte-born evangelist turns 96. The never-before-seen footage was filmed at his Montreat home last year. His thoughts about the hereafter will be part of a DVD called “My Hope 2014 with Billy Graham.”
  • Graham's daughter, Anne Graham Lotz, a Raleigh-based evangelist, has just released an updated version of her 2001 book, “Heaven: My Father’s House.”
  • And Franklin Graham, head of the Charlotte-based Billy Graham Evangelistic Association, begins his article in the current edition of BGEA's  Decision magazine this way: “Heaven is not for cowards!”
  • That brings us to hell: The cover of the July/August edition of Decision features a picture of what looks like a sea of lava and this headline: “COWARDS Destined For The Lake of Fire.”
  • Speaking of hell, there’s no word about Billy Graham's next book, which – as we reported in March – will be about hell. “He’s not able to work on it,” Franklin Graham told me then. “But he gave us the outlines of what he wanted.”


Last November, on his 95th birthday, Billy Graham talked about the cross of Jesus in a DVD called “My Hope 2013 with Billy Graham.” It was aired on FOX News, at Graham's celebrity-studded birthday party at the Grove Park Inn in Asheville, and in homes and churches around the country.

In the free-of-charge sequel, which will also be used as an evangelizing tool, the elder Graham will talk about heaven.

“Because he will turn 96 on November 7, his thoughts are constantly on Heaven,” Franklin Graham wrote recently. “And we have captured these in a video. ... It’s a powerful evangelistic film that weaves this new message from my father around several real-life stories of how the Gospel changes hearts.”

There’s a full-page ad for “My Hope 2014 with Billy Graham” in that current edition of “Decision.”

Several pages later, there’s an article by Anne Graham Lotz that cites biblical quotes about heaven.

 “I’ve been thinking a lot about Heaven lately,” she writes. “My father seems to be in transition from his home here to our Father’s house. … My mother has already gone on ahead.”

And the edition’s cover article is Franklin Graham's, about the fate he says is waiting for cowards.

 His magazine piece is based on a controversial speech he gave in May at a Washington gathering of the Family Research Council.

In his remarks, he referred to a passage in the New Testament’s Book of Revelation that lists eight groups of people that will end up “in the lake that burns with fire and brimstone.”


Leading the list: cowards – a group, Graham suggested, that includes Christians who don’t speak out against abortion and homosexuality.

-- Tim Funk

6 comments:

Clay Jackson said...

Why would Billy possibly be clinging to life with every last breath and refusing to die if he really believes his heaven and hell nonsense?

You would think with heaven being so perfect and wonderful he would be in an extreme hurry to get there.

He'll be with Ruth again. Hang out with all of his old buddies. God will personally welcome him to the club.

Go already for God's sake!

Archiguy said...

Speaking of hell, there’s no word about Billy Graham's next book, which – as we reported in March – will be about hell. “He’s not able to work on it,” Franklin Graham told me then. “But he gave us the outlines of what he wanted.”

No problem. Franklin's been putting words in Billy's mouth for years now. Really nasty ones, for the most part.

Anonymous said...

NIV: "Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it." Matthew 7:13

As for the date of our death.."But about that day or hour no one knows, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father."

Billy is living at age 96 because his life is in God's hands. No greater disciple has lived in our lifetimes than Billy Graham.

Debby Presson

Anonymous said...
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Anonymous said...

God will usher Billy into his presence when he is ready to and not a moment before. God is not thru yet with using Billy Graham. Lord bless the Graham family in all they do.

Dan said...

Clay,
"For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God."

Your attitude towards a great man who expended his life in the service of others indicates just how lost you really are.

I hope and pray you repent.