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CRITICAL THOUGHTS OF BILLY GRAHAM
ON THE OCCASION OF HIS DEATH

by Dr. R. L. Hymers, Jr.

February 21, 2018


Billy Graham died this morning. I have mixed feelings concerning his ministry. He was a great preacher when he started out. I listened to him every Sunday from the age of 14 on his radio program, “The Hour of Decision.” I learned to preach by listening to him. But he lost God’s presence over the years by giving in to the world spirit. I attended six of his crusades in person, starting with the Los Angeles Crusade in the Los Angeles Coliseum in 1963. There was great power and unction in the music and the sermon. I can still remember one sermon he preached almost verbatim. I also attended his next to the last crusade in Pasadena, California. He only had one crusade after that, in New York. The crusade in Pasadena (his next to the last) was utterly bereft of the Spirit of God. There was no unction whatever, no anointing whatever. It was sad. God was not in it at all. Too bad he didn't listen to Dr. John R. Rice and Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones. He could have been another Whitefield or Wesley!

Dr. John R. Rice flew at his own expense to Scotland for one of Graham’s first crusades. He told Mr. Graham not to allow liberals to participate in the meetings or sit on the platform. Mr. Graham told him that he would not do that. But after Dr. Rice left, he did. From then on he catered more and more to the Catholics and the liberals. He did this to get a bigger audience. But it hampered his work because it is not Biblical to join hands with lost people. The Bible says, “Whosoever therefore will be a friend of the world is the enemy of God” (James 4:4).

Later, before one of his London crusades, he met with Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones, pastor of Westminster Chapel in London. He asked Dr. Lloyd-Jones to chair one of his meetings. Dr. Lloyd-Jones told him he would do it if he gave up the invitation for people to come forward. Graham did not comply and Lloyd-Jones did not chair the meeting. Now this may sound wrong, it may even sound ridiculous, but I think Mr. Graham should have listened to Dr. Lloyd-Jones. Graham should have preached red-hot sermons, and then dismissed the meetings and told the people to go and seek Christ in the quietness of their homes. That’s what Spurgeon did. That’s what Whitefield and Wesley did. That would have been very much in the tradition of Great Britain and might very well have kindled a revival. But Mr. Graham himself said that none of his crusades turned into a revival! Too bad he didn’t listen to Dr. Rice and Dr. Lloyd-Jones.

I know for sure that Graham’s crusades in Los Angeles did very little good, none that I could ever see. I pastor a church just a few miles north of the Coliseum where he spoke. I have spoken in person to what Dr. Cagan estimates at about 50,000 people over the years. I have never met one that was converted by hearing Mr. Graham, either on television or in any of his crusades. Although his first crusade started in Los Angeles in 1949, I can say for sure that he had no impact whatever in this city. None.

There is no question that God called this man. I loved him with all my heart. I listened to every crusade he held that was broadcast on television. I copied his preaching style as a young boy learning to preach. I read all of his books and prayed for him every day. I have never felt that I was an enemy of Billy Graham. He was my hero. But now I feel that he was a disappointment. That’s the right word, “disappointment.” He could have done much more, and even been used in a mighty revival (which never happened in his ministry) if he had listened to Dr. Rice and Dr. Lloyd-Jones. I have attached a sermon I wrote some years ago titled, “Decisionism Untwisted!” It gives my position on the Decisionist methods of Charles G. Finney, D. L. Moody, Billy Sunday, and Billy Graham. The Decisionism of these evangelists did not help America, but brought tens of thousands of lost people into the membership of the churches and confused the meaning of the new birth. Nevertheless, I still love Billy Graham and I always will.


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(END OF SERMON)
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