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Billy Graham and theological humility, will the next generation follow hisexample?Every three years, young evangelists from around the world gather in PortlandOregon to attend a conference put on by the Next Generation Alliance, an organizationdedicated to mentoring the next generation of global gospel preachers. While I’m lookingforward to the Innovative Evangelism Conference next week, I think a serious reflectionon the man that most of us attending the conference draw the bulk of our inspiration from —Billy Graham—is in order.The typical Billy Graham narrative goes something like this. Billy started hisministry as a self-assured fundamentalist. In the early days of his ministry, preaching thegospel went hand in hand with defeating communism. Eventually Graham’schampioning of the Vietnam War and his close association with Richard Nixon caught upwith him and he got burned, resulting in a crisis of faith that produced a much gentler andwiser Billy Graham.As familiar as this story is, I think it’s a mistake to reduce Graham’smetamorphosis to pre-Nixon and post-Nixon—as if the only thing Graham learned in hisolder age was that it’s a mistake to politicize the gospel. Such an oversimplification of Graham’s life and ministry overlooks a key aspect of Billy Graham’s legacy that’s become somewhat of an elephant in the room. Whether we like it or not, Billy Graham’slife and ministry represents a middle ground between fundamentalism and theologicalliberalism.Take for example two issues that have become litmus tests for orthodoxy amongBiblical fundamentalists—evolution and the fate of the unevangelized on judgment day.On the subject of evolution, Billy Graham has consistently maintained throughout hisministry that Christianity and evolution are compatible.
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While it may be fashionable for evangelical leaders today to speak of intelligent design over and against young earthcreationism, Billy Graham goes even further by insisting that the Bible is not a science book, and shouldn’t be read as such. On this matter Graham is further to the left than theaverage evangelical, although his Biblical hermeneutic on the rest of the Scripturesremain a far cry from theological liberalism (For example: Graham may see the sevendays of Genesis as figurative, but he maintains that Jonah was actually swallowed by a
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See “Billy Graham: Personal Thoughts of a Public Man”, David Frost, Chariot Victor Publishing, Pg 73. “The Bible is not a book of science. The Bible is a book of redemption, and of course, I accept the Creation story. I believe that God did create theuniverse. I believe he created man, and whether it came by an evolutionary process andat a certain point he to this person or this being and made him a living soul or not, doesnot change the fact that God created man.”
 
whale).
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The same can be said for Billy Graham’s agnostic position on the fate of theunevangelized on judgment day. When asked by Newsweek if he felt that heaven would be open to people of other faiths besides Christianity, Billy Graham responded, "Thoseare decisions only the Lord will make. It would be foolish for me to speculate on whowill be there and who won't ... I don't want to speculate about all that. I believe the loveof God is absolute. He said he gave his son for the whole world, and I think he loveseverybody regardless of what label they have."At first glance it may seem like the older Billy Graham has single-handedlyundermined his entire life’s ministry as an evangelist. Some have even attributed hiscomments—and other comments like these—to senility. Still others have written him off as a heretic. Again, the reality is more complex. Billy Graham has never wavered in his belief that Christ’s death and resurrection is the only means by which a person can besaved, and neither does he apologize for his commitment to preach the gospel for theconversion of sinners to Christ. What the older Billy Graham has learned, however, isthat a person can be resolute in their commitment to the gospel and be theologicallyhumble at the same time.Ironically, it’s Billy’s example of theological humility that may free the nextgeneration to ask some hard questions about the classic evangelical gospel that he popularized. For example, does the classic evangelical gospel, complete with an altar calland the standard sinner’s prayer, take seriously enough the teachings of Jesus againstaccumulating wealth and earthly possessions? To what extent should non-violence andidentification with the poor be proclaimed as part of the gospel of the Kingdom? Has thesinner’s prayer been overemphasized at the expense of baptism as the initiation into theBody of Christ?These are difficult questions with no easy answers, which is why the nextgeneration of evangelists could use a dose of Billy Graham’s theological humility. BillyGraham has served his generation faithfully, but even Billy knows that he doesn’t have acorner on truth—and neither will the next generation that follows in his footsteps. BillyGraham has led the way, but now it’s up to us, the next generation, to carry the mantleand hear what the Spirit is saying to our world today. I think Billy would agree.Aaron D. Taylor is the author of “Alone with a Jihadist: A Biblical Response toHoly War” available wherever books are sold. To learn more about Aaron’s ministry, gotohttp://www.aarondtaylor.com To follow Aaron on Twitter, go to http://www.twitter.com/aarondtaylor Aaron can be contacted atfromdeathtolife@gmail.com
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http://www.newsweek.com/id/46365/page/3
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