Let's read Ezekiel 13 beginning at verse 10. Even because they have seduced my people, saying, Peace, and there was no peace, and one built up a wall, and lo, others daubed it with untempered mortar. Say unto them which daub it with untempered mortar, that it shall fall. There shall be an overflowing shower, and ye, O great hailstone, shall fall, and a stormy wind shall rend it. Lo, when the wall is fallen, shall it not be said unto you, Where is the daubing wherewith ye have daubed it? Therefore thus saith the Lord God, I will even rend it with a stormy wind in my fury, and there shall be an overflowing shower in my anger, and great hailstones in my fury to consume it. So will I break down the wall that ye have daubed with untempered mortar, and bring it down to the ground, so that the foundation thereof shall be discovered, and it shall fall, and ye shall be consumed in the midst thereof. and you shall know that I am the Lord. Thus will I accomplish my wrath upon the wall and upon them that have daubed it with untempered mortar, and will say unto you, The wall is no more, neither they that daubed it. To wit, the prophets of Israel, which prophesy concerning Jerusalem, and which see visions of peace for her, and there is no peace, saith the Lord God." The text of this message, of text that I have read to you here from Ezekiel, pretty much summarizes the theme of this conference. in that it is speaking of the false prophets of Israel who prophesied falsely. They were false teachers, false prophets, and the visions and messages that they were giving out were not of God. I think Brother Cozart made that clear from the message this morning in his text in Isaiah, which was very similar to the text I've read to you here. But they were declaring a message of peace when there was not going to be any peace. And all false religions and false teachers make promises that cannot be kept, And the reason we hate those things is because they deceive people. And we're not talking about some trivial deceit, we're talking about the damnation of the human soul. So this is a very serious matter, the theme of this conference, and we should take it very seriously. In verse 10 we see there about them saying, and it's called a seduction, they have seduced my people. They say there is peace when there's going to be no peace, and the same thing ends in verse 16. So they are deceivers, and they are presenting a false message and a false hope that people won't know about until they find out too little too late. The illustration of this is given in the way of a wall that someone began to build, and of the materials that were used. And then others come along and kind of joined in the project to help build the wall. But the sad thing is we're talking about a wall of doctrine or teaching, a wall that's supposed to be truth, and in reality it's not. And the term appears three times in the reading there, if you look carefully, of untempered mortar. This means the proper ingredients were not used, and therefore the wall may appear strong and it may look very pretty on the outside, but inside it is made with untempered mortar. It is weak. It is without strength. And there's a danger if you stand by it, it might fall on you at any moment. And that's all a description of false doctrine and false teaching. Now, we all know what untempered mortar is, at least you men do. It would be ridiculous, would it not, to try to build these walls here that are standing with untempered cement or untempered mortar. Suppose you'd use flour instead of cement when you mixed it with the sand and built this wall. This church wouldn't be here today. So the proper ingredients are very important. And it would have been very similar to building adobe bricks, like maybe the children of Israel did and like they build out where we're from. Leave out the straw and just use the clay. It's not going to be as strong. So we're talking about truth here or messages that have no strength, no soundness, and are indeed a danger to those who come in contact with them. So that's why we chose this text. The gospel of Billy Graham is exactly as this text describes. You may say, well, that's your opinion, preacher. Well, it is my opinion, but it's based upon facts that I'm going to share with you tonight and let you decide. I will say at the beginning I have no respect for Billy Graham and for a very simple reason. I love the Lord and I love the Lord's truth, and I respect those who do likewise. Billy Graham has no respect for truth, and therefore I don't respect him. These brethren that are here tonight, I love them because they love the Lord and they love truth. We live in a day where people say, well, let's just unite because we all love the Lord. There is no unity of loving Jesus without loving the doctrine of Jesus. And that's the difference between us and them. It really is. I am thankful tonight that the first message was on the true gospel. I appreciate Brother Royce's message, the wisdom of Brother Justice in doing it that way, because that is the standard everything else must be compared by. And that's what we will seek to do tonight. It is not only the standard to compare Billy Graham to, but it is the standard I must compare myself to and all these brethren here. We all must compare ourselves to thus saith the Lord. And so we will do no injustice tonight to Billy Graham in doing that very thing. I will say also this is not my personal attack on Billy Graham. But again, it is simply a comparison of what he has to say with what the Bible has to say. And when we're done, then you can decide for yourself. And I trust if I have offended you, you can see it is indeed Billy Graham who has disappointed you, not me that has brought an offense to you. The doctrine of Billy Graham or the teaching, the gospel of Billy Graham is a difficult one in a sense because it has been in a state of evolution almost since the beginning. So it's kind of like the jello on the wall. It depends on what point in his ministry you want to go to as to whether you can nail it down. It's been changing from the very beginning. That is always a sign of falsehood. Always a sign of falsehood. When somebody's beliefs or doctrine is constantly in a state of change, that's something you need to stay away from. And so we will try to trace it at least through three areas tonight as it began. and as it has reached its climactic point even now. Let me share a few things that have been said about Billy Graham, though, first of all, that I think are important. And these are some of the titles and accolades that have been attributed to him over the years. There is the subtitle of a book that says that Billy Graham is the world's greatest preacher. Now, if that's true, that's a tough thing to live up to. We all know who the greatest was, the Lord Jesus. We know there are certainly some great men that followed him, the apostles. So if you're going to take that number two position, I would simply say your message and your mythology needs to be pretty identical to the Lord Jesus Christ. And I trust that's what we're all shooting for here as ministers tonight. So if you're going to take that title, you've got to live up to it. The world's most famous evangelist, another title. The Pope of Protestant America or the Protestant Pope, a title. The Catholic Church has labeled him as the ecumenical evangelist. In 1990, Life Magazine, he was told to be one of the most 100 important Americans of the 20th century. In 1998, he was the third most admired person in America. And he was in some rather unique country, company rather, because the most admired people in America in 1998, number one was Bill and Hillary Clinton. Second place was a tie. between Pope John Paul II and Oprah Winfrey. You take it however you want to. It's not a company I'd want to be in. 1998 was the 35th year on his list of the most admired people in America. An accolade that goes with his name is that he's been known for his wisdom and guidance to the world. I'd say the truth of the matter is it's for his misguidance. It will, again, prove what we're saying. Many books have been written by him. Many of them are very popular. The Buddhists love him for the book that he wrote, Peace with God. That's their favorite. He said he's preached to more people than anyone else in the history of religion. That may very well be true. And if it is, I certainly envy him on that point because I wish that had been me. not because I think I'm a great preacher, but because I know my message is a lot more important than what he said. He has promoted many Bible versions or perversions, the Living Bible, Good News for Modern Man, and et cetera. He's been popular with the presidents of this country, meeting and advising and praying, counseling with at least 10 of them, from Harry Truman to the present. So he's gotten around. He's been very popular in many circles. It's said he has led hundreds of thousands to make personal decisions for Christ. That's scary. I don't doubt the accuracy of doing that very thing, but what did he do? What is a personal decision for Christ? We must consider that. Now, we might ask, why would I mention all of this? In fact, before I ask that question, let me give you this. He was a very personal friend of Richard Nixon for over 20 years when Nixon was president and even before. And Richard Nixon made a very interesting statement concerning his friend Billy Graham, which goes with what I've been telling you. Richard Nixon said, when Billy Graham went into the ministry, politics lost one of its greatest practitioners. That's a true statement. It really did. That's from the book Billy Graham Speaks. Why would I give these accolades and these titles to begin with like this? It does seem like a personal attack. Probably it's not. My point is this. Someone who has received this much popularity and celebrity status among all types of people of all generations throughout the whole world should automatically demand our skepticism as a preacher of the true gospel of Jesus Christ. Because the Lord Jesus, none of the prophets of the Old Testament, the apostles, and down through the dark ages and the martyrs, none of them received this type of status. And the majority of them were far better preachers than Billy Graham ever thought about being. So here again, When you are admired by the world, it's not because you stand for something, it's because you're a people pleaser in most cases. As Richard Nixon said, he would have made a great politician because he certainly knows how to compromise. So the prophets, John the Baptist, Christ, Stephen, Paul, the Apostles, Spurgeon, many of these people never received these type of titles that Billy Graham did. So automatically we should be skeptical. To begin with, I want to tell you what he was when he started with, and then just try to trace his evolution down through his ministry. And some of the things you probably do know, some of the things may be a surprise to some of you. But again, I can document everything I'm fixing to tell you. So we'll compare it with the Word of God. He began as a Southern Baptist fundamentalist evangelist. And when he began is when he was most accurate concerning the gospel of Jesus Christ. And it would not last long, but he was pretty accurate when he started. And many of us here grew up seeing Billy Graham on the TV. I mean, I remember as a little boy, we had a black and white TV, and I remember people would always talk about seeing Billy Graham and the Crusades on television. So this is not something foreign to me. I did grow up with him and realized my parents and a lot of other people were very fond of the man. But in 1943, in his first message on the radio, the first year of his ministry in Illinois, In his debut radio sermon he said this concerning conversion. The first thing we have to do is repent. The second is to receive Christ. The third to obey Christ. So it's repent, receive, obey. That's biblical. That's biblical. Jesus said repent and believe the gospel and he certainly taught obedience after believing. So his message right there was right from his own book, Billy Graham Speaks. And originally at this same time he believed in a literal hell just like we do. Later on, he would reflect back on those times and say concerning that, in my early sermons, I placed too much emphasis on judgment and hell. I didn't temper my message with love as much as I should have. Again, from his own book, Billy Graham Speaks, page 15. Now, it's interesting to note again, Christ spoke a lot more on hell and judgment. Now, so if we're going to call him the world's greatest preacher, it's got to match. And he's showing regret for preaching that. That's a little lopsided. While his message may have been accurate or more accurate at the beginning, his methodology was certainly not very good and deteriorated very quickly. He got involved in a group known as Youth for Christ in 1944-45, very early. And quoting here again, he says, we really thought we were in a dramatic new resurgence of revivalism over the country. And let me, this is a lengthy paragraph, but just perk up and listen, okay? To underline their announcement that Christianity did not have to be drab and dismal but could provide old-fashioned truth for up-to-date youth and be geared to the times but anchored to the rock, the leaders of this movement, if you think people dramatize today, they were doing this in 44, 45. They wore colorful suits, sport coats, neon glow socks, garnish painted ties, gaudy bow ties, some which lit up. The rallies became evangelical vaudevilles with usherettes, youth choirs, quartets, trios, soloists, smooth melodies from a consecrated saxophone, Bible quizzes, patriotic spiritual testimonies by famous, semi-famous preachers, athletes, entertainers, military heroes, business and civic leaders, and specialty acts such as magician, ventriloquist, and we go on and on. So this stuff's happening today. It didn't just start yesterday or last week. This goes all the way back to the Billy Graham movement and Youth for Christ. They even had a horse named MacArthur who would, quote-unquote, kneel at the cross and tap his foot twelve times when asked how many apostles Christ had. Three times when asked how many persons there was in the Trinity. This led the MCs to observe that MacArthur knows more than the modernists. Very accurate problem. Billy Graham said this concerning all that. This is sad. We used every modern means to catch the attemption of the unconverted, then we punched them right between the eyes with the gospel. From a book, A Prophet Without Honor, page 93. Is that the methodology Christ used? How can you be the world's greatest preacher and use different methodology and preach a different message? This wasn't the end of it. In the 50s, in a meeting in Boston, Massachusetts, he used a technique known as theatrics. where he would dramatize biblical stories by slangily updating the lines and acting out the parts. He had a real polished one called The Feast of Belshazzar, a favorite sermon he had honed and polished in the Youth for Christ circuit. He would strut up and down and say, I'm going to put on a party that will be the biggest shindig in Babylon, and then act out all the parts. These theatrics captivated a lot of people, but they turned off a lot of people. One of them was his own wife, Ruth. She said, as an actor, I think he's pretty much of a ham. When he starts acting like that in a sermon or starts one of those, if I'm anywhere in sight, he's sure to see me and he'll know what's the matter when he looks at me. Her counsel to him was wise and simple. Bill, Jesus didn't act out the gospel. He just preached it. I think that's all he's called you to do. That was good advice if you'd have stuck with it. He quickly evolved in the 1950s by founding the Billy Graham Evangelical Association in Minneapolis, Minnesota, and immediately began the weekly radio program Hour of Decision, Stress on Decision. Ten years later, they would launch Decision Magazine. From this point on, everything about Billy Graham is synonymous with decision. That pretty well sums up the gospel of Billy Graham for the most part of his ministry. However, again, in 1948, he was straight on some things. He was not an ecumenicalist at that time, and he still held some view of truth mattering when he said the three greatest menaces faced by Orthodox Christianity in 1948 are communism, Roman Catholicism, and Mohammedanism. 1948. So he was still holding the line somewhere. But in 12 short years, by 1960, he had softened his position and was trying to build a bridge between all these different religions by saying this, 10 years ago, my concept of the church tended to be narrow and provincial. But after a decade of intimate contact with Christians the world over, I am now aware that the family of God contains people of various theological, cultural, class, and denominational differences. So no matter what you're in, who you are, just name the name of Jesus to some degree. But you know the Bible teaches, doesn't it, it's only when you come out from among those things and be separate that you really are united in the family of God. So here we go with decisionalism, and that's really the gospel of the Crusades and of much of his ministry. And this gospel of decisionalism was the gospel that he preached throughout many of the Crusades that probably many of you as well as myself watched. Of course, this decisionalism is the most popular evangelical Armenian gospel that there has been in our lifetime, and perhaps in the lifetime of Christianity. Most of that today has some connection with Billy Graham, decisionalism. And in this gospel of decisionalism, the vital truths of the Bible are just flat out denied or contradicted, the first one being the depravity of man. Billy Graham said this about man, man is a contradiction. On one side is hatred, depravity, and sin, and on the other side is kindness, compassion, and love, from his own book, How to Be Born Again. I don't find that in my Bible. The Bible does not show man to be two-sided to me. Only one-sided. The heart is deceitful above all things, desperately wicked. Out of the heart proceed fornications, adultery, lying, and all manner of evil. And when you read Romans 3, you just see one side, and it's not good. the mouth, the throat, all of those things. It's evil. All our righteousness is filthy rags. Can man be better than that? Not according to Jeremiah. The Ethiopian can't change his skin. So Billy Graham sees man as two-sided. Having a good side, the Bible presents one bad side. Continuing on to depravity, he says the Bible teaches that when we reach the age of accountability, usually somewhere around 10 or 11 years of age, God looks upon us then as full-grown adults making moral and spiritual choices for which we will be held accountable at the judgment. From the moment we are conceived, we have the tendency towards sin. Then we become sinners by choice and ultimately by practice. From his own book, How to be Born Again. Is that what the Bible says? Is that what the Lord taught? Is that what the greatest preachers of the New Testament taught? Of course not. That's an invention of man's mind. I've never read the age of accountability in the Bible. For a good reason, it's not there. It's not there. What does the Bible say? We become sinners or we're born sinners. David said we were conceived in sin. He said the wicked go forth from the womb, speaking lies. You don't become, you are. You sin because of what you are, not in order to be. So he's got this all backwards. This is the first part of the doctrine or the teaching of Billy Graham. He also has this ridiculous idea, and it is ridiculous, it's sad, but it is ridiculous, that somehow man is searching for God. God continues to pursue man just as man is searching for Him, how to be born again. That sounds like a hound chasing a rabbit to me, trying to catch him. And the Bible doesn't say God's chasing anybody trying to catch them. And that rabbit's certainly not turning around wanting the hound to catch him. We are in rebellion to God. Today there are many and more new sophisticated religious expressions, especially at some universities, but they are really from the same root, man seeking God, whether consciously or unconsciously. That's ridiculous. Romans 3.11, three little words, there's none or for the none that seeketh after God. That's not enough. There's two chapters in the book of Psalms, chapter 14 and chapter 53, that repeat themselves. God looked down from heaven to see if there were any that seeketh God, any that understand, and the result was zero. Yet Billy Graham says man is searching for God. I don't mean to be critical, but just read the Bible. I am convinced that when a man sincerely searches for God with all his heart, God will reveal himself in some way. A person, a Bible, or some experience with believers will be used by God to reach the one who seeks. Of course, he believes in universal atonement. God proved His love on the cross when Christ hung and bled and died. It was God saying to the world, I love you. God loves homosexuals just as much as anyone else. This is blanket love. It's not what Christ taught. The atonement's not universal. Christ said in John 10, the Good Shepherd lays down His life for the sheep. Before He finished that chapter, we finish reading it, we read Him speaking to some individuals, and He said, You're not My sheep. He in essence was saying to them the same thing. I didn't die for you. I'm not laying down my life for you. He knows those that are His. He said that in the same chapter also. And what about a ransom for many? You can't fit all into many. You can't fit many into all. You can make all the elect mean many of mankind, but you can't make many sinners mean all sinners. And what about the Scriptures that speak of those the Father giveth me? Universal atonement. No. Christ became the scapegoat for the entire world. All our sins were laid upon Him. No. Here's free willism and decisionalism. God created us in His image. He desires the creature worship the creator as response of love. This can be accomplished when free will is exercised. Of course, that's what decisionalism is all about. The confusion of this is obvious. If any of you, and you do, know about Arminianism, you realize it's a very confused doctrinal position. There are lots of loose ends that cannot be tidied up. And he actually wrote a book in 1977 that really reveals this. It's a book called How to be Born Again. The Bible doesn't tell us that, but Billy Graham does. In an interview upon the release of this book, he was asked if the book outlined certain steps that must be taken if a person wished to be born again. He replied in the affirmative and said in page 5 of that book, to be born again means that divine life has entered the human soul. Amen. That's it. I agree. But then he says the two conditions of the rebirth are repentance toward God and faith toward Christ. But he didn't give the chapter and verse for that. Those aren't conditions, those are effects of the new birth. Christ's words were repent and believe the gospel, but it didn't have so you can be born again on the end of it. This is conditional regeneration or decisional regeneration, and that's what he believes and that's what he preached. He says the context of John 3 teaches that the new birth is something that God does for man when man is willing to yield to God. Did you read that in the Discourse with Nicodemus anywhere? I've read it many times. I've never seen that. It's not there. Again, the confusion of Arminianism in trying to reconcile these things. You can't reconcile it. There is a way to reconcile, but it's not through free will. Man apart from God is spiritually dead. He needs to be born again. Amen and amen. But then he says, I want you to be born again. God wants you to be born again. Only through faith in Christ can you be born again. Any person who's willing to trust Jesus Christ as his personal Savior can receive the new birth now. All you have to do to be born again is repent of your sins and believe in the Lord Jesus Christ as your personal Savior. Yet the Scripture speaks in John 3, as well as in John 6, 63, it's the Spirit that quickeneth the flesh, profiteth nothing. Those who were given power to become the sons of God did so not by the will of man, nor of the flesh, John 1, 12-13. He does not believe, obviously, in irresistible grace. He says the Holy Spirit will do everything possible to disturb you, draw you, love you, but finally it's your personal decision. He gave the Holy Spirit to convict you of your need. He gives the Holy Spirit to draw you to the cross. But even after all this, it's your decision whether to accept God's free pardon or continue your lost decision. The brother said this morning, John 5, 21, even so the Son quickeneth whom He will. Whom He will. He calls it a process. What can we expect the process to be like as we approach the new birth? It's not a process. It's a sovereign act of God. He has four steps to peace that he copied after Bill Bright's four spiritual laws. Bill Bright, like many others, predecessor to Billy Graham, was a wall-dobber of false doctrine. It says, these have been widely used throughout the world to help people to understand how to be born again. Four Steps to Peace by Billy Graham. God loved you so much He gave His Son on the cross. You must repent of your sins. Repentance is still in there even though no emphasis is given to it. You must receive Jesus as Savior. You must publicly confess Christ as Savior. No one in the Bible preached a Jesus loves you gospel. Jesus Himself did. Find it for me. Show it to me. I beg you, show me if it's there. It's not. I know Jesus' words. I read them. What did He say? Repent and believe the gospel. I agree with what somebody else said. I believe a few years ago I heard somebody say it. I think it was John McCarthy recently. When we preach the gospel, 75% of it ought to be law and sin, and 25% ought to be grace and mercy. I hope you all don't disagree with me, but that's the way I see it, and that's the way I'm going to preach it. We need more Jonathan Edwards than sinners in the hands of an angry God. He was asked if he had some sort of special talent, and he answered, yes, at the invitation. I believe that there's a gift that God has given me in asking people to come forward and make a commitment to Christ at the end of my sermons. In the five or ten minutes that this appeal lasts while I'm standing there not saying a word is when most of my strength leaves me. I cannot explain it. I don't usually get tired quickly, but I get tired in the invitation. That's when I become exhausted. I don't know what, but something is going out of me at the moment. Sounds like Christ when the woman touched the hem of His garment and virtue went out of Him. Very strange. A sad thing. No other example in Scripture of anybody doing anything like that or feeling anything like that. You know the sinner's prayer, but he's used that with thousands of persons on every continent. Upon making that prayer, he says, if you're willing to make this decision, you are born again, you are alive. Up to the sinner's power and choice. People at the Crusades who made confessions or decisions and came forward were referred to local clergymen, Protestant, Catholics, or Jewish. If they were indeed new converts, they were immediately babe sheep that were turned over to wolves. There's a lot of skepticism about the Crusades. Some have researched this and give some very startling statistics. I don't know how accurate they are, their statistics. It depends on who does it as to how accurate they are. But we do know this, with shallow preaching comes shallow conversions. It's reported that only 2% of the people come forward at crusades wherever non-Christians are lost to start with. And that of the 2% who were non-Christians or sinners and made a profession, only 80% of the 2% continue, or 80% of the 2% do fall away. The majority of them that come are Christians themselves because of the preparation activity that goes on before the crusade. Converts are given the impression that Christ wants decisions for him rather than disciples. People attending the crusades are almost all Christian due to the high numbers of Christian counselors and the number of church people which are intentionally bussed in. Many of them are there to quote-unquote prime the pump when the invitation is given. There was a story in a magazine the Williamette Weekly where a woman went to a Billy Graham crusade, looked for an unsaved person all week, couldn't find a single non-Christian. There were a few, but she didn't find any. And sadly, the results show many decisions at crusades are decisions to do something as trivial as stop smoking. It's very sad. As this develops and evolved in his ministering the Crusades, he became more ecumenical, stating one time on a trip to Asia, almost every day I've been here I've read some of the sayings of Buddha. Many of those sayings are almost identical with the sayings of Jesus. There will be many things we can identify with in other religions. Buddhism denies the person and work of Christ. Why would you care what anybody said in Buddhism? He quoted Mao Tse Tung saying, The eight precepts of Mao Tse Tung are basically the same as the Ten Commandments, and if we can't have the Ten Commandments in our schools, I'll settle for Mao's precepts, a man who's probably the greatest murderer in human history. Estimated as high as 70 million people murdered by this man. What kind of precepts and who cares? Why compare the Bible to something like that or accolade or applaud somebody like that? These people don't believe in Christ. They don't have nothing in common with Christ and Christianity. They need the gospel of Christ. In 1966, he said, I find myself closer to Catholics than the radical Protestants. I think the Roman Catholic Church today is going through a second Reformation. Upon the death of Pope John XXIII in 1963, Graham said, I admired Pope John tremendously. He's the world's greatest false prophet and false teacher. But he admired him. He had a real love affair with Pope John II. He said when he became Pope, he's emerged as the greatest religious leader of the modern world and one of the greatest moral and spiritual leaders of the century. I think the American people are looking for a leader, a moral and spiritual leader that can believe something, and the Pope does. Greatest moral and spiritual leader. I'm a great admirer of his. He gives moral guidance in a world that seems to have lost its way. And then came all the sexual and pedophilia scandals under this man. That's moral leadership. At the time he said this, the Pope, of course, insisted he was the infallible vicar of Christ. Very strange, is it not? He said, I'm far more tolerant of other kinds of Christians than I once was. My contact with Catholic, Lutheran, and other leaders people far removed from my Southern Baptist tradition has helped me, hopefully, to move in the right direction. Sadly, we all know it's in the wrong direction. I found that my beliefs are essentially the same as those of Orthodox Roman Catholics. For instance, they believe in the virgin birth, so do I. They believe in the blood atonement of the cross, so do I. We only differ on some matters of later church tradition. probably two or three hundred matters of later church tradition. All those works, ceremonies, rituals, mariolatry, the Eucharist, all that stuff, Catholic compromise. That's bad. This is worse. In October 1967, Billy Graham told the Lutheran Standard, I do believe that something happens at the baptism of an infant. We cannot fully understand the mysteries of God. But I believe that a miracle can happen in these children so that they are regenerated, that is, made Christian through infant baptism. His position on hell changed. Will a loving God send a man to hell? The Bible says yes. But He does not send man willingly. Man condemns himself to eternal hell because of his blindness, stubbornness, egotism, etc., etc. So everybody God sends to hell is against God's will. Does the Bible teach that? As the Bible teaches, God does anything against His will. Obviously not. Our God is in the heavens. He hath done whatsoever He pleased. He is of one mind who can turn Him, who worketh all things after the counsel of His own will. So God doesn't unwillingly do anything. He doesn't unwillingly send people to hell. It's according to His will that they're there. Sadly, his position, like the Pope's, changed concerning hell. He said, there is a heaven and a hell, though I cannot describe them completely and accurately. Read Luke 16, anybody can describe them accurately. Rich man and Lazarus, pretty accurate description. You don't have to be a theologian. I'm not. I'm a simple man. I understand it. You know, I don't mean to make fun, but it's ridiculous, folks. The Bible teaches very clearly and unmistakably that hell is the word that describes the judgment of all who are finally separated from God, and it cannot be otherwise because man was created to have fellowship with God, and if he finally cuts himself off from that fellowship, he can't ever possibly be happy. It's not about being happy. It's all about sin to start with. It's not about whether you're happy with God or have a fellowship with God. The whole problem is sin and reconciliation to God through Jesus Christ. See, it's happy gospel stuff. That's decisionalism again. The only thing I could say for sure is that hell means separation from God. We're separated from His light, from His fellowship. That's going to be hell. When it comes to a literal fire, I don't preach it because I'm not sure about it. When the Scripture uses fire concerning hell, it's possibly an illustration of how terrible it's going to be. Not fire, but something worse. A thirst for God that cannot be quenched. Is that what the rich man had in Luke 16? Was he thirsting for God? What did he say? He wanted a drop of water. It was hot. It was a literal fire. He said, I'm tormented in this flame, the very words of Jesus, not a parable. What could be more clear? It's a big compromise. I used to play God. I can't do it anymore. I used to believe that pagans in far off countries were lost, were going to hell if they did not have the gospel of Jesus Christ preached to them. I no longer believe that. The gospel is not necessary. Maybe that's why he don't preach the true gospel. It's not necessary to preach anything. I believe that there are other ways of recognizing the existence of God through nature, for instance, and plenty of other opportunities, therefore, of saying yes to God. What does the Bible say? The gospel is the power of God unto salvation to everyone that believeth. How are we saved? Through the belief of the gospel. It pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save those that believe. Did it not? I have heard in my lifetime of many instances of people being given insight into the eternal power and divine nature of God without the benefit of a Bible or an evangelistic crusade. That's just pre-Odyssey seekers. Man's not seeking God. Always ends up in idolatry. What about pagans who've never heard of Jesus? Can a just God condemn people who've never had the opportunity of hearing the gospel? This is an interesting answer. The answer is in Genesis 18.25, shall not the God of the earth do right? It's a good way to evade an answer, huh? Well, you know, Genesis 18, 25 is replying to Sodom and Gomorrah. God did right there. He destroyed them, did he not? Yeah. There's the answer. It's not in, shall not the God of all the earth do right? He always does right. He did what was right. They perished. Romans 14, or Acts 14, 16 says the same thing. Those Gentiles who God just let them go their own way. What about those that never heard the name of Jesus, folks? They perished. They perished. And those who are not hearing the name of Jesus, if they die, they'll perish. I close with this transcript of the television interview with Billy Graham by Robert Shuler, 1997. What do you think the future of Christianity? Well, Christianity and true believer, you know, I think there's the body of Christ. This comes from all the Christian groups around the world, outside the Christian groups. I think everybody that loves Christ or knows Christ, whether they're conscious of it or not, whatever that means, they're members of the body of Christ. I don't think we're going to see a great sweeping revival that will turn the whole world to Christ at any time. I think James answered that. the first council of Jerusalem, when he said that God's purpose for this age is to call out a people out of the world for his name, whether they come from the Muslim world, the Buddhist world, the Christian world, or the non-believing world, they're members of the body of Christ because they've been called by God. They may not even know the name of Jesus, but they know in their hearts that they need something that they don't have, and they turn to be the only light that they have. I think that they're saved, and they're going to be with me in heaven, and he couldn't be any more wrong. Never hear the name of Jesus, never been exposed to the gospel of Jesus Christ, but they're going to be in heaven. Schuller is excited. If you saw this or ever read this, he's tongue-tied at the answer. What did I hear you saying? It's possible for Jesus to come into human hearts and soul and life, even if they've been born in darkness and never had exposure to the Bible? Is that a correct interpretation of what you're saying? Yes, it is, because I believe that. It doesn't matter what we believe. What does the Word say? I've met people, various parts of the world, tribal situations, never seen a Bible, heard a Bible, never heard the name of Jesus, but they believe in their heart there was a God and they've tried to live a life that was quite apart from the surrounding community in which they live. And they'll go to hell in their idolatry without the gospel of Jesus Christ. Schuller replies, I'm so thrilled to hear you say that. There's wideness in God's mercy. Graham says, yes, there definitely is. Now this wideness, let me give you this, and I'm done. In Matthew 7, Jesus said there's a broad way and a narrow way. That's a wide way and a narrow way. And Jesus said the broad way is where the majority of human beings are going, and it goes to heaven. The narrow way is by the straight gate, and few there be that find it. This last thing I've quoted to you that Billy Graham said, he has just reversed that. This wideness of God's mercy puts anybody and everybody with the gospel, without the gospel, whatever you've done, if it was sincere, it puts you on a broad road going to heaven that don't exist. Wideness, contrary to Scripture. Last thing I have to say is a quote from Bob Jones, which I don't agree with him on everything, but he certainly was right about Billy Graham. He said Billy Graham has done more harm to the cause of Christ than any other living man. I tend to agree.