Billy Graham – A Tarnished Legacy

This week, the most famous pastor in the world passed away. He preached to millions throughout his lifetime with untold numbers making a profession of faith through his ‘Crusades’.

We are, of course, referring to Billy Graham, and many gushing tributes have been paid to this undoubtedly tremendously gifted and eloquent gospel preacher.

We in no way whatsoever wish to minimise the mighty work Billy Graham was used at one time by God to perform, but there can be no question either that Billy Graham was a compromiser with Rome and other false religion and also did great damage to evangelical Reformed Protestantism, both in America and further afield.

Of particular concern was his cosy relationship with Rome and indeed, at many of his ‘Crusades’ when Roman Catholics came forward, Billy Graham and his team referred them back to their local Roman Catholic Church. These were people seeking the truth of God’s marvellous and free gift of salvation (Ephesians 2:8-9) but instead they were instructed to return to the idolatry and deceit of the Roman Catholic Church.

Here are just a couple of examples of Billy Graham’s compromise with Rome.

In 1952 – “Many of the people who have reached a decision on Christ at our meetings have joined the Catholic church and we have received commendations from Catholic publications for the revived interest in their church following one of our campaigns.” Graham, September 1952, Pittsburgh Sun-Telegraph

In 1958 – Official follow-up of San Francisco crusade reported that of the 1300 Catholics who came forward, “practically all remained Catholic, continued to pray to Mary, go to Mass, and confess to a priest.” –Oakland Tribune, Dec. 17, 1958

In 1962 – Sao Paulo Brazil, Catholic bishop stood beside Graham and welcomed inquirers

In 1963 – Upon death of Pope John XXIII Graham stated: “I admire Pope John tremendously. I felt he brought a new era to the world. It is my hope that the Cardinals elect a new Pope who will follow the same line as John. It would be a great tragedy if they chose a man who reacted against John, who re-erected the walls.”

In 1967 – Graham was awarded an honorary degree from Roman Catholic Belmont Abbey College. He said: “The gospel that built this school and the gospel that brings me here tonight is still the way to salvation” – Gastonia Gazette, Gastonia, NC, Nov. 22, 1967

In 1979 – A special Catholic mass was conducted following Graham’s crusade in Milwaukee as part of the follow-up for 3,500 Catholics who came forward during the meetings.

In 1984 – Vancouver, British Columbia, crusade vice-chairman David Cline stated: “If Catholics step forward there will be no attempt to convert them and their names will be given to the Catholic church nearest their homes.” — Vancouver Sun, Oct. 5, 1984

In 1989 – 2,100 Catholics who came forward during London, England crusades were referred to Catholic churches

In the examples above, you can see thousands of Catholics being pointed back to paganism; what a difference could have been made had those poor lost souls been directed to Christ, rather than “that man of sin, and son of perdition”, the Pope, who sets himself up in that position.

Billy Graham has received commendation from all quarters after his death, and one might say that’s a great thing to have been so highly thought of.

But how often are God’s servants almost universally popular? Especially in a world today where Biblical standards are being discarded and trampled underfoot.

Our Lord Jesus Christ, we are told in Isaiah 53:3, did not enjoy any such popularity. It says: “He is despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief: and we hid as it were our faces from him; he was despised, and we esteemed him not.”

Jesus told his followers to expect to be hated for His sake. John 15:18-19 says: “If the world hate you, ye know that it hated me before it hated you. If ye were of the world, the world would love his own: but because ye are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hateth you.”

To be so thought of by the world is considered a blessing. Matthew 5:11-12 says: “Blessed are ye, when men shall revile you, and persecute you , and shall say all manner of evil against you falsely, for my sake. Rejoice, and be exceeding glad: for great is your reward in heaven: for so persecuted they the prophets which were before you.”

As we mentioned in our article a couple of days ago on ‘Rev’ Lesley Carroll, there is a problem with mingled seed. Deuteronomy 22:9 says: “Thou shalt not sow thy vineyard with divers seeds: lest the fruit of thy seed which thou hast sown, and the fruit of thy vineyard, be defiled.”

The Evangelical Alliance paid a fulsome tribute to Billy Graham and made this interesting comment: “…one could not help but be impacted by his… commitment to the truth of the gospel…”

We fear that referring Catholics back to priestcraft when they are coming forward for help for their souls rather undermines that comment.

Other tributes have been paid by the likes of the Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby, an arch-apostate, and senior figures in the Presbyterian Church, whose stance on Rome and false religion leaves a lot to be desired.

As we have said, Billy Graham was a major and significant figure and was at one time used by God to see sinners saved. However, his descent into compromise was greatly disappointing to those who hold the Bible dear.

His admittedly very inspiring quote about his death on earth just heralding a change of address to heaven is true, we have no doubt about it, but how many more could have been helped to join him there had he encouraged them to leave the church of Rome?

2 Corinthians 6:17: “Wherefore come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing ; and I will receive you.”

The message of ecumenical deceit – ‘Rev’ Lesley Carroll

After having seen photographs of the ‘Rev’ Lesley Carroll’s appearance in St Patrick’s Roman Catholic Church in Donaghmore, County Tyrone, we now have the content of the message delivered by the ordained Presbyterian female ‘minister’ (1 Timothy 2:12), featured in the Irish News, a Roman Catholic newspaper.

Lesley Carroll is an arch ecumenist and in her message during the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity she appeared to equate the Pope’s impending visit to Ireland with the birth of our Lord Jesus Christ and God’s miraculous parting of the Red Sea and stated that the Second Vatican Council offered hope to Christianity.

What blasphemous nonsense!

Within her address, ‘Rev’ Carroll also offered up plenty of bland, ‘thought for the day’ type fluff, the speciality of ecumenists.

Her message was also conspicuously lacking even one single reference to so much as a solitary verse from the Bible. What a surprise.

Citing a ‘Father’ Michael Hurley, who co-founded the Irish School of Ecumenics (a man well worth citing then), she said he had described the push for church unity as having entered “an ecumenical winter”.

If only ecumenism were utterly frozen and swept away by an avalanche of Biblical Christianity, Ulster would not be in the spiritual mess it is.

Referring to some television series she has been watching on ‘Netflix’, the ‘Rev’ Carroll quoted a character therefrom, Harriet Tubman, who gained freedom from slavery in the USA.

Apparently, this lady in the television show said there was a “before” and an “after” in relation to her freedom.

This, ‘Rev’ Carroll said, could be equated with ecumenical efforts to bring about church unity.

She said we are now “after” Vatican II or the Second Vatican Council, which had stressed the Roman Catholic Church’s keenness for ecumenical dialogue… on its terms of course. The Vatican also failed to move an inch on the various key tenets of its corrupt system, including the paganism of idolatry, the lie of Purgatory, the worship of Mary and Saints and the blasphemy of the Mass, among others.

And ‘Rev’ Carroll claims that Vatican II “brought such hope not only to Catholicism but also to the whole ecumenical world”.

The Roman Catholic Church removes hope from its adherents, with its corrupt gospel of works damning its followers to hell. We are saved by God’s grace. Ephesians 2:8-9 says: “For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: Not of works, lest any man should boast.”

We need to be ever watchful against efforts to move towards or soften our stance in relation to Rome. Colossians 2:8: “Beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of men, after the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ.”

However, the likes of arch ecumenist ‘Rev’ Lesley Carroll are throwing themselves into the arms of the anti-Christian system that is Rome.

Her soppy soliloquy gets worse, though.

She stresses her desire for this so-called “ecumenical winter” to give way to an “ecumenical spring”, ie expressing her desire to reinvigorate the ecumenical movement and carry on this mingling of the seed, this distortion of true Biblical Protestantism to please the ungodly appetites of the anti-Christian papal system.

Deuteronomy 22:9 warns against such dangerous practices agriculturally, with a clear spiritual parallel to be drawn, and it is no less important to do the same with the precious gospel of Christ. It says: “Thou shalt not sow thy vineyard with divers seeds: lest the fruit of thy seed which thou hast sown, and the fruit of thy vineyard, be defiled.”

‘Rev’ Carroll said that “For Moses… there was ‘before’ the Red Sea and there was ‘after’ the Red Sea, with so much still to happen and be done before the people of God would reach the Promised Land.”

Is she comparing the Children of Israel reaching Canaan, God’s covenant land for His people, to unity with Rome?

She continues: “We pray for a time, a mark in the life of the church between a ‘before’ and an ‘after’, between an ecumenical winter and an ecumenical spring.”

Regardless of what success ‘Rev’ Carroll has in bringing about an ‘ecumenical spring’, we can be sure it will not be as a result of God answering her prayers.

Believers ought to pray that the efforts of ‘Rev’ Carroll and her cohorts will come to nought.

And the worst part of her speech was yet to come as she then appeared to liken Jesus’ birth to the upcoming visit to these shores of the Pope.

She said: “Perhaps it (this ‘ecumenical spring’) will be heralded by a big event like the visit of the Pope and perhaps it will be heralded in a quiet corner, as was Jesus’ birth.”

This is a strange comment for a Presbyterian ‘minister’ to make, seeing as she signed the Westminster Confession of Faith at her ordination, at which point she declared the Pope to be “that Antichrist, that man of sin, and son of perdition”.

The Pope’s potential visit to Northern Ireland will bring great shame to this country, and to mention it in the same breath as the birth of our Saviour is despicable.

“Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners” (1 Timothy 1:15), not to satisfy the ungodly aims of ecumenists like the ‘Rev’ Lesley Carroll.

Our cry must ever be: “No peace with Rome until Rome makes peace with God”.

St Anne’s Cathedral continues efforts to undo Reformation with Jesuit celebration

“And have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather reprove them.” Ephesians 5:11.

The hub of ecumenical folly that is Belfast’s St Anne’s Cathedral is getting set to invite a Jesuit priest into its midst next week.

That’s correct, a Jesuit priest, that unholy order which led the charge of the Counter Reformation, the efforts to snuff out the glorious light of the gospel so wonderfully unveiled through Martin Luther and others 500 years ago.

The Counter Reformation was led by the notorious Ignatius of Loyola and guess what – the prayer service this Jesuit priest will lead will be focused on the “Ignatian Tradition”, so says the Belfast Telegraph.

The Ignatian Tradition is a most dreadful and unbiblical tradition and it is a shame and disgrace that St Anne’s would welcome a propagator of its lies and deceit into its arms. Those in charge there have emphatically and decidedly ignored the call to reprove the “unfruitful works of darkness” that Jesuitry undoubtedly is.

Of course, it should be no surprise to Christians that St Anne’s would welcome such a character’s doctrine into its building.

In September 2016, St Anne’s appointed a Roman Catholic priest as an ‘ecumenical canon’ and just last autumn the cathedral played host to a ‘pet blessing’ service, showing St Anne’s doesn’t actually know what it believes.

The cathedral also is inextricably linked with the Corrymeela Community, which is a sort of ecumenical nirvana, full of airy fairy quasi Christianity which pats itself on the back for being so accepting of all faiths.

The Corrymeela Community is in fact jointly hosting the event with St Anne’s Cathedral, which is taking place as part of a series of prayer services during Lent.

First up is this Papist propaganda on Friday, 23 February, led by the province coordinator of ecumenism, ‘Father’ Tom Leyden.

After that follows a female Presbyterian ‘minister’, the ‘Rev’ Cheryl Meban (1 Timothy 2:12), who is in turn followed by Padraig O Tuama, the leader of the Corrymeela Community.

Two misguided Church of Ireland clerics, the Dean’s Vicar at St Anne’s, Canon Mark Niblock and the Dean of Armagh, Very Rev Gregory Dunstan, will bring this whole exercise in religious futility and compromise to a close.

So there are utterly inappropriate speakers galore on offer, but surely the worst has to be this exhibition of Jesuitry, the very antithesis and definition of opposition to and hatred of Bible believing Protestantism.

Ignatius of Loyola was “the principal founder and first Superior General of the Society of Jesus (Jesuits), a religious Order of the Catholic Church professing direct service to the Pope in terms of mission”.

So this service in St Anne’s Church of Ireland Cathedral, a supposedly God honouring church wedded to Protestant Christian principles, is going to boast a message straight from the Pope himself, “that man of sin, and son of perdition”.

Galatians 1:6-9 takes a very dim view of lies in the name of God, which is all the Roman Catholic Church can deliver. Rome has successfully carried many in so-called Protestant churches away from the truth of the gospel.

Those verses read: “I marvel that ye are so soon removed from him that called you into the grace of Christ unto another gospel: Which is not another; but there be some that trouble you, and would pervert the gospel of Christ. But though we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel unto you than that which we have preached unto you, let him be accursed. As we said before, so say I now again, If any man preach any other gospel unto you than that ye have received, let him be accursed.”

God has pronounced his curse on the propagators of error and those involved with St Anne’s Cathedral, sold out to ecumenism, need to take very careful note.

The phrase “let him be accursed” is interesting, as it is a term appropriated by the Roman Catholic Church on its own pronouncements within the Council of Trent. Anyone who dares challenge the lie that the bread and wine doled out during the blasphemous Mass actually turns into the body and blood of Christ has this said of them: “Let him be anathema (or cursed)”.

They say the same for those who rightly state that we are saved by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone (Ephesians 2:8-9).

The Jesuits were key figures in the persecution and murder of untold millions of Protestants (along with Muslims and Jews) during the centuries long ‘Inquisition’ it led throughout Europe.

Famous for its use of torture to elicit confessions from accused ‘heretics’, the Inquisition was an evil process led by an evil organisation.

Why would the Church of Ireland invite anyone representing the ‘Ignatian Tradition’ into its arms?

Bertrand Russell, a Noble Prize winning author and historian, in his ‘A History of Western Philosophy’, noted that “Protestant success, at first amazingly rapid, was checked mainly as a result of Loyola’s creation of the Jesuit order.”

So the group that put the brakes on precious, never-dying souls being saved is welcomed with open arms into a church supposed to stand up for the Protestant faith, which is true Biblical Christianity.

It is utter madness.

For anyone still involved with these ecumenical churches, we implore you to “come out from among them and be ye separate” (2 Corinthians 6:17).

A question asked by Elijah on Mount Carmel remains completely relevant today.

1 Kings 18:21: “And Elijah came unto all the people, and said, How long halt ye between two opinions? if the Lord be God, follow him: but if Baal, then follow him.”

The implication was clear; deep down the children of Israel knew the Lord was God, but they were following a false religion. Now is the time to break with these ecumenical false prophets and ecclesiastical deceivers.

Dear reader, please abandon these false teachers and if you are not saved, “believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved” (Acts 16:31).

1 John 1:9: “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”

Water racket! 160 years of profiteering in Lourdes

Yesterday (Sunday) marked an important day in the Roman Catholic diary as it was the 160th anniversary of the alleged appearance of Mary in the French town of Lourdes.

Known by Roman Catholic worshippers as ‘Our Lady of Lourdes’, the mother of Jesus allegedly appeared to an illiterate, sickly 14 year old peasant girl, Bernadette Soubirous, on 11th February 1858.

She was the only person who saw the apparition, despite being with both her sister and a neighbour at the time of her supposed discovery.

‘Mary’, Bernadette claimed, was “a tiny maiden” and about 12 years old. She was wearing a white robe with a blue sash around her waist, an outfit which is remarkably similar to that of the Roman Catholic order of the Children of Mary.

‘Mary’ kindly appeared to Bernadette alone over a period of months in 1858 and on one such occasion instructed her to dig through the mud near the cave which was her favoured apparition point. As Bernadette dug, she discovered a stream, which began to flow more clearly. The holy water of Lourdes had been discovered!

On examination, the water was found to be drinkable, but had no peculiar properties to make it special.

However, the alleged instruction from ‘Our Lady of Lourdes’ to Bernadette Soubirous to drink and wash in the water led to a flood (pardon the pun) of visitors seeking healing.

At first, the local Roman Catholic Church was sceptical but, realising the money making potential of the incident, in early 1860 declared the apparitions to be genuine, although there was absolutely no way of verifying the claims.

Today, Lourdes is a big money industry, worth in the region of €270 million to the local economy. In France, only Paris has more hotel beds than a remote town in the foothills of the Pyrenees with a population of around 17,000.

Millions of people make the pilgrimage annually, seeking healing for all manner of conditions. Since 1858, the Roman Catholic Church has ‘authenticated’ just 67 miracle cures (the frequency of which has decreased significantly over the years as medical treatment has advanced). Out of around 250 million estimated visitors over the years, that gives a success rate of 1 in every 3.7 million.

If you were advised to travel to the south west of France to see a doctor who ‘cures’ 1 out of every 3.7 million patients, and spend a fortune doing so, what would your response be?

The Roman Catholic Church exists to exert control and make money. It tells its devotees that salvation can be purchased. You can spend less time in the fictional Purgatory if your family pumps more money into the coffers. The Protestant Reformation was in part prompted by the sale of indulgences to the public, where their sins were forgiven… for a price.

And what of Bernadette Soubirous and her family? The magical healing powers were of little assistance to them. Bernadette died at the age of 35 due to chronic asthma, while two of her siblings and her mother passed away within five years of the Roman Catholic Church declaring her sightings of ‘Mary’ to have been genuine.

Mary worship is an utterly unbiblical concept. It is a Roman creation, a myth, a blasphemy.

Roman Catholic worshippers are instructed to pray to Mary to intercede on their behalf with Jesus. The Bible says in 1 Timothy 2:5: “For there is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus”. Mary doesn’t come into the equation in any way, shape or form.

We are told by the Roman Catholic Church that Mary died a virgin, but the Bible says, when Jesus visited Nazareth, where he spent his years on earth prior to his ministry, in Matthew 13:55-56 that his former neighbours pointed to the brothers and sisters he had in Nazareth as cause to doubt his divinity. They said: “Is not this the carpenter’s son? is not his mother called Mary? and his brethren, James, and Joses, and Simon, and Judas? And his sisters, are they not all with us? Whence then hath this man all these things?”

Adoration of Mary is a Papal lie and corruption of the Word of God. Yet Protestant churches are rushing in to chum about with these “evil men and seducers” (2 Timothy 3:13) who are propagating deception and ushering untold millions into hell.

I wonder if Rev Charles McMullen, Presbyterian moderator elect who can’t wait to meet the Pope will point out the blasphemy of Mary worship when he has his little chit chat with “that man of sin”.

We implore you, if you are connected with any Protestant churches which are linking up with Rome, to break the chains and to share this with Roman Catholics to try to pluck them as brands from the burning.

Acts 4:12: “Neither is there salvation in any other: for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved.”

Acts 16:31: “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved.”

Pope here please – Presbyterian Moderator elect Rev Charles McMullen eager to sup with Satan’s servant

It didn’t take long for the latest choice for Moderator of the Presbyterian Church in Ireland to rush into the arms of Rome.

In his first interview after being chosen to take up the role in June, Rev Charles McMullen, minister for the past 19 years in Bangor West Presbyterian Church, was quick to say he would “relish” the opportunity to meet the Pope.

This is the same man who, at his ordination, signed the Westminster Confession of Faith which describes the Pope as “that Antichrist, that man of sin, and son of perdition, that exalts himself, in the church, against Christ and all that is called God”.

However, he has disregarded this vow quite spectacularly and, going even further than saying he would accept an invitation to meet the Pope when he comes to Ireland, and probably Northern Ireland too, in August, he has practically invited himself along to kiss ‘Papa’s’ feet.

“We don’t know for certain if the Pope is coming and if he is there would need to be some invitation extended to us,” gushed Rev McMullen.

“If an invitation was extended, our two churches would work out the basis on which that meeting would occur.

“As far as I am concerned, I would relish the opportunity to meet the Pope.

“I would hope that by meeting the Pope, it would be a small contribution on my part.”

I wonder what Rev McMullen thinks he is contributing to?

What he is contributing to is the lie that the Roman Catholic Church is a Christian church, rather than a pagan corruption.

What he is contributing to is the further degradation of the Presbyterian denomination which has been so sullied in the past 100 years.

What he is contributing to is the potential influencing of ordinary Presbyterian churchgoers into thinking the Papacy is an acceptable organisation with which to be involved.

What he is contributing to, most vitally, is the justifying of the corruption of the simple gospel of Christ. Rome says salvation is by works, the Bible says salvation is by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone. Ephesians 2:8-9 says: “For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: Not of works, lest any man should boast.”

The Roman Catholic Church knows only how to send people to hell with its tyrannical system of works.

As an ordained minister, Rev McMullen has a solemn duty as a watchman. God takes a very dim view of watchmen who fail to fulfil their role. In Isaiah 56:10-11, it says: “His watchmen are blind: they are all ignorant, they are all dumb dogs, they cannot bark; sleeping, lying down, loving to slumber. Yea, they are greedy dogs which can never have enough, and they are shepherds that cannot understand: they all look to their own way, every one for his gain, from his quarter.”

God has called for dogs that bark, not nice little lap dogs metaphorically licking the face of “that man of sin, and son of perdition”.

Perhaps Rev McMullen will surprise us all by verbally mauling the man who blasphemes all three persons of the Godhead.

Perhaps Rev McMullen will tell “that Antichrist” that he stands by what he signed up to in the Westminster Confession of Faith when he began to earn a living from the ministry.

Perhaps Rev McMullen will tell the man “that exalts himself… against Christ and all that is called God” that he is a hell bound sinner in need of God’s salvation (Romans 3:23 – “For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God.”).

We’ll not hold our breath…