From: bpayne15@juno.com
Date: Sun Jun 08 2003 - 13:01:27 EDT
On Thu, 5 Jun 2003 22:31:36 +0100 "Michael Roberts"
<michael.andrea.r@ukonline.co.uk> writes:
Without discussion the writers said that only a 24 hour day made sense
for all the bible and evolution was just dismissed as not on.
Boy do we have a problem!! I have always regarded Stott and Graham as two
of the greatest Christian leaders of their generation. But with their
successors their good work will be undone at great speed.
I fail to see any departure of his successors from what Graham believed.
In _Walking Away from Faith_ by Ruth Tucker, Billy Graham and Chuck
Templeton (an evangelist who sometimes shared the stage with Graham) are
compared. Tucker describes Templeton's struggle with doubt when he and
Graham " 'spent the better part of two days closeted in a room in the
Taft Hotel.' It was during this time, according to Chuck, that their
'differences came to a head.' "
Tucker (p 36), quoting from Templeton's _Walking Away From God_ (pp 7-8):
************
In the course of the conversation I said, "But, Billy, it's simply not
possible any longer to believe, for instance, the biblical account of
creation. The world wasn't created over a period of days a few thousand
years ago; it has evolved over millions of years. It's not a matter of
speculation; it's a demonstrable fact."
"I don't accept that," Billy said. "And there are reputable scholar who
don't."
"Who are these scholars?" I said. "Men in conservative Christian
colleges."
"Most of them, yes," he said. "But that's not the point. I believe the
Genesis account of creation because it's in the Bible. I've discovered
something in my ministry: when I take the Bible literally, when I
proclaim it as the Word of God, my preaching has power. When I stand on
the platform and say, 'God says,' or 'the Bible says,' the Holy Spirit
uses me. There are results. Wiser men than you and I have been arguing
questions like this for centuries. I don't have the time or the
intellect to examine all sides of each theological dispute, so I've
decided, once and for all, to stop questioning and accept the Bible as
God's Word."
"But, Billy," I protested, "you can't do that You don't dare stop
thinking about the most important question in life. Do it and you begin
to die. It's intellectual suicide."
"I don't know about anyone else," he said, "but I've decided that that's
the path for me."
*********
What exactly of Graham's "good work" is in danger of being undone by his
successors?
Bill
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