Featured Please note Billy Graham’s message to America at age 95

You're wrong. Still. God has granted to every man the measure of faith. Faith is granted, is a gift. Romans 12:3; Php. 1:29; Romans 10:17. There is more, yet you teach God hasn't done this.

Oh, so salvation is a reward for doing, and salvation is not given until this 'doing so' is completed? That makes salvation a reward, not a gift.

We had a dog who played dead and we rewarded it with a snausage.

Nope. Not quite. Faith is God's gift. Salvation is all of God and we only believe according to His power, not ours, nor by inherent ability. :thumbs:

 

Really E-7! Is this your MO?
Billy Graham believes and preaches the gospel. He believes in eternal security. Thus when you deny this doctrine and can't prove it from the Bible you go after the messenger and attack him rather than defend your own position! How pitiful!

First, Billy, sets forth the Christian position. He describes that the Christian life is a narrow road, not an easy path. There will be difficulties along the way. How will a person overcome the difficulties of the Christian life he asks. The answer:

He has never changed that answer. It is the same thing that he has always preached. There is nothing different here.

 

Even a babe in Christ would know the meaning of these Scriptures and would not destroy them to force them to mean that God GIVES faith to the UNSAVED (which is really the focal point here).
In Romans 12:3, the context is "spiritual gifts" and he is addressing Christians. God does not give spiritual gifts to the unsaved. Duh!

Phil.1:29: He is again speaking to Christians. "Unto you it is given not only to believe on him, but also to suffer for his sake."
You have two duties: 1. Believe; 2. Suffer. Does God give suffering as well as faith as requirements for salvation? Does he give them both before salvation? Does he give them to the unsaved? Is that who he is addressing?

Rom.10:17 Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God.
I agree. That isn't God giving faith is it? That is how a man receives faith. Just as the Ethiopian eunuch heard the Word from Philip he began to become confident or trust what was being said. Faith is confidence in the Word of another, especially the Word of God. He heard the Word and believed it as this verse says. God didn't give it; he heard it, and believed it.

Salvation is a reward!
See Romans 4:1-4; Eph.2:8,9; Rom.6:23. Yes it is a reward. It is the gift of God. He gives it freely as a reward to all that believe on Him. If he hasn't rewarded you with salvation you are not saved, obviously.
What is the difference between me rewarding my child and gifting my child at Christmas time. There is no difference. I can give him a reward without demanding work. Reward and gift can be synonymous. The Lord rewards us with many things day by day though we don't deserve them.

You have no scripture to show that faith is a gift from God to the unsaved.
God does not give spiritual gifts or spiritual fruit to the unsaved. Such a position is unbiblical and ludicrous.

 

You don't get it, and there is no sense in going round and round with you over it dhk.

 

I get it perfectly. The Calvinist must make faith a gift from God in order to avoid making it a "work" which it is not. They don't understand that faith is not a work and will not concede that though Scriptures plainly teach it. It is as if they must believe that one goes into a forest sits there like a Bhuddist would, and just waits for the Holy Spirit to come upon him in some magical way to regenerate him. He does absolutely nothing. There is no gospel; no faith; no human interaction; etc. Absolutely nothing but a divine interaction with the Holy Spirit who somehow mystically comes upon him and regenerates him. I think that the neo-Calvinist of today is more into mysticism than Biblicism.

 

Please note Billy Graham’s message to America at age 95

I thought America was way over 200. Or was he there when it was less than 100?

 

To believe the Bible is not hopeless.
However to deny essential biblical doctrines, such as eternal security, is to set one's soul at peril. It is an essential part of the understanding of Christ's salvation for us.

 

To believe what you believe one must ignore the totality of Scripture. The vast majority of Scripture teaches that one is justified by faith set out so explicitly in Romans 5:1.

What makes you think that?
Here is Graham's final statement (which displeases you not me).

Isn't that great! Come by faith and trust him as your saviour. I teach that all the time. Is this what you believe?

The above is what he has preached for years.
Take Jesus Christ as your savior and you will be saved today.
Nothing has changed. Tell me what has he changed?

 

The difficult road that Billy Graham talks of is not for unbelievers, but for believers. Please read it again and understand what he is saying. One cannot be saved by following that difficult way. He never said they could. Here is what he said:

Don't be deceptive E-7. He preaches the same gospel as he always has.
"This is the reason we ask people to come to receive Christ because when you receive Him the Holy Spirit comes to live within to help us live the life." (the difficult road that he had finished describing previously, the difficult road the will NOT lead to hell and destruction but rather to eternal life. Don't you want that road E-7? In order to walk that road; to get on that road you must trust Christ as your saviour. Billy Graham has never strayed from that message, and that is exactly what he said.