Falwell Funeral

BTW, you can watch Jerry Falwell's funeral. Visit www.trbc.org and you will see the link!

 

Click HERE to read about the LU student who was arrested.

I had a whole paragraph written about it, but I accidently erased it. Sorry.

 

Technically he is now a former LU student. :BangHead:

 

I watched the funeral and was saddened that a Salvation message was not preached. Those who spoke, exalted the name of Dr. Jerry Falwell and his many accomplishments rather than the name of Christ.

At the end of the funeral, Dr. Jerry Vines led America in a type of sinner's prayer, but it was useless... who were sinners supposed to turn to? Liberty University? Thomas Road Baptist Church? the late Jerry Falwell?

If Christ is not preached, a 'sinner's prayer' does no good whatsoever.

 

==I have not had a chance to watch the entire funeral. I tried last night but it was next to impossible with the streaming video constantly stopping. However I did get to see the opening song, which I liked, and the opening "prayer", which I did not like. Was the guy preaching or praying? At times it seemed he was looking around pretending to have his eyes shut. What really bothered me was when he said he wanted to see Falwell in heaven, standing next to Jesus, and hear him and Jesus say "well done, good and faithful servant". That seems like a weird thing to say, even at a funeral. We are not to seek the approval of any person, in heaven or on earth, we are only to seek Christ's approval. What Falwell, or any other departed saint, would say about our Christian life is not that important. What is important is what Christ says about our Christian life and ministry.

I hope to see the entire funeral sometime this week.

 

I just watch parts of Franklin Graham's message on Youtube, and I liked what I heard. I really admire Franklin Graham and I think, and this is just my opinion, he is the next Jerry Falwell. Men like Franklin Graham, Al Mohler, Ergun Caner, and yes even John MacArthur (though he is older and not as political) are the future of the movement that Jerry Falwell started. While I have some disagreements with Caner, those disagreements don't stop me from calling Ergun and Emir Caner brothers in Christ. All of these men are great men of God and I thank God for the blessing of their various ministries. raying:

 

Do you ever have anything positive to say about anybody? Did it ever occur to you that God uses people as He sees fit to accomplish His purposes?

Maybe, just maybe, Liberty University will be used as an instrument to raise the greatest person God has ever used to spread the Gospel. Maybe God used Jerry Falwell as the agent to accomplish that instead of his message.

Maybe every now and then you could see things from a positive angle, and let God do what He will. You sure are hung up on rules, as were the Pharisees.

 

You know, I didn't see the funeral (yet), but I saw Jesus in Jerry's life for over 25 years. He wasn't perfect (like some seem to be) but he was a servant of his Lord. The funeral perhaps recognized that -- and though it may not have been executed exactly as well as I would have desired, I prefer to see the glass half full as opposed to half empty.

JDale

 

1. I am positive that if a Salvation message had been preached as Dr. Jerry Vines said he was going to do at the family's repuest, Christ would have been pleased and the 'sinner's prayer' would possibly been effective'

2. Since Jesus said no man could come to the Father except by Him, I am sure the lifting up of Falwell and his accomplishments was not drawing people to God.

3. Read the Word of God, it is not a book of suggestions... it is a Book of Rules. To preach and follow them is not Pharisaical... contrary to what many would think.

 

surely you don't really think that!

 

This statement is the surest sign of a Pharisee.

JDale

 

So what you are basically saying is that you do not believe God meant what He said when He said, 'Thou Shalt' or 'Thou Shalt Not'?

If He is the same yesterday, today and forever, why would His commands no longer be true?

The commandment of the LORD is pure, enlightening the eyes.

Do away with obeying God's Word and one is showing no enlightenment in one's life.

One can make a profession of faith in Christ Jesus, but if one does not obey His Word, one is not in the light as He is in the light.

 

No...if one is not found to be in Christ, than one is not in the light as He is in the light.

This is not to say that obedience to God is unimportant, or a sign of being a believer as I John says.

 

==What I heard of Franklin Graham's message, Christ was uplifted through his recalling how the Lord had worked through the life and ministry of Dr. Jerry Falwell. As for the "sinners prayer", well I will stay out of that hornets nest of an issue. However I will say that you don't know, you can't know, that someone was not saved at or as a result of that funeral. I certainly would not even try to count the number of people who God has saved through the ministry of Jerry Falwell. I think about his ministry at the Thomas Road Baptist Church, the Old Time Gospel Hour, Liberty University and Seminary (imagine all those graduates many of whom graduate and go out and serve the Lord in their various occupations), his tv appearances, and on and on I could go. Only heaven knows how many people God has saved and yet will save through the direct, and indirect, ministry of Jerry Falwell. Many of the same things could be said about Franklin Graham and Jerry Vines.

==That statement is unfair. The purpose of a funeral is to remember the person who has passed on, and to celebrate their life and (if they are saved) their home going. That is what Falwell's funeral was designed to do. It is not a church service or an evangelistic service. In fact, if you wish to get technical, I am not sure funeral services (as such) are Biblical. Funerals are done differently in different cultures and times. While I may have been uncomfortable with some of the comments made in the opening prayer (see my reply above, pg1) I don't think there is anything wrong with focusing a person's funeral service on what the Lord did through their life and ministry.

==A person obeys because they are saved, those who are not saved cannot be expected to do anything that can/will please God.

 

If one is in Christ, one will obey Christ... one will want to obey Christ.

 

Agreed.

But obedience to what you refer to as a "book of rules" does not position you in the light.

 

The Bible is a Book of rules. There is no getting around that. And Jesus said:

John 14:21 He that hath my commandments, and keepeth them, he it is that loveth me: and he that loveth me shall be loved of my Father, and I will love him, and will manifest myself to him.

John went on later to say:

1 John 2:4 He that saith, I know him, and keepeth not his commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him.

and...

1 John 3:24 And he that keepeth his commandments dwelleth in him, and he in him. And hereby we know that he abideth in us, by the Spirit which he hath given us.

The commandments must be kept, or one is showing one does not truly love the Lord. According to John, that one who does not keep the Lord's commandments does not only not love the Lord, but does not even know the Lord.

 

I don't think the Bible as we are talking about, and the commandments as Jesus was talking about, are the same things.