Billy Graham

In a 1951 message he makes the Bible the test of doctrine in both directions: nothing may be taken from it and nothing added to it, and every doctrine is to be found there. His own account of the 1949 Forest Home crisis, published in 2006, has him resolve to "trust the Bible as the Word of God" by faith while admitting questions he could not answer, and a Billy Graham Minute has him say all of Scripture is inspired, "every bit of it." Nothing read places tradition or a teaching office beside it. In a 2006 Newsweek interview he said he was "not a literalist in the sense that every single jot and tittle is from the Lord," which loosens how he spoke about the text but names no other authority.

True Christianity finds all of its doctrines in the Bible; true Christianity does not deny any part of the Bible; true Christianity does not add anything to the Bible."The Bible: God's Authoritative Word", message (©1951 BGEA), Decision online

Nothing found on the Apocrypha. The 1951 message on the Bible's authority counts "66 books, written over a period of 1,600 years by more than 30 writers," but the number is part of an argument for the Bible's unity, not a ruling on the deuterocanonical books, and it is not enough to assign a stance. Searches of billygraham.org for the Apocrypha and for the Catholic canon found nothing in his own voice. Not found in what was read, not a claim that he never addressed it.

His recorded words move over time, so the cell is contested rather than settled. In a 1978 McCall's interview he spoke of "other ways of recognizing the existence of God—through nature, for instance." Days later his office issued a clarification in his name: all have some light in creation and conscience, God will give whoever follows it further light "and bring him to a knowledge of the truth that is in Jesus Christ," and "non-Christians are lost." That is not the inclusivist stance. In a May 1997 interview with Robert Schuller on Hour of Power he went further: people who "may not even know the name of Jesus" but turn to "the only light that they have" are, he thinks, saved. Asked in 2006 about adherents of other religions, he said "Those are decisions only the Lord will make." The 2006 answer concerns adherents of other religions, not those without access to the gospel, and declines to answer, so the stance follows the 1997 words, the latest that answer this question; no retraction of them was found. The 1997 transcript is Evangelical Times's, a critical Reformed paper, and the wording that circulates online differs from it; this transcript is the one quoted.

WORTH CORRECTINGHe is commonly read here as a pluralist, and neither interview makes him one: the 1978 clarification says "non-Christians are lost" and that "Jesus Christ is the only way of salvation," and in 1997 he describes God calling people "out of the world for his name."

They may not even know the name of Jesus but they know in their heart that they need something that they don't have and they turn to the only light that they have and I think that they are saved and that they're going to be with us in heaven.Interview with Robert Schuller, Hour of Power, May 1997, as transcribed in Evangelical Times, 1 February 1998

Father, Son and Spirit are three Persons, and each is God. A My Answer column under his name reaches for the ice, water and steam analogy and says God "has shown Himself to us in three ways," which taken strictly is a modalist picture, but the same column says each Person is God and that each "has a separate function." The Decision article is the stronger evidence of what he held, and the analogy reads as popular illustration.

The Holy Spirit is a Person. The Bible says that He is not something, He is Someone. He is God. There are three Persons in the Trinity–God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit."Billy Graham: Does the Holy Spirit Live in You?", Decision online, posted 30 April 2009 (original date not given)

Jesus is "the God-man," God incarnate, "God clothed in a human body in the person of Jesus Christ," and the incarnation is "the crux and the core of the Christian message." "Clothed in a human body," taken strictly, would understate the human soul; read beside "fully human" it is popular idiom. A My Answer column under his name puts it as "Jesus wasn't only fully human, He was also fully God." He states the union as a revealed mystery and does not use the Chalcedonian vocabulary of natures and person, so the stance is assigned from what he affirms, both full deity and full humanity in one Christ, not from a technical formula.

When you read the record of the coming of Jesus into the world—born in a stable, born of a woman, reared in the woodshop of a poor Jewish carpenter—you could not grasp the truth that He was the God-man if the Scriptures didn't reveal it."God Revealed in Human Flesh", message (©1956 BGEA), Decision online

Nothing found. Searches for Psalm 82, "ye are gods" and the divine council on billygraham.org turned up only a Minute where "our gods" means fashion and fortune. An unofficial copy of Angels (1975) touches Genesis 6:2 but does not answer this locus. Not found in what was read, not a claim that he never framed the question.

The sinner is spiritually dead and, as dead, cannot repent; God gives the ability to repent and to believe. But he sets that gift beside a will God will not override: "Even God will not tamper with your will. The will is the hinge on which the door of the kingdom of God swings." He does not use the term prevenient grace, and the order he gives, God giving the ability "if you will say Yes to Him," leaves the relation between the gift and the yes unexplained. Taken literally the yes comes before the gift, which is the reverse of prevenient grace; read with the inability he affirms, the stance is the nearest fit to inability met by an enabling grace that can be refused, so the state is a lean.

Now you do not, as a dead person, have the ability to repent. But God will give you the ability to repent if you will say Yes to Him."Billy Graham: You Can Have Resurrection Life", sermon, Seattle, 1976 (©1976 BGEA), Decision online

Asked why Christians have not agreed on God's sovereignty and human freedom, the column under his name answers that the Bible teaches both, that God is "absolutely in control of everything" and we are "responsible for our actions," and admits this "sounds like a contradiction" from a human viewpoint. He does not choose between the Calvinist and Arminian accounts of election, and nothing read grounds election either in foreseen faith or in an unconditional decree. The column speaks of sovereignty and responsibility, not of election by name, and nothing read says the question should not divide Christians; the stance is the nearest fit to his refusal to choose, so the state is a lean. The quotation is from the syndicated My Answer column, which by the standard account was drafted with staff and ran under his name, not from a sermon.

The reason they haven't agreed is because the Bible teaches both God's sovereignty and our human responsibility.Billy Graham "My Answer" column, "Is everything that happens already determined by God...", billygraham.org (undated)

Saving faith is more than intellectual assent to the claims of Christ: it involves "our whole being," and he names the parts as will, emotions and intellect, all "surrendered to Christ." Elsewhere he says faith "actually means surrender and commitment to the claims of Christ." He includes the intellect, but says faith is more than intellectual assent and puts surrender and commitment at its core, which is trust. His three are faculties of the person rather than the classic knowledge, assent and trust, and the intellect stays among them, so the state is a lean.

When we believe with all our hearts, the will, the emotions, and the intellect are surrendered to Christ.Billy Graham Daily Devotion, "A Heart of Belief" (6 March), billygraham.org

Justification is more than forgiveness: God "clothes you in righteousness as though you had never committed a sin," at the cost of Christ's blood. Righteousness given to the sinner rather than worked in him is the forensic stance, but he never uses the word "declares" in what was read and does not set it beside an infused account, so the state is a lean.

But God not only forgives the past, He clothes you in righteousness as though you had never committed a sin.Billy Graham Daily Devotion, "Cleansed by the Blood" (29 March), billygraham.org

He preached to mass audiences that Christ's death took away "the sins of all of us" and that forgiveness is theirs if they repent. A column compiled from his writings says "Christ died for the sins of the whole world." Nothing read takes up the extent of the atonement as a question, or distinguishes sufficiency from efficacy, The line echoes Isaiah 53:6, and a universal offer is also made by those who hold sufficiency for all and efficacy for the elect; what tips the lean to the universal stance is the column's "whole world," which is supporting only.

If you repent, He will forgive your sins, because when Jesus died on the cross God laid on Him the sins of all of us.Sermon transcript, final night of the Greater New York Crusade, June 2005 (©2005 BGEA), Decision online, page bylined Decision Magazine Staff

The Spirit who comes to live in the believer stays for eternity. Another column under his name tells a fearful reader that sin breaks fellowship with God, not the relationship. A first-person My Answer column under his name says that once a person sincerely trusts Christ, nothing can change that relationship. The qualifier he adds is the usual one for this stance, not a door to apostasy: a persistently sinful life "may well mean" the person was never converted.

The Holy Spirit comes to live within, and the Holy Spirit stays there for eternity."Billy Graham: You Can Have Resurrection Life", sermon, Seattle, 1976 (©1976 BGEA), Decision online

The Spirit comes to live in the believer "the moment that we receive Christ as Savior." In his preaching the order is faith then new birth: "by faith receive Christ and experience the new birth." In The Holy Spirit (1978), read in an unofficial excerpt, he holds that the believer is baptized into the body of Christ by the Spirit at conversion, that this is the only Spirit baptism, and that there are many fillings after it. He says there he had at times wondered whether a second experience was needed and became more convinced, the longer he studied, that it was not.

The moment that we receive Christ as Savior, the Holy Spirit comes to live in our hearts."Billy Graham: Does the Holy Spirit Live in You?", Decision online, posted 30 April 2009 (original date not given)

In a 1974 crusade sermon in Tempe, Arizona, he spoke of exorcism "in the name of Jesus Christ," called Jesus "the greatest of all exorcists," and said, "I personally have had that experience a few times, but very few." He warned against formulas and "hocus-pocus." As the reporter paraphrased him, a Christian can be vexed and harassed by a demon but not possessed.

WORTH CORRECTINGEvery word here comes from a news report of his sermon in Christianity Today, not from BGEA material, so the source is a journalist's account of what he said. The line on possession is the reporter's paraphrase and is not quoted. His book Angels (1975) was not read.

"Don't go around using some sort of hocus-pocus and say, 'Be gone in the name of Jesus.' It won't work."crusade sermon, Tempe, Arizona, as reported in Christianity Today, 7 June 1974

Baptized as an infant in the Presbyterian church, he was immersed as a young man and ordained a Southern Baptist minister. When a 1961 Lutheran Standard interview was read as endorsing infant baptism, he said the paper had "misinterpreted several statements I made," that his children had been baptized at nine and ten by their own choice "in the Presbyterian faith of their mother," and, in Time's words, "Convinced Baptist Graham said that while he respects the opinions of those who have different views on baptism" his convictions were his denomination's. The quotation therefore reaches believers' baptism through the denomination he names, not through an argument of his own, and he never treated the question at length in anything read, so the state is a lean. Statements BGEA publishes in his name treat baptism as the convert's act of obedience and witness, "a necessary and meaningful experience" for one who has received Christ.

WORTH CORRECTINGThe same interview is often quoted for his line that "a miracle can happen in these children so that they are regenerated, that is, made Christian, through infant baptism." Within the week he said the paper had misinterpreted several of his statements and that his convictions were his denomination's; the line also sat beside "I still have some personal problems in this matter of infant baptism."

my personal convictions are those of my denomination.Time, "Religion: For Adults Only?", 27 October 1961, reporting his response to a Lutheran Standard interview

Nothing found in his own voice. The one My Answer column on the question has no first person and will not choose between traditions: "churches differ in their understanding of the Lord's Supper," and the Supper "should always remind us of Jesus' death for us." The column may be staff writing, and no sermon or book passage on the mode of Christ's presence was found. Not found in what was read.

The Spirit chooses which gifts each believer receives, and every believer has at least one; but no gift is to be required of everyone (as BGEA quotes The Holy Spirit, 1978). In The Holy Spirit (1978), read in an unofficial excerpt, he says he does not see from Scripture that speaking in tongues is a necessary accompaniment of being filled with the Spirit. Nothing read says the gifts ceased. The cautious half of the stance is in his words; the open half rests on the absence of any cessationist statement in what was read, so the state is a lean. A hand-typed copy of the book's chapter on the sign gifts calls tongues a gift of the Spirit, but it was not checked against print and is not relied on here.

You may have been given a certain gift by God, but it would be a mistake for you to say everyone else should have that same gift.The Holy Spirit (1978), as quoted in BGEA's answer "Are the gifts of the Spirit valid for today?", billygraham.org

Hell is "essentially and basically" separation from God, Christ called it "everlasting punishment," and those in it keep consciousness and memory, as the rich man in Luke 16 does. His last book, Where I Am (2015), written with collaborators, speaks, as quoted by Religion News Service, of a lake of fire "that burns forever." In a 1983 Sacramento sermon, known only from a third-party transcript, he wondered whether the fire might be a fire within our hearts for fellowship with God that can never be quenched, while still calling hell "separation from God."

WORTH CORRECTINGHis later musing that hell's fire may be a thirst for God is commonly read as a step toward annihilationism or universalism. It concerned what the fire is, not whether the punishment is conscious or ends.

He told us that it is a place where we have consciousness and the use of our faculties."Billy Graham: We Must Talk About Hell", sermon (©1956 BGEA), Decision online

In a 1969 Billy Graham Minute Christ returns to "set up a kingdom of righteousness," and an unofficial copy of Storm Warning (1992) has the King returning "to rule upon the earth" because believers "cannot change the world into the kingdom." That rules out the postmillennial stance, but it does not by itself decide between premillennial and amillennial, and no passage in his own voice using "millennium" or "thousand years" was found. The premillennial stance is assigned from the standard historical account of his eschatology, from training knowledge and not checked against a named biography or a primary source; World Aflame (1965) and Approaching Hoofbeats (1983) are where a quotation would most likely be found.