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August 14, 2009
Franklin Graham:
Minister of Christ or Priest of Baal?
"And
they cried aloud, and cut themselves after their manner with knives and
lancets, till the blood gushed out upon them." 1 Kings 18:28
Click
here for a PDF of
this article. |
Less than a week ago, as I am writing this
article, I, and members of our Pilgrims Covenant Church, spent over five
hours "without the camp" preaching the gospel of Christ and
bearing biblical witness against a carnal monstrosity called "Rock
the River." This event was one of four staged in Mississippi River
cities by the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association. As of now,
approximately 90,000 young people have been "ministered" to at
the three Rock the River events that have already taken place. Rock the
River is the proud brainchild of BGEA president/CEO Franklin Graham, who
also briefly preached the Graham gospel several times during each of the six
to seven hour "Christian" rock concerts. Mr. Graham was very
open about his reason for making use of head-banging rock, hip-hop, and
even a mosh pit set up by BGEA. "We're just changing the lure. Kids today love
rock music. We're giving them the music they like and understand" (Quad
City Times, Aug. 9, 2009). Now, much could, and should, be said
about using sensual, in some cases even sexualized, rock bands to
"lure" young people into hearing the gospel according to
Franklin Graham. The same is true of Graham's open collusion with Roman
Catholics in the planning of Rock the River. But on the August
14th "Heart of the Matter" program I dealt
with those issues in depth.
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A "Christian"
drummer plies
his trade during Rock the River. |
What I want to very briefly address
here, or perhaps even just report on, is Franklin Graham's notion of
what is worship acceptable to the Lord. The Scriptures have much to say
on that very issue, for instance: "Give unto the LORD the glory due
unto his name; worship the LORD in the beauty of holiness" (Ps.
29:2) and "God is greatly to be feared in the assembly of the
saints, and to be had in reverence of all them that are about him"
(Ps. 89:7). But apparently Mr. Graham holds the same philosophy as his
rock-and-roll followers, including two young women I interviewed at the
Rock the River event at which we ministered in Davenport on Saturday,
August 8. After our time of preaching, passing out tracts, and holding
signs, I assumed my Christian media identity and conducted an interview
with two evangelical rockers who had apparently not come past my side of
the large area where our three separate teams were witnessing. With
pounding, ear-splitting music as the backdrop, I brought up that the
Scriptures command that the Lord be worshiped with reverence and also "in
the beauty of holiness." I asked them if Rock the River music fits
that description. The young women confidently explained to me that
"it depends on who you are as a person. Like, some people love
this. And you have to worship as you do, and they have to worship as
they do." But I asked again, "Is this music reverent?"
Again, the god "I" was put forward as the ultimate authority
in such matters. "I think it's awesome . . . I think it's perfect .
. . I think for them that's reverent. For you it might be different . .
. for them it's how they get it all out." Reverence, I was told, is
different for everyone. And what of holiness? "I think it's how you
view it."
Such is the ignorance and such are the resulting beliefs that allow, and
seduce, young evangelicals into the "Christian" rock culture
which is anything but Christian and into a worship of God which is
really a frenzied, heathenish worship of another christ, with another
gospel preached, and all of this by another spirit, not the Holy Spirit
(2 Corinthians 11:4). But now consider Franklin Graham's canned
media comment, fed to reporters at Rock the River towns and posted on
the BGEA website: "As we head up the Mississippi River . . . we
will be going against the currents of secularism, postmodernism, and the
godless culture in which we live."
Sure. And evil is good and good is evil. And one bright day in the
middle of the night, two dead boys got up to fight. Back to back they
faced each other . . . etc.
But rather than risk reader fatigue, I will
not attempt to describe in depth the ungodly looking characters and
music Graham made use of to fight those evils he just mentioned. I will
simply ask readers to go to the links provided at the bottom of this
page and get a taste of it themselves. Suffice it to say, I am of the
opinion that long-haired, ear-ringed men--in some cases wearing eye
makeup--and sexualized, screaming, even growling women pumping out
ear-splitting, demonic-sounding music while gyrating, writhing, and
slamming around in front of immodestly dressed, crowd surfing, moshing,
screaming fans is hardly the antithesis of "the godless culture in
which we live."
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This picture of "Superchick"
was posted
on the official Billy Graham web site
to promote Rock the
River. |
By the way, for those of you who do not know
what crowd surfing is, that is when a rock fan is passed overhead from
fan to fan--actually from hand to intimate hand. In fact, those who have a
strong stomach can see on one of the links provided a young lady being
passed around at Rock the River while a wild woman "Christian"
singer wails and a very long-haired "man" guitar player flings
himself around like a whirling dervish. Another video clip shows
the same woman singer make guttural sounds, driving the crowd into
even more of a frenzy. This band appeared to be a real crowd
pleaser, but they were certainly not out of the ordinary among Rock the
River bands.
There was no attempt whatsoever to ban or
stop the crowd surfing at Graham's Rock the River events. But I suppose
that too could be considered a lure to bring in young men for that
"awesome" moment when Graham counts all the hands to signify a
"decision for Christ"--like the young Catholic woman who wrote
on her blog that she and her friend raised their hands for fun because
they were so bored by Graham's preaching!
And then there was the mosh pit which BGEA, at Graham's direction, set
up in front of the stage at each Rock the River concert. Young people
who wanted to mosh to the frenzied music were invited into the pit to
enjoy themselves. Simply put, people mosh by physically slamming
themselves into each other and trying to throw each other to
the ground. A dictionary definition puts it this way: "to engage in
a form of frenzied, violent dancing; slam-dance."
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Another Rock
the River "Christian"
band.
"The shew of their countenance
doth witness against them . .
."
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Now at this juncture I want to make very, very clear what Franklin
Graham made abundantly clear in the media, what his performers made
clear over and over from the stage in our hearing, and what Rock the
River fans insisted to us repeatedly with absolutely no shame. What I
have been describing--the music, the body surfing, and the moshing--was
all said to be worshiping the Lord and praising Him!
Before I close with a conclusion, please allow me to add a little
information on the subject of moshing at Rock the River. I will first
repeat, the mosh pit was set up by the BGEA. It was set up to be used
during the "worship" time, when the "Christian"
bands were playing. In fact, consider this from the BGEA web site
"real-time updates from Rock the River in Quad Cities":
"And now Fireflight's out, bringing their female-fronted heavy
alternative rock. . . . the audience of thousands is loving it! Kids of
all ages and stripes are out here, moshing as one." Further, the
official Rock the River Facebook page, run by BGEA personnel, was happy
to have testimonies such as these posted:
Brook
i got kicked in the face by a crowd surfer when flyleaf was playing =D
yes I'm proud of that
July 20 at 2:22pm
Haley
Omg it was amazing i just got home....my neck hurts so bad from
headbanging....omg wish i could c them all again!
August 2 at 10:50pm
Heather
I just got home from it i took amazing pics cause i was n the pit n
the very front row i got smashed during flyleaf and kicked n the face
also ill have a black eye 2morrow but it was all worth it i was a
counselor and 1 of the people i talked 2 got saved and that was all
GODS doing not mine so PRAY 4 ALL THE PEOPLE WHO MADE DECISON on
augest 2nd
August 3 at 12:39am
Jayde
omg! this girl was crowd surfing and she fell and broke her neck! me
and shelby saw her. she looked pretty bad. praying for her.
Yesterday at 8:12pm · Report
Ah yes, and all for the glory of God, done
with reverence and in the beauty of holiness. This is called "going
against the currents of . . . the godless culture in which we
live." Such is the witness of "Christian" worship also
set forth, compliments of Franklin Graham, to the world on the Internet
and in the print media. Consider these quotes from "Christian"
moshers in an excerpt from a Louisiana newspaper, The Advocate.
Will Dover, 19, of Lafayette, was celebrating his
birthday, and danced so hard he could barely stand by the end of the
set. "I like this stripped-down version of Christianity,"
Dover said. "I like to just scream for Jesus."
Andrew Reinhardt, 17, also of Lafayette, said he was
there with his Asbury United Methodist Church youth group. "I
like to throw down in the name of Jesus."
John Ervin, 15, of Walker, was there with his church youth group,
Walker Baptist. "I like to throw down with these guys I just met.
I'm a mosher."
Farther back in the crowd, Emmanuel Stewart, 14, and
Chris Schultz, 21, were waiting for Mary Mary to take the stage at
around 6:30 p.m. "This is a good time to get out and worship with
all these people," Schultz said."
Now, I need to get to that conclusion I mentioned.
Franklin Graham considers himself a preacher of the gospel, a minister
of God. But I ask the reader, in fact, I challenge the whole Christian
church to judge righteous judgment by the Scriptures. True ministers of
the Lord Jesus Christ do not facilitate, promote, and encourage crude,
frenzied, sexualized, even violent worship as acceptable to the Lord.
No, just the contrary. It is the heathens who have always worshipped
their false gods in that very way. Certainly the priests of Baal on Mt.
Carmel come immediately to mind as one example. So my conclusion then is
that Franklin Graham is no minister of Christ; rather he is a minister
of Baal and ought to be exposed, rebuked, and resisted for the glory of
God and the good of His church.
--Pastor Ralph Ovadal, Pilgrims
Covenant Church, Monroe, Wisconsin, www.pccmonroe.org
Disclaimer: The video clips shown in the links below
are on YouTube. The video segments themselves were provided to me for
viewing. I am not a YouTube user but suspect those who visit it must
keep in mind that no doubt there are things on it that no Christian
should view.
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