Billy Graham and Jonathan Edwards

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How very interesting! Despite my strong theological differences with his Arminianism, I honor the sacrifice and commitment of Billy Graham. One of most interesting experiences came during a tour of the Billy Graham Center at Wheaton College. In one room, they have BG's traveling pulpit on display. Nobody was in the room, so I stood behind it and gripped the sides. If you want to feel very, very small and insignificant, try it when you are near Wheaton, IL.

It reminds me of the anecdote about the proud young man who boldly stepped into the pulpit, failed miserably, and left in utter humility and humiliation. A listener to the sermon supposdedly noted that if he had come in to the pulpit the way he went out, he would have come out the way he went in. If Billy Graham would have stuck closer to the script of Jonathan Edwards during his ministry, he might not have wandered into some of his more questionable public affirmations and denials in recent years.
 
The questioning of Billy Graham has been one of my adjustments to Reformed thinking. I am working on a blog entry on questions I still have about Calvinism and Reformed thinking.
 
If the link is the sermon Billy Graham preached early in his ministry than I've listened to it. Although it's strong preaching by today's standards, I noted several times how Dr. Graham watered down the original message of Edwards. I prefer the original.
 
Just to stir the pot

Can it be said that, at least in section two where Graham streses God's mercy over his arbitrary good pleasure, that Graham improved upon Edwards' original phraseology?


By the mere Pleasure Mercy of God, I mean his sovereign Pleasure Mercy."
Here we can hear Graham emphasizing the mercy of God in a way that Edwards did not do in his rendering of Sinners. Edwards' language is of God's arbitrary pleasure, whereas Graham offers more comfort from the beginning in articulating the presence of God's mercy right off the bat
 
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