Franklin Graham shows that his attachment to “officialdom” is no less enthusastic than his father.
How horrendous that he would support a Communist sanctioned “church” over the True Church! And then have the gaul to say that no one should do ANY witnessing for Christ, except as sanctioned, regulated and approved by an ATHEIST COMMUNIST GOVERNMENT!
God’s Word is true time after time:
Eccelsiastes 1:9-11:
That which has been is what will be,
That which is done is what will be done,
And there is nothing new under the sun.
Is there anything of which it may be said,
“ See, this is new”?
It has already been in ancient times before us.
There is no remembrance of former things,
Nor will there be any remembrance of things that are to come
By those who will come after.
This “cowtowing” to “officialdom” at the expense of the Church is nothing new, “It has already been in ancient times before us” and “there is no rememberence of former things” by those who do it!
The son of American evangelist Billy Graham said Friday he is opposed to illegal missionary work at this summer’s Beijing Olympic Games.
Franklin Graham, also an evangelist, was speaking to reporters Friday during a visit to Beijing for meetings with the Communist Party-controlled Protestant church movement.
He said he wanted to encourage authorities to resolve conflicts with the church, but would not criticize policies that critics say limit the church’s independence and religious rights.
While some Christian groups have said they plan to proselytize during the August games, Graham said he was against that because Chinese law does not permit such actions.
“I would not support any illegal activity at all,” Graham said.
While the Protestant church has grown rapidly in China in recent years, the party maintains strict control over the official church, seminaries and individual congregations. Christians who meet in independent, unauthorized congregations — often private homes — are frequently subject to harassment and arrest.
In the most recent such report, police raided a gathering of about 40 members of the Chengdu Qiuyu Blessings Church at a resort near the southwestern city of Chengdu on May 2, New York-based Human Rights Watch reported.
Officers joined by officials of the local religious affairs bureau told the participants they were “suspected of being involved in illegal religious practices,” the group said. Members were detained for hours and photographed, and Bibles, hymnals and Bible study materials were confiscated.
Separately, three leaders of unauthorized churches in the eastern province of Shandong were detained during a Bible study group on Thursday morning, the Texas-based monitoring group, China Aid Association reported.
Among them, one pastor from Taiwan was expelled and banned from returning to China for five years as part of China’s ban on missionary work of all types.
Graham, whose mother was born in China where her father worked as a physician, said he had seen improvements in religious freedoms in the 20 years since he had been coming to the country, but said Christians in China must obey the law as they work with authorities to “resolve these areas of misunderstanding or where there is tension.”
“I think the government of China is recognizing that more and more and are seeing the value of a personal faith that people can have and so I’m here to encourage that,” Graham said.
“I’m not here to condemn, I’m here to work with them and help to build better bridges of understanding between Christians and government,” he said.
On Sunday, Graham was due to address congregants at the 6,000-seat Chong-Yi Church — China’s largest.
Graham said he sympathized with the victims of deadly rioting in Tibet last month and said he was encouraged by new talks between Beijing and Tibet’s exiled Buddhist leader, the Dalai Lama.
“Dialogue is always the best approach,” Graham said.
I heard it was Billy not Franklin. The news said Billy and other blogs are saying it is Billy. Do you have a source?
Sarah,
The source for the article was The Christian Post:
http://www.christianpost.com/article/20080510/32318_Franklin_Graham_Visits_China_Ahead_of_Olympics.htm
God Bless,
John
There seems to be some confusion then. I wonder if we could find video like on Youtube or something from one of them saying this.
I had not heard that there was confusion over who made the statements unitl you commented.
I will have to do some digging now! 🙂
God Bless,
John
I did alittle bit of digging myself and I think you are right…let me know what you come up with. I would like to post this news on my site at http://www.luvvom.blogspot.com in support of the persecuted church. I’m from a OPC and I have friends who are of the RBC. My friends are under the impression that all the underground church needs to do is register their churches and they will be free to preach…I guess Banner of Truth (whoever they are!) is telling Americans this garbage. Thanks, sarah
No missionary work during Beijing Olympics
Beijing – The son of American evangelist Billy Graham said Friday he is opposed to missionary work at this summer’s Beijing Olympic Games.
Franklin Graham, also an evangelist, was speaking to reporters Friday during a visit to Beijing for meetings with the Communist Party-controlled Protestant church movement. He said he wanted to encourage authorities to resolve conflicts with the church, but would not criticize policies that critics say limit the church’s independence and religious rights.
While some Christian groups have said they plan to proselytize during the August games, Graham said he was against that because Chinese law does not permit such actions. “I would not support any illegal activity at all,” Graham said.
While the Protestant church has grown rapidly in China in recent years, the party maintains strict control over the official church, seminaries and individual congregations. Christians who meet in independent, unauthorized congregations — often private homes — are frequently subject to harassment and arrest.
In the most recent such report, police raided a gathering of about 40 members of the Chengdu Qiuyu Blessings Church at a resort near the southwestern city of Chengdu on May 2, New York-based Human Rights Watch reported. Officers joined by officials of the local religious affairs bureau told the participants they were “suspected of being involved in illegal religious practices,” the group said. Members were detained for hours and photographed, and Bibles, hymnals and Bible study materials were confiscated.
Separately, three leaders of unauthorized churches in the eastern province of Shandong were detained during a Bible study group last Thursday morning, the Texas-based monitoring group, China Aid Association reported. Among them, one pastor from Taiwan was expelled and banned from returning to China for five years as part of China’s ban on missionary work of all types.
Graham, whose mother was born in China where her father worked as a physician, said he had seen improvements in religious freedoms in the 20 years since he had been coming to the country, but said Christians in China must obey the law as they work with authorities to “resolve these areas of misunderstanding or where there is tension.”
“I think the government of China is recognizing that more and more and are seeing the value of a personal faith that people can have and so I’m here to encourage that,” Graham said. “I’m not here to condemn, I’m here to work with them and help to build better bridges of understanding between Christians and government,” he said.
http://www.onenewsnow.com/Persecution/Default.aspx?id=113830
[…] 20, 2008 His father Billy was accused of kowtowing to the Soviets too. Franklin Graham wants to suspend evangelism activities within China during the Beijing […]
Franklin Graham Vs The Book Of Acts
As China continues its persecution of Christians, systematic abuse of human rights, and support for the genocidal regime in Burma, Franklin Graham has declared we should not offend these persecutors of our brethren by preaching the Gospel.
Until now major corporations like Yahoo, Google, and Wal-Mart have placated the Chinese government and party despite its militaristic ambitions.
Now Billy Graham Crusades have gone down the same root, saying we should not evangelize in China because the Communist Party government has said it is illegal.
In The book of Acts when preaching Christ was illegal the Apostles said ‘you must decide whether to obey God or man, we will obey God. Franklin Graham has decided to rather reject the teaching of The Word of God and obey man. This does not surprise us. Franklin’s father Billy compromised the gospel long ago placing converts into non-Evangelical churches, he went down the ecumenical road, and the disclosed Nixon tapes prove that Billy is very clearly anti-Semitic. His former senior adjutant Leighton Ford has compromised with multi-faith apostasy teaching ‘preach the gospel, but don’t think we only have the whole truth’. Now Franklin Graham, turning his back on thwe persecuted underground church in China, has once again publicly displayed what a phony backslidden sham Builly Graham Crusades are and indeed have been for some years.
http://www.moriel.org/pfp/discernment/church_issues/franklin_graham_china.htm