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Post from Franklin Graham
Posted: Sun Feb 21, 2016 4:56 pm
by Sstavix
A friend of mine shared this quote from Franklin Graham (one of evangelist Billy Graham's sons). It made a lot of sense to me, and I thought I'd share it here!
Franklin Graham wrote:There has been a lot of talk the last couple of days about what it means to be Christian. Simply put, a Christian is a person who is a follower of Jesus Christ. I was 22 years old when I asked God to forgive me of my sins and I put my faith and trust in His Son Jesus Christ. I invited Jesus into my heart and turned my life over to Him—and I’ve been following Him ever since.
Being a Christian has nothing to do with being a Presbyterian or a Baptist or a Catholic—religion can’t save you. You have to confess your sins, turn from your sins, and believe in Jesus Christ, who took your sins to the cross, died, was buried, and God raised Him from the grave. That’s the Good News, that’s the Gospel. The Bible says, “This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins” (1 John 4:10).
God’s Word promises, “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness” (1 John 1:9).
One line that I found particularly interesting was "religion can't save you." When you think about it, he's right. Our churches serve as a place to worship God, but simply being a member of a church does not guarantee automatic salvation. The only thing that does is faith and dedication in Jesus Christ. After all, he said "no one gets to the Father except through me." It isn't enough just to say "I'm a Mormon," or "I'm a Baptist," or "I'm a Catholic," or whatever. Being a member of a church is a good way to learn about your place in Heavenly Father's plan, and to continue your search for enlightenment and the Truth. But it isn't enough to achieve salvation. Only dedication to Jesus can grant that.
But enough of my soapbox. What do you think?
Re: Post from Franklin Graham
Posted: Sun Feb 21, 2016 6:30 pm
by BlockHeadLewie
It's Jesus or nothing. You're right.
People do get caught up in 'ceremony' and 'religion' as well as 'acts of kindness' which are truly not the center of our lives. They project out from it. All people need to do is focus on Jesus and not everything else and everything else does tend to fall into place.
Peace!
Re: Post from Franklin Graham
Posted: Sun Feb 21, 2016 8:26 pm
by ccgr
It's spot on, thanks for sharing it!
Re: Post from Franklin Graham
Posted: Sun Feb 21, 2016 8:46 pm
by ArcticFox
Sstavix wrote:
One line that I found particularly interesting was "religion can't save you." When you think about it, he's right. Our churches serve as a place to worship God, but simply being a member of a church does not guarantee automatic salvation.
I would add a caveat to that though. Some denominations believe that Baptism is essential, and it has to be done by someone with proper authority to do so. Examples include LDS and Catholicism. If it's true that authority and Baptism are essential, then choice of denomination does have a part to play in salvation. I agree with you though that it's still the faith in Jesus Christ that saves, not simply being a member.
Re: Post from Franklin Graham
Posted: Sun Feb 21, 2016 10:45 pm
by Sstavix
ArcticFox wrote:
I would add a caveat to that though. Some denominations believe that Baptism is essential, and it has to be done by someone with proper authority to do so. Examples include LDS and Catholicism. If it's true that authority and Baptism are essential, then choice of denomination does have a part to play in salvation. I agree with you though that it's still the faith in Jesus Christ that saves, not simply being a member.
I agree with you there that some denominations - including our own - does require baptism. However, you can bet baptized into dozens of different churches. It won't really mean anything until there's that personal dedication and devotion with it. If the person refuses to accept Christ as their savior, then all baptism means is an awkward, short swim with a buddy. Salvation isn't achieved through a checklist - or, at least if there is a checklist, the one element that absolutely, unquestioningly has to be included would be a transformation of the heart, and an acceptance of Jesus as a personal savior. That's consistent no matter which denomination you belong to.
Re: Post from Franklin Graham
Posted: Mon Feb 22, 2016 1:36 am
by ArcticFox
Agreed. We really need both!
Re: Post from Franklin Graham
Posted: Sun Jul 09, 2023 1:32 pm
by Bananareader
I agree with what franklin graham posted thought that was a long time ago, but I just found another thing he posted that I think you guys might find interesting, and this is also the only place I could find to put it that makes sense, unfortunately the image link didn’t work so I had to put a normal link to where I found out about his post.
https://www.movieguide.org/say-what/fr ... raham.html