My dear readers,

Answering Remaining Questions from Calvary Pandan Church Camp 2022 (13)

Question 1: Is it "better off" to expose someone's sins after his death? In the bible there are plenty of accounts where someone's sins were exposed -- either as a learning point or a warning to us Christians. If you find out that a pastor has hidden secrets, regardless of the severity of them, is it necessary to reveal them to preserve the testimony for the living; or in the off chance that 1% of the congregation that is affected by this pastor who has been celebrated as holy will continually be stumbled if this secret is not addressed or exposed? If it isn't a pastor, does the approach change as a normal congregation member has a smaller sphere of influence?

Answer 1: It is never “better off” to expose anyone’s sins after death. The moment the person dies, there is no more opportunity to repent. If he is not a believer, he will die in his sins and find himself cast into hell. If he is a believer, and his sins are exposed after death, then the damage he did to the testimony for Christ cannot be repaired. He could have repaired it if he repented when his sins were exposed when he was alive. To be our brother’s keeper means to guard each other’s spiritual well-being. It is our God-given duty to confront and tell the person his sin while he is alive.

Ezekiel 33:1-9: “Again the word of the LORD came unto me, saying, Son of man, speak to the children of thy people, and say unto them, When I bring the sword upon a land, if the people of the land take a man of their coasts, and set him for their watchman: If when he seeth the sword come upon the land, he blow the trumpet, and warn the people; Then whosoever heareth the sound of the trumpet, and taketh not warning; if the sword come, and take him away, his blood shall be upon his own head. He heard the sound of the trumpet, and took not warning; his blood shall be upon him. But he that taketh warning shall deliver his soul. But if the watchman see the sword come, and blow not the trumpet, and the people be not warned; if the sword come, and take any person from among them, he is taken away in his iniquity; but his blood will I require at the watchman's hand. So thou, O son of man, I have set thee a watchman unto the house of Israel; therefore thou shalt hear the word at my mouth, and warn them from me. When I say unto the wicked, O wicked man, thou shalt surely die; if thou dost not speak to warn the wicked from his way, that wicked man shall die in his iniquity; but his blood will I require at thine hand. Nevertheless, if thou warn the wicked of his way to turn from it; if he do not turn from his way, he shall die in his iniquity; but thou hast delivered thy soul.”

All of us have “hidden secrets.” If “hidden secrets” means “the life-long struggle against sin,” then it is best to pray for one another. If “hidden secrets” means sins that need to be exposed because it will help the person, such as: if you witnessed a Sunday School teacher drinking alcohol knowing that he has signed a covenant to practise total abstinence, or you saw a member being affectionate with a woman who is not his wife, then it is your responsibility to help the brother to overcome his sin and return to the path of righteousness according to Scriptures. The doctrine to be one another’s keeper applies to all believers.

Question 2: Pastor says Billy Graham is not saved, according to morning message 8. Could it not be he’s being stumbled by the Devil in his final years so that all his years of works for Christ are being denied just like Lot? How do we judge his salvation?

Answer 2: The Bible reveals to us that the god of this world has blinded the minds of those who reject the gospel. 2 Corinthians 4:3-4: “But if our gospel be hid, it is hid to them that are lost: In whom the god of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them.” Sinners are still in sin as all sinners are born in sin. If they die in sin, they will be cast into hell. That is why it is important for believers to share the gospel with friends and loved ones since we know about the world they are living in and the state of sin they are in.

The devil may stumble and deceive, but he cannot force man to succumb to temptations and fall into sin. If a man ever falls into sin because he succumbed to the deception of the devil, he is not absolved from the sin. He is guilty for succumbing. This was true of Eve when she succumbed to the devil’s temptation. She pointed her fingers at the serpent when confronted by God, but she remained a sinner and was cursed by God for her sin. The serpent was punished for his sin of deception.

Lot did not deny Christ the way Billy Graham did. It is one thing to lose one’s testimony, that is his holy witness, like Lot; but it is another thing to deny that Christ is the only way to God. Such denials concerning Christ reveal what the person actually believes in from the beginning because a person who is truly born again will never deny Christ. Billy Graham is considered to be an unbeliever because of his own words of denial of certain key aspects of the gospel of God. Anyone who denies the virgin birth of Christ, or his humanity, or deity of Christ, or that Christ did not die, or did not rise from the dead, or there is no hell, cannot be born again. Whatever he did in the past, even with a doctoral in theology, or as an ordained pastor or a preacher or teacher of God's Word or an evangelist, he is not saved if he is not born again in Christ. To be born again, he has to believe in the gospel of Christ according to Holy Scriptures. Billy Graham’s denial of any of the key elements of the gospel renders him as an unbeliever. This is what the Bible teaches. Here are a few quotations of Billy Graham regarding the doctrine of salvation:

"I am far more tolerant of other kinds of Christians than I once was. My contact with Catholic, Lutheran and other leaders -- people far removed from my own Southern Baptist tradition -- has helped me, hopefully, to move in the right direction. I’ve found that my beliefs are essentially the same as those of orthodox Roman Catholics, for instance. They believe in the Virgin Birth, and so do I. They believe in the Resurrection of Jesus and the coming judgment of God, and so do I. We only differ on some matters of later church tradition." [The January 1978, issue of McCall’s magazine contained an interview with Graham by James Michael Beam. Graham admitted his change in thinking.]

"At that time [March 1950], Protestantism in New England was weak, due in part to theological differences within some denominations, the influence of Unitarian ideas in other denominations, and the strength of the Roman Catholic Church. In spite of all that, a number of Roman Catholic priests and Unitarian clergy, together with some of their parishioners, came to the meetings along with those from Evangelical churches. With my limited Evangelical background, this was a further expansion of my own ecumenical outlook. I now began to make friends among people from many different backgrounds and to develop a spiritual love for their clergy" (Graham, Just As I Am, p. 167).

"Another significant thing happened in the early ‘50s in Boston. Cardinal Cushing, in his magazine, The Pilot, put ‘BRAVO BILLY’ on the front cover. That made news all over the country. He and I became close, wonderful friends. That was my first real coming to grips with the whole Protestant/Catholic situation. I began to realize that there were Christians everywhere. They might be called modernists, Catholics, or whatever, but they were Christians" (Bookstore Journal, Nov. 1991).

We know that Roman Catholicism has not changed in its essence especially her doctrines on salvation (cf. Vatican II Council). The RC church teaches all the elements of the gospel of Christ, but she adds on her beliefs to complete the sinner’s salvation, such as the need to be baptized and to take the Holy Communion in order to be saved, among other compulsory observance of other Catholic traditions.