Billy Graham and Inclusivism
I got this transcript of a television interview (May 31, 1997) of Billy Graham by Robert Schuller from the Rumor Forum. Its interesting to here one of evangelicalism’s foremost leaders endorse a doctrine called inclusivism, which teaches that people can come to saving faith by the means of general revelation. That means one does not have to actually hear of Christ nor the bible to be “saved.”
Schuller: Tell me, what do you think is the future of Christianity?
Graham: Well, Christianity and being a true believer–you know, I think there’s the Body of Christ. This comes from all the Christian groups around the world, outside the Christian groups. I think everybody that loves Christ, or knows Christ, whether they’re conscious of it or not, they’re members of the Body of Christ. And I don’t think that we’re going to see a great sweeping revival, that will turn the whole world to Christ at any time. I think James answered that, the Apostle James in the first council in Jerusalem, when he said that God’s purpose for this age is to call out a people for His name. And that’s what God is doing today, He’s calling people out of the world for His name, whether they come from the Muslim world, or the Buddhist world, or the Christian world or the non-believing world, they are members of the Body of Christ because they’ve been called by God. They may not even know the name of Jesus but they know in their hearts that they need something that they don’t have, and they turn to the only light that they have, and I think that they are saved, and that they’re going to be with us in heaven.
Schuller: What, what I hear you saying that it’s possible for Jesus Christ to come into human hearts and soul and life, even if they’ve been born in darkness and have never had exposure to the Bible. Is that a correct interpretation of what you’re saying?
Graham: Yes, it is, because I believe that. I’ve met people in various parts of the world in tribal situations, that they have never seen a Bible or heard about a Bible, and never heard of Jesus, but they’ve believed in their hearts that there was a God, and they’ve tried to live a life that was quite apart from the surrounding community in which they lived.
Schuller: [R. S. trips over his tongue for a moment, his face beaming, then says] I’m so thrilled to hear you say this. There’s a wideness in God’s mercy.
Graham: There is. There definitely is.
Clark Pinnock pioneered this doctrine in his contraversial book A Widness in God’s Mercy that has been hotly contested for the last twenty years. Inclusivism isn’t new, however. Such beloved thinkers as CS Lewis and John Wesley held to a kind of inclusivism, though it was somewhat informal. I for one don’t teach inclusivism to be true, because I don’t see it nbeing taught in the Bible. However, I don’t rule it out simply because I have no idea how God works in places where there is no special revelation. So my unofficial stance is a maybe, but we don’t have any authority to believe it.
What do you think? Can people come to faith in Christ without ever hearing about him?
November 22nd, 2004 at 1:04 pm
It’s something that my folks personally hold to but as of yet I remain unconvinced. [What, me hold a view that differs from Pinnock and Wesley? Huh?
]
November 22nd, 2004 at 1:14 pm
An interesting story is found in Acts 19 (http://www.biblegateway.org/cgi-bin/bible?passage=ACTS+19:1-7)
It seems here that some people didn’t get the HS because they didn’t have the whole truth.
November 22nd, 2004 at 1:19 pm
Hey! Why won’t this thing let me comment?
November 22nd, 2004 at 1:21 pm
oh right now it works!
Anyway I tried earlier to say:
There is a story in Acts 19 that talks about some people not having a “saving faith” untill they understood the whole truth. Now obviously this is a story that includes brand new church type stuff and new covanent working of the HS. But it might lead somewhere.
http://www.biblegateway.org/cgi-bin/bible?passage=ACTS+19:1-7
November 22nd, 2004 at 1:22 pm
oh right now it works!
(apperently it won’t post a comment with a link in it.)
Anyway I tried earlier to say:
There is a story in Acts 19 that talks about some people not having a “saving faith” untill they understood the whole truth. Now obviously this is a story that includes brand new church type stuff and new covanent working of the HS. But it might lead somewhere.
November 22nd, 2004 at 1:50 pm
I don’t like to limit God. Who am I to say that he can’t reveal Christ to people unless some missionary comes and shares Christ? God is not limited by our human methods. I do believe that Christ is “the way, the truth, and the life, and no one comes to the father except through” him. But how God chooses to reveal Christ to people might not necessarily be how we expect. I don’t know. Maybe I’m a heathen.
November 22nd, 2004 at 1:57 pm
I don’t like to limit God, but I do think it’s important that we look at His Word:
Romans 10:13 for, “Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.” 14 How, then, can they call on the one they have not believed in? And how can they believe in the one of whom they have not heard? And how can they hear without someone preaching to them? 15 And how can they preach unless they are sent? As it is written, “How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news!”
That can’t be a favorite passage of inclusivists.
November 22nd, 2004 at 2:16 pm
Don’t be ridiculous; of course people cannot come to Christ without hearing about Him! The Bible is so crystal-clear on this that there is absolutely no way one can make a cogent argument to support this. You say that you don’t see it being taught in the Bible, which is true, but you also see it specifically refuted. Just look at the nature of revelation and you will learn all you need to know. Natural revelation condemns and it is only through special revelation that we can be saved, hence the urgency for believers to take that revelation to all the world.
November 22nd, 2004 at 2:37 pm
I think the questions is what form the special revelation takes. In America, we are accustomed to the modern evangelical system… Hear/read about Jesus, be convicted, accept Jesus. However, for someone who is illterate (like the majority of the world), or does not have access to scripture (an even healthier majority), surely God has other methods. If not, how could he hold us each accountable? Romans 10 seems to exhort us to preach the gospel, with verses 14-15 as a call to action. But I don’t think it’s conclusive on this topic.
November 22nd, 2004 at 2:41 pm
Well, some can be regenerate before being born, as in the case of John the Baptist. This is obviously a special case.
One thing you can insist on though: if someone is “saved”, even if they never heard of the name “Jesus”, it’s because of Jesus living and dying for them in particular. It cannot be based on the fact that they “believed in their hearts that there was a God, and they’ve tried to live a life that was quite apart from the surrounding community”.
November 22nd, 2004 at 2:59 pm
Tim I agree that inclusivism is not taught in the Bible. We don’t have any biblical authority to believe in it. But I don’t know how God works in unreached peoples.
Here’s a question you might want to chew on. God says that he will aquire a people from all nations. However, many nations have come and gone without ever hearing the gospel via missionary. Has God’s plan been foiled? Or a better question, was it really not his plan to make disciples of all nations?
November 22nd, 2004 at 5:13 pm
“Tim I agree that inclusivism is not taught in the Bible. We don’t have any biblical authority to believe in it. But I don’t know how God works in unreached peoples.”
The Bible tells us that He works through natural revelation to convict them. It keeps them without excuse, but does not bring them to salvation.
“God says that he will aquire a people from all nations. However, many nations have come and gone without ever hearing the gospel via missionary. Has God’s plan been foiled? Or a better question, was it really not his plan to make disciples of all nations?”
Does all mean every single nation in the history of the earth without exception? I have not studied the connotations of the word, but you wouldn’t have to look far to find the world “all” meant in a much less literal way. Interestingly, MacArthur uses that verse to promote his view that all children who die in infancy are saved.
Don’t fall into the trap of thinking that the bushman in Australia who has never heard the Gospel or even heard the name of God is somehow innocent or deserves the opportunity to hear the special revelation of God. All men are guilty and NONE deserve the change to be saved. Thanks be to God, He does choose to save some, but this does not mean it is unfair of Him not to extend this same opportunity to others.
Turn to Romans 1-3 and tell me whether Paul believed that people could be saved apart from the Gospel. What impetus would there be for us to go and evangelize if men could be saved apart from that message? Heck, we would be doing them a disservice by further condemning them before God if they then rejected that message. No, we carry the gospel message into the world as the very words of life that can make dead men come to life.
November 22nd, 2004 at 5:18 pm
I don’t understand why this is really an issue. We can voice our opinions back and forth all we want, but it still doesn’t change the fact: We have been called to take Jesus to the world. What if inclusivism is true? It doesn’t take away our responsibility to preach the Gospel. What if inclusivism isn’t true? God is still a God of mercy and grace. After all isn’t that what is really important? Satan must love it when we get distracted from what the real issue is.
November 22nd, 2004 at 6:44 pm
tim, i won’t get into this, except to say that you come at this from the point of view of one who is posing salvation as a rescue rather than as a call. salvation, scripturally, is a calling that is our salvation, not the other way around. thus, i think for us the question is not whether the gospel has reached all nation, but rather whether it has not. if we truly believe in the call of God that precedes salvation, then why not hope that the Gospel call transcends words?
November 22nd, 2004 at 6:57 pm
Well its not a missional issue, its an appologetic one. When someone asks what about the people who haven’t heard people will say that they died in sin or that they may have been saved, no one really knows.
Tim, I’m not going to be backed into a corner where I’m forced to argue for inclusivism, because 1) I agree with you, and 2) it is not biblical. I am trying to show why it is plausible in some people’s minds. I don’t know why you think I’ve fallen into a trap. The only “trap” I’ve fallen into is trying to accurately represent their thinking.
November 23rd, 2004 at 7:23 am
Wouldn’t the Reformed tenet of irresistible grace apply to those who haven’t been presented with the gospel in our western, evangelical sense just as much as anyone else? I mean, if God’s chosen you, He’s chosen you, right? And who are we to say that God hasn’t chosen a person just because a missionary hasn’t paid them a visit? I’m with Rhonda. Let’s not limit God, He can save whomever He wants however He wants. It’s not a matter of fair or unfair, as far as I’m concerned, it’s a matter of God being God and doing things that make no earthly sense. I’m certainly not an inclusivist, but I don’t think we have any right (or means by which) to say who has been saved, or who will be saved, and who has or will not.
November 23rd, 2004 at 12:43 pm
I understand Dunkin’ Donuts are irresistable as well, but in Central Iowa, there aren’t any DD stores around. Therefore, I can only assume that they are good, but not really know.
Donuts to Danishes? Perhaps. But I believe the parallel holds true in this. The thought that missions work is a dangerous waste of time flies in the face of the Great Commission, as well as Redemptive History, from Abraham to the present.
November 23rd, 2004 at 6:45 pm
I do not believe that missions work is a waste of time. It is a command that should be obeyed. That doesn’t mean that I believe it is the only way people can be saved. Jesus is the only way people can be saved.
When I was in Thailand in a very small village that we had to hike to get to…we were talking to the witch doctor. He told us about a vision that he had many years before. In this vision he was told that white men would come and that they would bring “the truth”. Years later, white men did come. They were missionaries who shared the gospel. (Interestingly enough, the witch doctor believed it was the truth, but wouldn’t accept it, because he couldn’t give up the tradition of witch doctoring in his family).
So, if God sent this vision, as I believe he could do, then could he not reveal Christ to someone in the same way? I think our western thinking can limit us and we try to fit God into that box.
December 16th, 2004 at 4:22 pm
Regarding Scripture and inclusivism, I find that two examples should give us a little caution. The first is Job. He was outside the realm of the covenant people but still had a consciousness of sin, which he attempted to assuage by making animal sacrifices. Might there have been others over the centuries who did the same? Also, Romans 2 hints that Gentiles will be judged based on their response to their conscience (outside the Law) although it must be admitted that the outcome of that judgment is not stated. Might there be many outside of the proclamation of the Gospel who have offered sacrifices in faith to the One they knew had been offended? Or should we assume that for 18 centuries God only chose white Europeans to believe and chose to destroy every other unfortunate on the planet?
December 18th, 2004 at 4:36 am
i was interested to stumble on this discussion of Inclusivism. I am a Bible-believing evangelical who accepts Inclusivism as being very biblical - more so than Exclusivism which comes from Calvinism (not that Calvin was all bad, by any means). Here is my page on Inclusivism:
http://homepage.ntlworld.com/robin.brace/1inclusivism.htm
Robin
October 7th, 2005 at 8:51 am
We are all saved by being included in the atonement of Christ. Those under the sound of the gospel must live up to the light (John 1:3-4)by repenting, believing and being repentant believers for life. Heathens who live up to the light they have received are also included in the atonement.