Evangelist Franklin Graham on Monday warned religious broadcasters and the broader Christian world about a bleak future for society, but encouraged them to stand firmly on God’s Word.
“There’s a storm coming, and we’ve all got to be prepared,” said Graham, the president of Samaritan’s Purse and the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association.
Graham delivered the keynote address on the opening day of the National Religious Broadcasters convention in Orlando, Fla., saying that “every demon from hell” has been "turned loose" in the culture. Fox News reported on Graham’s speech.
“The world has deteriorated so quickly,” he said. “We cannot be deceived and we can’t be fooled. We need to get ready and be prepared.”
The National Religious Broadcasters is an organization of Christian media professionals who are “united by purpose and message: to spread the life-changing truth of the Gospel of Jesus Christ through every electronic medium available,” according to the NRB website.
Companies want to silence Christians, Graham said.
“We're living in a cancel culture, and [big corporations] want to destroy Christian organizations,” he said, according to Fox News. “They want us to shut our mouths. They don’t want to hear from us.”
Those who don’t “talk about sin” or “preach the gospel,” he said, have nothing to worry about. But if Christians try to proclaim the gospel, he said, “they're going to try to shut you up.”
Even so, Christians must not be silent about the truth, Graham said.
“Don’t apologize for the gospel. Just declare it, just preach it.”
Graham urged believers to take comfort in God’s power and peace. He told the story from Matthew 8:23-27 of Jesus calming the wind and waves. One of the disciples in that passage asked, “What kind of man is this that can control the wind and waves?” Graham reminded the audience.
“We cannot back up, we can’t retreat,” Graham said.
Photo credit: ©Getty Images/Drew Angerer/Staff
Michael Foust has covered the intersection of faith and news for 20 years. His stories have appeared in Baptist Press, Christianity Today, The Christian Post, the Leaf-Chronicle, the Toronto Star and the Knoxville News-Sentinel.
