Ottawa Sun
Billy Graham is in town, and I'd like him to answer some questions for me.
Questions from one who wants to be a believer, is, I believe, a believer,
but one also tossed by confusion, and no doubt, some ignorance.
Questions that have long knawed away at me.
I can think of no better person to ask than Billy Graham.
I can not imagine anyone, Christian or non-Christian, believer in God or non-believer in God, who could not respect Billy Graham for his inherent goodness and decency and honesty, his unswerving devotion to his faith.
When you consider the smarmy, opportunistic, phony, crooker, money-grubbing evangelists plying their trade on television and the revival circuit in the "name of Jee-suss," Billy Graham stands tall and incandescent above them.
Billy Graham, I suspect, comes closer than anyone to embodying the true values of Jesus Christ, and I have questions, and my questions for Billy Graham are these:
(a) Other than your biblical faith, how do you know with certainty there is a God? What is your hard proof?
(b) What is "God" to you? Why do you say God is a God of love? Define God? Is God not maybe just some mysterious, non-secular, invisible force; the soul of the universe?
(c) How can you or anyone say for certain there is life after death? What is your hard proof? No one has been there and come back to tell us. Scientists have said those who have experienced "after life" experiences - golden tunnel and the like - came back because they didn't really die; they experienced a chemical reaction in the brain.
(d) Do you believe in a Hell? What is your definition of Hell? How "bad" must one be to go there? Bad bad? Bad? Or a little bad? Define "bad" in terms of going to Hell.
(e) If God answers prayers, why doesn't he answer all of them?
(f) Surely God has better things to do than listen to an athlete's prayer for victory. And, if a batter credits God fo the winning home run, did He have it in for the pitcher? Isn't all this a misuse of God?
(g) How pure of thought and deed does God expect a believer to be; how "perfect?"
(h) To what extent is belief in God responsible for the good things that happen to us in life? Even non-believers have experienced good fortunes.
(i) If God is a God of love, whyis there such human tragedy in life?
(j) Is the lone survivor of a plane crash right to credit God for saving him or her when all the other passengers died? Did God have it in for them?
(k) If God "speaks" to us, as you say, how does he speak to us? A real voice? I've not heard Him yet. What is that voice? Define it.
(l) If God gave us the sense of humour we have, is there anything wrong with funny, tasteful God jokes? Can God not laugh at jokes that are on Him?
(m) Did Jesus have a sense of humor? Did he not tell jokes, double over laughing a something or other? Why is it we never see paintings of Jesus laughing His head off? Can one not still love, respect and worship Jesus, and yet tell funny, tasteful Jesus jokes? Can Jesus not laugh at jokes that are on him? Is it possible he uttered an expletive after stabbing his toe?
(n) What was the closest you, personally, ever came to doubting the existence of the God you believe in; of questioning your Christian faith?
(o) If people bring, as you ask, Jesus into their lives, what exactly does it mean? How, in practical terms, is it done? How do you know absolutely that he's in there? Anyone can ask it, say it; how do you do it and know it?
(p) Non-believers can be be good, decent, caring, and compassionate; why do they need to embrace God and Jesus?
(q) What are your worse personal faults that make you, Billy Graham, less than an ideal Christian in the eyes of Jesus?
(q) And finally, has there been any one human being in the last 2,000 years - excluding Jesus' disciples - who, in your opinion, has come the closest to embodying all of the perfection and ideals of Jesus? Who?