Mass Hypnotist Passes
This guy hypnotized millions of people with a shallow promise made from statements in the New Testament. This is from NPR.
'America's Pastor' Billy Graham Dies At 99
Billy Graham, the most famous minister of his era, died Wednesday at his home in Montreat, N.C., spokesman Todd Shearer tells NPR. In his 99 years, Graham changed the face of evangelical Christianity in America.
Though he spent his final years in failing health and largely silent at his mountaintop cabin in North Carolina, Graham for more than six decades was in constant motion. He preached to more than 200 million people in 185 countries, counseled presidents, and led mass religious rallies that featured professional musicians and huge choirs, in venues ranging from a circus tent in Los Angeles to Yankee Stadium in New York.
His influence as a moral and spiritual leader in 20th century America was such that one historian said Billy Graham could confer "acceptability on wars, shame on racial prejudice, desirability on decency, dishonor on indecency, and prestige on civic events."
Graham's fame and popularity, however, derived first from his passionate preaching style, which was partly a product of his upbringing.
He grew up milking cows and pitching hay on his family farm just outside Charlotte, N.C.. His parents were pious Presbyterians who led their children in prayer before every meal and insisted that they learn a new Bible verse each day.
As a boy, Billy did not rebel against that religious discipline, but he was soon attracted to a more raucous form of worship. After attending a few outdoor revival meetings, he decided his Christian calling was to be a Bible-waving preacher like the ones who came through Charlotte in pursuit of lost souls. He subsequently left Presbyterianism to affiliate with the Southern Baptist denomination.
In his determination to replicate the evangelical style, Graham read the sermons of notable preachers and then practiced delivering them himself. According to his biographer William Martin, Graham regularly closed himself in a tool shed and "preached to oil cans and lawnmowers. Or he paddled a canoe to a lonely spot on the river and called on snakes and alligators and tree stumps to repent of their sins and accept Jesus."
After graduating from Wheaton College in Illinois, where he met his future wife Ruth, Graham led a Baptist congregation in a Chicago suburb, but he didn't stay there long. Congregational work was not for him. He wanted to reach a bigger audience, and he had the preaching talent to do so.
His big break came in 1949, when Graham led what he called "a tent campaign" of revival meetings in Los Angeles. Roaming the stage, chopping the air with his hands, and speaking alternately fast and slow, he electrified his audiences.
"The Lord Jesus Christ can be received, your sins forgiven, your burdens lifted, your problems solved, by turning your life over to him," Graham shouted, before leading the crowd in prayer.
Originally scheduled for three weeks, the Los Angeles meetings were so popular that the organizers extended them to eight weeks. More than 350,000 people are said to have attended the services, in part because of favorable press coverage that came on the orders of newspaper publisher William Randolph Hearst. After hearing Graham preach, Hearst sent a two-word instruction to his editors: "Puff Graham."
Before long, he was famous around the country. His wife thought he was too loud and too theatrical, but in mid-century America it was a style that worked. As a handsome, blue-eyed young preacher, he projected wholesomeness and charisma. He could command the stage, and his delivery proved perfect for radio and television.
The evangelists who preceded Graham had a mainly regional appeal, whether in the South or the North, but Graham was known as "America's Pastor." During a four-month long "crusade" in New York City, more than two million people came to hear him in various venues, including Madison Square Garden. Each service ended with Graham urging people to come forward, stand before him, and dedicate their lives to Christ as a 1000-voice choir sang, "Just As I Am, Without One Plea," the hymn that served as his anthem.
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Question is, has he entered into the kingdom of Jesus Christ? -
Here is the question he could be asking himself though:
As one of the 8 richest pastors in America, worth $25 million today; what can he really get with that right now?
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Do not underestimate the value of fame. The instinct to get it is strong in material nature and perhaps it has some great value which could be cashed out here and hereafter.
King Indradyumna faded from heaven when his fame ran out on earth, when nobody knew whom he was or what he did. He was told by the supernatural people that if he could rekindle his fame, he could resume the stay in heaven. His astral body lowered to the plane in which humans dream. There he questioned people as to if they heard of or recognized him. Eventually he went to Markandeya who could not recall him. The yogi mentioned an elderly crane who mentioned an much elderly owl which mentioned a turtle, all being elder to the other. The turtle remembered the king because the turtle lived in a lake which was dug out by the king a long time ago. Once that turtle stated this, Indradyumna returned to heaven.
The point is that maybe this preacher has some wealth in the form of fame which would support his stay in heaven for some time to come. He also has tons of piety because of influencing people to tow the moral line as per his Christian beliefs.
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Thank you. Very important and humbling consideration.
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Question is, has he entered into the kingdom of Jesus Christ?
To be consistent with the New Testament, the question would be:
Has he entered the kingdom of the father of Jesus Christ?
This is because according to the scripture the kingdom of Jesus Christ is yet to be established on earth, when Jesus Christ is supposed to return to the earth and rule as the king of the earth at Jerusalem.
In the meantime there is a heaven where Jesus’s father rules, as per the Father, Son and Holy Ghost. In such a heaven there are people like Jesus as sub-rulers and also leading angels, archangels and ordinary angels.
Will Billy Graham go to the heaven of the father of Jesus?
If we take Christianity at face value, then we would have to conclude that he did otherwise the whole protestant version of Christianity would be invalid. Its promises would be empty in delivering the faithful to the said heaven.
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My opinion about his destination does not take into account the Christian ideas but rather what I explained about birth and rebirth in my books especially in the book sex you!
He is a moral leader and a charismatic overlord but one who is stuck in the material world. He will again take birth as somebody’s embryo and will again corral people but it may be in some other religion, could be Hindu, Islam or Buddhism or he might begin something afresh.
He will be confronted by many Christians once he is stuck with just an astral body because they will explain to him that they accepted Jesus as the one and only savior as he said and still they did not go to heaven but found themselves in a dreamy astral existence hereafter and did not see the Glorious Christ as he said they would if they followed his advice.
He will be baffled trying to explain his way out of this and will as a result become an astral recluse hiding from people so that he cannot be reached. After some time he will take rebirth with intentions not to do the same thing again.
This also means that he will have to accept the reactions which are coming to him from material nature in his next birth. Such reactions are good and bad, positive and negative. For instance he will have tons of money flowing to him in his next birth. Everywhere he goes he will be known again and that will be a problem for him because it will mean that he has much responsibility and social involvement which on occasion will become a handicap for him.
He will have serious problems with certain women in the astral world hereafter and also in the next life because he will find that their emotional energy is directed to him in a way whereby he cannot match it. For instance in this life, his influence caused many men to marry by Christian rites where such women hoped for romantic perfection and where they did not get that. These persons will seek him out astrally for explanations about what happened and also to find out why their vows panned out either during the earthly life or as soon as it was finished.
He will also find that there is much energy from certain females who were attracted to him but who could not fulfill the attraction because of the moral restrictions in religion and society. He will be confronted astrally by their energy and will be in a fix on how to deal with it.
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