In the name of 'Jesus'?

The horrid theology of Billy Graham can be found page after page in his 2013 book, “The Reason for My Hope: Salvation.”

He writes, “Who said that becoming a Christian was easy? It certainly was not for Jesus. Going to the cross for us was no easy task for Him—it cost Him His life’s blood. Being resurrected was no easy happening—it took a miracle. ‘Easy believism’ is an insult to the ultimate sacrifice Jesus made for us. The reward of His shed blood was the saving of lost souls.

“Today people are charmed by the love of God without realizing the curse of God’s judgment. Multitudes claim to follow Jesus but curse the changes He demands. The Bible says, ‘Now by this we know that we know Him, if we keep His commandments. He who says, ‘I know Him,’ and does not keep his commandments is a liar and the truth is not in him’ (I John 2: 3-4).”

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I will write more about this tomorrow—feeling super under the weather today with a cold and stomach trouble. In the meantime, here’s an old article that came to mind reading Graham:

With Christians who go on about "Jesus this" and "Jesus that," you wonder if they're aware that in the Bible, the only people who personally addressed the Lord Jesus Christ just as Jesus were unbelievers.

In the Four Gospels, it was actually Christ's enemies who addressed Him personally as Jesus. There are only two times when any of His disciples ever talked to Him using just Jesus, and in both instances, they were acting like unbelievers.

Jesus Christ's full name is the Lord Jesus Christ. Usually, you'll see it in the Bible as Jesus Christ or Christ Jesus.

With the use of the name Jesus Christ, the emphasis is on His person, but it's coupled with the fact that He's not just a person who came to earth into humiliation, but He’s God.

With the name Christ Jesus, the emphasis is not on His person, but on His office, or the position that He holds.

In Matthew 8:28, Christ is at Gadara casting out the demons when it says he met "two possessed with devils" who cried out, "What have we do to with thee, Jesus, thou Son of God? art thou come hither to torment us before the time?"

These two, rather than exalting Christ, were addressing Him in such a way to try and bring Him down to their level.

As my pastor, Richard Jordan (Shorewood Bible Church, Rolling Meadows, Ill.) explains it, "They know and understand who He is—the Son of God—but you can see the contempt they have for Him. They're not talking about Him like they love Him."

There are other times in the Gospels when the name Jesus isn't used in contempt but in association with His rejection. When you see a disciple doing it, for instance, it indicates a lack of faith; a stepping back to the position of an unbeliever because of a loss of confidence in Him as the Messiah.

An example of this is in Luke 24:15-19 when Jesus Christ appears after His resurrection to the Emmaus disciples. The passage reads,

"And it came to pass, that, while they communed together and reasoned, Jesus himself drew near, and went with them.
"But their eyes were holden that they should not know him.
"And he said unto them, What manner of communications are these that ye have one to another, as ye walk, and are sad?
"And the one of them, whose name was Cleopas, answering said unto him, Art thou only a stranger in Jerusalem, and hast not known the things which are come to pass therein these days?
"And he said unto them, What things? And they said unto him, Concerning Jesus of Nazareth, which was a prophet mighty in deed and word before God and all the people:"

Especially in the Book of Acts, the name "Jesus of Nazareth" is consistently used in association with Christ's humiliation—His rejection.

"There's something about the Crosswork, there's something about Him coming to be rejected and to die in humiliation—what He did as Jesus Christ—that they couldn't figure out," explains Jordan. "It's something God had planned all along but only revealed it to and through the Apostle Paul, because had it been previously known they wouldn't have crucified the Lord of glory.

"That name that was once associated with His humiliation has forever been linked with the Crosswork and the Cross today is the source of all of His glory, and all of His wisdom. That secret has been made known."

As Paul writes so masterfully in Phil. 2:9-11,

"Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus: Who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God:
"But made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men:
"And being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross.
"Wherefore God also hath highly exalted him, and given him a name which is above every name:
"That at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth;
"And that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father."

Editor's Note:

One of the quickest ways you know to be suspicious of all the modern Bible translations (which come from a different line of Greek text than the Received Text of the King James Bible) is to see how many times the title "Lord" is omitted.

Even in the New King James Version, the title has been left out 66 times.

In Gail Riplinger's book, "New Age Bible Versions," she points out how frequently the word "Lord" is missing from the New International Version and how one of its translators, Dr. Edwin Palmer, actually wrote a book arguing there are only a few texts that prove the deity of Christ.

Riplinger complains what a ludicrous thing for anyone to suggest when there are hundreds of times in the Bible in which Christ is called Lord. The guy obviously doesn't get it that the Bible's references to Christ as the Lord Jesus are, indeed, statements about His deity.

"When you say 'the Lord Jesus Christ,' you're saying 'Jehovah,' " says my pastor. "He's the Supreme One. He's the one who owns the whole shooting match."