Franklin Graham - The Name

The Name

OTHER BOOKS BY FRANKLIN GRAHAM

Rebel with a Cause
Miracle in a Shoebox
Living Beyond the Limits

The Name

Franklin
GRAHAM
WITH
BRUCE NYGREN

Copyright 2002 by Franklin Graham

All rights reserved. Written permission must be secured from the publisher to use or reproduce any part of this book, except for brief quotations in critical reviews or articles.

Published in Nashville, Tennessee, by Thomas Nelson, Inc.

Scripture quotations noted NKJV are from THE NEW KING JAMES VERSION.
Copyright 1979, 1980, 1982, Thomas Nelson, Inc., Publishers.

Scripture quotations noted NIV are from THE HOLY BIBLE: NEW
INTERNATIONAL VERSION . Copyright 1973, 1978, 1984, by International
Bible Society. Used by permission of Zondervan Publishing House. All rights
reserved.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Graham, Franklin, 1952
The name / Franklin Graham
p. cm.
ISBN 0-7852-6522-8 (hc)
ISBN 0-7852-6080-3 (sc)
ISBN 0-7852-6361-6 (ie)
1. Jesus ChristName. 2. Names in the Bible. I. Title.
BT590.N2 G73 2002
232dc

2002008318

Printed in the United States of America

04 05 06 07 08 PHX 5 4 3 2 1

To the late Dr. Roy W. Gustafson,
a longtime friend and associate
and a man who made a profound impact on my life.
He was a great counselor and friend.

CONTENTS

The Name

BLASTING THE
NAME

C hristianity is a religion for losers, said one famous American billionaire.

Organized religion is a sham and a crutch for weak-minded people who need strength in numbers, said a famous American politician.

It makes no sense! What drives two such otherwise intelligent, motivated, and successful men to publicly slam the followers of the greatest Name in history?

The wealthy man founded a television network, owns two sports teams, and several ranches in the United States. He is an outstanding yachtsman who once won sailings prestigious Americas Cup. Time magazine once selected him Man of the Year, and he is generous in supporting favorite charities and causes. Even though he may apologize later, this man has a habit of bashing Christians. Why does a brilliant man like Ted Turner go out of his way to blast believers loyal to the Name?

Then theres the politician. As a young man, he valiantly served his country as a Navy SEAL. Later he made a name for himself as a professional wrestler and actor. He has served as a volunteer for organizations like the Make a Wish Foundation. His entry into politics was as the mayor of a large suburb adjoining a major American city. In 1998, he shocked the political world with his election as a third-party candidate to the governors chair. With so many outstanding credits to his name, why does Governor Jesse Ventura of the great state of Minnesota say that religion is just for the weak-minded?

In recent times it has almost become a requirement for the sophisticated and intelligent to take a swipe at the nearest Christian. A recent magazine article explained how to many of the culturally elite, the enemy of civilization is not terrorism but instead religious believers of all types, including orthodox Jews and Christians.

Some years ago, I remember hearing how the then secretary-general of the United Nations, U Thant, spoke openly of his beliefs. On one occasion he said, I ever believe that the mark of a truly educated and imaginative person facing the twenty-first century is that he feels himself to be a planetary being. Perhaps my own Buddhist upbringing has helped me more than anything else to realize and to express in my speeches and writings this concept of world citizenship. As a Buddhist I was trained to be tolerant of everything except intolerance. A friend told me that he once heard U Thant say publicly that all he had he owed to Buddha.

I have no problem with allowing any person to express his or her views on their personal faiththis being one of the freedoms we enjoy in America. Can you imagine, though, the outrage that would occur today if someone in a similar position spoke as candidly about personal Christian faith?

Maybe we should not be so shocked; people have been taking potshots at Jesus for more than twenty centuries. Even one who was to become an ardent disciple started out as a skeptic. When Nathaniel first heard about the remarkable young Carpenter from down the road, his response was, Can anything good come out of Nazareth? Nietzsche was so hostile that he wrote a book entitled The Antichrist in which he said:

I condemn Christianity; I bring against the Christian Church the most terrible of all the accusations that an accuser has ever had in his mouth... The Christian Church has left nothing untouched by its depravity; it has turned every value into worthlessness, and every truth into a lie, and every integrity into baseness of soul.

Others have been more or less acidic, but still critical. Mark Twain, with typical biting wit, said: If Christ were here now there is one thing he would not bea Christian.

In the twentieth century, the twin evils of Nazism and Communism produced some of the Names most venomous foes. Adolf Hitler, who was a philosophic disciple of his fellow German Nietzsche, had some demented words of his own to describe Christians:

We are fighting against the most ancient curse that humanity has brought upon itself. We are fighting against the perversion of our soundest instincts. Ah, the God of the deserts, that crazed, stupid, vengeful Asiatic despot with his powers to make laws! That poison with which both Jews and Christians have spoiled and soiled the free, wonderful instincts of man and lowered them to the level of doglike fright.

Hitler, along with Lenin, Stalin, and Mao, denounced Christianity in advancing his demonic schemes and atheistic Communist propaganda.

Even entertainers join the bashing. John Lennon of the Beatles made big waves when he said, Christianity will go. It will vanish and shrink. I neednt argue with that; Im right and I will be proved right. Were more popular than Jesus now: I dont know which will go firstrock and roll or Christianity.

Today, the Beatles have dispersed. Members of the band have stepped through the portals of eternity to stand before God in heaven. Overwhelmingly, though, the Name of Jesus and what He taught and didand insisted His followers docontinue to transform lives.

The Apostle Peter reminds all believers: If you are insulted because of the name of Christ, you are blessed, for the Spirit of glory and of God rests on you... If you suffer as a Christian, do not be ashamed, but praise God that you bear that name.

Historian Philip Schaff described the overwhelming influence that Jesus had on subsequent history and culture of the world:

This Jesus of Nazareth, without money and arms, conquered more millions than Alexander, Caesar, Mohammed, and Napoleon; without science... he shed more light on things human and divine than all philosophers and scholars combined; without the eloquence of schools, he spoke such words of life as were never spoken before or since, and produced effects which lie beyond the reach of orator or poet; without writing a single line, he set more pens in motion, and furnished themes for more sermons, orations, discussions, learned volumes, works of art, and songs of praise than the whole army of great men of ancient and modern times.

One of the great military geniuses of all time, Napoleon I, wrote:

I know men; and I tell you that Jesus Christ is not a man. Superficial minds see a resemblance between Christ and the founders of empires, and the gods of other religions. That resemblance does not exist. There is between Christianity and whatever other religions the distance of infinity... Everything in Christ astonishes me... I search in vain in history to find the similar to Jesus Christ, or anything which can approach the Gospel. Neither history, nor humanity, nor the ages, nor nature, offer me anything with which I am able to compare it or to explain it.