The Franklin Graham Festival will soon begin in Lubbock and the publicity continues to build for this event. Billy Graham called his meetings Crusades, but Franklin has chosen a less suitable name. In defining "festival," the dictionary uses the following words to describe its meaning, "pertaining to a feast, entertainment, merrymaking, and mirthful."

What we need today is not a Crusade, or a Festival, but a Revival. Ecumenical Evangelists no longer use that term Revival, because they are promoting something entirely different. They are promoting all denominations getting together in an ecumenical meeting, where there will be entertainment from worldly people who perform in night clubs and other sinful places. There is no real attempt to promote revival, repentance, and holy living. Of course they promote decisions, to make people feel good about themselves. Very few in Lubbock will raise a voice against this unscriptural Festival. Those who know better, will remain silent, because it will be unpopular to speak out. Some of the preachers will be afraid to say anything, because they might lose some members if they do.

What is needed today is revival. "O LORD, I have heard thy speech, and was afraid: O LORD, revive thy work in the midst of the years, in the midst of the years make known; in wrath remember mercy" (Hab. 3:2). "Wilt thou not revive us again: that thy people may rejoice in thee?" (Psa. 85:6) Not many are interested in this kind of event, because it would require strong preaching against sin, and would require repentance, prayer and separation. God will continue to judge this nation, as long as the same old religious attitude toward revival exists.

In the following article, you can see that the churches who are participating in this Festival are not united in the gospel, the doctrine of salvation, and little else. You can be Baptist, Lutheran, Presbyterian, Catholic, Nazarene, or Charismatic, and still be a leader in this Festival.

The following is being reprinted as evidence from the pages of the Lubbock Avalance-Journal.

West Texas Festival 2000 with Franklin Graham will sponsor 10 identical two-hour seminars for area ministry staff and key laity at various times and locations starting Tuesday.

Graham's appearance in Lubbock is scheduled for April 28-30 at the new United Spirit Arena on the Texas Tech campus.

Rick Cannup is executive chairman for the general festival committee. The Rev. D.L. Lowrie, pastor of Lubbock's First Baptist Church, is chairman of the pastors' committee (Emphasis ours).

Tuesday sites will be 10 a.m. at First Assembly of God Church, 3801 98th St.; First Baptist Church, 102 E. Seventh St., Idalou; 7 p.m. at St. Matthew's United Methodist Church, 5320 50th St.; and Leveland's First Church of the Nazarene, 914 Sundown Highway.

On Wednesday, locations will be at 10 a.m. at Lyon's Chapel Baptist Church, 1704 E. 24th St. and at First Baptist Church, 255 S. Ninth St., Slaton.

Thursday, the meetings will be at 10 a.m. at Trinity Baptist Church, 2707 34th St., and First Baptist Church, 219 W. Main St., in Brownfield. Meetings at 7 p.m. Thursday will be at College Heights Baptist Church, 802 Quincy St., in Plainview, and Ministerios Nueva Vida, 201 N. Boston Ave., in Lubbock.

Sherman Barnette, West Texas Festival Director, and his associate, Tim Innes of the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association, will be the resource people for the seminars.

The seminars also will provide opportunities for questions and input from community pastors. Lubbock Avalanche-Journal, 10-9-99

It is surprising to me how many Christians have asked, "What do you mean by `worldly'?" when speaking about today's music. Only a few years ago Christians didn't ask that questionthey knew exactly what worldliness meant. The entrance of Contemporary Christian Music [CCM] has brought a great amount of confusion as to what worldly means.

Over the last twenty years, there have been a number of young people, professing Christians, who have asked me, "What do you mean by `worldly'?" Their reaction was as if I were speaking of something of which they had never heard.

Worldly simply means "of or like the world." Satan is called "the god of this world" (I Cor. 4:4), and it is his purpose to blind the minds of people so that they do not understand nor receive the truth of the Gospel of Christ.

To be a Christian is to be different from the world, to be like Christ. In His prayer recorded in John 17:16,17, Jesus prayed for His followers in this manner: "They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world. Sanctify them [set them apart from the world] through thy truth: thy word is truth."

"The preaching of the cross is to them, that perish foolishness" (I Cor, 1:18). The world rejects the Bible, but now modern Christianity tries to win today's young by taking the music from the secular, ungodly world, with its beat and sensual styles, and calling it Christian music. Because of this, merger with the world, there is a growing ignorance and confusion as to what the Scriptures teach about separation from the world (see II Cor. 6:14-18).

"For the grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men, teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly in this present world." Titus 2:11, 12

from The Sword of the Lord

As we come to the close of this millennium it is obvious that the world in general does not have a Biblical understanding of our Creator. As a result, they are living and acting like there is no God or Day of Judgment. The idea of a sovereign Creator in control of His creation is foreign to their thinking. Our country has lost its concept of God. There is less preaching and teaching on the existence of God, on the Works of God, and the Attributes of God in most churches in these last days. Even in our Baptist Churches, there is a lack of understanding of the Divine.

So often the zealous preacher who has a sincere desire to accomplish much for the Lord fails to introduce his listeners to the Divine. It is possible they are assuming they all understand who God is and what He is like. He therefore immediately launches an effort to win the lost at any cost. The young preacher in his fervor and zeal gets quick decisions and professions made in the pressure of the moment. No one would fault his compassion for the unsaved or his desire to build a church for God. However do those who fill those pews really know the Creator? We must remember God is more interested in making a man than a ministry. The individual can only grow in the Lord, and must be taught the knowledge of the Holy. So, the Preacher convinces people to call on the Lord before they really know who God is.

Then these zealous young preachers pressure those who have made their hasty commitments to "get busy" He pushes them into spiritual performance before they learn to fear God and worship Him. Performance should come from devotion and reverence for God. Reverence is the Fear of God. There must be a knowledge of the Creator before there can be genuine reverence and worship. The wisdom of performance must always be preceded by the Fear of God. The knowledge of the Holy is understanding. Prov. 9:10. Pushing the "converts" to performance without a sustaining daily devotion and reverence for God is counter productive. It always creates frustration in the heart and life of the worker. Many soon quit and go back to the world from which they came. They join Demas because they love the present world. Those who are truly converted and pushed into spiritual performance hunger for a closer relationship with the Lord. They often feel betrayed by the man who taught them to work, but not how to worship.

May I give some advice to young preachers? When you first stand before that new congregation and then on a regular schedule stand before them, teach and preach on the Divine. Teach them whom you serve, who your master is. If work is your master; then that is about all you will teach them. You may build a monument and a ministry that men will marvel at, but will you build people in Christ? Phil. 3:10. Do not use people to build your ministry. Use the Book of Books to build people like Christ. The success of a ministry is not always seen with the natural eye. You must remember, preacher, that simply being busy for the Lord will not always sustain them in the time of trial, sickness, suffering or death. So teach them the God who is there, the attributes of God, the names of God. Sinners need to know "who" they have sinned against. They need to "see" God before they will "see" themselves before a Holy and merciful God.

Desire to serve should come from reverence, worship and devotion. So Preacher, introduce them to the Divine, the God you should know, worship and fellowship with. Teach them about fellowship with God. I John 1:1-4. Then they will serve Him because a Godly Pastor introduced them to the Divine. Win them to Christ, not to a Preacher or his ministry. Does not the Scripture say, "And I, if I he lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto me." John 12:32. "And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of man be lifted up." John 3:14

Televangelist Robert Tilton, whose ministry was rocked by scandal in recent years, has sold his church building and settled a million-dollar fraud lawsuit filed by his first wife, The Dallas Morning News reported Saturday.

The city of Farmers Branch, a suburb of Dallas, is paying $6.1 million for the 4,800-seat World of Faith church building and grounds, and plans to convert them into a convention center.

Details of the settlement be between the. 52-year-old preacher and his first wife were not disclosed.

Marte Tilton sued her ex-husband, the church and longtime church attorney J. C. Joyce of Tulsa, Okla., for more than $1 million in 1996, charging they reneged on a written agreement to support her and a church school she ran. The couple were divorced in 1993.

Tilton's ministry grossed as much as $70 million a year through television and mail solicitations before media reports and lawsuits in the early 1990s began accusing him of false promises of prayer and healing. LAJ 4-4-99

(Comments by E.L.B: Robert Tilton now joins Jimmy Swaggart, and Jim Bakker, the baby faced crook of PTL in disgrace. They are just three of the many charismatic false prophets. Many people who were told by Tilton, that if they would send an offering, they would soon be rich, found out what a fake he was. There are several others that are overdue to fall.)

The governor of Minnesota is sometimes called "Jesse the body," and "Jesse the mind." I think he should be called "Jesse the mouth." Almost every time he speaks, he puts his big foot in his mouth. He seriously needs some mint flavored shoes for his feet, and a blab for his mouth. If he is not a one term governor, we will need to question the sanity of the good people of Minnesota. The following article was published in the Lubbock Avalanche-Journal, 10-1-99.

ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) - In another reminder that Gov. Jesse Ventura is no ordinary politician, the former wrestler told Playboy magazine that organized religion is for "weak-minded people" and that the Navy's Tailhook sexual harassment scandal was "much ado about nothing."

He also said he believed President Kennedy was killed by the "military-industrial complex" because he opposed intervention in Vietnam.

The interview, conducted over three days this summer with contributing editor Lawrence Grobel, appears, in the November issue.

Ventura said legalizing prostitution should be considered but is an unpopular idea because of religion.

"Organized religion is a sham and a crutch for weak-minded people who need strength in numbers," the governor said. "It tells people to go out and stick their noses in other people's business."

Ventura spokesman John Wodele pointed out that Ventura and his wife belong to a church. "Understand that he was talking about extremists of the religious right who are often intolerant, and the governor cannot stand intolerance," Wodele said.

The governor said he couldn't condone what happened during the Tailhook Association's conference in 1991, when female Navy officers were groped and fondled by aviators at a Las Vegas hotel. But he said he understood it.

"These are people who live on the razor's edge and defy death and do things where people die," he said. "They're not going to consider grabbing a. woman's breast or buttock a major situation. That's much ado about nothing." LAJ

The following is being quoted from a Baptist Press report.

The Minnesota Family Institute stated, "After the governor's profanity-laced appearance at a recent World Wrestling Federation pro-wrestling event, we were told school children were running around a playground swearing and mimicking what they had seen," according to CNS. "[Ventura's] latest comments send a message to young people that prostitution and drug use are fine, and deeply- held religious beliefs and institutions which serve them are a sham."

Reform Party chairman Russell Verney said he is "personally outraged by [Ventura's] remarks." In comments to CNS, Verney said, "It is the complete antithesis of the Reform Party to attack organized religion, to insult people of faith and to suggest that under any condition the harassment or assault of women is excusable."

The Reform Party's national party press secretary, Donna Donovan, who is in the party's Ross Perot wing, told the Minneapolis Star Tribune, "In one interview [Ventura] managed to alienate 80 percent of the American public," although Minnesota Reform Party chairman Rick McCluhan told the newspaper that party members he had spoken to weren't outraged, especially when the thrust of the governor's overall comments are considered.

Y2K has become the launching pad for many contemporary enthusiast. Everything from holocaust fear to holy fellowship, from catastrophic uneasiness to church unity, from extreme poverty to ecumenical prosperity, has been elevated to the extreme. Modern self appointed prophets are emerging daily to teach the populace of the world how to cope with the coming millennium. These are joined by many who were once somewhat sound, at least in name, who now are willing to break down all barriers between worshiping God and worldly godlessness. All of this oneness in various areas of life has left in its wake a steamy love affair between denominations. The glaring headlines of the Lubbock Avalanche-Journal, 11/5/99, read: "Futurist says church must court emerging culture." This ecumenical mirage of spiritual refreshing is promoting the marriage of all denominations and many Baptists are helping choose the wedding garment. The trailing train of pernicious promotions is gathering the dust of destruction as it ambles to the altar.

The "culture" the "church must court" is emerging from a society that has left God out of everything. The church referred to is an ecumenical hodgepodge of deadly gourds thrown into a unity stew with no Elisha to toss meal into the pot. (2 Kgs. 4) As a result nothing but harm can come to all who dip in the pot and eat from the hands of false prophets dripping with the poisonous doctrine of ecumenism furnished by the devil.

The most concentrated effort of Satan always has been and is today aimed at the true church. Although Satan knows the extent of his power over false religion he must offer from the coffer of the world enticing strategies to lure the true church into his trap of deception. While our Lord refused the devil's mountain top offer of all the world's kingdoms and their glory, His church seems to be more easily lured by Satan's enticements. The modern concept of `church' in most minds ranges from a building to any and all religious activities regardless of how secular the setting or how detached the denomination is from biblical truth. State universities are entertaining such religious celebrities as homosexual "Rev." Mel White to speak in seminar fashion on the subject of accepting the gay/lesbian lifestyle. White's message on Oct. 20, 1997 at the Texas Tech Allen Theatre was the "Message of Acceptance". In 1993 White became dean of Dallas' pro-homosexual 14,000 congregation Cathedral of Hope Metropolitan Community Church. (Calvary Contender, 2/15/98) White's association with such evangelicals as Billy Graham and Jerry Falwell as ghostwriter of books under their name, has help promote his acceptance as well as the endorsement of the sin of homosexuality.

Lubbock Christian University (TX) has made another step toward ecumenical "courtin' of the culture." The speakers for the evening were Jimmy Allen and Leonard Sweet. Allen is past president of the Southern Baptist Convention (1977-79) and is now the chaplain of a multi- denominational chapel in Georgia. (LAJ, 11/5/99) Sweet is dean of United Methodist-related Drew University School of Theology in Madison, N.J. These men were invited by LCU to instruct the `church' how to survive during the 3rd millennium. Of course there is a chasm of difference more spacious than the Grand Canyon between what they refer to as `church' than the Lord's church in Matt. 16:18; 28:19,20. The largest group of Baptists in the world who at one time must have had confidence in Allen's Baptist convictions must now be alarmed at his liberal position. (Then again the SBC may not be alarmed nor lost confidence in Allen.) Many Southern Baptists have become so doctrinally liberal as to allow their pastors to sign a "covenant of unity" with Catholics, Methodist, Church of Christ, Assemblies of God, and charismatics as did First Baptist Lubbock pastor, D. L. Lowrie. (LAJ, 5/31/99, pg. 1)

Moody Auditorium on the LCU campus was the setting for the "Faith and the Future" program which was designed to teach "the church (how) to survive in the third millennium." The church must learn how "to kiss the culture, not kiss-off the culture," said Sweet. Likely Psalm 2:12 was not recited or made reference to or even considered. "Kiss the Son, lest he be angry, and ye perish from the way, when his wrath is kindled but a little. Blessed are all they that put their trust in him."

The Lord's church must be made aware of the tactics used by these kissers of the culture. Allen challenged his listeners "to have greater confidence in the truth." The truth he was speaking of obviously is not the truth that emancipates the sinner. (John 14:6; 8:32,36) Just which truth Allen wants society to have confidence in is unclear. Since his riddle "we need to be unshaken when we find truths opposite other truths" remained unanswered by him. I wonder just how one truth can be opposite another truth. Truth is referred to over 300 times in the Bible and never in any instance is it opposite to itself. God's truth is so established as being without error that it cannot oppose or contradict itself. The Creator God is declared to be the "Lord God of truth." (Psa. 31:5) The certainty that the Lord God of truth cannot and will not deny Himself is clearly stated in 2 Tim. 2:13.

Leonard Sweet is as biblically uninformed as is Jimmy Allen and other culture kissing creatures. How could Sweet be so uninformed as to be ignorant of the answer to his own question: "Why can't we kiss this new emerging culture?" In all his reading and readying the `church' he obviously overlooked 1 John 2:15: "Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him." Though the lips of the "strange woman" of the emerging culture may "drop as an honeycomb" and be "smoother than oil" the taste of the bitter wormwood of unholy ecumenical intoxication will leave a deadly hangover. (Prov. 5:3,4) Though the "bread of deceit" may taste sweet to the flesh it will soon turn to gravel and crack the enamel of biblical protection. (Prov 5:3; 20:17)

Jesus is clear concerning separation to service. Separation not only from the promotions and practices of a sin sick society but also from false religions confused even about their own devised doctrine. The leaven of the Sadducees and Pharisees might remind the disciple of their own bread but as the bread of false doctrine they must beware of worldly leaven. (Matt. 16:6-12)

Sweet described those under 30 as having a different way of living in the world. By this he indicated those over 30 were unable to understand the "world" from which they had recently graduated. He said, "It's a whole new world out there...," speaking of the new electronic gimmicks and gadgets that abound. At one time a one row planter and cultivator was used to plant and cultivate the same seed as multi-rowed implements are used for now, yet the depraved nature of man was the same then as now. The faithful preaching of the Gospel of Christ that stimulated conviction and ultimately a new heart in a man behind a walking double-shovel will reveal the need of a spiritual birth in the man driving large equipment today. The church of past centuries also had a "whole new world" to manage as every new generation matured. The preaching of the Gospel remain the tool used by the Lord's church to reach lost humanity. "For after that in the wisdom of God the world by wisdom knew not God, it pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe." (1 Cor. 1:21)

Either the affliction of the work or the allurements of the world were strong enough to cause John Mark to depart from Paul and Barnabas on the way from Paphos to Perga. (Acts 13) However they didn't "kiss the culture" which was so attractive to young John as to turn him aside from the work. Paul continued preaching of the Gospel of Jesus Christ which changed lives in that culture and ultimately renewed his fellowship with John Mark. (2 Tim. 4:11) This is the one and only strategy fashioned by a Holy God to reach and keep sinful man in serviceable ministry for His glory. God used this method when He called Abraham and called him His friend. (Gal. 3:8; James 2:23) John the Baptist's message could hardly be called "courting the culture." He referred to that "emerging culture" as a generation of vipers when they tried spiritual smooching with him. John was preparing a specialized people not a socializing personnel.

The great need for today's culture is not `kissing' and `caressing' but an undressing of the sin which has it entrapped. Discovering sin is not nearly as dangerous to being popular as is uncovering sin. Preachers(?) and speakers such as Allen and Sweet are willing to embrace a sin saturated society as they seek to swell the stream of so-called worshipers. They are joining more than the culture they seem willing to bow to. They join the "...scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for (they) compass sea and land to make one proselyte, and when he is made, (they) make him twofold more the child of hell than (themselves)." (Matt. 23:15) This continuing effort on their part may well require hell to be enlarged again and again. (Isa. 5:14)

Greater effort must be expended to see that the true Christ sent and God blessed Gospel is made available to all who will listen. Many God called men are losing courage when the enemy comes in like a flood. They often become discouraged as they wait for the Lord to raise up His standard against the enemy. (Isa. 59:19) The only alternative to swimming above the overflowing tide is drowning in the deluge of false doctrine or climbing in the boat called "Kissing The Culture" under the command of Captain Ecumenicity.

The local church of the Lord Jesus Christ is blessed more than they can possibly realize when they have a pastor who will dare to stand and expose false prophets/doctrine and call such by name. If such a church has men who will stand by their pastor in the turbulent waters of ecumenicalism they have an added blessing. I pray this will be a challenge to all who read this article to encourage your pastor to continue to stand against and not kiss the cultural influences so widespread today. Not only encourage him but stand with him until the Man with the sword in His right hand comes to deliver His church and the saints from this sin cursed culture.