BG And The HGB

[Sam]

By “BG and the HGB” I mean “Billy Graham and the Holy Ghost Baptism.”

By “Holy Ghost” I mean “Holy Spirit.” Some of us call Him the Holy Ghost and some of us call Him the Holy Spirit. The two terms are used interchangeably among Christians. Our English language is made up from many sources but principally it comes from German or Saxon and French which were both spoken in England and developed into the English language. The French word “espirit” and the Latin word “spiritus” became the English word “spirit” and the German word “geist” became the English word “gast” and later became “ghost” so we have those two words in our language which mean the same thing. Some prefer to use the term “Holy Ghost” and some prefer to use the term “Holy Spirit.”

I had a preacher tell me one time that a ghost is a departed spirit and after Jesus departed He sent us His spirit/ghost so we should use the term Holy Ghost instead of Holy Spirit.

Billy Graham is a very respected person and religious leader. These are some comments by him about the Holy Spirit Baptism:



This is from page 16 of the February 1962 issue of Voice Magazine published by the FGBMFI (Full Gospel Business Men’s Fellowship International). It is my understanding that it is from a message delivered before a group of ministers at Sacramento, CA.

Be Baptized With The Holy Spirit
by Billy Graham

We have learned much about the power of the Holy Spirit. You know, in the main denominations, we have looked a bit askance at our brethren from the Pentecostal churches because of their emphasis on the Holy Spirit.

I wonder if one of the secrets of Pentecostalism cannot be learned by our main stream churches by placing emphasis on the Holy Spirit. I am sure that my Pentecostal brethren that are here today would agree with me that there have been extremes and excesses that have embarrassed many of them at times, but I want to tell you I believe the time has come to give the Holy Spirit His rightful place in our preaching, in our teaching, and in our churches! We need to go back and study again what Paul meant when he said, "Be filled with the Spirit.” We need to learn once again what it means to be Baptized with the Holy Spirit. I know that we can rationalize, and immediately ten thousand theological questions arise and we try to figure it all out; but brethren, I want to tell you that we need to accept, we need to get something! Give it any terminology you want, but we do not have the same dynamic and the same power the Early Church had.

They had no Bibles, no seminaries nor Bible schools, no radios, no telephones, no printing presses, nothing! However, they turned the world upside down in one generation! What did they have? They had an experience with the living Christ! They had the filling of the Holy Spirit!

Look what we should be doing with our churches and seminaries, and all the other factitious that we have.