{"id":14050,"date":"2011-11-11T01:00:08","date_gmt":"2011-11-11T06:00:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/christianfighterpilot.com\/blog\/?p=14050"},"modified":"2011-11-10T18:17:53","modified_gmt":"2011-11-10T23:17:53","slug":"billy-graham-on-serving-god-and-foxhole-atheists","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/christianfighterpilot.com\/blog\/2011\/11\/11\/billy-graham-on-serving-god-and-foxhole-atheists\/","title":{"rendered":"Billy Graham on Serving God and Foxhole Atheists"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Rev. Billy Graham has a syndicated daily newspaper column called “My Answer.”\u00a0 He recently addressed a question from a US servicemember in Afghanistan<\/a> reconsidering their calling in life:<\/p>\n

DEAR BILLY GRAHAM: Right now, I\u2019m in the military deployed in Afghanistan, and I\u2019ve really grown closer to God during my time here. Do you think God wants me to be a pastor or something like that when I get out? How can I know? \u2014 M. M.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Graham thanked the servicemember for their service and noted the “difficult situation” in which they are serving.\u00a0 The answer he suggested was simple, sort of:\u00a0 Seek God’s will — but remember you can serve God wherever you are.<\/p>\n

Yes, God does call some into what we often call full-time service. But every Christian is called to serve God full time, no matter where they are or what they do for a living!<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

He notes God might have a plan for the servicemember for “full-time service,” but He might also be trying to use them right where they are:<\/p>\n

If God is using you to touch the lives of others for Christ, and if he is burdening you in a special way with the needs of our lost world, then he may be calling you to some type of ministry. But he can use you anywhere as you put Christ first in your life.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

This echoes the advice of other leaders in the faith<\/a> who have encouraged Christians not to depart their current position just because they feel they should be in a “sacred” career field.\u00a0 while it may be possible God wants them to serve as a missionary, pastor, etc, it is also possible God wants them to serve in the “sacred” field they’re in right now.\u00a0 As R.G. LeTourneau said<\/a>, God needs Christian businessmen, too, not just preachers.\u00a0 The body is made of many parts, and if Christians remove themselves from the world, they can be a light to the world.<\/p>\n

On a side note, within his answer Graham noted the spiritual challenges of “hard times” not unlike service in war:<\/p>\n

Hard times usually do one of two things to people: They either cause them to turn toward God, or else they cause them to decide they don\u2019t need God and can rely on their own strength. I\u2019m thankful you\u2019ve realized your need of him and have not been led astray by those who refuse to seek his help.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Graham’s sentiment follows the line of thinking in the clich\u00e9 “there are no atheists in foxholes” — “hard times” can cause men to turn to God — but he also acknowledged war can turn foxhole theists into atheists, simplistically speaking.<\/p>\n

The spiritual struggle in war can be great, something even many non-Christians acknowledge.\u00a0 In fact, Graham’s final sentence in the quote above highlights that very fact.\u00a0 While “Evangelical” is often disdainfully used to describe some Christians, there are other belief systems that are increasingly “evangelical” these days.<\/p>\n

Many atheists, for example, seem to be on a campaign to “save” people from their beliefs.\u00a0 This atheist evangelism extends even to those serving in the military.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Rev. Billy Graham has a syndicated daily newspaper column called “My Answer.”\u00a0 He recently addressed a question from a US servicemember in Afghanistan reconsidering their calling in life: DEAR BILLY GRAHAM: Right now, I\u2019m in the military deployed in Afghanistan, and I\u2019ve really grown closer to God during my time here. Do you think God wants me to be […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[24],"tags":[20,429,70,2,10],"class_list":["post-14050","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-christian-living","tag-atheism","tag-billy-graham","tag-evangelism","tag-military","tag-religion"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/christianfighterpilot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14050","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/christianfighterpilot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/christianfighterpilot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/christianfighterpilot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/christianfighterpilot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14050"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/christianfighterpilot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14050\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/christianfighterpilot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14050"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/christianfighterpilot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14050"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/christianfighterpilot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14050"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}