Franklin Graham warns socialist left will 'close the Church down': 'The storm is coming'
Prominent evangelical leader Franklin Graham says that the Democratic Party is “opposed to faith” and warns that the left will “close the Church down in many places” should the United States fall into the embrace of socialism.
Graham, the president of Samaritan’s Purse and the son of famed evangelist Billy Graham, sat down with CBN News correspondent David Brody last Friday to discuss the Democratic and Republican conventions that took place over the past two weeks.
He also discussed his upcoming Washington Prayer March that will take place at the end of September in Washington, D.C.
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“The Democrats, if anything, they are opposed to faith,” Graham asserted after being asked to compare and contrast the major parties’ positions on faith.
“The Democrats have taken God pretty much … out of government,” he added, later stating that the changes that “the left want to make and take us into socialism is going to affect the Church.”
“The government will … begin to tell the Church how [it] can be the Church and they’ll close the Church down in many places,” Graham warned. “We see right now because of COVID, the government trying to tell the Church that they can not meet and the Constitution gives us that freedom to do that. But because of COVID, they said we can’t meet.”
The 68-year-old praised President Donald Trump as being someone who “wants to see more of God here in Washington.”
The outspoken evangelist assured that there are millions of Democrats who are “wonderful people” and stated that his father was a lifelong Democrat who “never switched parties.”
He argued that his dad “saw the party that he grew up in changing and moving to the left.”
“That’s what it’s done,” Graham contended. “The Democratic Party today is a party of the left. It’s a socialist party, they want socialism for this country.”
Considering that some believe Trump was anointed to the presidency by God, Graham was asked what it would mean if the Democrats win on Nov. 3.
“I think God brought him here for this season — for these for years,” Graham explained. “I am just asking that God would spare this country, for another four years, to give us a little bit more time to do the work before the storm hits. I believe the storm is coming.”
“You are going to see Christians attacked, you are going to see churches close and you are going to see a real hatred expressed toward people of faith. That is coming,” Graham continued. “Jesus told us. He said, ‘You will be hated by all people because of me.’ And if we are going to stand for the name of Christ, the world will hate us.”
Graham had previously spoken about the “absence of God” at the Democratic National Convention in a Facebook post.
Shortly after Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden announced Sen. Kamala Harris, D-Calif., as his running mate, Graham called the “the most pro-abortion presidential ticket in the history of our nation” a source of “great concern to all Christians."
.@JoeBiden & @KamalaHarris are labeled as the most pro-abortion presidential ticket in the history of our nation. This should be a great concern to all Christians. As a follower of Jesus Christ, I am pro-life & believe every life is precious to God. https://t.co/SkKccmuZlH
— Franklin Graham (@Franklin_Graham) August 13, 2020
This is not the first time that Graham has issued dire warnings about socialism taking hold in the U.S.
Earlier this year, Graham took to Twitter to warn about “all-out socialism” taking hold in the U.S. if Americans did not vote for leaders who “love this country, defend the Constitution, & support law & order” in the upcoming election.
Graham told to Brody that “the only hope for this country is God.”
“Donald Trump can’t turn it around,” Graham stressed. “Biden isn’t going to turn it around. Only God can do this … and we need God’s help.”
Graham’s daughter, Cissie Graham Lynch, made similar warnings during a speech at the Republican National Convention last week, asserting that the Democratic Party has “no room for people of faith.”
“They will force the choice between being obedient to God or to Caesar,” she warned. “The radical left’s God is government power.”
Graham’s niece, Jerushah Duford, an evangelical author, speaker and member of the NeverTrump Republican group Lincoln Project, accused evangelicals who support Trump of “failing the Gospel” in a USA Today op-ed last week.
“I have spent my entire life in the hurch, with every big decision guided by my faith. But now, I feel homeless. Like so many others, I feel disoriented as I watch the church I have always served turn their eyes away from everything it teaches,” Duford wrote. “I hear from Christian women on a daily basis who all describe the same thing: a tug at their spirit.”
“I feel it every time our president talks about government housing having no place in America’s suburbs,” she added. “Jesus said repeatedly to defend the poor and show kindness and compassion to those in need. Our president continues to perpetuate an us-versus-them narrative, yet almost all of our church leaders say nothing.”
