During his video address at Rededicate 250, Franklin Graham called Americans to repent.
“Rededicate 250: A National Jubilee of Prayer, Praise & Thanksgiving” took place at the National Mall on Sunday, May 17. Thousands gathered to celebrate America’s upcoming 250th birthday through worship, Bible reading, and preaching.
In addition to Graham, Jentezen Franklin, Robert Jeffress, Jack Graham, Jonathan Falwell, Jonathan Pokluda, Lou Engle, Samuel Rodriguez, Paula White-Cain, Jonathan Roumie, Eric Metaxas, Sadie Robertson Huff, Alveda C. King, Chris Tomlin, and Blessing Offor participated in the event.
President Donald Trump, Marco Rubio, Mike Johnson, Pete Hegseth, and Ben Carson also addressed the crowd, some through prerecorded video messages.
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Graham, president of Samaritan’s Purse and the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association, said the struggle Americans face today is different than the one the nation faced 250 years ago.
“Our nation was born in a struggle 250 years ago and we’re still in a struggle today,” he said. “Our struggle then was to be free from British rule, but our struggle today is to be free from the rule of sins that are weakening the foundations of our great republic.”
The reverend continued by reading 2 Timothy 3:
But understand this, that in the last days there will come times of difficulty. For people will be lovers of self, lovers of money, proud, arrogant, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, heartless, unappeasable, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not loving good, treacherous, reckless, swollen with conceit, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, having the appearance of godliness but denying his power.
“It seems this could have been written to describe America today,” Graham said. “People have become lovers of themselves rather than lovers of God.”
“The spiritual climate of 2026 is vastly different than the country that our founding fathers established in 1776,” Graham added. “The vast majority of Americans then had at least a basic understanding of the Bible. Today, the vast majority have little to no understanding of biblical truth.”
