(Update 3-26-2021) On March 24th Franklin Graham posted on his Facebook page clarifying statements he made in an ABC News report 10 days earlier. In the report, he was quoted as saying, “I think if there were vaccines available in the time of Christ, Jesus would have made reference to them and used them.”
Graham explained in his social media post that when he was asked if “Jesus were walking the Earth today, would He be an advocate for vaccines?” he based his answer “Yes he would” on the biblical parable of the Good Samaritan found in Luke 10:25-37.
“Jesus Christ would advocate for people using vaccines and medicines to treat suffering and save lives,” he said. In the parable, Jesus tells of a Good Samaritan who cares for an injured man by using oil and wine on the man’s wounds “which were the top medicines of the day.”
Clarifying the statement quoted in the ABC News report, Graham said, “We also know that Jesus went from town to town healing ‘every disease and sickness.’ He came to save life—to offer us eternal life. Did Jesus need a vaccine Himself? Of course not. He is God.”
Read Graham’s full post here.
ChurchLeaders original article written on 3-19-2021 below:
Samaritan’s Purse CEO and president, world-wide evangelical leader, and son of the late great Billy Graham, Rev. Franklin Graham is an advocate for telling Christians to take the COVID-19 vaccine. Graham recently revealed in an interview that he has taken the vaccine.
In an ABC News Prime time special titled ‘Faith & Science: The Role of Church Leaders in Vaccination Efforts,‘ Graham spoke with ABC News’ Terry Moran on the grounds of his father’s childhood home at the Billy Graham Library.
The 68 year-old Graham told ABC News, “My father believed in modern medicine. If any time there was a vaccine that would help protect you, he was an advocate for it…he took it.”
ABC News noted that “Billy Graham who many evangelical leaders continue to admire years after his death was born at the height of the 1918 flu pandemic, which claimed several members of the Graham family.”
Also Related: Franklin Graham: We Have Never Been a Christian Nation
“I believe it is consistent with Scripture that we protect our lives and do whatever we can to save life,” Franklin Graham said. “So I don’t have any problem with telling a person to take an aspirin or telling a person to have a vaccine.”
Vaccines are a proof of God’s love Franklin Graham explained, “I thank God for the doctors and the researchers that have put this time and effort and money to develop these vaccines and I hope that the American people will use them.”
In a bold statement, the Samaritan’s Purse’s President said, “I think if there were vaccines available in the time of Christ, Jesus would have made reference to them and used them.”
Taking issue with preachers who are using the pulpit to speak out against the vaccines, Graham said, “I hope that the pastors in the pulpit would tell people how they can be saved from God’s judgement and that’s through faith in Jesus Christ. I think a pastor to tell someone not to take the vaccine is problematic because what would happen if that person died [from the Coronavirus] then is a pastor responsible?…I mean I would feel responsible.”
The evangelist who heavily supported President Trump and his efforts to fast track a vaccine during his presidency warned against vaccines that used aborted fetal cells. He said, “I would be concerned with something we used fetal cells from a murdered child, but Moderna and Pfizer, we’ve been told from the scientists, the way they produce that vaccine these things [aborted fetal cells] were not used.”
Watch the full ABC News report here.
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