American evangelist Franklin Graham has preached to a crowd of more than 10,000 people in London at the weekend. The God Loves You event, surpassed last year’s London attendance by several thousand, according to organisers.
Reverend Graham underlined that he wasn’t seeking money or taking up an offering and all seats were free. He told Premier Christian News his goal, hope and prayer for the event was that many people would come to trust Jesus Christ as their Lord and Saviour. He later posted that hundreds had “come forward to turn from sin and put their faith and trust in Jesus.”
Three years ago, Franklin Graham’s God Loves You Gospel tour of Britain was cancelled after most venues banned him from preaching in their auditoriums or conference centres because of his Christian views on homosexuality. He successfully sued some of those venues on the grounds of religious discrimination and received substantial payments for damages. He preached without incident in several UK cities including London last year.
Asked about people’s concerns with his views, the evangelist told Premier: “There are people who don’t want to hear what God has to say, on some issues. One of the big issues is homosexuality. Of course, the Bible says Jesus loves all of us. He loves the homosexual. But we cannot continue in homosexuality, if we come to God, we have to turn from that. And so we had a coarser group of people who were very upset that I would say that, but it’s what God says. It’s not what Franklin Graham says, I don’t make up the rules. God who makes him, He makes the rules.”
“So it’s just this group of people that did not like these views and they went to the venues and got the venues to cancel the contracts. Well, Covid came, we couldn’t have had the meetings anyway. And it gave us time to get our solicitors and get ourselves organised. And we fought back, because it was a freedom of speech issue, and a freedom of religion issue. And so we have won in every case so far. And it’s not just a win for Franklin Graham. It’s a win for the church.”
Reverend Graham posted on social media: “It was such a privilege to share the hope of the Gospel here. There are so many people who have hurting hearts and so many who are searching for purpose and meaning in their lives. I was able to tell them that God loves them and sent His Son Jesus Christ from heaven to earth to save them from their sins. We are so thankful for the hundreds who came forward. Their lives are changed for eternity!”
He revealed that volunteers from over 1,000 churches partnered with the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association to make “this special event” possible.
