Anne Graham Lotz: I Believe We Are Living at the End
of Human History
Anne Graham Lotz speaks at the Family
Research Council's 2016 "Watchmen on the Wall" conference in
Washington, D.C. on May 26, 2016.
WASHINGTON — The daughter of
world-renowned evangelist Billy Graham, Anne Graham Lotz, is calling on
Christians to evangelize, warning that America is experiencing the last stages
of God's judgment before the end of human history.
Speaking to a gathering of pastors
at the Family Research Council's 2016 "Watchmen on the Wall"
conference on Capitol Hill Thursday, Lotz, the founder of AnGeL Ministries,
discussed the "urgency to reach the lost," emphasizing that this is a
critical time for believers to lead others to Christ before they are forced to
live an eternity separated from God in Hell.
Lotz, who has authored a number of
books including The Daniel Prayer: Prayer That Moves Heaven and Changes
Nations, sat down with The Christian Post for an interview
following her speech and elaborated on her belief that her generation will not
pass before the return of Jesus Christ, and her warning to Americans that the
transgender bathroom debate reveals the depravity of the country and confirms that it is in the last stages of God's
judgment.
Interview:
Interview:
CP: In the prayer during your speech, you said the evangelical community seems distracted. What did you mean by that?
Anne Graham Lotz: [It's] distracted by [focusing on] a man or political party to get us out of this mess.
I think the pastor who just followed me [on stage,] [Jack Hibbs of Calvary Chapel in Chino Hills, California,] put it in context when pastors preach the Gospel and pastors pray and pastors hold up the light and the truth, then they turn their people loose. God can lead us to get involved in whatever way that God chooses.
I believe that we need to be involved. I'll vote. But that is just not where my hope is. It distresses me that evangelicals are referred to not by the Gospel, not their love for Jesus or their love for each other. They are referred to as a voting bloc. Now, that may be media spin, I understand that. I feel like media wouldn't be spinning [and] evangelicals wouldn't be coming on to represent other people in that [way] if there wasn't something there.
CP: In the beginning of your speech, you provided an update about the status of your 97-year-old father. You talked about how you feel God may be keeping your father alive for some reason and it might have something to do with the return of Jesus. Could you explain that thought?
Lotz: My father's life is very unique. His life in ministry will never be equaled. The fact that he is still on this planet at 97 years of age, that is not an accident. God is not whimsical and He does everything very intentionally. The fact that my father is still here, God is holding him for a reason.
So, one of the things that I thought, possibly — only God would know — when my father goes to Heaven, one more time, the Gospel will be preached to the whole world. Every news outlet, I would think, they won't be able to talk about Billy Graham without talking about the Gospel, I wouldn't think unless they do contortions.
So then, Matthew 24:14 says, "Then the end will come." "The Gospel that will be preached will be preached to the whole world." And so maybe, God is holding him for that particular moment in time for things that will happen at the very end of this age.
CP: Reports have indicated that you are voting for Donald Trump. Are you supporting Donald Trump?
Lotz: No, I am not. No. [Media] is just so spun. People have said that to my face and I will contradict them and they will still spin it. What I said was that I will vote for whoever the Republican nominee is because I am not going to stay home. I am not going to waste my vote. That vote has been fought and died for. I think of people in these other countries with little purple fingers exercising their right and risking their lives to vote and I am not going to throw that away.
I am not going to vote for a Democrat because of the platform. There are too many things that are not just political issues but moral and spiritual issues at this point. So, I will vote for the Republican nominee, whoever that might be.
CP: Many conservative Christians feel like they are stuck in the middle between the lesser of two evils in this election cycle. What is your advice for Christians this election cycle about seeking guidance on who they should vote for.
AGL: Just pray. God will show you. God will show you. I would say that the Bible says that God can move the heart of the king. He can turn whichever way He chooses. He referred to Nebuchadnezzar, the most wicked man on the planet in his generation, as "my servant."
He used Nebuchadnezzar and in the end because of what Nebuchadnezzar saw in Daniel's life, Nebuchadnezzar gave glory to God of Heaven. I believe one day we'll see Nebuchadnezzar in Heaven because he was radically transformed. Nobody is beyond redemption.
We pray not just for our nation but Paul tells us to pray for our leaders. When Paul and Peter urged us to pray for our leaders, Nero was on the throne and Domitian was on throne. It's time to pray, not only pray that God would reveal to us who to vote for but that whoever wins, to pray that God would work in that person's heart.
I guess my concern would be if evangelicals, as a voting bloc, take such a strong, angry stand against whoever wins [the election]. Will [whoever wins the election] reject our message, our Gospel and our Jesus along with the politics that we seem to represent? It's very distressing to me.
CP: Some Christians cite Romans 13 to say that God chooses our political leaders, do you believe that God chooses our political leaders? What happens when our world leaders don't act as God's servants? What should Christians do?
Lotz: Pray. The Bible says that God puts leaders in place and He uses us to do it. He can give you someone like Saul … Saul of Kish. They wanted a king like everybody else and so God gave them Saul of Kish and he turned out to be a disaster.
CP: You have said that this country is facing judgement from God and you have called on Christians to pray and repent, do you feel that the spiritual crisis in America is getting better or getting worse?
Lotz: It's getting worse. I am not calling on the country to repent, although I would love for that. But I am calling on God's people who are called by God's name. I am calling on Christians and believers. I am calling on them to return to God with all of their hearts and cry out for His mercy because it is getting worse.
CP: What are some of the indicators that America is facing God's judgement? Do you feel like they will have apocalyptic consequences?
Lotz: I don't know what that means exactly. I believe that we are living at the end of the age. I believe we are living at the end of human history, I believe that my generation is the last.
CP: What are some of the societal signs that are showing the end is coming?
Lotz: In my message I walked through Romans 1. Romans 1 begins saying that when a person, or if we apply that to a nation, when a nation no longer acknowledges God but knows Him. In fact, I was talking to a friend who was talking to a friend of her's who was a beekeeper. And the phenomenal organization of bees — that the hive has to be kept a certain temperature and its kept within a degree of that. To study bees, you would have to know there is a Creator. To look through the Hubble [Space] Telescope you would have to know there is a Creator. To look in a microscope at the human body, you would have to know there is a creator.
We have denied evidence of God and creation and, in our conscience, that instinctive knowledge of right or wrong. Then, we descended and refused to thank Him. [Romans 1] says, "then we exchanged the truth of God for reptiles, and four-footed animals," which is evolution.
When you believe that you have evolved and that you have come from nowhere, that you are going nowhere, that you are nothing and that you are not accountable to anybody, then of course, you are not going to thank God. Then begins this downward spiral that He describes in three stages, and God gives them over and He backs away. We refuse to repent, He backs away until in the end, He abandons us because we have abandoned Him.
That is what is going on in America. The problem is right across the board, we no longer have God's blessing, His favor, His protection and it is because we have defied Him. Individuals have always done that but this is legally, institutionally, our government.
CP: There is a lot in the news these days about transgender bathrooms. What is you opinion on this push to allow biological men into women's bathrooms?
Lotz: In the end of Romans 1, it says that the final stage of abandoning God is that He gives us over to ourselves. Depending on your translation, it says that a "reprobate mind, a depraved mind, a carnal mind." He just gives us over to ourselves.
The issue of transgender bathrooms is so ludicrous and it is so beyond the realm of common sense. I think that, maybe as much as any issue in front of us, reveals that we are in that last stage of Romans 1.
For the president [Barack Obama] to be so concerned about the sensibilities of a transgender person, wanting him or her to feel accepted into a bathroom or a locker room, what about the 99 percent of others? There is no care for their feelings and their sensibilities and that it would all rest on the less-than 1 percent of our population.
So, it's stunning, but I come back to the fact that it just reveals that we're at the very end. I come from North Carolina and we have a bill that we passed and our governor has stood up and our legislature has stood up and I pray they will hold the line. There is a place where the Bible says you have to pursue righteousness. You have to pursue it and you have to do what we can to stem the tide. In this particular case, it is innocent children who are enormously affected.
CP: What should people be praying for?
Lotz: You can pray that God's will be done on Earth as it is in Heaven. You can pray that the Lord Jesus will come quickly. You can pray that between the end of human history and before cataclysmic judgement falls that God would open the door for the Gospel to go around the whole world to tell people that they could be saved.
[Pastor Jack Hibbs] defined the word urgency as "pressure." As the people of our nation feel the pressure of evil, wickedness and government interference, [pray] that they would cry out for a savior, cry out for a redeemer. There is one. There is only one, but there is one who is able to set it all right and give us hope and a future and his name is Jesus.
I guess I would pray for the pastors in here and the churches that they will fulfill their God-given commission to preach the Gospel and make disciples of all men. And pray that we would be the salt and light that God intends for us to be.
Anne Graham Lotz will be starting a new prayer initiative in August called God Speaking. You can learn more about it by visiting the website: www.godspeaking.com.
Read more at http://www.christianpost.com/news/anne-graham-lotz-i-believe-we-are-living-at-the-end-of-human-history-interview-164581/#SS4gLmeyfegImOmk.99
Anne Graham Lotz: [It's] distracted by [focusing on] a man or political party to get us out of this mess.
I think the pastor who just followed me [on stage,] [Jack Hibbs of Calvary Chapel in Chino Hills, California,] put it in context when pastors preach the Gospel and pastors pray and pastors hold up the light and the truth, then they turn their people loose. God can lead us to get involved in whatever way that God chooses.
I believe that we need to be involved. I'll vote. But that is just not where my hope is. It distresses me that evangelicals are referred to not by the Gospel, not their love for Jesus or their love for each other. They are referred to as a voting bloc. Now, that may be media spin, I understand that. I feel like media wouldn't be spinning [and] evangelicals wouldn't be coming on to represent other people in that [way] if there wasn't something there.
CP: In the beginning of your speech, you provided an update about the status of your 97-year-old father. You talked about how you feel God may be keeping your father alive for some reason and it might have something to do with the return of Jesus. Could you explain that thought?
Lotz: My father's life is very unique. His life in ministry will never be equaled. The fact that he is still on this planet at 97 years of age, that is not an accident. God is not whimsical and He does everything very intentionally. The fact that my father is still here, God is holding him for a reason.
So, one of the things that I thought, possibly — only God would know — when my father goes to Heaven, one more time, the Gospel will be preached to the whole world. Every news outlet, I would think, they won't be able to talk about Billy Graham without talking about the Gospel, I wouldn't think unless they do contortions.
So then, Matthew 24:14 says, "Then the end will come." "The Gospel that will be preached will be preached to the whole world." And so maybe, God is holding him for that particular moment in time for things that will happen at the very end of this age.
CP: Reports have indicated that you are voting for Donald Trump. Are you supporting Donald Trump?
Lotz: No, I am not. No. [Media] is just so spun. People have said that to my face and I will contradict them and they will still spin it. What I said was that I will vote for whoever the Republican nominee is because I am not going to stay home. I am not going to waste my vote. That vote has been fought and died for. I think of people in these other countries with little purple fingers exercising their right and risking their lives to vote and I am not going to throw that away.
I am not going to vote for a Democrat because of the platform. There are too many things that are not just political issues but moral and spiritual issues at this point. So, I will vote for the Republican nominee, whoever that might be.
CP: Many conservative Christians feel like they are stuck in the middle between the lesser of two evils in this election cycle. What is your advice for Christians this election cycle about seeking guidance on who they should vote for.
AGL: Just pray. God will show you. God will show you. I would say that the Bible says that God can move the heart of the king. He can turn whichever way He chooses. He referred to Nebuchadnezzar, the most wicked man on the planet in his generation, as "my servant."
He used Nebuchadnezzar and in the end because of what Nebuchadnezzar saw in Daniel's life, Nebuchadnezzar gave glory to God of Heaven. I believe one day we'll see Nebuchadnezzar in Heaven because he was radically transformed. Nobody is beyond redemption.
We pray not just for our nation but Paul tells us to pray for our leaders. When Paul and Peter urged us to pray for our leaders, Nero was on the throne and Domitian was on throne. It's time to pray, not only pray that God would reveal to us who to vote for but that whoever wins, to pray that God would work in that person's heart.
I guess my concern would be if evangelicals, as a voting bloc, take such a strong, angry stand against whoever wins [the election]. Will [whoever wins the election] reject our message, our Gospel and our Jesus along with the politics that we seem to represent? It's very distressing to me.
CP: Some Christians cite Romans 13 to say that God chooses our political leaders, do you believe that God chooses our political leaders? What happens when our world leaders don't act as God's servants? What should Christians do?
Lotz: Pray. The Bible says that God puts leaders in place and He uses us to do it. He can give you someone like Saul … Saul of Kish. They wanted a king like everybody else and so God gave them Saul of Kish and he turned out to be a disaster.
CP: You have said that this country is facing judgement from God and you have called on Christians to pray and repent, do you feel that the spiritual crisis in America is getting better or getting worse?
Lotz: It's getting worse. I am not calling on the country to repent, although I would love for that. But I am calling on God's people who are called by God's name. I am calling on Christians and believers. I am calling on them to return to God with all of their hearts and cry out for His mercy because it is getting worse.
CP: What are some of the indicators that America is facing God's judgement? Do you feel like they will have apocalyptic consequences?
Lotz: I don't know what that means exactly. I believe that we are living at the end of the age. I believe we are living at the end of human history, I believe that my generation is the last.
CP: What are some of the societal signs that are showing the end is coming?
Lotz: In my message I walked through Romans 1. Romans 1 begins saying that when a person, or if we apply that to a nation, when a nation no longer acknowledges God but knows Him. In fact, I was talking to a friend who was talking to a friend of her's who was a beekeeper. And the phenomenal organization of bees — that the hive has to be kept a certain temperature and its kept within a degree of that. To study bees, you would have to know there is a Creator. To look through the Hubble [Space] Telescope you would have to know there is a Creator. To look in a microscope at the human body, you would have to know there is a creator.
We have denied evidence of God and creation and, in our conscience, that instinctive knowledge of right or wrong. Then, we descended and refused to thank Him. [Romans 1] says, "then we exchanged the truth of God for reptiles, and four-footed animals," which is evolution.
When you believe that you have evolved and that you have come from nowhere, that you are going nowhere, that you are nothing and that you are not accountable to anybody, then of course, you are not going to thank God. Then begins this downward spiral that He describes in three stages, and God gives them over and He backs away. We refuse to repent, He backs away until in the end, He abandons us because we have abandoned Him.
That is what is going on in America. The problem is right across the board, we no longer have God's blessing, His favor, His protection and it is because we have defied Him. Individuals have always done that but this is legally, institutionally, our government.
CP: There is a lot in the news these days about transgender bathrooms. What is you opinion on this push to allow biological men into women's bathrooms?
Lotz: In the end of Romans 1, it says that the final stage of abandoning God is that He gives us over to ourselves. Depending on your translation, it says that a "reprobate mind, a depraved mind, a carnal mind." He just gives us over to ourselves.
The issue of transgender bathrooms is so ludicrous and it is so beyond the realm of common sense. I think that, maybe as much as any issue in front of us, reveals that we are in that last stage of Romans 1.
For the president [Barack Obama] to be so concerned about the sensibilities of a transgender person, wanting him or her to feel accepted into a bathroom or a locker room, what about the 99 percent of others? There is no care for their feelings and their sensibilities and that it would all rest on the less-than 1 percent of our population.
So, it's stunning, but I come back to the fact that it just reveals that we're at the very end. I come from North Carolina and we have a bill that we passed and our governor has stood up and our legislature has stood up and I pray they will hold the line. There is a place where the Bible says you have to pursue righteousness. You have to pursue it and you have to do what we can to stem the tide. In this particular case, it is innocent children who are enormously affected.
CP: What should people be praying for?
Lotz: You can pray that God's will be done on Earth as it is in Heaven. You can pray that the Lord Jesus will come quickly. You can pray that between the end of human history and before cataclysmic judgement falls that God would open the door for the Gospel to go around the whole world to tell people that they could be saved.
[Pastor Jack Hibbs] defined the word urgency as "pressure." As the people of our nation feel the pressure of evil, wickedness and government interference, [pray] that they would cry out for a savior, cry out for a redeemer. There is one. There is only one, but there is one who is able to set it all right and give us hope and a future and his name is Jesus.
I guess I would pray for the pastors in here and the churches that they will fulfill their God-given commission to preach the Gospel and make disciples of all men. And pray that we would be the salt and light that God intends for us to be.
Anne Graham Lotz will be starting a new prayer initiative in August called God Speaking. You can learn more about it by visiting the website: www.godspeaking.com.
Read more at http://www.christianpost.com/news/anne-graham-lotz-i-believe-we-are-living-at-the-end-of-human-history-interview-164581/#SS4gLmeyfegImOmk.99
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