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TELLING THE TRUTH TO TRUMAN

There's an interesting story found in Billy Graham's autobiography, Just As I Am. Back in 1950 he embarrassed himself and his fledgling evangelistic team when they were invited to the White House to visit just-elected President Harry S Truman. Graham had on a "pistachio-green" suit, and all four men had just bought Florsheim white buck shoes, the same brand they had seen Truman wearing in a picture. "We looked like a barbershop quartet," he admitted later.

Well, the foursome visited with the new president, and even had prayer with him. But afterwards, out on the White House lawn, the reporters were all over this 31-year-old preacher. "What did you talk about? What did you say to the President?" And so on. Even back then, Sam Donaldson was probably leading the way with the nosy questions.

Then they got really personal. "Did you pray with the President?" "Yes, sir," Graham replied. And immediately the press dared them, almost, to kneel right down there on the White House lawn and re-enact the prayer. "Give us an encore of The Truman Show." Which Billy Graham and his three friends promptly did, with a hundred camera flash bulbs going off on behalf of UPI and AP and all the rest.

Well, it turned out to be a disastrous mistake, politically speaking. The press reported the entire thing, of course: the personal conversation, the prayer, everything. President Truman was livid about the betraying of a confidence, and let it be known that Graham and company were persona non grata at the White House — permanently. And he meant it; Pastor Billy Graham was never once invited back.

It wasn't until many years later that Graham visited the former President, now retired in Independence, Missouri, and apologized profusely for his foolishness and naiveté. And by now, Truman could afford to be gracious. "Don't worry about it," he told Graham. "I realized later you hadn't been properly briefed." And to his great credit, Graham learned to be very, very careful regarding the personal conversations he had with heads of state and world leaders.

But half a century later, he does share a bit of that Oval Office conversation. "Mr. President," he asked, "tell me about your religious background and leanings." And Truman replied kind of generically that he tried to live by the Sermon on the Mount and the Golden Rule. In other words, he paid some attention to the good words from this good Teacher — as we've discussed now for a week. And young Billy Graham, politically wise or not, spoke right up. "It takes more than that, Mr. President. It's faith in Christ and His death on the Cross that you need."

And really, that Oval Office conversation — or maybe we should say confrontation — illustrates the two camps that exist in the world today. There are many people — we could say millions, and we could even say millions of Christians— who give a Trumanesque nod to the wisdom of this Man from Galilee. "I try to live by the Golden Rule," they say. And maybe they tack Matthew 5, verses 3-9, on their mirrors each morning, resolving that throughout the day they will try, like the Boy Scouts, to be: meek, merciful, pure in heart, and peacemakers. Then there are others who say: "No, that's not enough.

esus is more than a good Teacher." And to be sure, they also emulate the Lord's Prayer and order their lives after the Beatitudes. But to them, the more of this Man Jesus involves something else: the issue of salvation. There is to them a very real and personal dilemma called sin, which leads to another problem called eternal lost-ness. There is a heaven and there is a hell, and there is a moral debt to pay. And so Calvary is more than a tragic miscarriage of justice; it is God Himself providing for them what we in the Christian faith call atonement. And in this relationship, rescue by Jesus is far more important than rhymes from Him.

As long as we're borrowing wisdom today from 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, let me share a paragraph from a presidential book we've used several times on this radio program. In his best-seller, Living Faith, former President Jimmy Carter has this to say:

"For a Christian, the life and teachings of Jesus offer a sound moral foundation that includes all the most basic elements that should guide us."

Now see, that sounds like a "Good Teacher" philosophy. Here's a good framework for living, he says, a blueprint for success. And Carter goes on to add this:

"Since these highest standards are external, we [Christians] have an obligation to comprehend what they are and what they mean for us."

Now, if this is all we had, we could take these words as a kind of Hallmark gospel. "Here are good sayings; go and live by them." And we'd think of Jesus' Good Samaritan story, where only one man out of three was kind to the roadside crime victim. And Jesus, after telling this nice story, says exactly that to the crowd listening to the Good Teacher. "Go," He says, "and do thou likewise." And a Christian could certainly follow all of that good-neighbor stuff; but you wouldn't have to be a Christian in order to do so.

However, Carter then goes on — and the title, Living Faith, implies much more than "listen to the Nice Teacher," doesn't it?

"The Danish existentialist Søren Kierkegaard," he writes, "said, ‘Faith means the betting of one's life upon the God in Christ Jesus . . . the giving or commitment of one's whole life.'" Then Carter adds: "My faith — my life commitment — has been instilled in me since childhood. Despite periods of doubt, it has been confirmed and strengthened by the tangible spiritual benefits I have received from the ‘assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.' (That's Hebrews 11:1). It is only through faith that I can maintain a relationship with the omnipotent Creator and my personal Savior. Without this, I would feel destitute."

There are several code words here, friend, that we need to notice if we are to understand moving beyond the thought that the Christian faith is simply a good philosophy expressed by a good philosopher. This Danish writer, Kierkegaard, used the expression: "the betting of one's life." A person doesn't do that for a philosophy. I've been over in the former Soviet Union, and I've seen people who, in a sense, bet their economic and political futures on the validity of Communism. And they were sorely disappointed by its fall, the utter failure of their chosen system. But that's not the same as betting your life.

Then we have words like "faith," "relationship," "Savior." And if we understand "faith" as a connection of trust, where you really do "bet your life," or place your eternal existence, in someone's hands, you can understand why we wouldn't do that with a philosopher or just the author of a brilliant new religious book from Thomas Nelson.

No, friend, the expression "give your life to Jesus" means much more than just the adopting of a creed. The Apostle Paul gives us a huge clue when he writes in Philippians one:

"For to me, to live is Christ."

Well, that's a powerful testimony, but a devoted Communist could probably say that about the system he loved. Paul goes a step beyond this, though, with the rest of the verse.

"For to me, to live is Christ, and to die is gain."

Meaning that eternal life was his; he knew that on the other side of death was an eternity with this Savior, this Rescuer and Redeemer who had done much more for him than just the bequeathing of a few poems and good sermon illustrations. Back in the book of Romans, chapter six, is probably Paul's definitive statement about the proper place of Jesus.

"For the wages of sin is death," he writes, "but the gift of God is eternal life . . . in Jesus Christ our Lord."

Back as we close to President Carter, who spent four very challenging years in the White House from 1977 to 1981. Our American hostages were being held by the Ayatollah Khomeini; the Soviets had invaded Afghanistan; the Middle East was in violent turmoil. What did the President do for help? Where did he turn? Did he simply have the Golden Rule to fall back on? Here's his personal confession, from that same book, Living Faith:

"I prayed more during those four years," he writes, "than at any other time in my life, just asking for God's guidance in making the right decisions on behalf of the American people. There was a small private office a few steps from the Oval Office where I kept my personal books, papers, photographs, and mementos. I would go back to this place for my most serious prayers."

Notice that this statesman, the most powerful man in the world, had the living, caring Christ to turn to. He didn't turn to a book of Eastern philosophies; he turned instead to an answering, caring Savior! During the Iranian hostage crisis, he knew he could pray and that a loving Jesus would hear and respond. And when he suffered with his own humanness, the temptations, the resentments when political enemies lied about him, when Brezhnev blustered and filibustered, the desire for revenge — he was able to know that Jesus Christ, more than a good Teacher, was his forgiving Friend.