A Reverent Maverick
Though we are sitting in her office, Anne Graham Lotz is beginning to preach, in the best sense of the word.
"You remember in the Old Testament when Elijah had the contest with the priests of Baal? And all day long they tried to get the fire to come down and they couldn't. And then Elijah said, 'All right, now it's my turn.' And he dug a trench around the altar and had water poured on the altar until the sacrifice was soaked, the wood was soaked, the stones were soaked, and water filled the trench?
"Elijah was making it impossible for anything to happen unless God did it. If God didn't send down the fire, that thing was never going to catch fire. He wanted all the glory going to God, so when the fire came down, everybody would know it was the Lord."
She pauses. "When I look at my life, God's given me many things, but he's withheld many: education—seminary or Bible training—many things. And he made me a woman. To be honest, there was a time before I started BSF [Bible Study Fellowship] when I wondered why God hadn't made me a man. If I had been a man in my family, I wouldn't have had to struggle with missed opportunities.
"I think the fact that God made me a woman is water on the altar. You can come to a Just Give Me Jesus revival and see what God does there. Nobody can credit a seminary, nobody can credit my being Billy Graham's daughter—I left home at 18. I just have to credit the hand of God in my life. Without God, it would have been impossible."
Lotz does not fit neatly into any stereotype of evangelicalism. She believes in the inerrancy of Scripture, and also that she can "agree to disagree" with others on the meaning of certain texts. She believes women can be ordained, but has chosen not to be. Though ...
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Kathy
Anne Graham Lotz is doing a great job spreading the Gospel. Shame on those who would have her stop doing what Christ commanded we do just because they pick and choose their Bible verses instead of looking at the whole. Now, I do have to disagree with her on one point: the feminists have said and done many wrong things, but they did do a good job in changing society's view of women from incompetent, large children to competent adults.
Sheri
How good and refreshing it is to see that there are still some people who maintain the importance of integrity and put themselves under the authority of the Word of God, seeking to understand it and grow in it, and sharing what the Word actually says, (rather than what some think it should say.) Thank you for having the courage to be yourself, even in the shadow of one of the most well-known people in the world.
Anonymous
Michael, exactly. God cannot call someone to do something that is obviously disobedient to his Word. Therefore, since Anne Graham Lotz clearly has the annointing of God upon her, she must NOT be wrong. Your interpretation of his Word must be.