Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...

From the writings of the Rev. Billy Graham

Dear Rev. Graham: I’m amazed that people say that our nation — and the world — is on the verge of worldwide peace. The headlines indicate the opposite. What is the truth? — E.W.

Dear E.W.: A few decades ago, it was fashionable to suggest that the world was entering a great era of peace, putting great hope in the advancement of technology. Such dreams are illusions. People hoped for peace in the earlier part of the 20th century. Such hope was shattered by World War I; it was preparation for WWII. Permeating the media is the concentration on catastrophic headlines, including reports some years ago that germs capable of destroying nations have already been developed, including new viruses that could cause a breakdown in the health of the populace of an entire continent. Chemical and germ warfare are part of the arms arsenal being developed throughout the world. Documentaries report that insects could someday be in control of our planet. One major news outlet concluded an editorial with the words: “There’s a feeling that… the world [is] in its twilight.”
Terrorist groups are growing more daring in their attacks. Atrocities fill the news. Nuclear weapons and precarious international relationships are not the only indications of civilization on a collision course. The increase of earthquakes are overwhelming.
On the moral front, things look extremely bleak. There’s an explosion in the breakdown of marriages and the almost total rejection of moral law and guidelines. Pleasure has become the goal of millions. Pornography meets with little restraint. On every hand people are screaming for “liberation” and social justice.
Putting faith in Jesus Christ is the only hope. Hope does not rest in the affairs of this world. It rests in Christ who is coming again. The great question of the ages is this: Are you prepared to meet Jesus Christ?
—————
(This column is based on the words and writings of the late Rev. Billy Graham.)