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Billy Graham, world-renowned preacher, evangelist, and author, delivered the gospel message to more people face-to-face than anyone in history and ministried on every continent of the world in almost 200 countries and territories. His ministry extended far beyond stadiums and arenas, utilizing radio, television, film, print media, wireless communications, and thirty-four books, all that still carry the good news of God’s redemptive love for humanity.

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PEACE WITH GOD

Thomas Nelson

Contents

Preface.................................................viiPublisher's Note........................................xiPart One: Assessing the Situation1. The Great Quest......................................32. The Indestructible Bible.............................173. What Is God Like?....................................294. The Terrible Fact of Sin.............................435. Dealing with the Devil...............................616. The Despair of Loneliness............................757. After Death-What?....................................85Part Two: Advancing the Solution8. Why Jesus Came.......................................1079. How and Where to Begin...............................13110. What Is Repentance?.................................14511. What Is Faith?......................................15712. The Old and the New.................................17313. How to Be Sure......................................185Part Three: Applying the Antidote14. Enemies of the Christian............................19715. Guidelines for Christian Living.....................21316. The Christian and the Church........................22917. Am I My Brother's Keeper?...........................24118. Hope for the Future.................................26519. Peace at Last.......................................27920. The Day After.......................................289

Chapter One

And ye shall seek me, and find me, when ye shall search for me with all your heart. Jeremiah 29:13

You started on the Great Quest the moment you were born. It was many years perhaps before you realized it, before it became apparent that you were constantly searching-searching for something you never had-searching for something that was more important than anything in life. Sometimes you have tried to forget about it. Sometimes you have attempted to lose yourself in other things so there could be time and thought for nothing but the business at hand. Sometimes you may even have felt that you were freed from the need to go on seeking this nameless thing. At moments you have almost been able to dismiss the quest completely. But always you have been caught up in it again-always you have had to come back to your search.

At the loneliest moments in your life you have looked at other men and women and wondered if they too were seeking something they couldn't describe but knew they wanted and needed. Some of them seemed to have found fulfillment in marriage and family living. Others went off to achieve fame and fortune in other parts of the world. Still others stayed at home and prospered, and looking at them you may have thought: These people are not on the Great Quest. These people have found their way. They knew what they wanted and have been able to grasp it.

It is only I who travel this path that leads to nowhere. It is only I who goes asking, seeking, stumbling along this dark and despairing road that has no guideposts.

The Cry of Mankind

But you are not alone. All mankind is traveling with you, for all mankind is on this same quest. All humanity is seeking the answer to the confusion, the moral sickness, the spiritual emptiness that oppresses the world. All mankind is crying out for guidance, for comfort, for peace.

We are told that we live in the "age of anxiety." Historians point out that there have been few times in all history when man has been subject to so much fear and uncertainty. All the familiar props seem to have been swept away. We talk of peace but are confronted by war at every turn. We devise elaborate schemes for security but have not found it. We grasp at every passing straw and, even as we clutch, it disappears.

For generations we have been running like frightened children, first up one blind alley and then another. Each time we have told ourselves: "This path is the right one; this one will take us where we want to go." But each time we have been wrong.

The Path of Political Freedom

One of the first paths we chose was labeled "political freedom." Give everyone political freedom, we said, and the world will become a happy place. Let us select our own government leaders and we shall have the kind of government that will make life worth living. So we achieved political freedom, but we did not achieve our better world. Our daily newspapers give us reports of corruption in high places, of favoritism, of exploitation, of hypocrisy equal to and sometimes surpassing the despotism of ancient kings. Political freedom is a precious and important thing, but it alone cannot give us the kind of world we long for.

There was another very hopeful path marked "education," and many put their whole faith in it. Political freedom coupled with education will do the trick, they said, and we all rushed madly along the educational path. It seemed a bright, well-lighted, sensible path for a long time, and we traveled it with eager, expectant feet, but where has it led us? You know the answer. We are the most informed people in the history of civilization-and yet the most confused. Our high-school students know more about the physical laws of the universe than the greatest scientist in the days of Aristotle. But, though our heads are crammed with knowledge, our hearts are empty.

The brightest, most inviting path of all was the one marked "higher standards of living." Almost everyone felt he could trust this one to carry him automatically into that better and more joyful world. This was felt to be the sure route. This was the "press the button and you're there" route! This was the path that led through the beautiful full-color magazine advertisements, past all the shining new cars, past the gleaming rows of electric refrigerators and automatic washing machines, past all the fat chickens cooking in brand-new copper-bottomed pots. We knew we'd hit the jackpot this time! The other paths might have been false leads, but this time we had it!

All right, look around you right this minute. At this very moment in history you see in America a country that has political freedom to an extent undreamed of in many parts of the civilized world. You see the greatest and most far-reaching public education system that man has ever created, and we are eulogized at home and abroad for our high standard of living. "The American way of life" is what we like to call this fully electrified, fully automatic, chrome-plated economy of ours-but has it made us happy? Has it brought us the joy and satisfaction and the reason for living that we were seeking?

No. As we stand here feeling smug and proud that we have accomplished so much that generations before us only dreamed about; as we span our oceans in hours instead of months; as we produce miracle drugs that wipe out some of man's most dreaded diseases; as we erect buildings that make the Tower of Babel seem like an anthill; as we learn more and more of the mysterious secrets that lie in the depths of the sea and probe further and further into outer space, do we lose one iota of that empty feeling within us? Do all these modern wonders bring us a sense of fulfillment? Do they help to explain why we are here? Do they point out what we are supposed to learn?

Or does that awful hollow feeling persist? Does every further discovery of the magnitude of the universe comfort us or make...