Billy Graham: A Warning to the Nation

Americans have every right to be discouraged at the deteriorating world conditions. Everywhere we look in the world there is explosion and trouble. The world is falling apart.

Why has there been such an increase of trouble for the United States? Could it be that our sins are beginning to catch up with us? Centuries ago, Moses proclaimed to Israel that if she served God, she would be the most blessed of all nations, but if she disobeyed God, terrifying judgment would come: “And among those nations you shall find no rest, nor shall the sole of your foot have a resting place; but there the Lord will give you a trembling heart, failing eyes, and anguish of soul. Your life shall hang in doubt before you; you shall fear day and night, and have no assurance of life” (Deuteronomy 28:65-66).

Moses warned that Israel’s enemies would conquer her if she disobeyed God. And we know the history of Israel—we know that Israel did disobey God and that she suffered one judgment after another.

Today our nation is following the same dangerous path. We worship the gods of secularism and materialism. God is displeased, and I warn you that His anger is being kindled. If ever a nation has enjoyed prosperity and the blessing of God, it is America. But instead of giving thanks to God, we have offered our reverence and worship to created things. As the Apostle Paul wrote, “They are without excuse, because, although they knew God, they did not glorify Him as God, nor were thankful, but became futile in their thoughts, and their foolish hearts were darkened” (Romans 1:20-21).

Could this be the difficulty with some of our leaders today? Has all the planning of the past few years by some of America’s most brilliant intellects begun to end in futility?

Paul said that although they boast of their wisdom, they have made fools of themselves. Then comes the awful judgment: “Therefore God also gave them up to uncleanness, in the lusts of their hearts” (Romans 1:24). In other words, the Bible says there will come a day when a nation sins so much against God that God will give them up, and will allow them to go on for a time in pleasure, worldliness, idolatry, wickedness and immorality. The Scripture says that there is pleasure in sin for a season (Hebrews 11:25), but warns that the pleasure will be extremely short-lived and that judgment will follow.

“As they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a debased mind, to do those things which are not fitting; being filled with all unrighteousness, sexual immorality, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness; full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, evil-mindedness … who, knowing the righteous judgment of God, that those who practice such things are deserving of death, not only do the same but also approve of those who practice them” (Romans 1:28-32). These words are from the Scriptures, but they sound like something taken from our daily news.

The Bible teaches that the kindness and patience of God are meant to lead us to repentance (Romans 2:4). However, we have spurned God’s mercy and kindness to America and have gone deeper into sin. The Bible says that God will render indignation and wrath “to those who are self-seeking and do not obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness” (Romans 2:8).

From the beginning of the Bible to the end, God warns that any nation that departs from Him is going to suffer judgment. America has been given more spiritual and moral light than any nation in the history of the world. We have millions of Bibles at our disposal; there are hundreds of thousands of churches. Yet in spite of all this, we continue to be the most crime-ridden, the most divorce-prone, and the most immoral nation on earth. We spew the filth of pornography all over the world.

How long will God withhold His hand of judgment? I tell you it will not be long. Unless we as a nation repent and turn to God, we are going to suffer a judgment such as no nation has ever endured. The Prophet Ezekiel said: “Every heart will melt, all hands will be feeble, every spirit will faint, and all knees will be weak as water. Behold, it is coming and shall be brought to pass,’ says the Lord God” (Ezekiel 21:7).

This day God is speaking to our nation in a thousand ways, urging us to repent of our sins and to turn to Him before it is too late. But as the Prophet Jeremiah said, “They have made their faces harder than rock; They have refused to return” (Jeremiah 5:3). So there is nothing left but judgment.

Three thousand years ago, when King Jehoshaphat ascended to the throne of David, his country, like ours, was surrounded by threatening foes. Earnestly and sincerely, King Jehoshaphat sought peace for his people. This great ruler was a man of God. The Bible says that “he walked in the former ways of his father David” and that he “sought the God of his father, and walked in His commandments. … And his heart took delight in the ways of the Lord” (2 Chronicles 17:3-4, 6).

I pray that God will give us candidates for office who are God-fearing, God-loving men and women. One of our deep-rooted troubles today is that so many of our leaders either do not know God or deliberately deny His existence by the way they live.

When the United Nations representatives met in London to frame their constitution, a delegate from the Republic of Panama was distressed because there was no reference to God in the proposed draft. He pleaded fervently for the Name of God to be included. He recalled that the Japanese and the Nazis had renounced God, and he demanded, “Where are they now?” The assembly remained silent. When the debate was closed and the vote was recorded, it was found that only Panama and Colombia favored the motion. As a New York newspaper reported at that time, “God was rejected.” How different this was from the attitude of our Founding Fathers who landed at Plymouth Rock! They knew they could not succeed without God; and so the constitution they penned—the Mayflower Compact—begins with the Name of God.

When King Jehoshaphat sought peace and social progress for his people, what was his course of action? Did he try new laws, new social plans, new educational projects and new financial programs? No. He went back to the Word of God. Jehoshaphat demanded that his people learn the Word of God, that they live by it and that they humble themselves before God.

When Judah returned to the teachings of the Bible, one of the most striking triumphs of military history occurred. When Jehoshaphat’s enemies—the Ammonites, the Moabites and the Edomites—made an alliance against Judah to destroy her, Jehoshaphat trusted God. And he sent into the field the strangest army that the world of warfare has ever witnessed. Ahead of his forces marched not infantry or cavalry, not men with swords and bows, but singers who chanted the Lord’s praises and the words of Scripture. No wonder that without fighting a battle, without losing a man, Judah put the enemy to flight! Obedience to the Word of God had brought peace.

If our nation at this hour would turn to the Word of God, then I guarantee on the authority of God’s Word that the enemies at our gates could be pushed back; God would intervene and put them to flight.

Visitors to Pitcairn Island in the South Pacific have compared the island to the Garden of Eden because it is a place of much happiness and contentment. It was first settled by mutineers and outlaws seeking to escape punishment. Because of the brutality that these criminals practiced on the little island (which was then only two miles long and one mile wide), it became filled with treachery, betrayal, racial strife, murder and war. Yet within 20 years after they had come to this island, the community had undergone a complete change. Harmony and goodwill reigned. Quarreling and cursing and war disappeared.

The people had turned to the Bible. They never began a meal without a prayer of thanksgiving. If during the day an islander had spoken hastily to his neighbor, he refused to let the sun go down on his wrath. On the Sabbath, everyone went to church. All business was stopped. They had no labor troubles, no social troubles, no racial problems. Why? Years earlier, before the criminals burned the ship on which they had mutinied, someone rescued its Bible; and that Word of God brought the people to Jesus Christ and made a small utopia out of a lonely island in the South Seas.

What would happen today if the Bible were the supreme authority in the United States, and if every individual in America would accept Christ as Savior and begin to live up to the terms of the Sermon on the Mount? Jesus Christ can solve the problems that the nation faces—the race problem, the crime problem, the home problem, the international problems. He can also lift the burdens that we have as individuals; He can reach the problems down in the innermost recesses of our own souls.

The things I have said here about the United States are largely true in other countries as well, so those nations also need to repent if they are to be spared the judgment of God.

But many of you have frustrations and difficulties on a personal level. You have a civil war raging inside of you. I want to tell you that Jesus Christ can solve that problem and lift that heavy burden. He can bring peace to your soul.

Scripture quotations are taken from The Holy Bible, New King James Version.

Don’t Wait

A day will come when it is too late to turn to Christ, and judgment will be upon you. Put your faith in Him today! Ask God to forgive you and save your soul. You can have a new life, a new beginning, if you will surrender to Christ. And you can do that right now. First, confess your sin to God and turn away from it. Second, receive Jesus as your Lord and Savior, putting your faith in Him alone to save you. He promises to live in you and transform your life.

START BY SIMPLY TALKING TO GOD.

You can pray a prayer like this:

“Dear God, I know that I am a sinner. I’m sorry for my sin. I want to turn from my sin. Please forgive me. I believe Jesus Christ is Your Son; I believe He died on the cross for my sin and You raised Him to life. I want Him to come into my heart and take control of my life. I want to trust Jesus as my Savior and follow Him as my Lord from this day forward. In Jesus’ Name. Amen.”

DO IT RIGHT NOW.

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