The Only Hope for America

By Luis Palau, Christian Post Guest Columnist Monday, November 01, 2010

A woman and her husband, professing Christians, once asked me why I am an evangelist. "I long to see people changed by Jesus Christ," I replied. "That's my source of satisfaction."

She responded, "In my whole life I've never seen a person actually changed by Jesus Christ."

Her comment first touched my conscience. How changed am I by Jesus Christ? How different am I from my unchurched, unconverted neighbors?

Then I wanted to tell her about thousands of people I know whose lives have been dramatically changed: a drug dealer who once made thousands of dollars a week now content with his landscaping job that earns only hundreds a month; adulterous husbands and wives who now honor their marriage vows; lonely, withdrawn teenagers who now can't stop talking about Jesus at home and school; drug-addicted celebrities who now testify of deliverance and host Bible studies in their homes.

The resurrected Christ has power to change America, where 80 percent of the people claim to be Christians, but few live any differently from pagans or atheists, as though God has no claim on their lives. Their hearts have not been changed, and unless Jesus Christ changes their hearts, they never will be any different from those outside the Christian faith.

America needs evangelism like never before.
Billy Graham once said, "It's either back to the Bible or back to the jungle." The jungle is creeping up on the United States.

Theologian Carl F. H. Henry put it this way: "The barbarians are coming." Dr. Henry could see that without a wave of evangelization that converts hundreds of thousands of people to Jesus Christ, barbarians are going to take over the land. Not foreigners, but our own unrepentant children and grandchildren.

The problem is in the heart, not just the outward behavior that so alarms and frightens God-fearing Americans. God says, "The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked" (Jeremiah 17:9 KJV). What's needed is not more good advice dished out in the newspaper and on television, but the Good News, "the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes" (Romans 1:16).

Political campaigns, family counseling, and education do nothing about the condition of human depravity. Unless there's a change of heart, nothing's happened to change a person. And unless millions of hearts are changed, little has happened to change America. Dr. Henry says, "The ideal way to transform a sinful society is not political compulsion but spiritual transformation, that is, evangelistic proclamation and regeneration."

If we proclaim the gospel with all the vigor of the Holy Spirit, I'm convinced hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of Americans will listen and trust Jesus Christ for salvation. That's America's only hope.

World evangelist and author Luis Palau and his ministry, Luis Palau Association, have shared the Gospel with more than 1 billion people through evangelistic events and media. He has spoken in person to more than 25 million people in 72 countries with close to 1 million registered decisions for Jesus Christ.