Billy Graham - Peace with God: The Secret of Happiness

Copyright 1953, 1984 by Billy Graham All rights reserved. N o portion of this book may be reproduced in any form without the written permission of the publisher, except for brief excerpts in magazine reviews. Unless otherwise indicated, all Scripture quotations are from the King James Version of the Bible.

Published by W Publishing Group, a Division of Thomas Nelson, Inc., P.O. Box 141000, Nashville, Tennessee 37214.

Scriptures marked RSV are from the Revised Standard Version of the Bible, copyright, 1952 (2nd edition, 1971) by the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

J. B. Phillips: The New Testament in Modern English, Revised Edition (PHILLIPS). Copyright J. B. Phillips 1958, 1960, 1972. Used by permission of Macmillan Publishing Co., Inc.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Graham, Billy, 1918
Peace with God.

1. Theology, DoctrinalPopular works.
I. Title. BT77.G78 1984 230 84-17421
ISBN 0-8499-0464-1
ISBN 0-8499-2991-1 (pbk.)
ISBN 0-8499-1479-5 (gift ed.)
ISBN 0-8499-4383-3 (mass pbk.)

Printed in the United States of America
02 03 04 0 5 06 6 5 4 3 2 1

Therefore being justified by faith,
we have peace with God through our
Lord Jesus Christ.

Romans 5:1

Contents

IN THE THREE DECADES since Peace with God was originally written, an embattled world seems to have permanently lost its fragile grasp on serenity. For the first time in history, an entire generation of young people lives in fear that time, in the form of a nuclear holocaust, will run out before they can grow up, which may explain in part why tragic numbers of them at the peak of youthful promise find various ways to drop out of life. We have become a generation of escape artists. As I write these words, armed conflicts are raging in many places around the globe and the streets of more than one great city ring with gunfire. An American president was assassinated since the book was written, as were an attorney general, a civil rights leader, an Egyptian president and a famous rock star. Another president was the victim of an attempted assassination. Hostages have been in many places and a Korean passenger jet shot down. Many wars have been fought. Nor can we turn to the security of our homes to find inner peace, for many of our homes simply aren't there anymore as nearly half of all new marriages now end in divorce. This strife that runs rampant in the world at large is but a reflection of the conflict storming individual hearts.

Millions have read this book in its original version. It has been translated into more than thirty languages. Thousands have written to tell how their own lives or the lives of someone else have been transformed and affected. We have been told that it is the most read and distributed religious book in the Eastern world. A customs official in one of these areas came across a copy of Peace with God in the luggage of a Christian visiting his country. The tourist said he would happily give it to him, but he had promised it to a friend in that country.

'Then will you wait while I read it?" the official asked.So our friend waitedhalf an hour, an hour, two hours.Finally, without comment, the book was returned to the suitcase and our friend was waved through. In revising it, I was amazed to find how relevant the original was, yet some details needed updating.

This revised edition, as did the original Peace with God, points the way, the only way, to authentic personal peace in a world in crisis. Since its publication thirty-one years ago, millions of readers here and in other lands have followed its clear, simple steps and discovered for themselves the revolutionary new life offered by a once unknown Galilean. These include men writing on Death Row and even one of my sons-in-law.

One of the reporters who covered our Crusade in Bristol, England, was asked if she had been involved in a church before coming to Bristol and she replied, "O yes, I'm a Christian. I was converted through Billy Graham in 1954." As a ten-year-old girl, away at boarding school, she had gone to a "jumble sale" (similar to our garage sales). On the table were a number of books. She noticed a copy of Peace with God and was immediately drawn to it. She paid sixpence for itall the money she had at the momentand stayed up all night reading it by flashlight in her room back at the school. She accepted Christ as a result of reading that book. Although she had grown up in the church, she had never had anyone explain the simple message of the gospel and how she could respond to Christ.

It is my prayer that this revised edition will find its way into the hands and hearts of a lost, confused, and searching world, for I sense that now, even more than when the book was first written, men, women, and young people everywhere thirst for peace with God.

I am deeply grateful to all those who have counseled with me in the preparation of this new edition. Special thanks are due to my wife, Ruth, who worked many hours on its revision; my oldest daughter, GiGi Tchividjian; and my secretary, Stephanie Wills. May God use this book to touch the lives of millions more in this new generation.

Billy Graham

Publisher's Note

SINCE its first publication almost fifty years ago Dr. Billy Grahams Peace with God has blessed us with the voice of spiritual calm through decades of war, turmoil, and world change. While some of the statistics and world situations have changed since the book's most recent revision, the need for a clear message of calmness and peace in our lives has not. W Publishing Group is honored and pleased, therefore, to join Dr. Graham in reaffirming his timeless biblical message by republishing this devotional classic, as revised in 1984, so that it may continue to bring you "peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ."

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 searchingsearching for something you never hadsearching 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 againalways 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 seekingsomething 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.