Down through the years, it has been my opportunity to visit, to work with and spend some time with interesting people in about 60 countries of the world. Time would fail for us to take the time to talk about England, France, Germany, Russia, North America, South America, and many others including southeast Asia, the Caribbean and still others. It has been a fascinating set of experiences I assure you. I do hope that you will get the opportunity, while it still can be done, to visit strategic nations across the world. I promise that you will not be able to sleep well after visiting prominent places that, at this time, we only know from a distance.

Many things could be said about the poverty of India, the dignity of England, the confusions of Latin America, the presumptions of America, the arrogance of Russia and a myriad of other national attitudes which are going in our time.

I have often been asked about the things observed and the lessons learned on these trips. They are many, but the thing that is so very impressive is the wide variety in large numbers of religions now being practiced across the face of the earth. These include millions upon millions of followers who are Christian, Catholic, Buddhist, Shintoist, and so many others that they cannot be counted. On top of this, the thousands of religious cults going in the world today add to the picture. Seeing this, I wrote such books as The Marks of a Cult and Discover Your Destiny. These were created because to believe the wrong religion in the world has painful and sometimes fatal consequences.

Yes, a wide variety of religious believers in our world are dead wrong. This because they believe the wrong thing. The religion which they believe is not true. No matter how passionately an individual believes something, if that something is a waste of time it could also be called a waste of life.

In addition to witnessing these many religions, it has also been my opportunity to teach philosophy to many college students. The philosophies of the world have multiplied themselves under the leadership of many a messianic type of individual. This is why I felt compelled to write Seven Men Who Rule the World from the Grave which has gone out into the hands of many thousands of people. I can certainly testify that it is a confusing and dangerous world. The world of thought—and understanding it—is perhaps the most important path of study in the whole world. This because wrong thoughts lead to wrong actions and wrong actions lead to wrong consequences. These consequences can be foolish, frustrating, and fatal. That is a dangerously true description of the culture of our present age. Let’s take a minute then to discuss, in this light, the world of our time.

First of all, in the world of philosophy, what is truth? In this light, we have available atheism, theism, existentialism, psycho-physical monism and scores of other “philosophies.” Philosophy occasionally creeps over into the realm of secular science giving us such views as evolution and the like.

In all of this, what is truth? The truth of any philosophy is only real to the extent that it recognizes that there is a just God who presides above all forms of human destiny. He made the world and He is the truth behind every proven fact of life. God is—this is the true philosophy which produces substance to all of the forms of thinking. Religions present complicated alternatives as well. What then is the true religion. The answer to that question is that truth and religion is given to us by the one man—the God-man, who lived, died, rose again in order to deliver mankind from human sin. His name is Jesus Christ. He announced, “I am the way, the truth, and the life” (John 14:6).

What Is Truth?
By this time, perhaps you say, “I would like to know more about this.” “What shall I study?” The first answer is that there are a thousand volumes of various works that have been beautifully published to present the truth of Christianity and of the Person of Jesus Christ. There is no other volume in all of life that has anything like the credentials for truth that we find in the Bible—the Word of God. You see, God made the world and he has given us an instruction book as to what we must do to preserve that world. The Bible is, therefore, often called the Book of Life because without it, life cannot be understood. In fact, neither can it be preserved.

By this time, you have heard of or even known lots of guys and girls who have already ruined their lives with narcotics, personal dissipation, ruinous beliefs and other horrible things. Tens of thousands of people, young and old, die every year from activities that ignore or defy the will of God. They live lives that are obviously ruinous and, thereby, they hasten the advent of disease and then finally early, untimely death.

We live in a world that will one day pass away (perhaps soon), and each one of us will be brought out from time into eternity. Eternity has two kinds of people—those who are saved and those who are lost. Concerning this and related subjects we’d be happy to have any thoughts, ideas, and questions from you.

The Scripture promises that one day the earth will be destroyed. The earth, therefore, must be seen as a temporary dwelling place by us and we move out from here into “the great beyond”—eternity. The only way to be sure about your eternal future is to receive Jesus Christ as personal Savior. Now in this life, this may be the very moment in which you want to pray, “Lord, I know that I am a sinner and that Jesus died for my sins on the cross. I want to take Him as personal Savior and receive His gift of everlasting life. Please come and live in my heart today—Amen.”

The Greatest Thing
When we come to Christ, we soon discover the many derivative benefits of being a Christian. We can have a life in this world characterized by joy, purpose, safety, the ever real presence of Christ and happiness beyond description. Many of us have been looking for these things now for a long time and they can be discovered by knowing the Lord. When you receive Christ, you will soon discover that the Christian life is the greatest thing in the world and the key to every other good thing in life. We recommend that you say that wonderful “yes” to Jesus Christ today.

We will be praying that God will lead your life, supply your need, bring many good and wonderful things to pass. This is not a vain activity because Jesus said, “men ought always to pray, and not to faint” (Luke 18:1). James said, “The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much” (James 5:16). By the way, there are millions of people in today’s world who believe the wrong thing and, as we have said, are living terribly unhappy lives. One of the additional things that you can do, being a Christian is to bring this message of the Gospel to others who are looking for and need to discover the reality of salvation. One of the happiest things in the world beside your own salvation is that of bringing another person to faith in Jesus Christ. “You are witnesses,” Jesus said, and that wonderfully applies to every one of us.

We’re praying that God will help you in those studies as well. The consequences of being a good student are really marvelous. Don’t miss them. Think for just a moment of the bright possibilities of your life. The culture of our time is certainly extending a new and serious call to bright and progressive young people. The student will soon be moving into the midst of great new dimensions in the fields of life which they have the opportunity to choose. Virtually every legitimate occupation available on earth is even now opening wide its doors of opportunity. There is no doubt that your life today will face greater opportunity, greater possibilities, greater rewards than was the case in any previous time in the history of our world.

Joys Forever
At this point let’s remind ourselves that one of the most vital things of our time to notice is the passage of time. Often when we are 18 years old or 28, it seems as if we will be on this earth and in this world forever. That being the case, how quickly do we appear before the Judge of history in the light of eternity. At that time, we will know even as we are known and the severe limitations of time will turn into the broad permissions of eternity. It will be quite a fantastic thing to move to our palace on high when we may have moved in the midst of very small circumstances in this world. The promises that are made in the Word of God concern the amazing joys that will be forever in the life of a Christian. Rewards for eternity, what remarkable promises. All of these come to us because of the grace of God and the response in our lives in living for Christ. Therefore, it is good to be reminded that time must not be wasted in this world. Rather, to live in this world with an anticipation of the world which is to come is the proper attitude. The studies in which we are involved today have eternal possibilities. The plan that Christ has for our lives is not for this world alone but it is for eternity. It seems inconceivable that what we do for the Lord now will be remembered a million years from now, but that is the way it is. Eternity’s values are ultimate ones, not the little speeches made in political gatherings today.

For most it is, therefore, a good time to get busy, propagating the Word of God and bringing others to a saving knowledge of Jesus Christ. That, we will know then, is what eternity is all about. We, therefore, can know that the purpose of life is that we may live with the realities of time and in the process become well-prepared for the joys of eternity.

Yes, we have a world to win. Let’s be busy.

Taken from the writings of Dave Breese
Edited and Revised by the Christian Destiny Staff