My Answer

on Nov 3, 2026

From the writings of the Rev. Billy Graham

Q: While I trust Jesus for the future of our God-blessed nation, was there any nation on Earth during His lifetime that came close to America the great? Hasn’t America surpassed every great power to ever reign on Earth? – E.P.

A: When Jesus lived on Earth, Rome was a prosperous, growing empire. It possessed a superiority over other nations and was equipped intellectually and militarily to hold the place as the world’s No. 1 power. But Jesus saw the whole structure of the Roman Empire as something fleeting and temporary. He looked at the great buildings in Jerusalem and said, “Do you see these great buildings? Not one stone shall be left upon another, that shall not be thrown down” (Mark 13:2, NKJV).

Jesus talked of the world He lived in, with its armed might, its great edifices and institutions – the world that the Romans doubtless thought of as the “great society” – as something soon to crumble. The Romans’ world did end, the Empire did fall, and Caesar’s “great society” disintegrated.

Christ’s kingdom differs from man’s attempt at a great society that says we should simply be decent, respectable, and reasonable. But to be a member of the kingdom of God, there must be an inner change. People are transformed from the inside out by the power of God. The Apostle Paul said, “If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new” (2 Corinthians 5:17, NKJV).

Fallible men cannot create an infallible society. A “great society” cannot be produced by people who hate, connive, take advantage, pillage, and overrun, with self-interest as the motivation. Jesus predicted that this would still exist in the last agonizing days of man’s world (see Matthew 24:7, 10). To belong to God’s kingdom, we must know and possess the transforming power of Christ.

(This column is based on the words and writings of the late Rev. Billy Graham.)