Now more than ever, evangelical Christians must follow the changeless Christ to speak the truth, show compassion and seek the lost if we will save our generation.

With the message of truth, light, and hope, we stand together with a commission to touch our generation for Christ. So that the reality of this good news be known, let us honestly face the conditions of our world.

We live in a dangerous world marked by ecological pollution, the possibility of nuclear war, food shortages, and the population explosion. The knowledge explosion has brought with it scientific advancements of great magnitude. If half are realized they will bring with them consequences for the planet earth almost beyond imagination.

World events occur with startling rapidity and increasing intensity. Our attention shuttles from the Near East to Africa, from Iran to Red China without letup. Begin, Sadat, the Shah, Teng, Khomeini — these have become household names. Their words and actions attract the attention of government officials and mankind everywhere. God alone knows the solutions to the vast array of problems faced by the leaders of the world.

Ethical and moral standards continue to erode. Corruption, sexual license, greed, violence, injustice, the shattering of the institutions of marriage and the home — these all convey a brutal fact to us. They indicate the deep-seated and seemingly irreversible decline of western culture. Satanic forces are demolishing the time-honored standards of our Judeo-Christian inheritance.

The task faced by Christians is greater than ever. At least 80 million people in the United States claim no relationship with any Christian group. Another 60 million, who claim affiliation with Christian churches, are inactive.

Churchless towns, and communities with churches who doors are shut, exist in every part of our land. Our teeming cities cry for help as they slowly die. They are plagued by crime, dope addiction, prostitution, poverty, and poor housing. Racial and ethnic discrimination creates its own set of problems. Great spiritual vacuums exist in the urban centers as Christians and congregations have fled to suburbia. But suburbia, too, needs the gospel for many people have capitulated to secular humanism.

Apartments and mobile home parks, low-rent high rise apartments, towering shafts of luxury suites, urban and suburban centers, project towns and rural areas, prisons and detention centers, public schools and college campuses — all are crowded with people insulated from the church and reachable only through radio, television, the printed page, or the personal witness of Christians.

The church, too, may be equally insulated from the needs of the world. The answer is not to build more extravagant church buildings or to only provide pleasant surroundings in the sanctuary while attended only by prayerless people living undisciplined lives. Local churches need to be loving, caring fellowships. Christians are to encourage, support and admonish one another. Unselfish Christians listen to the voice of the Lord Jesus Christ, their Head, and follow the guidance of the Holy Spirit.

Beyond our national borders stands a world filled with lost people — a world to which God sent His only begotten Son. Of the world’s 4 billion people, 2.9 billion are yet to be reached. What will we Christians do in response to this critical need?

We affirm that the Christ of the Scriptures – and He alone – is the answer to the world’s need today. He is the God-man and is the world’s only universal figure. Being “God of very God”, He has existed from all eternity and is the same yesterday, today and forever.

In His Incarnation, a Divine Person entered into union with human nature through the miracle of the Virgin Birth. In His humanity, Christ identified with mankind. He was full of loving forgiveness and truth and was the perfect model of discipleship. In His atoning work at Calvary, Christ provided redemption for all who believe. In His life, death, and resurrection, He gives us the foundation of Christian faith.

The Christ of the cross of Calvary is the central Person of the Bible, the only source of man’s salvation, the Lord of the Christian experience, the only true hope for today’s world, and the great King of the eternal future.

This timeless Christ is forever the merciful Redeemer to make pardon possible for sinners. He is the just and compassionate Lord who cares for-the poor, the suffering and the unfortunate as well as for the rich. Both rich and poor are lost without Christ. If lost men and women are to hear this Good News, it will be because we go to them. Vital Christianity demands face-to-face confrontation with those who are lost.

The National Association of Evangelicals in this 37th annual meeting calls its people to far higher levels of commitment to evangelistic outreach.

Now more than ever, the message of the changeless Christ must be proclaimed to a world that is searching for reality and certainty. Christ is the answer!

Now more than ever, the motive of the changeless Christ-speaks to our lifestyle, to our stewardship in a world of poverty and riches, of’ inequities, of cries for compassion and justice. Christ is the answer!

Now more than ever, the method of the changeless Christ must be our method,

His Word our word, “(I have) come to seek and to save that which was lost.” We too will seek those who do not know Him, not with the futile word- of secular humanism, but with the word of amazing grace. Christ is the answer!

“There is salvation in no one else; for there is no other name under heaven that has been given to men, by which we must be saved” (Acts 4:12).

Jesus Christ, now more than ever!