A study released recently by the Pew Forum illustrates how big our job is as soul winners. First it showed that 57 percent of "evangelical" church members believe that many religions can lead to heaven. To show how widely this view is held, 83 percent of mainline Protestants, 79 percent of Roman Catholics, 82 percent of Jews and 56 percent of Muslims agreed.

This led socialist D. Michael Lindsay to observe that religion in America is "3000 miles wide and only 3 inches deep. While Jewish views may vary, Protestant, Roman Catholic and Muslim teachings all contradict this view.

Despite efforts by the media and university professors to drive belief in God out of the culture, 92 percent of the 35,000 adults in the survey still claimed to believe in some kind of God. Even 21 percent of those who self-identified as atheists claimed belief in God or a universal spirit.

This proves the famous saying that there is a God-shaped vacuum in every man`s heart that only God can fill. Soul winners can rely on that fact when witnessing, whether in person or passing a tract.

We must keep firmly in mind Christ`s statement in John 14:6: "I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me." When 57 percent of evangelicals and 83 percent of Protestants deny this scripture, we know ignorance of the Bible is rampant.

This also tells us why the average "Christian" never witnesses. Few have the conviction that the only way unbelievers can escape hell is by making Jesus their Saviour.

We know that not everyone will respond to the gospel, but we need to give everyone we meet a chance to make that choice. It is impossible to hold a lengthy discussion about their eternal destiny with everyone we meet. But it only takes a few seconds to give someone a tract. Thousands of people over the years have written to Chick Publications about how a tract changed their lives. Sometimes they got the tract from a friend, or a stranger, or found it in the bathroom or break room at work, or even in the dirt in the wilderness. But in every case, a Bible believer cared enough to pass out the tract or plant it where someone could find it. 

Surveys such as the above demonstrate how important it is to get a truly biblical message out to as many as possible while there is time.