National Review recently carried this headline: “Lawlessness Is Spreading in Our Cities.”

The flavor of the article was not outrage at the evil but more like, “Oh my! What have we done to ourselves?” It goes on to describe how our judicial policies have been changing. Incarceration has been replaced by an attitude of forgiveness motivated by a hope that that will induce the criminally inclined toward better behavior.

It goes on to cite case after case nationwide where this policy has only encouraged further lawlessness. If they had been schooled in the Bible, they would understand how mercy without repentance only encourages sin.

Until the heart is changed by the spirit of God, the Bible is clear in describing men’s hearts as “desperately wicked” (Jeremiah 17:9).

And when repentance is not forthcoming, judgment is prescribed. However, the prescription for that judgment is clear: “Because sentence against an evil work is not executed speedily, therefore the heart of the sons of men is fully set in them to do evil.” Ecclesiastes 8:11.

In the past, law enforcement policy has taken this factor into consideration. The most effective approach in recent times has been called the “broken windows” approach. It simply said that when you locate persons who are breaking windows and stop their career of crime at that point, you will head off most of the more serious offenses.

Of course, this also needs to be backed up with a saturation of the culture with the gospel so that the person will understand that repentance at that point is what will set them on the right track. Chick tract passers have found many ways to do this saturation.

One church in San Diego, California, organized 30 people to reach the thousands of people who were going to visit a 3-day Comic-Con convention, celebrating the comic book industry.

PHOTO: One of the participants is seen distributing Chick tracts to the attendees of Comic Con in San Diego, California.

PHOTO: One of the participants is seen distributing Chick tracts to the
attendees of Comic Con in San Diego, California.

Afterward, one of the participants reported:

“We distributed 18,000 tracts at our Comic-Con Outreach today!!! Amen!!! It was a huge blessing.. It’s Comic-Con, how can people not take comics —right!?”

Others are using the “FREE TAKE ONE” method. They approach local merchants to allow them to place the small 4-pocket tract rack somewhere in the stores. Then they go back every week to replenish the tracts.

One retired couple, Dale and Sue Detro, involved their church in the program and ended up saturating a 3-county area in southwestern Indiana with over half a million tracts in a 5-year period.

You can read their story in our free mini-book entited, "Little Is Much, When God Is In It"

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They knew the saturation was deep when they would offer someone in town a tract, only to be told, “I’ve seen that one. Do you have any others?”

Another man in Louisiana led a group from his church to target the local bus stops. After six years, he reports that his group has grown from 15 to 40 and they have handed out over a hundred thousand tracts. After covering the bus stops, they branched out to getting permission to hand out tracts outside 20 supermarkets.

These are just a few of the stories that people have when they write to Chick Publications describing how they have used the tracts to saturate their communities. In these stories are reports of hundreds that have accepted forgiveness for their sins.

America was founded on the concept that the gospel would so permeate the culture that lawlessness could not prosper. Along the way, Satan persuaded Christians that gospel tracts do not work. These stories prove that this is a diabolical lie.

If lawlessness is going to be held at bay, we need more people with a large vision taking the Great Commission seriously.