The Fate of the World
By Dick Eastman


Writing in his classic book “Destined for the Throne,” Dr. Paul E. Billheimer reminds us that “the fate of the world is in the hands of nameless saints.” Billheimer was speaking of the unseen servants and soldiers in the battle for men’s souls who give, go and pray, but rarely get the credit. Billheimer’s quote always reminds me of F.C. Case, a quiet woodcutter who lived his entire life in the same North Carolina cabin where he was born.

FC. Case was not a man of great means. In fact, even when he was well past 70, he still read by the light of a kerosene lantern. Only a few years before his death at age 86 did Frank finally bring electricity into his cabin. The old man’s diet often consisted of little more than a ten-dollar bag of pinto beans, which he said might last him almost a month. His sole income in his later years came from cutting and chopping wood in the Carolina hills and selling it in nearby towns. Yet this man was responsible for providing printed gospel messages for more than eight million people in scores of countries around the world. F. C. Case entered life, as he put it, “a full-blooded Baptist.” He tithed faithfully to his church and often doubled and tripled that amount to missions.

During the Depression, Frank earned as little as fifty cents a day working on bridge construction, even less when he made bricks or sold wood. By the end of the Depression, he was giving $10 a month to missions—a remarkable sum when you consider that it was equivalent to the price of two months of food.

Early in the 1950s, at a church missions convention, the Lord spoke to F.C. Case about giving a thousand dollars to buy literature for India. Until then he had never heard about the impact of literature in evangelism. Now he felt God leading him to give a huge sum for this purpose. A few weeks later Frank heard EHC founder Jack McAlister over the radio talking about conducting Every Home campaigns throughout the world, using gospel literature. Frank sent an initial gift of two dollars. He considered it a small down payment toward his overall goal. Through the years Frank’s gifts grew remarkably. It often seemed he was giving everything he had except the few dollars he needed to eat. Many months Frank sent as much as $600, earned from cutting wood in the North Carolina hills. And always he covered his gifts with prayer.

When Frank Case heard about how inexpensive and effective systematic literature evangelism is, he was inspired to do much more. He calculated how many people he could reach with a dollar (at that time, 100 families could be reached), and he set a personal goal of reaching ten million people with the Gospel in his lifetime. When F.C. Case died in 1976, he was two million short of reaching his goal. But he knew that eight million people had been given access to the Gospel because of his faithfulness. The self-giving life of F.C. Case reminds me of the apostle Paul’s words: “Brothers, think of what you were when you were called. Not many of you were wise by human standards; not many were influential; not many were of noble birth” (1 Corinthians 1:26).

These words of Paul’s, coupled with Paul Billheimer’s wise insight, remind us that it really is a host of “nameless saints” like F.C. Case who will make possible the ultimate fulfillment of the Great Commission. These are the behind-the-scene senders without whom the fulfillment of the Great Commission would remain a dream. They are the givers and prayers, the nameless saints who, in Jesus, control the destiny of human beings and nations.

“The Fate of the World” is an edited excerpt from Chapter 19 of Dick Eastman’s book Beyond Imagination."