I grew up in the church and thought we had to believe in evolution. You rocked my world.
‘I’ve grown up in church, but never heard this information before. Thank you, thank you.
I was taught Bible ‘stories’ for years in church. I’ve never heard answers like this. You’ve changed my life—thank you, thank you.
These young people seemed to be dedicated Christians who loved the Lord. At the same time, they had a shallow understanding of Christianity. They had no idea how to answer the skeptical questions of this age—questions that are intended to create doubt in people’s minds about the Christian faith. For children and teens in our churches, lacking answers can put them on a slippery slide of unbelief.
Just after Christmas, Ken Ham spoke to an enthusiastic but questioning group of teens at a conference in Southern California.
During the question time, these teens asked about the usual topics, like carbon dating, Cain’s wife, dinosaurs, etc. But there were also lots of questions like, “Why doesn’t God show Himself to us?”; “What about all the other books that aren’t in the Bible (like the Apocrypha)?”; “How can we know God exists?,” etc.
This Q&A session confirmed what I’ve seen time and time again throughout America: the youth in our churches have not been taught general Bible apologetics, much less creation apologetics (which are core in truly believing and defending the gospel). While most of these teens at the California conference seemed to be blessed by the “praise and worship” time, it struck me, based also on what I heard from their leaders, that these teens just didn’t have an in-depth understanding of the Christian faith.
After I spoke, and much to the surprise of the conference organizers, several hundred young people purchased thousands of our books, including those in the New Answers Book series.
Yes, I was overwhelmed at the positive response, but also burdened. I was reminded of how important AiG’s ministry theme is for this year:
“Standing Our Ground, Rescuing Our Kids.” It’s based
on
Galatians 1:4 and that passage’s reference to
rescuing people from this “present
evil age
.”
As I pondered our new theme as well as the young people I spoke to in California, I thought of four categories of “people rescue” that AiG is involved in:
- Rescuing the non-Christians of the world. AiG is doing its best to proclaim the truth of God’s Word and the gospel, praying the Lord will save our kids for eternity. The huge Creation Museum here at AiG is one such major evangelistic outreach.
- Rescuing the Christians! So many young people, like those I mentioned above, need to be “rescued” from their church’s teachings or lack of them—i.e., churches that either compromise on Genesis or don’t equip young people and adults with solid answers. As we revealed in our book Already Gone, a lack of training in biblical apologetics is a major reason why 2/3 of today’s youth leave the church.
- Rescuing those who were brought up in the church
and have now walked away (the 2/3rds I just
mentioned). To give you an example of the
effectiveness of such rescue efforts, here is what a
person posted to my public Facebook page recently:
Ken: I am so glad you are in this great work of the Lord. My son came home from college a while back and told me that two of his friends that he grew up with no longer believe in God because of evolution. [But] your work is helping to bring their hearts back to the truth … I wish your light was taught in all colleges.
- Rescuing those young people who are still in the
church, but are attending a Christian college or
seminary where Bible-undermining professors are
training many of them to be compromising pastors.
(Most of the “top” Christian colleges are now in
this sad category!) These future pastors will only
perpetuate the horrible compromise already in our
churches, and we’ll continue to see generations of
young people leave the church and turn their backs
on God. This youth exodus is a major problem in
America’s churches.
The ministry of AiG, with all its various outreaches (including the phenomenal Creation Museum and the coming Ark Encounter) are set up to “rescue” as many people as we can from this present evil age.
I can’t wait for the full-size Ark to be built and then to see millions of people visit. They’ll be exposed to the message of the One who came to be our Ark of salvation, Jesus Christ, and to be rescued for eternity.
Let’s all remember to pray, as Jesus taught us in Luke 11:4 (the Lord’s Prayer), to “
deliver us from the evil one.
”