Is There Hope for This Planet?

Well, the planet is doomed! Now, we can’t ultimately fix the planet, despite all the rhetoric from politicians. Many of them seem fixated on trying to save the planet from what they believe is supposedly happening regarding climate and other factors. But there’s no hope for this planet as it is.

And the political system is doomed! We can’t ultimately fix the world’s political systems either, despite promises from politicians about what they claim they can do to fix it!

After all, God’s Word tells us this planet will have all sorts of problems physically and politically until Christ returns. Then the planet will be judged by fire; a new heavens and earth will be created; and Christ will rule his eternal Kingdom. So humans can’t fix this planet—it’s doomed in its current state.

Now please don’t get me wrong. Adam (as the head of the human race) was given dominion over the creation, and we are to use it responsibly for man’s good and God’s glory. So yes, we need to look after what God entrusted to us. Adam was told to work to tend the garden. But now because of sin, we have to work extra hard in a sin-cursed world to provide food.

And God did ordain government to maintain law and order—although governments have intruded on many issues (e.g., the definition of marriage) tat are not part of their ordained role. I applaud Christians in politics who can be salt and light in the political arena, influence the culture for the Lord, and help maintain religious liberty so that we can freely share the gospel.

Why Such a Gloomy Start in This Article?

Well, it may surprise you, but I thought about my article’s theme after I read what a reporter (who states he is a Christian) wrote for a secular newspaper about a conference I spoke at recently. The themes of my talks included grace relations, racism, and prejudice.

Along with my good friend Dr. Charles Ware (an African-American Bible college president emeritus and leader of the organization Grace Relations), I spoke at an event on racial issues. We based our presentations on our co-authored and newly updated book, One Race One Blood. My presentations were also based on the same information seen in the exhibits at both the Creation Museum and Ark Encounter.

I love what Dr. Ware states on the GraceRelations.net website: “Grace Relations is a community of individuals, churches, and ministries that are passionate about applying the grace of God to conversations about race and ethnicity—grace relations, not race relations.”

Now, the newspaper reporter is an African-American man who states that he is a “devout evangelical Christian.” But he was very lukewarm about the content presented at the conference he attended. He reserved his more negative comments for my presentations. Here’s what the reporter wrote in his newspaper about what I taught that day: “While I respect many of Ham’s religious views, his sessions generally veered from the advertised topic. He would discuss an unrelated (or tangentially related) topic for 10 minutes or so before appearing to remember that he was supposed to have been discussing race and racism.”

All Social Issues Have the Same Foundation

Now to me, this reporter either didn’t get the point I was making or didn’t want to! I started my presentation by discussing what it means to build a truly Christian worldview using God’s Word, and Genesis chapters 1–11 in particular as the foundation of that worldview. I was making the point that issues like gay “marriage,” gender, abortion, and racism are not the real problems—they are actually the symptoms of the same problem—a foundational problem.

In the conference, I pointed out that until Christians understand that the geological, biological, anthropological, and astronomical history in Genesis is foundational to our entire worldview, they will never be able to deal with any of the issues before us—such as racism, gay “marriage,” abortion, etc.

AiG presents the truth of God’s Word to the world.

AiG presents the truth of God’s Word to the world. We specifically present the geological, astronomical, anthropological, and biological history in Genesis 1–11 and show how all doctrines and the gospel are founded in this history. AiG provides answers to the questions of this age that are used to try to undermine this history. We help people build a truly Christian worldview founded in God’s Word, beginning in Genesis, so they will grasp the correct understanding of life and the universe. And most of all, AiG presents the saving gospel founded in that history.

The reporter ended his column with: “In short, Ham’s spiritual gaze was fixed beyond the sky to an ethereal future. Ware understood that people of color must endure an existential crisis on earth—in the here and now. . . . After sitting through the presentations, I was frustrated that there was no clear charge or challenge to dismantle the structural edifice of racism.”

Well, the point I try to make in my talks on racism is that there is no way to fix the systems of this world in regard to racism! But there is a way to help “fix” each individual. And that’s the whole point of what we do at Answers in Genesis, the Ark Encounter, and Creation Museum.

The Only Real “Fix”

Regardless of what issue I’m addressing in public talks, one of the main points I make in all my presentations (in a variety of ways) is that we can’t fix things (politically, socially, etc.) on this earth! And sadly, the majority of people are also doomed, but there’s real hope! What we can do is proclaim the “fix” for each individual—and that “fix” is to respond to the gospel and build all of one’s thinking on God’s Word! And the more we see individuals building their thinking on God’s Word, the more impact we will have on the culture.

Each of us needs to recognize what it means that we sinned in Adam (Romans 5:12), committing high treason against the holy Creator God. We deserve God’s wrath, yet get grace: “He does not deal with us according to our sins, nor repay us according to our iniquities” (Psalm 103:10).

Just think of what God has done for each of us and what that means:

For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. For one will scarcely die for a righteous person—though perhaps for a good person one would dare even to die—but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

Since, therefore, we have now been justified by his blood, much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God. For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by his life. More than that, we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation (Romans 5:6–11).

All I can say is, “Wow! God did this for me!” And he offers this free gift of salvation to all who will freely receive it!

And responding to the gospel is something each individual must do on their own. We can’t force people to receive God’s free gift. And God doesn’t force himself on anyone.

For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God (Ephesians 2:8).

Not a Black-and-White Issue

Now, in what I think was a rather condescending statement, the reporter wrote, “There were two headliners: Ken Ham, who is white, and Dr. Charles Ware, who is black. (I should note that Ham explicitly rejects describing people by color, which is not all that uncommon among well-meaning people who endeavor to combat racism.)”

But it’s scientifically true that all humans are the same basic skin color from a brown pigment called melanin. There are no truly black or truly white people. In my talks, I explain how the various shades of melanin correspond to the genetic diversity God built into each human being. This is all part of understanding the event of the Tower of Babel that helped produce different ethnic/people groups—and understanding that all humans belong to one biological race. This is why the gospel is for each individual and is to be proclaimed to every tribe and nation.

Then I saw another angel flying directly overhead, with an eternal gospel to proclaim to those who dwell on earth, to every nation and tribe and language and people (Revelation 14:6).

We also deal with these issues by presenting the truth of God’s Word and the gospel

We also deal with social issues and past injustices in our books, lectures, and exhibits inside the Ark Encounter and Creation Museum. We deal with these issues by presenting the truth of God’s Word and the gospel so that each individual—from every tribe and nation—will be challenged to respond and affirm the words of Jesus.

You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind, and your neighbor as yourself (Luke 10:27).

The planet may be doomed, but let’s do all we can to share the truth of God’s Word and the gospel to every tribe and nation. And please pray with me that many will respond and not be doomed to eternity in hell, but will be saved for eternity with their Creator God.

Finally, please pray that our “One Race, One Blood” conference that just concluded will impact the participants (mostly pastors; about 500 of them attended the conference) to tackle this important issue. Thank you for supporting AiG in proclaiming the truth of God’s Word and the gospel of Jesus Christ.