The Generation Gaps

As a final challenge to the church, I want to once more go over the seven major groups [see also last chapter], but in a slightly different way. I am going to use America (because it did start as a Christian nation) to illustrate this important point.

Group 1—most of the founding fathers in America would have been more like this. Perhaps generations ago, most Christians in America would have been (or should have been) like this group.

But over time, people began to be influenced by evolutionary teaching and indoctrinated to believe in millions of years. More and more people became like Groups 2 and 3.

Now the foundation of the Christian faith was being compromised, and cracks started to appear in the Christian framework. The connection of their thinking to the Bible started to be removed.

The next few generations became more consistent with their compromised foundation, or lack of connection to a foundation, and many became a part of Group 4.

This group has lost all connection to the Bible, but still tries to maintain a Christian way of thinking to a degree. But their children build a way of thinking that’s consistent with the foundation their parents gave them. Thus we arrive at Group 5.

This group provides the professors and leaders for the next generations, and they depart totally from a Christian way of thinking. Group 6 then takes over our universities and colleges.

The next generation sees the inconsistency of not having a driving ‘force’ (an intelligence to make it work) to account for the universe and life, and so they turn to the New Age movement (Group 7).

This group is very difficult to reach with the gospel message. Their situation is the ultimate end of totally losing the foundation of the Word of God.

Now I want to give you two examples to illustrate this same sequence applied to families:

If the Bible clearly states God created in six days — which it does — then when a theologian recognizes this, but re-interprets the days to fit with millions of years, this has unlocked a door.

1. In a sense, some people could say: Great Grandpa—he was in Group 1. Yes, but his children were in Groups 2 and 3. And their children were in Group 4. And the next generation is in Group 5 or 6. Look at the great-great grandson (Group 7)—he’s humming, with crystals, on mountains—a real New Ager. This is basically what has been happening to the culture in America and other Western nations.

2. How many Christian schools have maintained the faith of their founders? Very, very few. In fact, they’ve gone through the same basic sequence. I believe that colleges started by Christians or churches can also be classified into one of those 7 groups. There are many that are well on the way to becoming Group 7—many have already reached Group 6.

And how did that change occur? There are many complicated reasons of course. But overall, there’s no doubt that the absolute authority of God’s Word was eroded by evolutionary teaching (that man determines truth independent of revelation), as more and more people compromised with God’s Word.

As I’ve stated before: if the Bible clearly states God created in six days—which it does—then when a theologian recognizes this, but reinterprets the days to fit with millions of years, this has unlocked a door. The theologian has just told his students that God’s Word is fallible. The erosion has begun!

Any Christian college that compromises its foundation in the Bible beginning with Genesis (and this sadly is the state for most) has started on that slippery slide of unbelief that leads to the destruction of any Christian thinking at all. This to me is the real generation gap!

This all seems so depressing. Can the tide be turned? Only if God’s people understand these foundational changes and use God’s methods to make the change back. But the mountain of evolution and compromise is so great. Isn’t it too late?

I once said to someone, ‘If you start digging a coal mine with a teaspoon, you will gradually make a small hole. But, if you get millions of people with teaspoons, the hole will grow to an enormous one.’ The modern creation movement is about 30 years old. Thankfully, there are many across the world who are digging away at the foundations of evolution and compromise. And it is making a big difference.

Most of us are familiar with the story of David and Goliath. In that battle, which took place nearly 3,000 years ago, we are told that the brutish giant, Goliath, when he saw David coming toward him, ‘Disdained him; for he was but a youth, and ruddy, and of fair countenance’ (1 Sam. 17:42). David’s response? ‘Thou comest to me with a sword, and with a spear, and with a shield, but I come to thee in the name of the Lord of hosts, the God of the armies of Israel, whom thou hast defied’ (1 Sam. 17:45). The result? The giant was slain!

How easy it is to become depressed and dejected when one sees the ‘giants’ that array themselves against any ministry like Answers in Genesis, or any individual who takes a stand for a literal Genesis. But take heart, for like Goliath, they can be defeated, with God’s help. Let us consider two classes of ‘giants’ and view them from a biblical perspective.

1. ‘Non-Christian giants’—These may include the news media, secular universities and colleges, humanist organizations, governments, etc. It is easy to feel defeated and discouraged when one sees the massive propaganda machines that have been set up to indoctrinate billions of people with evolutionary philosophy. What can be done to fight people who are highly qualified and are world-renowned experts? Many of us identify with David. We feel like children compared to some of these intellectual ‘giants.’ What can we do to combat what they are doing?

2. ‘Christian giants’—The creation message not only gets opposition from non-Christians, but also from Christians. Many lecturers in well-known theological colleges have written articles or books against the straightforward, creationist position that many Christians hold. It is easy for the average Christian to feel intimidated by Christian scholars of such great qualification and position. In fact, there are many Christians who listen to such people and accept what they are saying because they are impressed by their ‘scholarship.’

Many such academics in our Christian colleges and churches seem to be motivated by a desire for acceptance and respect from their secular peers. It is a great temptation to want respect from non-Christian intellectuals. Unfortunately, we often forget that when sin defaced the image of God back in the Garden of Eden, it marred man’s ability to think also. What we all need to be asking ourselves is whether it is this mentality from which we want respect, or do we seek to please God?

In 2 Corinthians 11:3, Paul warns us not to ‘be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ.’ It is often claimed that to accept Genesis literally, i.e. a straightforward reading, is too simplistic. Instead, we are often told to listen to the academics and theologians of the day in their explanation of what it really means. A good example of this is seen in the writings of Dr. Pattle P.T. Pun, from the Department of Biology at Wheaton College in Illinois. He stated, ‘It is apparent that the most straightforward understanding of the Genesis record, without regard to all of the hermeneutical considerations suggested by science, is that God created heaven and earth in six solar days, that man was created in the sixth day, that death and chaos entered the world after the fall of Adam and Eve, that all of the fossils were the result of the catastrophic universal deluge which spared only Noah’s family and the animals therewith’1 (emphasis ours).

What Pun is saying, of course, is that a straightforward reading of Genesis suggests it means exactly what it says! It teaches a literal six-day creation, Fall and Flood. However, noting the sentence we emphasized in his quote tells you that he is insisting we must accept what secular scientists of our day are saying about the subjects and must reinterpret the Bible to fit their theories.

However, God has called those of us who are His children to seek out His praise—not the praises of men! Praise God that there still are many highly qualified people who accept the Genesis account, who have the heart of David, and who understand that the fear of God is the beginning of wisdom and knowledge. Let God’s enemies rant and rave, but let us give glory to God. Let us not be afraid of ‘giants.’ After all, the evidence, rightly interpreted, is on our side, no matter what some of the academics and theologians of the day may say. What we need to do is to communicate this easy-to-understand evidence to a population that has been indoctrinated by self-styled ‘giants.’ Like David, with God on our side and faith in His Word, we can defeat these ‘giants.’

Creation evangelism—this is one of the most powerful and necessary tools for God’s people today. The next chapter will encourage you, give hope and show that the ‘giant’ can be defeated!