A Convicting Challenge

The AiG staff received a very convicting challenge yesterday at a special staff devotion time with speaker and AiG special friend Mark Cahill.

Carl Kerby, one of our speakers, wrote to me about Mark’s ministry of evangelism that has had a great impact on his own life:

Carl, who’d you share your faith with over the weekend?

I’ll never forget being asked that question and the impact it’s had on my life. The man who asked me that question, Mark Cahill, came and encouraged/challenged us at AiG to stay bold in sharing the Lord Jesus Christ and stand firm on the Word of God. Mark, the author of One Thing You Can’t Do In Heaven and One Heartbeat Away, is one of the most “on-fire” men you’ll ever meet. His ministry takes him globally, challenging Christians to step out of their comfort zone and share the gospel.

His website is http://www.markcahill.org/. You will not be the same after hearing him speak. I know I’m not! This guy “crushes me” every time I’m with him. I am more convicted than you can ever realize.

Mark certainly challenged all of us yesterday morning—and I trust you will be challenged by his question regarding who you have shared your faith with recently! How about stepping out of our comfort zone to do just that?

What Did Ken Ham Really Say?

Recently I had a blog item that stated:

I must admit I get tired of the people who misquote or misrepresent what we state concerning a person who is a Christian and who believes in an old earth. For instance, a retired medical doctor (who now homeschools her children) on her website stated:

Ken Ham essentially said that a person who does not believe in Young-Earth Creationism can’t be a Christian since they don’t believe the Bible.

I received this response to my blog item that stated:

Well Im not the author of the blog Ken Ham challenged, but I am married to the author. She has a migraine today and has long ago learned not to publish anything controversial while she has a migraine. She did, however, almost instantly find a quote to answer Mr. Hams challenge. Its the first paragraph of this post.

Recently, in having an obvious dig at the ministry of Answers in Genesis, a person said, the gospel doesn’t rise or fall on the days of creation. My answer was, That’s true—it doesnt. But does the gospel rise or fall on the authority of Scripture? And does the authority of Scripture rise or fall on the days of creation?

With one logical step, Mr. Ham essentially states (or poses the question) that the gospel does indeed rise and fall on the days of creation. The post then goes on to label Catherine as a compromising Christian. I think this illustrates her point quite well.

I thought my follow-up response would be a good teaching example for us to see what happens when one pulls a quote out of context and then tells the reader what this quote supposedly means, giving a totally incorrect interpretation.

If you go back and read the entire blog (and I encourage you to do so), you will read this:

Recently, in having an obvious dig at the ministry of Answers in Genesis, a person said, “the gospel doesn’t rise or fall on the days of creation.” My answer was, “That’s true—it doesn’t. But does the gospel rise or fall on the authority of Scripture? And does the authority of Scripture rise or fall on the days of creation?”

The point I want to make is that it is faith in Christ that saves a person—not whether a person believes in a young or old earth, or whether the days of creation in Genesis are long periods of time. Romans 10:9 makes it very clear that salvation is tied to faith in Christ, not the days of creation or the age of the earth.

However, another important point we make is that when a person believes in millions of years and then reinterprets the days of creation to be long periods of time, they are undermining the very authority from which they get the message of the gospel—they are undermining the authority of the Word of God by taking man’s fallible ideas on the age of the earth and using this to change the clear meaning of the Word of God: it is an authority issue.

And then, in response to the retired medical doctor’s quote that “Ken Ham essentially said that a person who does not believe in Young-Earth Creationism can’t be a Christian since they don’t believe the Bible,” I stated:

Well, Ken Ham has never said and doesn’t say anything of the sort! As I said above, nowhere in the Bible is salvation tied to the age of the earth. But it is about time that compromising Christians understand that they have contributed to the loss of biblical authority in this nation and thus helped open the door to the secularization of the culture.

There are many Christians who reject the days of creation as ordinary days, claiming they represent millions of years. But does this mean they can’t be a Christian? No, not at all. Just as I said in the previous blog entry quoted above, it is faith in Christ that saves someone. But again, the point that people either don’t seem to get or don’t understand is that when one reinterprets the clear reading of Genesis chapter one that the days are ordinary creation days (we have many web articles dealing with this subject), one is undermining the authority of God’s Word—undermining the very authority from which we get the gospel message!

Devotion

All live unto Him

(Luke 20:38) For he is not a God of the dead, but of the living: for all live unto him.

Our great burden now is that all we see is death, death, death; but, when we reach heaven we’ll be impressed with the contrast & shout, “Here, all live unto Him.”

Thanks for stopping by and thanks for praying,

Ken