Why We're Proclaiming "Thank God for Freedom" at Times Square

As you’re watching the ball drop at Times Square on New Year’s Eve on TV, our brand-new animated digital billboard message of freedom will be playing right there. It’s the beginning of yet another new billboard and social media campaign that will eventually reach a number of areas around the country. It’s likely that out of the hundreds of millions of people watching television coverage of Times Square on New Year’s Eve (and depending on which station they are watching), many viewers will see our digital board at some stage.

The board’s message is meant to confront and challenge people about threats to America’s freedom of religion and freedom of speech—and publicly and unashamedly stand for the gospel message that the Cross (shown on the board) represents.

Answers in Genesis is sponsoring the campaign as part of what we continually do to “contend for the faith” (Jude 1:3) and also to proclaim the gospel. This digital billboard campaign has the potential to deliver more than one billion impressions! You can read our full-length article about this outreach and the reasoning behind it, plus see where each of the billboards will be located, and discover the estimated number of people expected to see them! Please pray with us that God would use this campaign for His glory.

You can watch this new digital billboard animation here.

This message to be seen in Times Square and other locations comes just weeks after AiG’s first billboard campaign of the year was targeted to those people who have shown such intolerance to Christianity, particularly with their attacks on the Ark Encounter project in recent times. In early December, Answers in Genesis began the billboard campaign that read, “To all of our intolerant liberal friends, thank God you can’t sink this ship.”

Now the point of this new billboard campaign is that it’s not just the Ark project that is under attack! You see, atheists and other secularists have been working hard to try to remove Christian symbols like the Cross, Nativity scenes, and Ten Commandments displays from the culture—and proclaim their own godless religion. With each attack on religious freedom in America, it’s becoming more clear that these same secularists are some of the most intolerant people around. As I’ve said before, there is no neutral position: You are either for Christ or against Him. The wording of these billboards has to be short, but memorable, in order to make an effective impression—one that we pray will challenge the secularists who are increasingly intolerant of the Christian message. Our intention is to direct people to the Answers in Genesis website, where they will learn the gospel of Jesus Christ and that God’s Word is trustworthy and true.

To read more about the latest billboard campaign, read the full-length article I coauthored with Mark Looy on the AiG website. This article will also answer some of the criticism we get from some Christians (many of them well-meaning) who think we should not confront secularists as we do, as AiG engages them when they actively oppose Christianity in general (and specifically the ministry of Answers in Genesis and its various outreaches, like the Creation Museum and the coming Ark Encounter).

Again—make sure you read the more detailed article on our website.

Thanks for stopping by and thanks for praying,

Ken

This item was written with the assistance of AiG’s research team.