What Legacy Is William Shatner Leaving?

“There’s No Legacy”

He says,

People ask about a legacy. There’s no legacy. Statues are torn down. Graveyards are ransacked. Headstones are knocked over. No one remembers anyone. Who remembers Danny Kaye or Cary Grant? They were great stars. But they’re gone and no one cares. But what does live on, are good deeds. If you do a good deed, it reverberates to the end of time. It’s the butterfly effect thing.

Think about it: if this life is all there is, you die and cease to exist and won’t know you were ever here—thus life is ultimately purposeless and meaningless.

At least in the first part of his statement he’s consistent with his evolutionary beliefs and his rejection of God (more on the “good deeds” part later). Think about it: if this life is all there is, you die and cease to exist and won’t know you were ever here—thus life is ultimately purposeless and meaningless. That sounds depressing, but that’s the logical outcome of the evolutionary, atheistic religion that Shatner and millions of others hold to.

But Why Do Anything?

Shatner released a new book about his life, and a documentary is coming out soon. But, really, what’s the point if everything’s all ultimately meaningless anyway? And why should people listen to the pontifications of an actor who rejects God and made his living pretending to be someone he’s not? What gives him the right to tell people how they should think about life? By whose authority? It all boils down to this: by his own authority, as he acts as his own god, as does anyone who rejects God and his Word.

It’s Not “Profound”

When Shatner rode in the Blue Origin flight for 10 minutes, he saw the earth from space. If you read the full article and listen to the interview with TV’s Neil Cavuto, you’ll hear Shatner share that he was amazed how special earth looked compared to everything else in space. Instead of seeing it as an obvious miracle of creation in the vastness of space, he saw it this way:

When I came out of the spaceship I was crying, just sobbing, and I thought “why am I crying?” . . . I’m in grief . . . I’m grieving about the world because I now know so much about what’s happening. I saw the Earth and its beauty and its destruction. . . . It’s going extinct. Billions of years of evolution may vanish. It’s sacred, it’s holy, it’s life, and it’s gone. It’s beyond tragic. We stupid [expletive] animals are destroying this gorgeous thing called the Earth. Doesn’t that make you angry? Don’t you want to do something about it?

He said humans are animals “intricately linked” to the universe and earth, and we need to communicate with them. He used the word “prayer” regarding communicating with the universe, not to God. That’s his religion! Of course, many will say as TV hostCavuto did, “How profound!” But, sadly, it’s utter foolishness. “The fool says in his heart, ‘There is no God’” (Psalm 14:1).

And the modern “climate religion” he refers to has people thinking they can save the planet and save themselves. But one day God said he will destroy this planet by fire (2 Peter 3:7) and create a new heavens and earth. Nothing Shatner can say or do will change that. God promised after the flood, “While the earth remains, seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night, shall not cease” (Genesis 8:22). Only God can destroy the earth.

There’s only One who saves man, and that’s the Lord Jesus Christ, who came to earth as the God-man to pay the penalty for our sin and to offer a free gift of salvation.

At the World Economic Forum, John Kerry (US special envoy) said there was an elite group of people who were out to save the planet and mankind. It’s a religion worshipping creation and man. There’s only One who saves man, and that’s the Lord Jesus Christ, who came to earth as the God-man to pay the penalty for our sin and to offer a free gift of salvation. Unless John Kerry and William Shatner receive this free gift (and we pray they do!), they’ll not cease to exist when they die but will spend eternity separated from God under righteous judgment for their sin.

We Can’t Save the Planet

Now, what about those “good deeds” Shatner referred to? Well, while good deeds may be admirable and helpful in the short run, they won’t save us or the planet—and for the unbeliever, they don’t live on after you’ve died because they are filthy rags in a holy God’s sight and can’t save you (Isaiah 64:6)!

Only God saves. “If you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved” (Romans 10:9).

Shatner needs to heed God’s warning: “it is appointed for man to die once, and after that comes judgment” (Hebrews 9:27).

You Can Leave a Legacy That Will Last Forever

Contrary to what Shatner says, you will leave a legacy. You make an impact on this generation that reverberates through generations to come—whether your specific name and deeds are remembered or not. So, the question isn’t “Are you leaving a legacy?” the question is “What legacy are you leaving on this earth?”

Here’s an example of the kind of legacy I hope you’ll leave someday.

When you visit the Creation Museum, make sure you take time to visit the Ham Family Legacy exhibit outside of Legacy Hall auditorium. As I tell people, the ministry of Answers in Genesis, the Creation Museum, and the Ark Encounter, which impact tens of millions of people directly and tens of millions more indirectly, is a legacy of parents who taught their children to stand boldly and uncompromisingly on the authority of the Word of God.

In this exhibit, you’ll see my father’s Bible (opened to the book of Genesis, of course!) with notes he wrote beside various verses. I’ll never forget the lessons he taught me regarding the Scriptures. For example, my father warned me about study Bibles, stating, “With a study Bible, always remember the notes are not inspired like the text, and always use the text as the commentary on the notes.” Through this, he was teaching us that man’s word is fallible and God’s Word infallible.

I recall he taught us this in response to the Scofield Reference Bible notes in Genesis that detailed the discredited gap theory idea. My father wanted to make sure we understood God’s Word is infallible/inerrant, but man’s word is not. (The gap theory was an idea used to try to accommodate the supposed millions of years that were being popularized in the 1800s.)

I'll never forget my mother drumming into us, “It’s only what is done for Jesus that lasts.”

My father was a schoolteacher and was transferred to different towns in the state of Queensland, Australia, as he was promoted. My parents would start Sunday schools to reach children and they would also bring in evangelists to conduct evangelistic outreaches for children. They wanted to reach as many of the younger generations as possible with the truth of God’s Word and the saving gospel.

Often, we would find the minister in an area was impacted by liberal theology. Our father studied what liberal theologians were teaching and would then teach us the answers so we wouldn’t be led astray. I learned to recognize liberal theology from a million miles away! I recognize that to this day, the way my father taught me really laid the foundation for the emphasis of the Answers in Genesis ministry to be about biblical authority and the gospel and never knowingly compromising God’s Word.

That’s why we at AiG work hard to help people understand that attempting to add millions of years to Genesis is undermining biblical authority and leads to a domino effect of doubt and unbelief through the rest of Scripture. It’s why we are so concerned about some even in the creation-apologetics movement being (perhaps unwittingly) impacted by evolutionary presuppositions which can unlock a door to undermine the authority of God’s Word.

My father observed that many churches and Christian institutions drifted away from God’s Word as a result of some of the most subtle compromises that unlocked the door to undermine biblical authority. He noted that subsequent generations would take that “unlocked door” and open it wider. That’s why we work hard at AiG to put procedures and policies in place to stop such mission drift and the undermining of God’s Word.

A passage of Scripture that so reminds me of my parents comes from Psalm 78:

Which he commanded our fathers to teach to their children, that the next generation might know them, the children yet unborn, and arise and tell them to their children, so that they should set their hope in God and not forget the works of God.... (Psalm 78:5–7)

As I look back on my upbringing, I realize that God used my godly parents to prepare me for the ministry of AiG.

My parents were just being obedient to God’s Word to pass on a spiritual legacy to their children and impact as many as possible with the truth of God’s Word and the saving gospel. They didn’t know their legacy would impact tens of millions around the world every year as it does through AiG.

What legacy are you leaving in your family and in this world? I challenge you to leave a godly legacy with an eternal impact, not a meaningless and purposeless one as Shatner said he is leaving. (By the way, we know that Shatner owns a home in Kentucky that is less than an hour drive from the Ark—we extend a cordial invitation to him to visit us.)

Thanks for stopping by and thanks for praying,
Ken

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