Encouragement from the Living in Babylon Tour

There’s a hunger for the truth of God’s Word among a very vibrant remnant.

Another step of faith has been hiring a team on the ground in Australia to really ramp up the Answers in Genesis ministry that is needed in this country. We also had a team of phenomenal, dedicated volunteers who helped make these conferences the success they were. God certainly opened doors in ways I hadn’t experienced personally before this latest Down Under trip. There’s a hunger for the truth of God’s Word among a very vibrant remnant.

I wanted to share with you seven major takeaways from this Australian ministry that will excite and challenge all of us. And I believe it’s time to bring the Living in Babylon format to the USA and other countries as well.

Here are my seven takeaways:

1. I met many people who told me their parents heard me speak in Australia in the ’70s or ’80s, and they made sure they connected their children to Answers in Genesis resources. They would often tell me the great impact those early teaching days had on the parents that impacted future generations. What a blessing to learn of the fruit from those early days of ministry. It made me realize that the foundational teaching I’d communicated had more of an impact than I ever imagined. People would say things like, “My parents heard you teach in this town or this church.” Yes, I did travel all over Australia in those early days of the ministry. It was a lot of hard work driving to church after church across this massive nation and being away from home for weeks at a time. But God has blessed more than I could ask.

2. I met many young families, and at least one of the parents (sometimes both) would tell me they heard me speak when they were just a young child (five or so years old). They said it had such an impact on them that they are now bringing their children to come under this teaching on the authority of God’s Word beginning in Genesis. Wow! God is continuing the generational impact. Again, I had no idea all those teaching programs over 30 years ago had borne so much fruit.

3. Of course, there were non-Christians at these events, mainly invited by friends, and also Christians invited by friends and families—but there were two main groups overall. There were those who were familiar with (and impacted by) the ministry of Answers in Genesis, and most of these were familiar with me. The other group was made up of those greatly impacted by Martyn when he spoke at the massive events organized through the Australian Christian Lobby when he was the managing director there. And here is what I found after talking with many people from both groups:

   1. Those familiar with AiG were thrilled to be there and loved the combination of the creation apologetics ministry with Martyn’s emphasis on equipping God’s people to live in a Babylon-type culture. Many emphasized how this powerful one-two punch combination was needed for our time. They encouraged us to keep developing this approach. They loved Martyn’s emphasis on how important it is to take a stand like Daniel did and not compromise in this increasingly anti-God culture. A number of people told me they will never be the same again after this conference.

   2. A number of those who knew of Martyn and his previous conferences were not necessarily familiar with the AiG message and told me how much they realized they needed answers to questions they didn’t even think they had. Some of the young people in this group told me how Martyn’s ministry had impacted them so much and how they were eager to serve the Lord, especially now that they understood how important it was to believe in a literal Genesis and have answers to the skeptical questions people ask.

      

      Martyn also had the contacts to provide a music team (song leader, violinist, and pianist) who led the audiences in singing “In Christ Alone,” “How Great Thou Art,” and “Amazing Grace.” People loved it. They sang so loudly. Young people loved singing these great songs. I had people tell me they get a little tired of some of the praise teams and the performance-centered songs. They said it’s so refreshing to be able to sing songs composed for congregational singing and that have great theological content. Yes, I believe we need to add such songs and music back into our churches. As I say, we need the best of the old and the best of the new!

4. At the end of each conference, we had a Q&A session. The audience texted their questions, and a host selected various ones to ask Martyn and me. Hundreds of questions were sent in, and I saw some trends. There were many questions about how to witness to LGBTQ people, how to deal with a family member who was trans, and the like. Others were asking how they should stand as a believer in woke organizations. Now, we never received such questions years ago, but they are questions people are desperate to have answered today. In fact, we never heard the term “woke” years ago. It’s a reminder that as the culture changes, ministries like Answers in Genesis need to be ready to make certain adjustments to deal with where the culture is at the moment.

   I also saw a lot of questions dealing with Genesis. These are questions we’ve heard many times over the years, but they are a reminder that people still need these answers. There were questions such as “Can Christians believe in evolution?” “Does it matter what one believes about millions of years?” “Are the days of creation ordinary days?” “Was Noah’s flood local or global?” “Are Genesis 1 and 2 different accounts of creation?” and so on. And because Genesis 1–11 is the foundation for everything, it’s vital for people to understand the literal history in these chapters God has revealed to us.

5. One never knows the impact on the staff at these convention centers. We could tell that some were listening to the presentations. At the end of each conference, thanks to the generosity of Three Sixteen Publishing, each attendee was given a copy of a Bible containing Genesis, Psalms, Proverbs, and the New Testament. I’ve always been burdened that when people hand out the New Testament, they should include Genesis, as it is the foundational book for the rest of the Bible. Three Sixteen Publishing agreed to do this and provided copies using the new special edition Legacy Standard Bible translation (an update of the NASB) free for each attendee.

   • 
   • 

   A number of convention staff asked if they could have one of these Bibles and even extra copies for their families, which we gave them. Who knows what these will do as God’s Word tells us his Word will not return to him void and that “faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ” (Romans 10:17).

   We will now be selling these special edition Legacy Standard Bibles at the Ark Encounter, Creation Museum, and our online store.

6. Despite how secular, woke, and anti-Christian the culture is in Australia, God has a significant remnant of people who are bold in their faith, hungry for great biblical teaching, and eager to courageously stand for the Lord and be a witness in proclaiming the gospel. And this is in a country where there are no Christian universities to speak of, nor an Ark Encounter or Creation Museum. Even though America has fallen far, there is still a significant Christian influence that Australia just doesn’t have. These Aussie Christians are an example to Christians in other Western countries concerning what it means to stand for Christ regardless of how pagan the culture is.

   

7. As you know, the Answers in Genesis board recently appointed Martyn Iles Executive CEO as part of our succession plan for the future. I earnestly believe the combination of the AiG apologetics thrust together with Martyn’s emphasis on raising up generations to live in “Babylon” is such a powerful collection of messages for our time. Our time in Australia reinforced to me that AiG is moving in the right direction with the needed message for our day that, sadly, much of the church is not giving.

Our time in Australia reinforced to me that AiG is moving in the right direction with the needed message for our day that, sadly, much of the church is not giving.

I’ve always wanted to make sure that the Answers in Genesis ministry stays true to our calling of proclaiming the authority of God’s Word and the gospel, equipping people to defend the Christian faith, never knowingly compromising God’s Word, and ensuring we have “understanding of the times” and know what to do (like the men of Issachar in 1 Chronicles 12:32). I believe God has answered our prayers to be always at the battlefront with the cutting-edge message needed for the time so we can reach as many as possible with the most important message in the entire universe—the truth of God’s Word and the saving gospel.

Thank you for supporting AiG to be able to do what God has burdened us to do. Your prayers and financial support are having an eternal impact—so much more than we can imagine—of which I experienced in Australia.

Ken Ham