Weeping for Humanity

Tim Chaffey, AiG–U.S., responds to a reader who “weeps for humanity” due to the creation and gospel message of AiG.

I came across this page and weep for humanity. Although it has confirmed that irrational people with no logic still exist. I suppose fairy tales are real to some people. Wow is all I can say. . . .

Thank you for contacting Answers in Genesis. Let’s take a look at your brief comments in order.

I came across this page and weep for humanity.

Based on the other information you submitted to us (not included above), it is pretty clear that you consider yourself to be either an atheist or agnostic. That being the case, if you want to be consistent with your worldview, you must reject the concept of absolute morality. But if morality is relative, then it is inconsistent for you to measure us by your own standard of right and wrong. Also, since your worldview requires a purposeless existence, why do you fault us for making sense of a meaningless existence? Why would our hope cause you to weep?

We weep for humanity too, but for a very different reason. Jesus talked about two ultimate destinations for people—destruction and life. “Enter by the narrow gate; for wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction, and there are many who go in by it. Because narrow is the gate and difficult is the way which leads to life, and there are few who find it” (Matthew 7:13–14). Since only a minority of people will find the narrow way that leads to life, we weep for the billions who reject the Creator and His gracious offer of forgiveness for the rebellion we have all committed against Him—they will endure eternal punishment because they refuse the only way to be reconciled to God.

There are other things worth lamenting. Millions of babies are aborted each year, slaughtered by those who have no fear of God. There is increasing immorality and perversion in our culture. Tens of millions of people were killed by atheistic, communistic regimes in the twentieth century. Do you weep over those things?

One of the main reasons our organization exists is that many people on the broad path leading to destruction have been deceived by the lies of evolution and billions of years. We desire for people to find the narrow way—turn from their sins and receive forgiveness—so we strive to counter these false teachings and show that God’s Word can be trusted in every area.

Sadly, there are even some on the narrow way who have bought into the lies of evolution and billions of years and have taught others to believe them as well. These Christians have promoted dangerous teachings that are contrary to God’s Word, so some of our attention is focused on correcting fellow believers in this area.

Although it has confirmed that irrational people with no logic still exist.

This is an interesting claim considering you did not use any logic in your correspondence to us. Rather than making a rational argument, you resorted to emotive assertions to denigrate us. Your allegation is nothing more than an ad hominem attack, an ironic logical fallacy to commit when accusing someone of not using logic.

You did not explain what particular content on our site confirmed the existence of “irrational people with no logic,” so we can only speculate what it is that bothers you. Since most of the emails we receive that are similar to yours ridicule us for our stand on biblical creation, I assume that is a large part of your disdain. If my assumption is accurate, then it is indeed quite ironic that you would complain about us being irrational while denying the very basis for rational thought in the first place—the existence of the Creator who made us in His image with the ability to understand the world around us and to communicate with Him and others. In fact, if what the Bible taught about these things were not true, then there would be no basis for logic.

I suppose fairy tales are real to some people.

A fairy tale is an imaginary story with certain reality-defying details, right? Remember the fairy tale where a kiss from a princess turns a frog into a prince (although in earlier versions she threw the frog against a wall)? While we rightly consider this to be a fairy tale, according to biological evolution, you can replace the princess with millions of years of random, purposeless events and a frog could turn into a prince. Never mind how this defies the fact that mutations have never been shown to add new genetic information. We encourage everyone to think critically and have no desire to brainwash with fairy tales, but we would like to point out that evolution is a fairy tale for grown-ups. It has blinded people to the truth that life has never come from non-life, intelligence has never come from non-intelligence, and information has never come from non-information.

The Bible is not a fairy tale. Instead, it accurately records historical events, such as the creation of the world in six normal-length days by the all-powerful Creator, as well as the fall of the first people who brought sin and death into this world through their rebellion. The Bible proceeds to tell of man’s persistent rebellion and the Creator’s actions to save people from their sin, highlighted by His gracious and loving work of dying in our place on the Cross. It also chronicles some of God’s miraculous interventions in human affairs, and its supernatural origin is demonstrated through the use of predictive prophecy—hundreds of events were foretold by God’s prophets long before they ever came to pass.

Many skeptics claim that if God was real then He should give some evidence to prove His existence. He has already done that on numerous occasions. That was one of the reasons for the hundreds of prophecies fulfilled to the very letter. Also, Jesus told some of His critics who asked Him for similar proof that He would give them one sign—His death, burial, and Resurrection from the dead.

Then some of the scribes and Pharisees answered, saying, “Teacher, we want to see a sign from You.” But He answered and said to them, “An evil and adulterous generation seeks after a sign, and no sign will be given to it except the sign of the prophet Jonah. For as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the great fish, so will the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.” (Matthew 12:38–40)

Of course, this is precisely what happened. Jesus died on the Cross for our sins, just as He predicted (Matthew 20:17–19), and three days later He rose from the dead. Using “many infallible proofs” (Acts 1:3), He showed Himself to be alive after His Crucifixion. More than 500 people saw Him alive at one time (1 Corinthians 15:6). He ascended into heaven as His followers watched, and someday He will return “in like manner” (Acts 1:9–11), only this time it will be in judgment.

The problem is not that there is a lack of evidence for God.

The problem is not that there is a lack of evidence for God. The problem is that in your rebellion against the Creator, you have apparently adopted a worldview that blinds you to the proper understanding of the evidence. Rather than trust the numerous eyewitness accounts of Christ’s Resurrection, you refuse to believe that such a thing is even possible. Instead of looking at the hundreds of fulfilled prophecies in Scripture as evidence for the omniscient God, you reject them as impossible because they don’t fit your worldview. In place of the all-powerful Creator as the explanation for the marvelous complexity and design in nature, you postulate time and chance, order from disorder, matter from nothingness, and development of new genetic information from mindless processes that have never been observed to produce such information. Again, the problem is not a lack of evidence.

Those who exalt man’s reasoning and mock us as religious fanatics have seldom studied the Bible scientifically and historically. You demand “real” evidence, but don’t take the time to understand the Bible as the only real standard by which the world around us makes sense.

Wow is all I can say. . . .

You know, when I think about myself—a sinful person who has repeatedly violated my holy God’s laws and dishonored my Creator—and then I think about what He has done for me—He left the glory of heaven and humbled Himself by becoming a man who died on the Cross for our sins—I have the same reaction. “Wow is all I can say.” I deserve His wrath and judgment, yet I receive His grace, love, and mercy. Wow!

What about you? The most important question you can ever answer is “What am I going to do with Jesus Christ?” Will you continue to mock the God who gave us life and died on the Cross for our sins? Or will you respond appropriately by humbling yourself, acknowledging your own sinfulness and your desperate need for the Savior, and calling on Him to save you?

If you refuse His offer of salvation, then you will receive what we justly deserve—His wrath and judgment. But if you call on Christ to save you, then you will receive His forgiveness, mercy, and grace, and the guarantee of living with Him for all eternity in a place where there is no more sorrow, pain, tears, suffering, and death (Revelation 21:3–4).