A “Sign” of the Times

One of the Grand Canyon plaques displaying Psalm 68:4

I’m sure you’re familiar with many of the court decisions over the years to remove prayer and Bible readings from public school classrooms and certain public meetings—as well as the legal challenges concerning displays of the Ten Commandments in schools and courthouses.

Millions around the world (in fact, a friend in England sent me a photo from his British paper showing the removal of the monument of the Ten Commandments in Alabama, USA) are seeing a nation—that has stood for biblical Christianity—physically removing any references to the Bible or the God of the Bible from public schools and other places.

No wonder people around the world think America is giving up Christianity!

The image above represents another astounding event. News services across America and the world recently reported that:

“The National Park Service has decided that plaques with biblical psalms at the South Rim of the Grand Canyon violate the Constitution and has removed them. However, the Park Service decided … [that] a number of the Canyon’s formations can share the names of Hindu gods.”

These three rather small bronze plaques, quoting Psalm 68:4, Psalm 66:4 and Psalm 104:24, had been on display for more than 30 years at popular viewing areas at the Canyon. They were determined as “not appropriate for federal public facilities” on First Amendment grounds, following a complaint by the ACLU.1

I remember a Fox News interviewer once asking me something like this: “But surely if creation were allowed in public schools, wouldn’t that be bringing religion back into schools?”

Well, I answered along these lines:

“When creation, prayer and Bible readings were removed from public schools, the authorities were not getting rid of religion from the schools, but throwing out Christianity and replacing it with a different religion.”

I continued: “When instructors across this nation are told to teach millions of students each year that every aspect of reality (science, history, etc.) can be explained without God—and that all life is a result of evolution and millions of years, and that God has nothing whatsoever to do with any of it—then the teachers are teaching a religion: the religion of atheism.

“Religion has not been thrown out of public schools; Christianity has been replaced with an anti-God religion.”

You could say the same thing about the verses being removed from the Grand Canyon. At a place where millions visit each year, the Park Service is now telling tourists that the Canyon must be viewed without any reference to God or the Bible.

And of course, most of its park rangers and the other guides explain the Canyon’s geology and biology in terms of evolution and millions of years being fact, and God (or the Bible) is not even mentioned. So the religion of atheism now pervades the Canyon more than ever before.

At the same time, while the Christian influence is waning in the West and is actively being removed across the US, ironically, the church is increasingly adopting the world’s morality!

Recently, one of the larger denominations in Australia, the Uniting Church, voted to allow the ordination of openly practicing homosexuals. Also, Canada has been in the news regarding the legalizing of homosexual “marriages.”

Even some US states are discussing this. Vermont already allows homosexual “partnerships” that bestow the same rights as marriage.

Consider this: for all the mega-churches, praise songs, worship teams, modern technology and specialist pastoral staff in churches throughout America (considered to be the most Christian nation on earth), the culture as a whole continues to become less Christian every day … with the church becoming more like the world.

The real issue behind all of this concerns the loss of biblical authority. People increasingly see the Bible as irrelevant because they’ve been so indoctrinated in millions of years of history and evolutionary ideas. And sadly, most of the church has either ignored this issue or compromised with the world’s teachings, thus undermining biblical authority.

For many years, I (and others in the creation movement) have been predicting that after generations of such compromise, the world would increasingly dismiss the whole Bible as irrelevant—which is exactly what’s happened.

If the church doesn’t repent of its compromise and begin to stand on the authority of the Word—starting with the foundational history of Genesis—we will see more removal of any vestige of Christianity like the examples above.

We believe Answers in Genesis, through its conferences, resources, radio programs, translation ministry and the coming Creation Museum, has been raised up by the Lord in this time of history to “raise the flag” for the authority of God’s Word—and challenge the church and the world concerning the truth of Scripture in every area (science, history, etc.)—so that the gospel can be clearly preached and understood.

I’m always encouraged to learn how God is using AiG’s resources to proclaim the creation/gospel message. We receive numerous salvation testimonies and thousands of encouraging letters/emails each year that tell us how the Lord has blessed so many people through AiG’s outreaches. Here’s a sampling for your encouragement.

“Next to being saved and taking a discipleship class at my church, nothing else has impacted my life more for God’s kingdom than your AiG ministry.”
– Jim W., Chambersburg, PA

“Our religious upbringing and churches had no information in the area of science and the Bible. What a tragedy. [But] we have used many of your excellent books with our children in our home school. We’re so thankful. Your efforts certainly reaped a harvest in our family.”
– Tony C., Avon, OH

From abroad:

“Thanks for your faithfulness to the Lord and to the church. Your website is vital and a real blessing to the church. It has [also] given me confidence to help present the gospel to friends.”
– Lee B., Scotland

We hope you’re encouraged to know that God has been mightily blessing the Bible-upholding ministry of AiG. If only there were more Christians who saw the importance of proclaiming the authority of the Bible—then we’d see the church greatly influencing the culture with biblical truths … to reclaim the culture.

Thank you for your prayers and support. With your ongoing help, together we can continue to alert Christians to the importance of preaching the Bible’s authority and accuracy to a questioning world (and, yes, even to a compromising church).