Why Won’t They Listen?

Back when I was teaching science in the public school system in Australia, a group of pastors came to me and explained that they were having great difficulty with the students in their religious education program in the school.

The more I thought about it, the more it hit me. I said, “These students are being taught in most of their classes that they’re just animals that evolved from some primeval soup millions of years ago. Because of technology, they have a great respect for what is called science. But to them the Bible is just an outdated religious book.”

“Students think that in this scientific age the Bible is outdated. So why should they be interested in what you have to say?”

I told the pastors, “Students know that evolution and its teachings about apemen contradict the Bible’s teaching about Adam and Eve. They think that in this scientific age the Bible is outdated. So why should they be interested in what you have to say?”

I suggested that before they could teach about the life of Jesus and the power of the gospel they needed to get the students’ attention that the Bible really is the infallible Word of God. After all, if the first book in the Bible can’t be trusted, why should any other?

We devised a series of lessons that showed that evolution was just a belief. And once the pastors had clearly illustrated that real science had not disproved the Bible and that the Bible can be used to explain the world around us, many of the students showed intense interest in spiritual things. Later, when the pastors began teaching about Jesus in the New Testament, they had much more success in getting these young people to listen.

At the time I didn’t realize that I was involved in developing what later came to be called “creation evangelism.” Not only is this method of evangelism based on the Bible, but it is one of the most powerful methods for reaching today’s world with the gospel of Jesus Christ.

—Excerpted from the classic book Why Won’t They Listen? by Ken Ham