Are You Aware of the “Epidemic” that is Hitting the Church Worldwide?

As I look back on a wonderful year of ministry in 2011, I’m thrilled to see how the Lord blessed Answers in Genesis. We saw so many changed lives, as God blessed our various efforts of proclaiming the authority of the Bible . . . and its gospel message.

As we start a new year, we will have a major emphasis for Answers in Genesis. The importance of the thrust received confirmation recently from a surprising source: atheists. Did you know that many Christian leaders are doing exactly what the atheists are encouraging them to do? It’s incredible.

You see, there’s an “epidemic” that is infecting and destroying many churches around the world. It is the epidemic of Christians (including many church leaders) who are adopting man’s religion of evolutionary ideas and adding them to Scripture—thus undermining the authority of the Word of God.

As we see the loss of the foundation of the authority of God’s Word in our Western nations, we are also seeing a massive decline in Christian morality in society. Even the great nation of America is on a downward spiral, as we see the absolutes of Christianity being eliminated from the culture (on an almost daily basis).

We spoke to a prominent Christian leader recently. He is the pastor of a large church in a generally conservative denomination (though many of its churches allow for millions of years). He shared with us that within his denomination, he saw the next big theological debate being whether or not Adam and Eve were literal human beings!

Such re-writing of Scripture is sadly coming to this denomination. But is at all that surprising? Once the door was opened when many of its churches (and affiliated seminaries) began to compromise on the foundations of Genesis, as they added millions of years to Genesis, then the slippery slide into unbelief in other areas of Scripture began to escalate—even whether there was a real Adam.

Right into Their Hands

At AiG, we have been saying for years that as churches compromise with millions of years and evolution, eventually they will begin to compromise other parts of Scripture. They will give up on Adam and Eve and original sin—then maybe a literal Hell, bodily resurrection, and Virgin birth.

Sadly, we are now seeing that happening more and more in the church. Last year, Christianity Today published a cover story about the battle over a literal Adam and Eve. Yes, now even that question is beginning to infiltrate theologically conservative churches. We also hear of Christian leaders giving up a belief in a literal Hell. And there are those who are beginning to question aspects of the Resurrection and so on.

Yes, what is happening in the church today is exactly what the atheists want to see happen. The atheists know that if they can get Christians to compromise God’s Word in Genesis, eventually there will be a generational decline in the acceptance of the authority of all of God’s Word.

The Trojan Horse

Last year, a professed atheist, Dr. Eugenie Scott, mailed a fundraising letter on behalf of her organization called NCSE (National Center for Science Education). This group was set up primarily to oppose biblical creation organizations like AiG.

In this letter, Dr. Scott told blatant untruths about what AiG is doing. (I detailed them in a blog last month.) But then again, you shouldn’t be surprised when atheists don’t tell the truth. After all, if they don’t believe in an absolute authority, they have no basis for truth—except for how they decide to define it as such! She is obviously greatly concerned about the effect of AiG in society. Well—we can praise the Lord for that!

But in her letter, designed to cause alarm and raise funds for her anti-Christian organization and “motivate the secular troops” to oppose creationist organizations like AiG, Dr. Scott made a statement similar to the one she has made before on her website about how she seeks to recruit religious people to help her atheist group:

“Find common ground with religious communities and ally with them to promote the understanding of evolution.”

And back in 2008, Dr. Scott’s NCSE website made these statements in an article entitled “How You Can Support Evolution Education?”

One section listed these ideas:

• “Suggest adult religious education projects focusing on evolution with your religious leaders.”
• “Encourage your religious leaders to endorse the Clergy Letter Project and to participate in Evolution Weekend.”
• “Encourage your religious leaders to produce educational resources about evolution and religion, and to take a formal stand in support of evolution education.”

The “Evolution Weekend” referred to above was founded (and is still run) by an atheist professor. He now has thousands of clergy who have signed a statement that agrees with the concept of millions of years/evolution and have agreed to conduct an “Evolution Sunday,” when they will preach the “truth” of evolution to their congregations.

An Ally of Atheists

Now, Dr. Scott, back in September 2000, in her opening statement at the American Association for the Advancement of Science Conference entitled “The Teaching of Evolution in U.S. Schools: Where Politics, Religion, and Science Converge,” said:

“You can’t win this by scientific arguments . . . our best allies were members of the mainstream clergy . . . . The clergy went to school board meetings and said, evolution is okay with us . . . they didn’t want the kids getting biblical literalism five days a week either, which meant they’d have to straighten them out on the weekends.”

In 2005, in an article on this website, I wrote about a supporter of AiG who attended a seminar conducted by Dr. Scott on how to teach evolution in public schools. When dealing with the issue of what to do with Christian students, she offered this sad advice. Our supporter reported:

“I attended the ‘Teaching Evolution’ seminar yesterday led by Eugenie Scott. The teachers were advised to suggest to the Bible believers to consult their clergy who would usually assure them that belief in evolution is OK!!”

In her latest fundraising letter, this atheist continues her tactic of trying to influence churchgoers to believe in evolution/millions of years.

Atheists understand that if they can get the church to compromise with millions of years/evolution, this will undermine the authority of the entire Bible . . . and lead to unbelief about Christianity. The atheists know that getting the church to compromise today, then coming generations may be won over to atheism. And more of our church leaders are doing exactly what the atheists (gleefully) want them to do.

Breaking the Yoke

One verse of Scripture I have often used to remind me of the constant battle we are in (and the stand we should be taking) is 2 Corinthians 6:14:

“Do not be unequally yoked together with unbelievers. For what fellowship has righteousness with lawlessness? And what communion has light with darkness?”

When Christians compromise with the belief system of millions of years and evolution (in reality, a pagan religion), they are being unequally yoked with unbelievers.

Friend, please pray for us. Not only do we get attacked by the secularists, but also by many Christians who have compromised God’s Word by adopting secular views.

These attacks don’t worry us personally, but they truly burden us—burden us for the state of the church. When I look at the state of the church, I think of Luke 18:8, “[W]hen the Son of Man comes, will He really find faith on the earth?”

But here is the encouraging part:

• Thousands of churches now use AiG’s Vacation Bible School (VBS) program.
• Our new Bible curriculum—covering all the books of the Bible—will be released in the fall; we have already seen incredible interest in it.
• More Bible-defending resources than ever are being purchased from AiG.
• The AiG website attracts several million visitors each year.
• And hundreds of thousands of people, including tens of thousands of kids, are coming to the Creation Museum every year.

The Lord is using AiG in this spiritual battle over the truth of His Word.

I pray you will stand with us and support Answers in Genesis prayerfully and financially as we reach out in so many ways to challenge the church and our nation to return to the authority of the Word of God.

Please send a gift today to help us start out the year strong. And prayerfully consider an additional donation to help build the full-scale, evangelistic Noah’s Ark. Thank you!