Appendix D: Institution Questionnaire

In today’s culture, where evolution and millions of years has infiltrated many schools (and churches), it is difficult to even begin looking for a college or university that stands on the authority of the Bible from the very first verse.

In an effort to help parents and students find a college or university (or even a Bible-believing church), Answers in Genesis put together a short “Institution Questionnaire.”

This quick 15-question survey can be used to present to a pastor at a church or a Christian college to see if the institution really believes what the Scriptures say, whether they admit they adhere to biblical authority or not.

This questionnaire is written to carefully see what the institution believes. This should help you discern if the institution is truly biblical or not. Keep in mind none are perfect, but some are usually much better than others. What follows are merely 15 questions that could be helpful. Following that we have short answers, a couple of references, and brief explanations of what you can learn.

Name: ___________________________________________________________

Name of Institution: ____________________________________________

Date: ____________________________________________________________

1. Is God triune (Father, Son, and Holy Spirit) or not?
2. When did death and suffering enter into the world (for man and for animals)?
3. Do you believe Jesus Christ is the Creator?
4. Do you believe the days in Genesis are literal approximate 24-hour days or not?
5. Is it proper to interpret Genesis to conform to what one already believes about the past, or should one change one’s belief to conform to what Genesis says? In other words, should Genesis be interpreted in the style it is written (literal history) or should it be interpreted in some other fashion (i.e., in light of millions of years and evolution)?
6. Have human male and female been around since the beginning of creation, did they evolve from a lower life form, or did God create them millions of years after creation?
7. Do you believe there are intelligent alien life forms?
8. Did God use a big bang?
9. Was the Flood of Noah’s day global or local (regional)?
10. Do you believe Satan/Lucifer rebelled before or after the end of day 6 of the creation week discussed in Genesis 1–Genesis 2:3?
11. Why don’t people today believe the Gospel when we boldly preach it?
12. How many races of people did God create?
13. Was the fossil record primarily laid down by Noah’s Flood and how does this relate to the age of the earth?
14. Is Genesis important when preaching the gospel in today’s culture?
15. Are there any legitimate contradictions in the Bible?

College Questionnaire Answers with References (similar to these are acceptable)

1. They better say yes!

Question 1 helps you realize if a school is mainstream or if it has been influenced by a cult that may deny the deity of Jesus Christ (John 1, Col. 1, and Heb. 1). Also, this should be an easy question to answer for most Christian institutions.

References: “God Is Triune,” by Bodie Hodge, Answers in Genesis website, AiG–U.S., February 20, 2008, God Is Triune, and “The Trinity,” by Dr. Mark Bird, Answers in Genesis website, God’s Bible School and College, July 30, 2008, The Trinity.

2. When Adam and Eve rebelled, resulting in the Curse and the sentence to die from Genesis 2:17, Genesis 3:17, and Romans 5:12. If they believe death (of either mankind or animals) has been around prior to this, then they have a major problem. Also, animals were vegetarian in the beginning as was man (Gen. 1:29–30), so this points to no animal death prior to sin either.

Question 2 allows you to find out if the institution really believes in a literal curse in Genesis 3 and provides an answer for the common question “Why did God make the world like this?” Biblically, God made the world perfect (Gen. 1:31; Deut. 32:4) and due to man’s sin, death and suffering came into the world. This is why we need a Savior to save us from sin and death and provide a new heaven and a new earth. Adam and Eve rebelled, resulting in the Curse and the sentence to die (Gen. 2:17; Gen. 3:17; Rom. 5:12). After sin, we find the first recorded death of an animal (Gen. 3:21) and from here, we find a relationship between human sin and animal death.

References: Ken Ham, editor, New Answers Book 1, “How Did Defense/Attack Structures Come About?” by Andy McIntosh and Bodie Hodge (Green Forest, AR: Master Books, 2006), http://www.answersingenesis.org/articles/nab/origin-of-attack-defense-structures, and “Biblically, Could Death Have Existed before Sin?” by Bodie Hodge, Answers in Genesis website, March 2, 2010, Could Death Exist Before Sin Biblically?.

3. Yes!

Question 3 reiterates question one, but more directly. With these questions up front, the institution should feel comfortable answering the survey questions. So at this point we can start getting into the meat of the subject.

References: John 1; Col. 1; and Heb. 1. (See also the references from Question 1.)

4. Yes! This is confirmed by Exodus 20:11 and Exodus 31:17, also, Mark 10:6 (marriage came at the beginning of creation, thus only five days before, not millions of years, otherwise it would be the “end” of creation.

Question 4 allows you to really start testing to see if the institution believes the Bible as the authority, or if man’s ideas about millions of years has begun to creep in. The Bible is clear that it was six days, not millions of years (Exod. 20:11 and 31:17). Otherwise, our basis for a “week” makes no sense.

References: Ham, The New Answers Book 1, “Could God Really Have Created Everything in Six Days?” Could God Really Have Created Everything in Six Days?, and the technical article, “The Days of Creation: A Semantic Approach,” by James Stambaugh, first published in the TJ 5(1):70–78, April 1991, later revision published at the Evangelical Theological Society, The Days of Creation: A Semantic Approach.

5. No. Second Corinthians 4:2 and Proverbs 8:8–9 make it clear the Scriptures should be interpreted plainly/straightforwardly. This means metaphors are metaphors, literal history is literal history, poetry is poetry, parables are parables, etc. Thus, we should learn about history from a perfect, all-knowing God who has always been there, instead of trying to reinterpret what God says to conform to current imperfect and fallible beliefs about the past by those who weren’t there.

Question 5 is important because you can determine how the institution thinks — whether biblically or “humanistically.” Humanism is a religion that has humans as the ultimate authority. If the Bible is the authority, then we as fallible sinful human beings should change our views to conform to what God says in the Bible. But if one can simply reinterpret the Bible because of one’s own thinking (e.g., the days in Genesis can’t be ordinary because other humans say it was millions of years), then what is the real authority? It would be that person or humans in general. So humans would be sitting in authority over God and His Word in this case. This is one way to see if humanism, even if subtly, has crept into their thinking.

References: Ham, The New Answers Book 1, “Don’t Creationists Believe Some ‘Wacky’ Things?” by Bodie Hodge, Don’t Creationists Believe Some “Wacky” Things?.

6. Human male and female (Adam and Eve) have been around since the beginning of creation on day 6 specifically. This is confirmed by Mark 10:6 and Mathew 19:4. This means it cannot be billions of years after creation.

Question 6 reveals if the institution believes in long ages of some sort. If one answers that humans evolved, then they obviously don’t believe the Bible in Genesis. But many say they believe Genesis literally but are really tacking on man’s ideas about millions of years by reinterpreting Genesis. However, Jesus reveals the glitch from His own words in Mark 10:6. The context of Jesus’ response is about divorce, which concerns marriage. Jesus referred back to Genesis 1 and 2 and even quoted them in the parallel passage in Matthew 19 and stated that at the beginning of creation God made them male and female. If Jesus was speaking about four thousand years [according to genealogies] after the creation week of six approximately 24-hour days, then day 6 and even soon after, would be the “beginning of creation.” If one has long ages, then human male and female came about 13 to 15 billion years after the creation, which is the end of creation, thereby making Jesus out to be speaking a falsehood. So with this verse, Jesus is affirming a relatively young age of the earth.

References: “But from the Beginning of . . . the Institution of Marriage? by Dr. Terry Mortenson, Answers in Genesis website, November 1, 2004, But from the Beginning of . . . the Institution of Marriage?, and “Feedback: Are the Bible and Evolution Compatible?” by Bodie Hodge, Answers in Genesis website, AiG–U.S., June 13, 2008, Are the Bible and Evolution Compatible?.

7. No.

Question 7 reveals how much evolutionary thinking may have infiltrated.

Reference: Ham, The New Answers Book 1, “Are ETs & UFOs Real?” by Dr. Jason Lisle, Are Aliens Real?.

8. No.

Question 8 exposes progressive creation, theistic evolution, and other compromised views. If an institution believes in the big bang, then they are holding to the atheistic view over God’s view given in Scripture (astronomical evolution). In the big bang, it simply doesn’t mesh with Scripture (i.e., see a few below in the chart). The big bang starts itself, it does not need God, so when Christians try to add the idea that God started the big bang, they basically say God didn’t really do anything.

Reference: Ken Ham, editor, The New Answers Book 2, “Does the Big Bang Fit with the Bible?” by Dr. Jason Lisle (Green Forest, AR: Master Books, 2008), Does the Big Bang Fit with the Bible?.

9. Global — it is clearly stating that it was a worldwide event in Genesis 6–8 (specifically Gen. 7:19–20).

Question 9 also reveals if one believes in long ages but from a different perspective. If the bulk of the fossil layers represent long ages, then a global Flood is impossible because it would have ripped up the layers and redeposited them. A local Flood also makes a mockery of the promise God made after the Flood to not send another Flood like this. It was clearly a global Flood as Genesis 6–8 teaches, because we have numerous local floods all the time.

Reference: Ham, The New Answers Book 1, “Was There Really a Noah’s Ark & Flood?” Was There Really a Noah’s Ark & Flood?, and Ken Ham, editor, The New Answers Book 3, “Was the Flood of Noah Global or Local in Extent?” by Ken Ham and Dr. Andrew Snelling (Green Forest, AR: Master Books, 2010).

10. Satan had to rebel after day 6 (probably not day 7 because God sanctified that day and made it holy). Otherwise, rebellion from God (sin) would have been declared “very good” in Genesis 1:31.

Question 10 reveals if the compromised view of gap theory is being held at the institution. Gap theorists have millions of years thrown in between Genesis 1:1 and 1:2. As the gap theory goes, the fossils layers are primarily from an alleged Luciferian Flood when Satan fell. This is strange since the bulk of the fossil layers would no longer be representative of atheism’s long ages, which was what this alleged gap was trying to mix with Scripture in the first place! Also, if this were the case, then Lucifer’s actions of rebellion would be very good because God declared all things very good at the end of day 6 (Gen. 1:31). So Satan had to have fallen after day 6, and likely not on day 7 which was holy, but soon after.

References: Ham, The New Answers Book 1, “What About the Gap and Ruin-Reconstruction Theories?” What About the Gap & Ruin-Reconstruction Theories?, and “When Did Adam and Eve Rebel?” By Bodie Hodge, Answers in Genesis website, AiG–U.S., April 20, 2010, When Did Adam and Eve Rebel?.

11. People today have the wrong foundational beliefs (an “evolutionary/millions of years” foundation) that teaches the Bible is wrong. We need to teach them the true history in the Bible so they will have a foundation for understanding why they need Jesus Christ as their Savior.

Question 11 reveals if the institution really understands why people are walking away from the Church at an alarming rate, or if they even realize the gravity of the problem. If people don’t believe Genesis is true, then why would they believe the gospels (John 3:12)? Having generations of people brought up with teaching of long ages and evolution has seen nations like England have hardly any semblance of Christianity left. The same is now happening to the United States. Yet people toss out many ideas about why the Church is dying, but they rarely get to the root of the problem. Basically, the Church as a whole let the world train its children to believe humanism (evolution and millions of years are subsets of the religion of humanism). Thus, the next generation has been taught the Bible is not true and is walking away. See Proverbs 22:6.

Reference: Ham, The New Answers Book 1, “How Can I Use This Information to Witness?” How Can I Use This Information to Witness?.

12. There is one race, the human race, where each person is a descendant of Noah and ultimately Adam and Eve.

Question 12 allows you to see if the institution really believes that all people came from Adam and Eve or if they have worldly, racist ideas that have crept in. Evolutionary thinking has infiltrated the Church in many areas, and on the issue of racism it has contributed significantly over the years. Christians should be leading the fight against racism.

Reference: Ham, The New Answers Book 1, “Are There Really Different Races?” Are There Really Different Races?.

13. The global Flood of Noah would have laid down billions of dead things buried in sedimentary rock layers. Of course, there have been some changes since then that will add and remove some sediment (places affected by the post-Flood Ice Age, volcanoes, earthquakes, etc.)

Question 13 is a reiteration of Question 9 but focuses on the age of the earth, to see if they are consistent with a global Flood or not, so be sure to compare their answers to Question 9 with this answer.

According to the genealogies, from Adam to Christ is about four thousand years by most chronologists. This would give an age of the earth at about six thousand years. Any long age view, however, adopts man’s ideas over God’s Word in Genesis.

Reference: Ham, The New Answers Book 2, “How Old Is the Earth?” by Bodie Hodge, How Old Is the Earth?.

14. Yes. How can people fully understand the good news of being saved, if they don’t understand the bad news in Genesis of why we are lost in the first place?

Question 14: Not everyone will get this correct, but if they do, then they’ve been listening to creation ministries — which is a good sign! In today’s culture where basic Bible knowledge has severely suffered, how can people fully understand the good news of being saved, if they don’t understand the bad news in Genesis of why we are lost in the first place? Don’t be hard on a church or institution if they get this wrong. This is like a “bonus question” to see if they really get the message. But also note that this is not saying if one does not see the importance of Genesis, it does not mean they are not saved. It simply means they fail to realize the importance of the foundation of the gospel. One can believe in an old earth, for example, and be saved, but they are inconsistent in their treatment of the Word of God.

Reference: “What Does It Mean to Be ‘Saved’?” by Bodie Hodge, Answers in Genesis website, April 21, 2009, What Does It Mean to Be “Saved”?.

15. No.

Question 15 gives you an understanding of how they view the Bible. Hopefully, they answer that the Bible is inerrant in the original autographs and that no legitimate contradictions exist, since God cannot contradict Himself (2 Tim. 2:13). But some Christians have a very low view of Scripture due to evolutionary influence, whether they realize it or not.

References: “Contradictions: Introduction,” by Dr. Jason Lisle, Answers in Genesis website, September 29, 2008, Introduction. See also Ken Ham, editor, Demolishing Supposed Bible Contradictions (Green Forest, AR: Master Books, 2010).