Help Us Start Something Big This Year

Yes, we do want you to help us start something big. In fact, we are convinced we really need this to happen. I want to reveal some very disturbing information to you that many in the church seem to be unaware of. But first, let me share some background.

In AiG’s mission statement we read, “Answers in Genesis is a catalyst to bring reformation by reclaiming the foundations of our faith, which are found in the Bible, from the very first verse.”

Recognizing the Problem

When I began teaching in public school in Australia in 1975 (42 years ago!), I encountered students rejecting Christianity because of the teaching of evolution/millions of years in their textbooks. That year was the first time I was asked to speak in a church, so I spoke on the creation/evolution issue.

I was shocked to find that so many in the church thought it didn’t matter what they believed about the Book of Genesis—as long as they trusted Christ for salvation. As I began to speak in more and more churches, I found rampant compromise, as people had added evolution/millions of years to Genesis. Because of this, I developed a message we call “The Relevance of Genesis,” which, other than the Bible itself, has remained the core message of Answers in Genesis (though it’s expanded and matured over the years).

Returning to Genesis

Because the church (the body of Christ) is God’s vehicle to impact the world with the gospel, I’ve always insisted that AiG’s primary function is to challenge the church to stand on God’s Word beginning in Genesis, and to equip the church to defend the Christian faith against the secular attacks of our day. We see this approach as helping the church to be a tremendous force in globally proclaiming the truth of God’s Word and the saving gospel.

We now have many powerful outreaches to the world (the Creation Museum, Ark Encounter, our highly trafficked website, and so on), but we’ve always maintained a major emphasis to impact and equip the church. In fact, these same outreaches that reach millions of non-Christians are just as important for Christians.

In Ecclesiastes 1:9 we read, “There is nothing new under the sun.” Just as God’s chosen people compromised His Word with the pagan religions of the day (as we read about in books like Jeremiah, Malachi, and Hosea), so we are seeing many people today in the church compromising God’s Word—particularly in Genesis—with the pagan religion of our day: evolution/millions of years.

Revering Evolution and Compromising Scripture

As I’ve explained many times, such compromise is an attack on the authority of God’s Word. Sadly, we’ve seen the consequences of this undermining of God’s Word in generational losses from the church and the secularization of generations of children—even within the church. It’s obvious to all that the church no longer has the massive impact it once had on our Western cultures.

AiG’s primary function is to challenge the church to stand on God’s Word beginning in Genesis.

I believe the Lord has raised up organizations like Answers in Genesis to call the church back to the authority of the Word of God—which is in essence calling for a new reformation.

Now it’s sad, but not surprising, that at the same time organizations like Answers in Genesis have impacted millions of people within and outside the church, opposing organizations are rising up (from within and without the church) to do war with those like AiG. This is not surprising but to be expected (based on Scripture) since we are truly in a spiritual battle for the hearts and minds of people.

Raising Man’s Ideas Above Scripture

Organizations such as Reasons to Believe (led by Hugh Ross), Solid Rock Lectures (Ken Wolgemuth et al.), and BioLogos have risen up in our day to attempt to get Christians, church leaders, and Christian institutions to accept evolutionary ideas/millions of years. They also actively promote their resources in churches and at conferences, such as the yearly Evangelical Theological Society conference.

The BioLogos mission states, “BioLogos invites the church and the world to see the harmony between science and biblical faith as we present an evolutionary understanding of God’s creation.” They also state, “We affirm evolutionary creation, recognizing God as Creator of all life over billions of years.”

This organization is significantly funded by the John Templeton Foundation (JTF), which has given millions of dollars to organizations and colleges to promote evolutionary compromise. Templeton himself was theologically ultra-liberal. On the JTF website we read this of its founder:

Sir John’s own theological views conformed to no orthodoxy, and he was eager to learn not just from science but from all of the world’s faith traditions. As he once told an interviewer, “I grew up as a Presbyterian. Presbyterians thought the Methodists were wrong. Catholics thought all Protestants were wrong. The Jews thought the Christians were wrong. So, what I’m financing is humility. I want people to realize that you shouldn’t think you know it all.”

Over the past few years JTF has given (to name just a few recipients):

• $8 million to BioLogos
• $3 million to Biola University’s Center for Christian Thought
• $2 million to Calvin College
• $5 million to the American Association for the Advancement of Science, a good portion of which has gone to AAAS’s “Science for Seminaries” program to get evolutionary thinking into the seminaries such as Concordia Seminary [LCMS], Multnomah Biblical Seminary, and Regent University School of Divinity.1

I hope you are getting the picture of the compromising influence just this one foundation (among others) is having—and this is just a fraction of their influence!

Redefining Scripture?

On top of that, a plethora of books are now being published, mainly by academics, to try to infiltrate Christian academic institutions and churches with evolutionary compromise—and even attempts to reject a literal historical Adam! For instance, in recent times we have seen the following new books (that push evolution and millions of years) promoted at the 2016 Evangelical Theological Society conference:

• Grand Canyon: Monument to an Ancient Earth (Kregel, 2016), which rejects the global Flood and the history in Genesis, attacks the writings of creation scientists like Dr. Steve Austin and AiG’s own Dr. Andrew Snelling on the Grand Canyon, and includes authorship by two or three non-Christians!
• Adam and the Genome (Baker, January 2017), which denies a literal Adam.
• Evolution: Scripture and Nature Say Yes! (Zondervan, 2016), teaching that Adam is a myth.
• How I Changed My Mind about Evolution (IV Press, 2016), containing chapters of testimonies by professing Christians who have embraced evolution.
• The Enduring Authority of the Christian Scriptures (Eerdmans, 2016) is an 1,180-page, multi-author book. Dr. Kirsten Birkett (an Australian professor of ethics and philosophy at Oak Hill Theological College in London) wrote the chapter on “Science and Scripture” and says, “Scripture is our solid foundation; other knowledge should be understood and interpreted in its light, not the other way around” (985), but she doesn’t discuss a single Bible verse in the whole chapter. And also attacks me!

Now is your head dizzy from reading all this? And really, these examples are only scratching the surface. Much more is going on involving the John Templeton Foundation as well as Bible-compromising resources that permeate Christian academic institutions, churches, and so on.

We knew it was a bad situation in Christendom, but I must admit it’s much worse than I thought it was. The tentacles of the John Templeton Foundation reach far beyond what we’ve listed here. And remember, our research on Christian colleges (published in the book Already Compromised) revealed the shocking stand (or lack thereof) that many professors, presidents, and vice presidents take on the authority of God’s Word.

Reformation: Back to the Authority of Scripture!

My heart is so burdened as I see this all round. We have to fight a war not only with the world, but also with much of the church! And there’s no doubt the enemy (Satan) is ramping up attacks on those who do take God at His Word beginning in Genesis.

You can see why I believe we need a new reformation.

In fact, I believe we need to be nailing (symbolically, of course) Genesis chapters 1–11 on the doors of churches, Christian colleges, and other Christian institutions. In this era, the church has lost biblical authority particularly by compromising with Genesis, so that’s where we need to start in order to get the church back to biblical authority—beginning with Genesis.

We are doing our best through the many outreaches of AiG to reach the church and the world. And the more we do this, the more opposition we receive.

Pray that church leaders/academics will repent of their compromise and understand the vital need to return to biblical authority from the very first verse.

Reclamation: What Can You Do?

When people ask me for specific prayer points for the AiG ministry, I always ask them to pray that church leaders/academics will repent of their compromise and understand the vital need to return to biblical authority from the very first verse.

We recognize how hard it is to reach church leaders, so we developed many grassroots outreaches (including books, DVDs, websites, curricula, Creation Museum, Ark Encounter, etc.) to reach the public with the message of truth that they so need to hear.

And at AiG, regardless of the opposition, we press on to do business for the King!

It is with your vital prayers and support that this ministry is even able to exist and reach even more souls with the gospel for King Jesus, all the while battling against the Enemy’s attacks.

As millions of people a year are being impacted through the various AiG outreaches, I urge you to help us continue and expand the enormous reach this ministry has—and pray God will raise up people to help bring this needed new reformation to our church.