By Dr. Heather Allen
Annually, our family takes a two-three week car trip to see various parts of the country and historical sites of interest. This year was no different; however, the folks at The Old Schoolhouse Magazine suggested that, along the way, we check out the progress at the Creation Museum under construction just outside Cincinnati, Ohio, in northern Kentucky (which was featured in TOS several months ago). While there, our goal was to speak with Ken Ham and Mark Looy of Answers in Genesis (AiG), tour the facility, take pictures, and ask questions we thought would be of interest to the TOS readers.
TOS: From studying your literature, my understanding is that the focus of the organization is on education and the biblical and scientific integrity of the Bible, especially as it relates to a literal reading of the book of Genesis. Further, this focus is in response, in part, to the devastating effect that evolutionary humanism has had on society and the church, and the desperate need to return to the teachings of Scripture in general, and Genesis specifically.
AiG: The main aim of AiG is to reach the church. This does not mean that we do not try to reach the culture as a whole, including the public education system. However, until we get the church back to a solid foundation in God’s Word, we are not going to be able to be successful in reaching the culture. So, our primary aim is to reach and confront the church in regard to compromise in Genesis, which has undermined the authority of the Word as a whole in the culture.
At the same time, if we are able to reach the public school system and other parts of the culture, we certainly will do our best to do so. We believe that if we can educate the general public regarding the creation/evolution issue, that they can influence people in positions of authority—whether it be in legislature or on school boards or whatever.
We basically see AiG’s role as disseminating information that is not available to the majority of people so that they can be fully informed of the creation/evolution issue, and also help people in positions of authority to make better decisions.
TOS: What are your short- and long-term plans for significantly affecting public education? It seems that, in terms of education, AiG has consistently experienced growth in spreading its message in the areas of radio station programs (Answers … with Ken Ham), newsletters, the Creation magazine, books, speaking engagements, and creation clubs in public schools across the nation. Further, the Creation Museum is the biggest public education project yet and will confront evolution and humanistic thinking head-on.
AiG: We believe that the way to influence public education is actually to disseminate as much information as we can to the public as a whole. By doing this, we are—at a grassroots level—helping the public to understand the importance of the creation/evolution issue and to recognize that real science actually confirms biblical history. You see, the more that people are educated and have the information, the more likely they are to be influential as they become members of school boards or join the government departments.
AiG does this through major seminars, radio, all of our various resources (books, videos, etc.). We also have a major website—with up to 53,000 daily visits—and are working with a person right now to maintain a website that is especially directed to public school students.
Of course, our Creation Museum will also be a great means of outreach. From the surveys we have done, we believe that many Christians will bring their non-Christian friends and be influenced by the teaching at the museum. Because the museum is going to be such high quality, we believe it’s even possible that some public schools might bring their students (with the correct parental permission) to see the dinosaur models and other fascinating displays.
The Creation Museum, we are trusting, will open sometime in 2006. We will also have creation-based planetarium programs, as well as special programs for all ages.
TOS: Is there anything AiG can do to equip the public who desire to challenge public school boards on evolution versus creationism?
AiG: Again, I believe one of the greatest things AiG could do is provide information and make it readily available for people. For instance, one particular school board was sent copies of our Refuting Evolution book. As a result, many on the school board were greatly influenced in their thinking because they had never really seen or had access to this sort of information before.
Sadly, most secular journals and the secular media suppress information concerning the scientific support for the origins account in Genesis and the problems with evolution.
TOS: Are there means available to significantly affect the National Education Association (NEA) when evolution issues arise?
AiG: One of the areas that I believe is important to understand is that there has been a total foundational change in our culture.
People no longer believe that the Bible is the absolute authority of God. People now believe that man determines truth. As a result, we see that the culture, including the education system, has changed from having a predominantly Christian worldview to one that is predominantly secular in its worldview. Thus, to try to influence the NEA is very difficult.
To confront the NEA head-on, I believe we need to change the system from the foundation up, rather than from the top down:
1. Continually disseminate information to the general public. This is information that the NEA either suppresses or in other ways blocks students and teachers from hearing. We should answer the many accusations concerning what Christians believe, and show that we can logically defend our faith—that Christianity is a logical, rational faith.
2. AiG is able to display a booth at the annual NEA convention. We distribute—at no charge—thousands of dollars’ worth of books, videos, and other resources to teachers and other officials in public education. By doing this, we are disseminating information to people that normally we would have no means of contacting.
TOS: What are your short- and long-term plans for significantly impacting seminaries, churches, and pastors? It seems that, if analyzing the source of erosion of truth in the biblical worldview, one would have to look no further than the seminaries, many (or most?) of which have embraced the politically correct religion of evolution.
AiG: As a result of 30 years of ministry experience, I have learned that the majority of Christian leaders (including pastors, professors, deacons, and elders in churches) will not take the same stand on Genesis that AiG does. These people have adopted various compromise positions, including progressive creation, theistic evolution, gap theory, local flood, day-age theory, framework hypothesis, etc.
As a result, Bible colleges and seminaries are training up generations of pastors and missionaries who do not believe that Genesis is important, or they have been told that they can believe in millions of years and, therefore, can reinterpret various aspects of Genesis. This has led to a church that by and large is devoid of authority.
For example, this is the real cause as to why “gay marriage” has become a predominant issue in America. As a whole, the culture no longer respects the Word because even those in the church do not believe the authority of the Word beginning in Genesis.
Yes, the church, by and large is looking at some of these moral issues and horrified at what they see. The trouble is they don’t understand the real foundational change that has occurred, and that they themselves are primarily responsible for these changes. Since generations have been taught that the Bible’s history in Genesis is not true, we now, as a result, have generations saying that the moral and spiritual things of the Bible are not true either.
That is why AiG needs to direct its efforts to reaching Christian leaders. The problem is because of what I would call “pride” issues: academic pride, peer pressure, and other factors. As a result, many Christian leaders are very hard to reach.
On the other hand, we find that when we go to a church or college, the average person sitting in the pew or the student attending classes responds positively to the AiG message because it makes so much sense to them.
That is one of the reasons why we spend a lot of time disseminating information to the general public. The more that people in our churches and students in colleges are educated to understand the importance of taking a stand on the authority of the Word beginning in Genesis, the more this will put pressure on their leaders, and hopefully bring on the change that is needed.
TOS: The church seems to be struggling with and often compromising biblical integrity when confronted with ever-increasing attacks from those hostile to Christianity. How do we equip churches to tackle such attacks confidently and with conviction?
AiG: One of the problems we have today is that people see the wonderful technology that man has been able to develop. Man has been able to put people on the moon and send spacecraft to Mars.
So, when a scientist is talking about the marvelous technology, people stand in awe. But, when that same scientist starts talking ideas, most people don’t realize that the scientist has now stepped outside of the same science that put the vehicles on Mars.
A lot of people think that not believing in evolution would be giving up science. But that is not true at all. there is a difference between what we call “observational science” (what you can observe, repeat, and so on in the present) and “historical science” (one’s belief about the past).
Actually, creationists and evolutionists have the same observational science. Creationists are not against science at all. We love science. In fact, creationists use the science of biology, geology, anthropology, chemistry, physics, and astronomy to show that real observational science actually confirms the Bible’s history.
The real difference between creation and evolution is not observational science but historical science; in other words, what you believe about the past. The general public needs to be educated concerning this so that they can recognize that when they don’t believe in evolution or millions of years, they are not giving up real science. What they are doing is giving up man’s fallible beliefs about the past. Christians need to understand this as well and also need to be able to defend their faith.
I Peter 3:15 teaches us that we need to be able to give reasons for what we believe. We all need to be able to answer the skeptical questions of the age that attack the Bible. Questions like “Where did Cain get his wife?” “What about the ape-men?” “What about dinosaurs?” “What about carbon dating?” “Doesn’t the Grand Canyon prove millions of years?”
These are the sorts of questions most Christians can’t answer today and yet they are asked by the skeptical world. The world has been indoctrinated by the public education system and media. That is why they ask these questions. The more Christians can give answers, the more they are helping the world to understand the validity of the Bible. Its history is true, and therefore, the message of the gospel and the message of morality from the Bible are true.
TOS: Thank you, Ken and Mark, for sharing with TOS readers and for allowing our family to spend hours with all of you at AiG.
We hope to bring more of our experiences at AiG to future issues of TOS as there is just not enough space to capture all that we saw, learned, discussed, and photographed. In the meantime, though, please keep these good folks in your prayers and consider supporting their efforts. Also, if you happen to have a real dinosaur skeleton that you might consider donating to the Creation Science Museum, they’d sure be appreciative.
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