How to EFFECTIVELY Evangelize In a Secular Culture | Ken Ham

because you see when you're taking the Pagan religion of the age and using that to to reinterpret Genesis that's different than arguing from scripture and trying to come to some conclusions about things you're taking ideas outside the Bible and deliberately changing the word of God I think it's a massive problem and I think it's really symptomatic of the fact that the church by and large does not understand the foundational issues in our culture and have helped that foundational change [Music] the Bible instructs Christians to go into all the world and preach the gospel but in our Western World people are not responding to the gospel today as they did in the past so what has changed what we're going to find out in this session is that there's a big difference between an Acts 2 type culture and an act 17 one and our Western world today has become much more like an acts 17 type culture how do we reach such people with the message of the Gospel well the Bible instructs us how to do that we're going to learn how to effectively preach the gospel to people today [Music] our heart at Answers in Genesis is evangelism as I've often said to people there's no point in converting people to be creationists because creationists will end up in hell just like an atheist if they don't believe in trust in the Creator as Lord and Savior and so our heart is to preach the gospel and see people one to the Lord Jesus Christ and so in this particular session I want to share with you my heart concerning evangelism and how do we evangelize a secularized culture in Psalm 11 3 we read if the foundations be destroyed what can the righteous do and I reminded people about a barn a barn that had a foundation that was collapsing and when the foundation collapsed the structure came down and I said that collapsing Barn to me represents the collapse of Christian morality the Christian worldview and our Western World and certainly in America the greatest christianized nation on Earth as we see those moral issues like gay marriage and abortion and we see Christian symbols being thrown out of public places we see the culture changing and really that's what that collapsing Barn is symbolic of and to explain what's happened we understand that there are really only two religions in the world you either start with God's word or you start with man's word and that was the choice right back there in Genesis chapter 3 trust God's word don't eat of the tree or what was the Temptation you can become as Gods you can decide truth for yourself no trust yourself it's man who determines truth now the basis those two different religions two different starting points starting with God's word on man's word we have two different World Views one a world view of Christian absolutes the other a world view of moral relativism but what's happened in our Western World in this era of History there's been an attack on the foundation the foundation of the authority of the word of God this nation started primarily with uh founding fathers many of whom were Christians but they built their morality on the Bible its starting point was really in that sense the Bible that's why a Christian worldview permeated this culture but we've had Generations now right through our Western world have been told that the history in the Bible Bible particularly that history in Genesis 1 to 11 is not true evolution is true millions of years is true that history in Genesis 1 to 11 is not true and subsequent Generations have started to recognize if that history in Genesis is not true then neither is the gospel that's based in that history and what we see happening in our Western world is the collapse of Christian morality an increase in moral relativism because there's been a change foundationally from God's word to man's word in this culture in the education system in the court system in the government and sadly even in much of the church the starting point has changed from God's word to man's word and we're seeing a change in this nation a change from a predominantly Christian worldview to one now that's predominantly secular with moral relativism pervading the culture and I summed it up with this castle diagram and that is that here's the problem we have the foundation of God's word and the structure of Christianity and the gospel doctrines built on that Foundation of man's word secular humanism moral relativism that comes out of that there's been an attack the secularists have really attacked God's word but that attack has occurred ever since Genesis 3 really God's words come under attack since Genesis 3 but in this era of History it's particularly been in Genesis 1 to 11 much of the church has even said we don't really need that part of the Bible or it doesn't matter you don't have to take this literal history we'll keep the rest of God's word and keep that structure but like that Barn if we don't have the whole Foundation the structural collapse and then we look up here and we say well look at all the problems in the culture but they're not the problems in essence they're the symptoms of the problem and for all the millions of dollars that the church God's people have spent in this nation trying to fight those issues ultimately from a big picture perspective in the nation it hasn't worked and why not because you see the secularists captured generations of hearts and Minds changed their hearts and Minds in regard to what they believed about the word of God to believe it's man that should be a starting point thus change their worldview which changed the culture and once much of the church tried to do we tried to go in there and change the culture but the Bible doesn't say go into a world and change the culture the Bible says go into all the world in what preach the gospel and make disciples in other words here's the thing the secularists understand if you capture the hearts and minds of generations of children and give them a different foundation and and therefore a different worldview they'll change the culture what should the church be do we should have been raising up Generations standing on the authority of the word of God who knew how to defend the faith who would be the Salt and Light in the culture but instead the secularists have captured them and we've helped that change we've let them do it basically we handed our children generations of children over to the world and and we've said you can believe what the world teaches that's okay as long as you trust in Jesus Johnny and eventually what do we see happening right now the statistics are at least two-thirds of young people when they reach the the college age in our churches are walking away from the church and this continues we're going to lose this culture and we're losing it right now now we you might say okay well then what we need to do is capture their hearts and Minds that's right that's what we need to do this secularist note capture their hearts and minds and we'll capture the culture well we need to go out there and preach the gospel and and and see these people saved and wonder the Lord to build their thinking on the Bible have a Christian worldview so that they will change the culture that's right but they're not going to ask you this okay going to go and preach the gospel what is the gospel you might say oh well the gospel is the good news that Jesus Christ died in a cross raised from the dead that's true that's true the gospel is the good news that Jesus died incarceration of the dead but isn't it also true that you can't understand the good news of the Gospel unless you understand the bad news in Genesis the bad news concerning a perfect world marred by sin that the first man Adam rebelled and thus sin came into the world thus death is a consequence that's why we need a savior that's why Jesus Christ stepped into history in other words the history in Genesis 1 to 11 is foundational to understanding the good news think about this for a moment imagine you're in a church where in that particular Church they said we don't believe Genesis doesn't matter anyway but we want you to go out and evangelize the culture we want to evangelize the generations of kids in this culture so go out there and tell them about Jesus but don't mention Genesis you're not allowed to mention Genesis because we don't believe Genesis but go out there and tell them about Jesus okay you sinner you you're a sinner you you need the Lord Jesus Christ I'm a sinner why am I a sinner because you're a sinner where'd that come from don't worry about that just believe it you're a sinner Jesus died in a cross and rose from the dead oh he did yeah why do you do that because of your sin where did Sin come from don't worry about that just just believe it how do you preach the gospel without that history in Genesis 1 to 11. I mean if you read 1 Corinthians 15 Romans 5 when Paul's talking about the gospel the good news and talking about the resurrection and talking about the last Adam he's going back to Genesis because that history there is foundational to all of that and you know I Communicator the first thing you have to make sure of is that the words you use they understand and Define them the same way you do you say well that's obvious oh is it is it really I mean do people really think about that see I come originally from Australia and we speak English Americans speak sort of English a form of it anyway but one of the things I learned was we can use the same words in the English language but in a different culture they can have different definitions and say you will not communicate if you don't understand that I remember one Sage when we first moved over here to America I told somebody I had a flat battery a flat battery and I wondered if I ran over it I said no I left the lights on he said oh you have a dead battery dead it wasn't alive how could it die I you know you're not going to communicate if you don't understand the words they use in those situations and of course then there's the embarrassing ones like at the time this was a number of years ago of course when we had little children and somebody said what are you doing and I said oh I'm nursing our baby then there was this silence for a moment on the end of the phone you know I was talking to the telephone nursing a baby yes oh see in Australia nursing a baby means holding a baby so I I was just saying I'm holding the baby over here I found out it doesn't mean that you know if you're going to say to somebody the word God if they don't understand the word the way you do you're not going to communicate or if you say sin and they don't understand sin the way you do you're not going to communicate you see when I'm thinking about communicating the gospel I like to think of communicating the gospel in regard to three basic aspects first of all the foundational aspect there's a foundational history that Christ is Creator sent into the world death as a result of sin actually that's foundational to understanding why the Son of God stepped into history to be Jesus the God man to dine across because death was a penalty for sin raised from the dead that's the power of the gospel and we also know it's a groaning world now because of sin so one day there's going to be a new heavens and a new Earth to come the foundational knowledge the power of the gospel and the hope of the Gospel if I can say this I want us to think carefully about this for a moment I would suggest you that most of the church in fact in our Western World in fact around the world concentrates mainly on the power and the hope of the Gospel not the foundational aspects for instance there was a a series of books you know when we talk about eschatology now as soon as I start talking about eschatology some people get nervous you're going to come out and tell us a particular view of eschatology and so don't worry I'm not going to do that because I I just never deal with controversial issues and so you don't have to worry about that but there was a particular book series uh out uh called the Left Behind series how many of you purchased maybe the Left Behind series or even read the Left Behind series yes hand side of the rooms and you know millions of Americans purchased that series I'm not saying you should have shouldn't have it's just a matter of History okay but you know Millions did purchase that series which is about a particular view of eschatology but most of those Millions didn't buy creation books why why you know one of the things I found in the church and I found this in America and I believe it's true in a western world people of the church seem more interested in end times than in the beginning in fact one of the things I've noticed in America is that there are many churches to become a member of a church you have to agree to a particular view of eschatology for that particular church now I'm not saying a churcher shouldn't have a particular view of eschatology I mean eschatology is important too but you you have to have a particular you have to agree to a particular view of eschatology when it comes to Genesis as long as you believe God created why is it we put an emphasis on you must have a particular view of eschatology but when it comes to Genesis you can believe in millions years Evolution doesn't matter we're not sure what it means as long as you believe God created eschatology oh you've got to have a particular View think about that for a moment now I do that for this reason you see one of the things that I was asked once when I was on radio it was a presbyterian Minister actually you said to me now you agree that the church can have different views of eschatology there's pre-mil armil post Mill and so on I said oh yeah and he said there's different views of Genesis theistic Evolution Gap Theory day age Theory and so on and I said yeah and he said well it's the same thing said no it's not he said why not I said because except for some extreme views of eschatology for the for the main views of Esco tires like premium post arm Mill you know in most instances really people are looking at scripture they have a high view of scripture the authority of scripture and they're trying to argue from scripture you know understanding Israel Daniel Ezekiel Revelation and so on and looking at scripture and and and trying to come to some conclusions there but the reason that people have different views of Genesis is because they're starting outside of the Bible with the secular views of this age and reinterpreting Genesis and coming up with those different positions to impose the idea of millions of years and so on on the Bible and so in that sense if we stand back and think about it here's a problem we often find in the church in America we're prepared to take a particular view of eschatology and say that's important but when it comes to Genesis it doesn't matter and yet I would suggest to you that it's because we're not taking particular stand on Genesis we're actually unlocking that door to undermine biblical Authority in a way that different views of eschatology by and large are not think about that for a moment because you see when you're taking the Pagan religion of the age and using that to to reinterpret Genesis that's different than arguing from scripture and trying to come to some conclusions about things you're taking ideas outside the Bible and deliberately changing the word of God I think it's a massive problem and I think it's really symptomatic of the fact that the church by and large does not understand the foundational issues in our culture and have helped that foundational change 1 Corinthians 1 23 we read this we preach Christ crucified under the Jews the stumbling block but under the Greek's foolishness I want to look at some big picture aspects here tonight regarding the preaching of the Gospel the preaching of the Christ was foolishness to the Greeks but what to the Jews stumbling block what do the Greeks foolishness I want to look at this in a particular way we're going to look at two sermons two sermons where the gospel was preached number one to the Jews number two to the Greeks I want to look at those Peter taking the gospel to the Jews Paul taking the gospel to the Greeks I want to stand back look at it from a big picture perspective and apply it to our culture in this era of history and you know when I do that I have people afterwards who tell me it was like a light bulb going off in my head and I and I sat there and thought how come we've never seen this before and it's so obvious when we go to Acts chapter 2 we have Peter here in the day of Pentecost preaching a very powerful sermon but you can imagine you know he's very bold you can imagine maybe standing on the temple steps or whatever as they're coming and and basically what he said was this to paraphrase it you crucified the son of God you nailed the Messiah on the cross you need to repent of your sin look what you've done and God raised him from the dead you know when they heard this as we read in Acts 2 they were cut to the heart and said you know what shall we do and Peter went on to say repent and so on and you know what happened the Bible tells us when they were told to be saved and so on that 3 000 Souls were saved you say wow wouldn't I like to see a crusade like that in my area uh this week we used to see Crusades like that we used to see Evangelistic campaigns like that we we've seen great revivals in America in in the east in the past and other places there's been great revivals in the past over in England and and across the United Kingdom and other places of Europe there's been times there's been great revivals but people we don't see those sort of things today in fact I also suggest this to you even some of the big Evangelistic Crusades of the past where where thousands were truly converted and they touched the cultures that that they were ministering to we don't see the same sort of responses today in fact most of those who go to such Evangelistic Crusades already have a church background many of those who go forward are for recommitment it's a different sort of response today so here's what we have to ask ourselves oh look okay so Peter preached this message of the Gospel I call it the Acts 2 approach to evangelism and I want to say this I would suggest you that most of what we do in our churches today our Evangelistic campaigns even our Easter pageants Christmas pageants our Sunday school material Bible study material youth group material whatever it is is basically an Acts 2 approach to evangelism and what was this Acts 2 approach who was Peter really preaching to well he was preaching to mainly Jews or those convinced of are very familiar with the Jewish religion let me ask you a question at that stage in their history do they believe in God when Peter said to that group of people God did he have to define God or could he assume they were thinking of the god of Creation The God that he understood he didn't have to define God did he if he said sin you're Sinners did he have to Define sin I think the law of Moses they knew what sin was sin was idolatry taking the name of the Lord thy God in vain sin was stealing murder adultery then you know what sin was they didn't have a problem with the foundational knowledge they didn't have a problem with that history in Genesis they believed in Adam and Eve in the full by and large they had the right starting point which put them on the right road but their stumbling block was the message of the cross and I'd like to put it this way Peter was preaching to people who already had a foundation to understand the gospel it'd be like coming in to build a beautiful Auditorium like this and somebody already put the foundation there I remember when they were building the Creation Museum and it was just a piece of property first of all and then they seemed to spend months I don't know what they were doing they were digging holes and having fun they were laying the foundation I thought this is going to take forever and suddenly one day I went there and the day before I didn't see anything above ground and that then that day I suddenly saw a steel structure going up once the foundation's there the structure can go up very quickly Peter was coming into a group that had the foundation so from a human perspective he didn't have to deal with the foundational aspects he had to deal with the structure that Jesus is a messiah to me that's analogous to this in 1959 when I was a little boy very little but very very very very very very little boy in 1959 in Australia very famous evangelist came to Australia what was his name Billy Graham now again I'm only talking about this from a perspective of History I know that people can have different theological views and different issues and so on but this is from perspective of history there is no doubt in Australia's history it's it's said that those early Crusades in 59 in Sydney and Melbourne that attracted thousands of thousands of people actually touched the culture in a way that's never happened since in fact it's been said this is the closest Australia ever came to Revival Australia's never had Revival I mean I know that Americans Pride themselves on the fact that their founding fathers had great convictions I tell people our founding fathers had great convictions but there were convictions of a different sort and they even went to jail for their convictions if they can understand that but you see what was his message it was mainly an X2 message it was sort of if you like a simple basic presentation of the power and the hope of the Gospel you're a sinner trust in Jesus he died in the cross for you need to put your faith and trust in him and you know what people were truly converted he came back into some other Crusades and so on but you know what's interesting those sorts of Crusades today don't touch the culture in Australia in fact even if I have such most of those who go forward already for just for recommitment why was there such a difference in 1959 in the early 60s than today you know when I was a little boy back then went to school my father was a principal of schools in Australia and at that stage in our history they had prayer on assembly before they went in to the classroom and they even recited the Lord's Prayer so we knew we were praying to the god of the Bible see Australia inherited the British system and so we we build our morality on the Bible even though it wasn't a Christian Nation not only that but the teachers would read through the Bible during the year so all the students would get to hear about Adam and Eve and sin and hear about the Israelites and hear about Jesus on the cross the Babe in a manger and so on here's what I want to suggest to us back in the 50s 60s Australia was an Acts 2 type culture so an ax2 approach to evangelism from a human perspective it works people understood but if you go to Australia today it's like America England Europe creation is basically thrown out of the schools he used to teach Creation in the schools in Australia the Bible by and large has been eliminated from skills they don't have Bible readings like they used to they don't have prayer on assembly like they used to in fact back in the 50s and 60s if you said to students in Australia God most would think the god of the Bible but if you say God today it's which God you mean a Muslim God a Hindu god a Shinto God a Buddhist concept of God a new age God what God are you talking about it's a different culture I suggest to you that an Acts 2 approach doesn't work in Australia now like it used to Generations ago because Australia is no longer an X2 culture Australia I believe has become an act 17 culture when Paul went to Mars Hill Athens he met there with the Greek philosophers the epicureans and the stoics and he preached unto them Jesus in the resurrection what was their response huh what what what does this Babylon want to say what is this all about the response was foolishness remember the preaching of the Cross was what to the Jews a stumbling block but what to the Greeks foolishness why the difference well you have to understand who is he preaching to well the Greek philosopher's here well what did they believe actually the epicureans they believed that everything evolved from the earth that sensuous pleasure was the chief God of existence and so on they were evolutionists see Darwin didn't invent the idea of evolution he popularized a particular view of it the Greeks believed in many gods and the gods evolved and we evolved the stoics were pantheists pantheism is another form of evolutionism you know what that reminded me of when I went to Japan I've been to Japan a couple of times and the first time I went to Japan by Japanese translator sat down with me and he said look when you say the word God I can't just translate it as God because over here with their Shinto religion and many gods they'll just see it as another God like all their other gods I'm going to have to Define who God is and Define the god of the Bible God that made all things and upholds all things by the paraby's word and separate from the creation and so on I thought man this is going to be long lectures and then he said if you tell them they're Sinners how will they know what that is this is not a Christian country hasn't had a Christian basis also evolution is taught as fact in the schools just like it is you know all around the world the problem is they don't have that foundation in God's word they don't have that history in Genesis they will not understand and this is what he said to me unless you start at the beginning and Define all your terms they will not understand see I was going to a culture that had no Foundation to understand the gospel [Music]

Channel: Ken Ham

Views: 48,950

Keywords: Ken Ham, ArkEncounter, Creation Museum, Answers In Genesis, Biblical Apolgetics

Id: YKZtOj6rGfM

Length: 25min 14sec (1514 seconds)

Published: Fri Aug 04 2023