How to Present the Gospel in Today's Culture

thank you for joining us in Legacy Hall to hear a powerful Bible upholding message from Ken Ham ken is the co-founder president and CEO of Answers in Genesis the Creation Museum and the Ark Encounter he's an Aussie transplant who spoken all around the world on creation apologetics biblical authority and the gospel Ken's a frequent guest on national radio and TV programs and is the author of many books and thousands of articles and blogs you can find resources by Ken in our bookstore as Ken gets ready to speak please silence all cell phones and please note that emergency exits are located up front to your right and left and along the left side of the room now let's give our full attention and a warm welcome to cam here it is still morning I always like to start a little early just ask you a few questions and see we're all from so how many of you this is your very first time at the Creation Museum ok how many been here before that's good too so how many of you have already been to the Ark and how many are going to the ark ok so that counts for everybody right I I'm not gonna lie I wouldn't you wouldn't dare put your hand up to say you're not going to the ark actually we've had since yeah the Ark opened what 8 weeks ago and we're up to I think we've had 200 and I think it's 270,000 visitors to the Ark and considering considering that when you think about the fact that we only had sort of less than less than half of the busy summer because they're open on July 7 so we didn't have May and June and so projections for next year May and June 11 be bigger but well I'll see how it goes and then for me ask well you might be interested know too that it's increased attendance at the Creation Museum about 70 percent so in that same time we've had a hundred and twenty thousand visitors to the Creation Museum so when you think about there's a lot of a lot of people coming so anyway how many of you are from the state of Kentucky okay we have four Kentucky we have to give you a prize somebody from Kentucky okay how many from Ohio Oh as a few more what about Indiana case the rest of you must be from a lot of other places what okay what about Texas how many from Texas oh we usually have more than that from Texas that's okay that's as many as Kentucky okay how about North Carolina so we have a few from there Pennsylvania okay California oh look at that we always get people from California actually California Pennsylvania Texas North Carolina probably get a lot more people from them than many other states would you believe anyone from Nebraska okay so the population of morasco was here last week they went back okay now what about North Dakota South Dakota over there you're from the Dakotas so the rest of you where you're from okay I heard 22 states candidate Georgia where that Florida anyone from Florida oh we do it for you escape Disney and you came up here excellent well we do get people from a lot of other countries other than cannot have any from Canada here today okay it's a few of you from Canada what about any other countries today I can't see in other countries Honduras okay we we get people to come from all over the world so one of the things you'll notice at the arc for those that have been there but those are going incredible diversity of people that you see at the arc you can recognize it from all sort of different cultures you hear people speaking lots of different languages as well and you'll see all sorts a you can even tell different theological backgrounds as you hear people talk and and so on so the IKE encounter creation museum certainly reaching an incredible number of people around the world and what i want to do is to explain to you what we're really doing here we've made no apology about the fact that we're an evangelistic organization so we're presenting the gospel that's what we're doing and we do it in particular way Answers in Genesis and apologetics ministry and by apologetics we mean that we equip Christians to be able to defend the Christian faith we challenge non-christians since earning the truth of God's Word and the gospel you know it's interesting in today's world it's well known in the church we're losing the coming generations from the church two-thirds of young people leave the church by the time they reach college IH very few return and even most of those young people that are in our churches today have a very secular worldview and it's interesting to see the way in which various churches are responding to this recently I watched a series by Andy Stanley some of you might have heard of him from Georgia and he was given this series how there's this conflict between the Bible and science and science wins and and these young people growing up seeing all this conflict and all these things like the Big Bang which he says is true and had all conflicts with the Bible and so his his way of dealing with it is we need to take the spotlight off the Bible and just talk about Jesus basically put the spotlight on Jesus and the resurrection rection well let me ask you a question where'd you get the message of Jesus and the resurrection problem of the Bible how do you find out about sin from the Bible in fact if you don't have the Bible is the authoritative Word of God how who decides what the message is how do you know and you see that's a problem with our church today other churches are trying entertainment you know let's have lots of music and that's what they need but you know what they want what we found is they want answers and I can get for instance tomorrow I'm going to Florida on Monday morning are we speaking to some school groups in the church where we're conducting a conference down there in the attempt at Largo Florida and we have hundreds and hundreds of thousands usually of young people come into kindergarten through grade 6 and then high schoolers high schoolers you know of the mainly teenagers and I keep them for an hour and a half and they don't have any music by the way I just speak for an hour and a half but I'm not against music don't get me wrong but you know what I find when you give them answers in regard to the questions that they get today that are causing them to doubt the Bible they are so interested because they want to understand and and they want to know that they really can trust the Bible and it's because of the doubts that they have that many of them are walking away from the Christian faith and that's why we need to give those answers you know as I've traveled around the world for the past 40 years I found it doesn't matter what country you're in third-world country any country has matter what country you're in people ask the same basic questions when they hear you talking about Christianity questions like well how do you know there's a God well wait a move in scientific age hasn't science disproved the Bible doesn't science conflict with the Bible how can you believe the Bible what about dinosaurs carbon dating how did it all get the animals on the ark where the races of people come from and so on and the reason they ask those questions how many of you have heard those sorts of questions by the way oh look at that see all the hands see in this era of history they're the questions they're asking and what's happening is they're not getting answers and then you got people like pastor Andy Stanley and others out there saying well there's this conflict and then and and between science and the Bible so take the spotlight off the Bible and you know let them believe in the Big Bang millions if that's all right they can believe that stop we'll just tell them about users but again where to get the message of Jesus and what we've found is when you give them those answers then they realize what you mean God's Word is true you mean this is the Word of God and when they start to understand that then they're willing to listen to the gospel based on God's Word so that's what we here do here at answering Genesis the Creation Museum actually at the Creation Museum we do something that I'm going to do for you this morning I want to show you how we present the gospel and how we present the gospel to a pagan culture I believe most churches and most Christians are not presenting the gospel the way we need to in our culture today because you know what we do here at the Creation Museum now this is so radical it's going to blow you off your seats but you know what we do well you hear this this is this incredibly radical listen to it we present the gospel the way God does it in the Bible by starting at the beginning how's that for a radical idea so we start here a perfect creation marred by sin that's why we're sinners that's why we die the flood of Noah's day and so on the Tower of Babel this history in the Bible is true and present the gospel that's based in that history and so do up that with all the life-sized exhibits while you're here I encourage you to go out and see our beautiful gardens they are incredibly beautiful because you know you see fall is in the air now and so the leaves are starting to change we have an incredible rainforest area over there make sure you go and see that our petting zoo our ziplining course you have zipline courses here at the museum and the Ark and it's interesting we even have secular are saying well Noah didn't use zip lines and what do you want to zip lines for got nothing to do with it Christians can have fun too can't we and don't we want to have family-friendly facilities where we can learn about God's Word and the gospel and have fun as a family isn't that what we want to do well that's what these places are so we have a wonderful facility here at the Creation Museum then the Ark Encounter and we say it's bigger than imagination for those that are being there it is big I would love to get someone like Donald Trump out the front saying it's huge I think that'd that'd be a great advertisement weren't very interesting but it's wonder half times the length of a football field half the width of a football field from ground level to the roof seven stories high from ground level to the top of the bow as ten stories high and there's the facility from the front from the back you can see the three towers and anchors to those towers how how's the elevators and the and the exit stairs and also the restrooms we have a secular as saying well no I wouldn't have built towers like that well you wouldn't know what now and no I did but he wouldn't have built towers like that because we did that to make it a stationary vessel because designed as a ship and build as a building of course he wouldn't have built it like that you know admit secondly media say to me will it float look at the float of course not it was not built to float it was built so people can walk through it and besides which we don't need to build another one to float because there's never going to be another global flood next time by fire I hope you're ready so we can explain things to them but it is designed as a ship building called the specifications in the Bible and by the way there were wooden ships in history bigger than the Ark built by summer ancient cultures so we've used some of those ancient shipbuilding techniques actually and then you can see the zoo and the petting zoo here not many places in the world you can actually have a camel ride and near Noah's Ark there's just not that many places at all we now have a book about the building of the ark and a DVD about the building of the Ark that just came out recently and you get them here you might see some of our billboards across the nation that's one of our billboards we a number of those we have a commercial running on television as well all across the nation it's this one here people everywhere are talking about the Ark now open and of course our evangelistic message is there's no one his family went through a door to be saved so we need to go through a door and that door is the Lord Jesus Christ and one of the most popular places for a photograph on the ark outside the Ark of course in front of the lake there and other place has been in the Ark you'll notice a lot of people and they get to the door and the second floor that big massive door and we've lit that up for you have a sign there explaining it and people just stand there and get their photograph taken there great place for your whole family get a photograph there and then talk to your family talk to your kids about the door and what that means and how Jesus is the door it's a great opportunity well you can find out more information about the Ark and keep up to date because we keep expanding it as we do the Creation Museum we'll have a new series of exhibits in here too next year so you'll just have to come back every year and we keep adding things that their creation music at the ark as well we've got some big new exhibits that are going to go in in the bow and the third deck and they're going to go in by the end of October early November and then we're putting a nomad village at the front and we continue building various phases of the Ark as well so changes over time you know here in America we have the largest number of Christian churches and colleges and Christian resources Christian media in fact you have more Christian resources right now than you've ever had in your history but America is becoming less Christian every day and so as the United Kingdom it's becoming less Christian every day and Australia is becoming less Christian every day even though Australia has never been a very Christianized country but it did have an influence of Christianity but that influence in our whole Western world is becoming less every day in fact in our whole Western world we see moral relativism for baiting the culture and of course you see the issues in regard to gay marriage and our battles over restrooms and whether you have male and female and all the things that are happening the abortion issue in this nation we have major problems in the church two-thirds of young people leave the church by the time they reach college age very few returning in England right now the two thirds of young people say they don't even believe in God I mean where England is today if you look at England in fact you look at the whole United Kingdom you see how secularized it's become church attendance is way way down from used to lots of church building is now turning to mosques and antique stores and nightclubs and so on that sort of thing is starting to happen in America more and more and that's where America's heading we did the research back in 2006 and and published a book in 2009 on why young people are leaving the church and it really related to what I said to you that research and this is what you can't deny this is real research done by America's research group the kids didn't get answers to these questions that they taught 85 to 90 percent of kids from church homes go to public schools and where they're taught evolution is fact millions years as fact by analyzed a strong guide out the Bible our prayer out and they got all these questions well what about the Big Bang what about millions ears what do we do well instead of saying well don't worry about the Bible just trust in Jesus you know we need to be doing giving answers to them to show them that God's Word is true and that it is the Word of God that it is the history book of the universe because that's what it is we've also done research on the twenties generation that are left in our churches you know the twenties generation the Millennials they're going to be the well the leaders for the future and we had America's research group in 2014 do research was published in the book or ready to return to show you the state of those young people that are left in our churches what's the state of those that are left a lot I've already gone what about those that are left well do you consider yourself born-again 40 percent say they're not born again do you believe all are the holy books including the Korean are inspired by God 20 percent say yes 10 percent don't know there's 30 percent think there could be other inspired books do you believe if you're good person you'll go to heaven 65 percent said yes should gay couples be allowed to marry 40 percent yes 10 percent don't know 50 percent won't speak against gay marriage people that's the state of the young people left in our churches we think we've got a problem in the culture we got a major problem in the church and then when you look at it from a overview perspective when we did the research back in 2004 to 15 as to how many people would come to Noah's Ark if we build it we read we did that research back in 2000 a core very similar results actually minimum 1.4 million up to 2.2 million a year would come to the arc and we're on projection to be more towards the high end than the low end of those numbers right now which is phenomenal and we had our researchers us some questions in reality in the spiritual state of the nation if you went to church this is general population if you went to church regularly as kids do you still attend most Sunday's we just stopped attending and notice something in the 60s generation 22% that used to go to church no longer go to church but look at the 20s generation 53% that used to go to church no longer go to church people that pretty well reflects what's happening in our culture and if you look at Pew Research they publish results all the time they come up with more research today if you look in the news you'll see Pew Research that giving results and there's others doing research as well we're realizing this culture is becoming more secular we realize those that say they have no religious affiliation is are increasing and by the way everyone has a religious affiliation even atheists that's a religion it's atheism but they don't want to admit that it's a religion and when we do the research over and over again we find it's because generations haven't been taught how to defend their faith and all these doubts have occurred in regard to the Word of God and so what we want to do is to help people understand the Bible's history is true that's why the gospel based in that history is true and our whole purpose in building the ark and in building the museum is to reach people with the gospel you know we make no apology about that fact what are we here for to help people understand the history in the Bible is true that's why the gospel based in that history is true what's the purpose of just getting people to believe Noah existed a Noah's Ark existent what will be the purpose and just getting people to believe in creation do you realize people can believe in Noah and the flood and creation and go to hell just like an atheist if they don't believe in trust in the Lord Jesus Christ as creator and Savior and that's the whole point so there's no point in doing what we're doing unless we're seeing people one to the Lord Jesus Christ you know Mark 16:15 tells us gone to all the world and to preach the gospel and so there are many people today many pastors are saying look this is the most important thing you've got to do just go and tell people about Jesus take the spotlight off the Bible don't worry about the Bible just tell him about Jesus tell them about Jesus in the resurrection as I said to you that's been the emphasis of a whole series that Andy Stanley has done in Georgia and I believe it's destructive to the church and its destructive to the coming generations look a verse of scripture I want you to think about is this 1 1 Corinthians 1:23 we preach Christ crucified unto the Jews a stumbling-block and unto the Greeks foolishness the preaching of the Cross is a stumbling block to the Jews but to the Greeks is foolishness and I wanted you to think about that today because here's what I'm gonna say to us the reason we see generations of kids living in the church is because they're very much like the Greeks now not like the Jews using Jews and Greeks as types they're very much like the Greeks not like the Jews you know what the problem is the church still approaches them as if they're Jews or like the Jews what do I mean by that well as I said to you I have a radical idea for revolution how about we start sharing the gospel the way God does it in the Bible by starting at the beginning well that's a radical concept isn't it and I won't tell you why I say that because I but for a lot of people when you say well what is the gospel oh the gospel is the good news the good news is that Jesus died on the cross and was raised from the dead but is it not true that you can't understand the good news of the gospel unless you understand the bad news in Genesis see we say to people oh we need to go out and get people saved I've got news for you they don't know they lost and until they understand what it means that they're lost they not gonna know what it means to be saved see I'm a teacher my father's a teacher his father teach his father a teacher goes back millions of years in fact and as a teacher one of the things that I like to do you know you know what I did see when you're building a house if you're if you're a construction worker a carpenter if you're gonna build a house what do you do you start with the roof and then you build the walls right no you've got to get the foundation and then you get the walls and then you get the rest do you know the problem we've got today is much of the church is trying to trying to teach the gospel like building a house from the roof and the walls down and forgetting the foundation let me explain to you see as I teach I'm communicating to somebody I say okay it's like building a house I need to make sure I build the foundation and build the structure so they understand at all and that's true of the gospel you see I like to present the gospel this way first of all there's the foundational knowledge that God has created sin into the world and death as a result of sin that's the foundation the foundational Lodge to understand why we're sinners why God's tons son stepped into history design across be raised from the dead the power of the gospel and one day there's going to be a new heavens and a new earth to come the hope of the gospel the problem is many of us in the church present the hope and the power of the gospel but not the foundation and because of that people don't understand the gospel they don't understand who they are what does it mean that you're a sinner you know there are churches that say to their people look I want you to go out and witness to your neighbors but if topics come up about creation evolution Genesis don't even don't just steer away from them they're all red herrings don't just tell them about Jesus what happens when somebody says to you why he died on a cross for your sin well why am i a sinner where'd that come from well don't worry about that just believe it you're a sinner well where did death come from why do we die well don't worry about that just believe it and people I want us to understand this you imagine if you're going out there two generations today to tell about the hope and the power of the gospel and we have increasing numbers of kids even who grew up in the church who no longer understand about sin and death is a consequence of sin and they no longer have that foundational knowledge because most churches have ignored the book of Genesis or say it doesn't matter or say I can believe in evolution of millions of years how do they understand the gospel how can they do that and how many times do I hear pastors even in conservative churches Genesis too controversial we just need to tell people about Jesus how do you tell him about Jesus without Genesis fact you know what's interesting you know what Jesus said in John 5 he said how can you how how can you believe the writings of you how can you believe what I say if you don't believe the writings of Moses but and what about the two on the raid road to Emmaus when Jesus started speaking to the two on the road to Emmaus and it says he expounded unto them and all the scriptures of things concerning himself beginning with Moses and the profits when Jesus was asked about marriage in Matthew 19 what does he do he quotes from the book of Genesis haven't you read he was made the beginning made them male and female and when Paul is instructing us on the gospel in Romans by one man sin into the world and death by sin Romans 5:12 and talks about the last Adam taking place of the first people you look in the scripture in the New Testament when the gospel has been expounded they go back to Genesis because that's where the foundation is to understand what it's all about and to help us really get what's going on here I'm going to do this I want to show you how the gospel was presented to two different cultures and acts to culture to the Jews in acts 17 culture to the Greeks and I want to compare the acts to culture in acts 17 culture to our modern world and here's what I'm going to be saying to you our culture in our Western world used to be an ax to culture but it's no longer it's an act 17 culture and you know what the problem is most of our churches Sunday School literature evangelistic methods assume in acts 2 culture and that's increasingly why we're not reaching these people look in acts 2 Peter was preaching maybe you're standing on the temple steps very bold message and pitching to - mainly Jews or those convinced are very familiar with the Jewish religion they were there to sacrifice animals and so on you crucified the Son of God you nailed him on the cross in God but God raised him from the dead and when they heard this they were pricked in the heart and said what shall we do and he said repent and so on save yourselves from this untoward generation 3,000 souls were saved Wow would you like to see a crusade like that in your church this week people we have seen revivals like that in our world in the past we seen them in America we've seen them in England in other places in Europe we've seen revivals like that but you know we don't see that happening today do we we think about the great revivals of the past it's like it's it's it's a remnant from the past something that happened in the past it's like when you go to the Grand Canyon and you realize whatever form this happened in the past it's a remnant of a past event why don't why don't we see these sorts of things happening like that I mean you even think back to the Billy Graham crusade days and all the thousands of people that would come and and and regardless of any theological differences you have nonetheless God did use them and and and thousands and thousands of people put their trust in the Lord as Savior see how come Peter preaches a message in three thousand soul saved but I want you to think about this he was preaching mainly to Jews of those convinced are very familiar with the Jewish religion at that stage in their history did they believe in a creator do they believe in one God did did they have the writings of Moses and the prophets did they believe in Adam and Eve oh yes they did they know about sin yes they know death was a penalty for sin yes they knew about the promise of the savior think about when Jesus was talking to the scribes and the Pharisees and like when he asked them a question about the Messiah and whose son is here and you know David's son and so they knew all about the Messiah they knew what was their stumbling block that Jesus Christ was the Messiah they refused to accept that he was the Messiah and the point that I want you to understand here is this the Jews had the right foundation but they rejected Jesus Christ as a messiah and so Peter didn't have to convince him that there was a God he didn't have to convince him God was creator he didn't have to convince him that there were sinners or death was a penalty for sin they were there to sacrifice animals his major message was you crucified the Son of God but God raised him from the dead because he's the Messiah and you know what thousands were saved thousands think back to that verse of scripture we preach Christ crucified unto the Jews a stumbling-block that under the Greeks foolishness you see the Jews were a creation based culture they understood the terms but they're stumbling block was a message of Jesus in the resurrection I want you to think about that statement for a moment they understood the terms God today in our culture those that have left the church those that are in the church I'm gonna I'm gonna make a suggestion to you did you know they speak a different language they do they speak a different language and if Christians don't understand what that means you're not gonna reach them with the message of the gospel for instance generations ago generations ago in America when you went to the public schools and you said God wouldn't most people and teachers think of the God of the Bible come forward to today you go to our public schools and you say God and what are they gonna say which God there are many gods you mean a Hindu Hindu God or a Buddhist concept of God you mean the Muslim God which God do you mean there are many gods and if you talk about the God of the Bible then the Freedom From Religion Foundation all the threatened to sue you anyway it's a different culture isn't it see they speak a different language so when you go out to somebody and say God do you realize just saying the word God you suddenly realize wait a minute are they what do they mean by that well what are they hearing and people that's a problem that we've got do they know what sin is there are generations now who have never heard the Bible even generations that had gone to church have never heard the Bible in certain churches do they know why death is in the world look you know when when my wife and I moved over here to America in 1987 as missionaries to a pagan culture and America is becoming increasingly a pagan culture I thought that would be easy being in America because you all speak the same language well I found out you don't speak the same language see I found out see we speak Australian English you people speak American English it's a whole different language I mean it really is you know one of the things we had to recognize that when you're talking to an American as an Australian you have to understand how they view certain terms differently or you're not going to communicate for instance I said to somebody and this was you know we're talking nearly 30 years ago now I said hey could you help me because my my battery's flat your battery's flat yeah did you run her over no I left the lights on Oh your battery's dead dead wasn't alive how could a die see you people talk about a dead battery we talk about flat batteries so if I say too many Americans flat 50 they have no idea what I'm talking about it's dead battery but then there's lots of others too and of course then there's the embarrassing ones oh one of the most embarrassing you know we've got five children or four of them are married now we've got 16 grandchildren now but back in that time 30 years ago we had a little baby and because one of our kids was born here in America and I was on the phone to somebody and they said what are you doing and I said I'm nursing our baby then you hear this silence on the end of the phone you know you're doing what I'm nursing our baby why that's why I thought you said well most of my embarrassment I found out later on nursing a baby in America doesn't mean what it means in Australia you know it means in Australia I'm holding the baby I found out in America it means I'm breastfeeding the baby and I thought I told this person I was breastfeeding the baby maybe they thought we Australian males had son onward upward evolutionary mutation or progression of some sort or other you see you can get into trouble incidentally when you go to Australia I know people love to go to Australia as tourists to visit Australia lots of unique animals over there well I think you need to understand these things because they're a part you can go to think of one of my favorite parks where they actually ask you would you like to nurse a koala which could conjure up some horrible images if you don't know what that means all right so but here's my point people do you realise just between Australia and America there's differences in what words mean I mean you put gas in the car we put petrol and I found out it's not a gas anyway it's a liquid so that there's all sorts of differences that we have that you have to understand well you're not going to communicate do you realise you know when you've got different countries I learned when you go to a different country like in Japan I I would tell things thinking that were jokes and found out they didn't laugh because they don't think that way and they don't use plays on words and they only work in English anyway and then I had to realize way of it that doesn't even work in that culture all right do you realize is a difference be tween the older generations and the younger generations in our own country in the church that if the church doesn't get we're not going to communicate to them look understand this the Jews were on the right Road you know when you come to the Creation Museum when you go into buying pub main part of the museum come to the dig site where we have two scientists one's an evolutionist one's a creationist they have the same fossil the same dinosaur fossil but two totally different accounts of that fossil once four millions years evolution the other creation and then the flood in thousands of years how can they have two totally different accounts of the one fossil you go to the next room it says because there's two different starting points you know ultimately there's only two religions in the world you start with Genesis 3 what the devil say to Adam and Eve you can become as God what did God say obey my word so what's the battle mean ever since the beginning a battle between God's Word and man's word right and so we take you to the starting points room when I debated Bill Nye here in the stage that's what I concentrated on I want you to understand the reason we have different interpretations of the evidence and here's an evolutionist and I'm a creationist is because we have two different starting points I say it's God's Word that's the foundation of my thinking he says no man's word is and so we help you understand there's there's really two different worldviews two different starting points there's only two religions in the world in an ultimate sense there's two roads the road for the Jews they had the right foundation the foundation understanding God created entrance of sin death the promise of the Messiah but and that road led up to the message of the cross but that was their stumbling block the message of the cross I call that an ax to culture and what Peter did was an axe to approach to evangelism do you know that most of our evangelistic methods in our modern world have been acts two approaches for instance I think of when Billy Graham came to Australia in the late 50s and early 60s it's been said it's the closest to Australia ever came to revival now Australia has never had true viable I know Australia has never never the Christian foundation that you have in America I know in America you pride yourselves in the fact that your founding fathers had great convictions our founding fathers are great convictions to see do you notice that there's a cultural thing there too the young degenerate some of the older ones got that but many of the younger ones have no idea what I talked about you know why that is in America you know why most Americans young people don't understand that because when you learn world history in America it includes all 50 states it's like the world series you're there any people that play the game what he got World Series C Australia started as a convict settlement all right you got to stand australia in history and in australia when the convicts were treated very terribly but australia inherited the British system because it inherited the British system open Parliament and prayer do you know when I was a kid going to the equivalent of elementary school in America do you know that it was mandatory for teachers to read through the Bible didn't used to do that in public schools in America once you know it was mandatory to even have prayer on assembly you know even in my high school days it seems like a long time ago now but in my high school days we used to recite the Lord's Prayer on assembly before we went into school you know what's interesting in Australia lesson one percent of born-again Christians Australia's never had the Christian foundation America has had but I'm gonna say to you that nonetheless back in the 50s and 60s it was an act to type culture you could have an evangelist come in and say Jesus died in the cross for your sin they knew what sin was they knew who you're talking about when you said Jesus if you said God because even though most of the kids never went to Sunday school or church their teachers had read through the Bible so they knew about Adam and Eve they knew about the interest of sin and death they knew about the nativity they knew about the baby Jesus and Bethlehem than you about Noah in the ark they had that foundation and that's why I believe when you had evangelists back in the 50s and 60s and like Billy Graham the big Crusades it had an incredible effect on the culture and Australia shook the culture many thousands became Christians but he was preaching to an axe to culture and he preached an axe to message mainly concentrating on Jesus and the resurrection people I'm going to say this to you when evangelists do that same sort of thing today in Australia it doesn't work not like it did it doesn't even work in America like it used to what's the difference in February March 2010 there was a secular humanist magazine that had an issue called fading faith and here's a statement a historic transition is occurring barely notice slowly quietly imperceptibly religion when they say religion they usually mean Christianity is shriveling in America as it already has done in Europe Canada Australia across the developed world increasingly supernatural faith belongs to the third world the first world is entering the long predicted secular age where science and knowledge dominate the secular world is saying a whole Western world has had a transition it's changed I'm going to say that change is from an axe to culture to an axe 17 culture it's a change from a culture being like the Jews and having the foundational knowledge to being like the Greeks and not having the foundational knowledge and in fact that that change has accelerated during the last eight years and it's accelerated because it's being led in a very aggressive way by the president United States in fact then-senator Obama before he was elected president was speaking at a conference June 28 2006 on building a covenant for a new America and I don't think many people realize what he meant by a new America but I want to play you this statement from back then he made the same statement in his first inauguration address he made the statement when he visited the president of Turkey he's made the statement in his book The Audacity of Hope he's made this statement many times as one of the mantras of the president and people you should have understood we should have understood back then what he meant listen where we once were we are no longer a Christian nation at least not just we are also a Jewish nation a Muslim nation and a Buddhist nation and a Hindu nation and a nation of non-believers well here's the statement from his book The Audacity I hope wherever we once were we're no longer just a Christian nation also Jewish nation was the nation Buddhist nation Hindu nation nation a non believers looking back on that I believe it's very obvious that what he was saying is we're no longer a nation that believes in one God when our nation that believes in many gods we're known no longer a nation that does what many of the founding fathers did and build their thinking their worldview and the absolute authority of the word of God which is why marriage was a man and a woman why abortion was wrong why we believed in male and female restrooms we're now a nation that says it's man that determines truth and so we can rewrite all of that and we can say marriage is whatever you want it to be you can abort babies whenever you want to abort babies because see once you abandon a basis in the absolute authority of the word of God ultimately anything goes and we even have pastors today saying get away from the Bible take the spotlight off the Bible then ultimately anything how do you decide what marriage is because that comes from the Bible how do you side about abortion because man has made an image of God that that comes from the Bible how do you decide about male and female well that comes from the Bible so you get the spotlight off the Bible and anything goes and that's what we're seeing in our culture anything goes in fact you know an apt description of our culture today judges 21:25 in those days there was no king and Israel every man did what was right in his own eyes see once you don't have an absolute authority who determines right and wrong who determines good and bad who determines what's evil what's good you know it's like so many times I have atheists who talk to me and say you know well what's good for the cult good blame it good how do you get that way what do you decide is good and what basis to you do you base your standards how do you define good how do you is it your subjective opinion or what is it how do you decide is if somebody else have a different opinion when Bill Nye was down at the arc recently and I took him through the arc at one stage I said bill how do you decide what is right and wrong and he said by a consensus of the tribe I said but what if another tribe has a different right and wrong well yeah well they can do that but then ultimately anything goes you know back in 2009 the front cover of Newsweek said the decline and fall of Christian America and people you've seen that happen now in the last seven years in a catastrophic way and inside that Newsweek edition there was an article the end of Christian America and there was one sentence that stood out to me it was this one the present in this sense is less about the death of God and more about the birth of many gods whatever we are we are no longer just a Christian nation we're Buddhist nation a Hindu nation a Muslim nation this nation of that we're no longer a nation that believes in one God as many of our founding fathers did we're a nation that believes in many gods we're no longer a nation that builds our thinking on the Bible we're a nation that says it's man who determines truth really it's man who becomes God what was the temptation by the devil you can become as God even a book think about abortion what is abortion it's no different than the child's sacrifice of the Canaanites sacrificing children to the god of self that's what it is you see I want to suggest you that even the secular world understands a transition you know what's happened now culture in the Western world is no longer an ax to culture it's an axe 17 culture and let me let me describe this x17 culture to you here we are at Mars Hill Paul comes to Mars Hill to Athens to the Greeks and you've got all these temples and idols you've got equivalent of atheists and that's a religion you've got all these different ideas about temples and gods and so and so Paul comes you've got the Epicureans the atheists the pantheists like the Stoics the others that were there and he preaches unto them Jesus and the resurrection notice that at Luther response what will this babbler say Paul preaches about gee sorry Peter preaches about Jesus and the resurrection thousands respond and converted Paul preaches about Jesus in the resurrection and the response is foolishness remember the preaching of the Cross is a stumbling block to the Jews but it's foolishness to the Greeks see the Greeks had no foundational understanding of Adam and even the entrance of sin and death they believed in God's in many gods or atheists or pantheists or the gods Eve old or people evolved from the earth they had evolutionary views Darwin didn't invent evolution he just popularized a particular modern view of evolution that's all and so here's Paul preaching the message of Jesus Christ here this message to this group but there's no foundation they don't understand see if you think about it the Greeks had no concept of a Creator God as the Jews did that to the no foundational knowledge the message of the Cross was foolishness to them they were an evolution based culture who did not understand the terms if he said God to the Greeks thinking of well there are many gods and there are people that don't believe in in a God or you know there's all sorts of different views here I mean what do you mean by God sin they had no concept death or death has always been here everyone dies the message of the resurrection was foolishness to them I call that in acts 17 culture people if if you want to grasp what's happening in America to the coming generations their acts 17 people they are not acts 2 people and most of our Sunday School literature treats them as if their acts to people all these wonderful Bible stories Bible stories about Paul and the missionary journeys and so on and Jesus walking on water and don't get me wrong those that they're all true but they don't even they no longer believe the book in fact do you know what has happened in our modern world here's what the devil has done your Christians you don't want teaching kids about Jesus in the resurrection Jesus walking on water feeding thousands of miracle that the Israelites crossing the Red Sea as America you can teach them that's okay you do and I'm gonna get you to help me I'm gonna get you to send your kids to an education system eighty-five to ninety percent of them do where they're gonna throw the book out and they're gonna teach you all this stuff that contradicts the book and I'm even going to get past us to say don't worry about the book take your spot right off the book just tell them about Jesus I'm gonna get you to do that cuz you know it'll happen when we get generations who don't believe the book they're not they're gonna walk away from it all and that's what's happened there in acts 17 culture who don't have the message of the book they don't understand the message they don't have the foundational knowledge you know I went to Japan a number of years ago my Japanese translator said no in Japan you've got to understand something there's no Christian basis to speak of and Shinto was a major religion they believed in many gods so if you use the word God they're going to be thinking in terms of thousands of gods and of course you've got Buddhism as well and he said you realize when you say God I can't just translate the word God I'm gonna have to talk about that one creator god who made all things and define who God is or they won't understand you know it's interesting I'm having my officer Bible that that a elderly Japanese pastor in in Japan had published and he presented it to me here a couple of years ago and his a great man loves em our ministry in Japan there and it's called the creator Bible because he said everywhere were God we have God in our Bibles capital G God not small G God but the capital G God he puts creator he said because for the Japanese people they need to understand it's it's different to all their thousands of God it's the Creator God that's the difference you see when I was preaching in Japan you know what I realized there are necks seventeen culture you sinners repent of your sin they have no idea what sin is Jesus died on the cross Jesus why'd he die and you know Japan is up and call the missionary graveyard because so many missionaries go there and you know what most missionaries are told to do you know what most of us are told to do for evangelism here we go to most of our Bible colleges and seminaries and Christian colleges we're told you start in the New Testament you start with the book of John you start telling about Jesus you start talking about the resurrection but if there's no Christian basis they're not gonna understand they're gonna be like those Greeks people think about it new tribes missionaries when they went to pagan cultures what did they find when you started preaching about Jesus and the reservoir let found out those people didn't have a clue what they were doing they just did what they thought the missionaries wanted them to do they didn't understand the message so you know what they decided to do something really radical well let's present the gospel the way God does for us in the Bible start at the beginning why do you think he's given us his word isn't it interesting how does God do it starts at the beginning what do most of us do start towards the end imagine if we did that with murder mysteries alright Agatha Christie I'm gonna read an Agatha Christie book what are you gonna do I'm gonna read the last chapter find out whodunit we don't need to we don't need to read the rest well then you won't understand it but that's how we present the gospel in most of our churches and most of our Vangelis dick rallies are most of us under schools we start towards end people we have generations that don't understand the beginning and they don't believe the book and we're telling about Jesus they don't get it see think about this the Jews they believed in God then you what sin was understood death was a penalty for sin so the terms understood but the stumbling block was Jesus Christ as his Savior the Greeks God which God sinned they don't know death it's always been here and look let me let me show you how Greek our culture is most of our Christian leaders today and parents will tell kids you can believe in millions of years it doesn't matter you know one of the most asked questions that we found out from the Millennials how can you believe in a loving God with all and suffering in the world and what are they taught there's been death for millions of years death and the fossil record for millions of years you know if the Bible teaches death came after sin and see if you've taught your kids you can believe in millions of years then death has always been here death and bloodshed has always been here then the death and bloodshed we see today it's going on for millions of years how can you believe my loving God if that's what he's been like but the Bible makes it clear death is an enemy because of sin it's an intrusion by the way in the fossil record there's examples of animals eating each other bones and their stomachs the Bible says originally Adam and Eve were vegetarian so were the animals we weren't told eat meat until after the fight in Genesis 9:3 in the fossil record there's examples of brain tumors and cancer and arthritis the Bible says after God made man after that he said everything he made was very good if you believe in millions here is God's now calling cancer and brain tumors very good there are thorns and the fossil records had to be hundreds of millions years old the Bible says thorns came after the curse see the Bible makes it clear death bloodshed disease and suffering is a consequence of sin but if you believe in millions of years death suffering disease bloodshed has always been here before men those two things can't be true at the same time which means the fossil record can't be the result of millions of years of death and bloodshed before man sinned so how do you explain fossil layers like those at the Grand Canyon that extend across the continental US and the continents around the world global in extent filled with dead things oh if they happen to be a flood what would you expect to find billions of dead things buried in rock layers laid down by water all over the earth and what do you find billions of dead things buried in rock layers lay down by water all over the earth see think about this I'm telling you that our young people today increasingly are Greeks they're not Jews using Jews and Greeks as types they're Greeks God which God sinned what do you mean dead that's always been here and so you see when you compare the Jews to the Greeks a creation based culture understand the terms the messages across the stumbling block to an evolution-based culture who don't understand the terms and it's foolishness to them you're starting to understand what happened back in genesis god's word man's word it's a battle all through the bible between light and darkness between good and evil between god's word bands would it's a battle about two worldviews it's a battle about two roads the greeks different foundation different well different road that road doesn't lead up to the message of the cross only this road with the foundation in the writings of moses that leads up to the message of the cross this one doesn't so if you want this greek to understand this message you know what we're doing today we're going to the greeks and we're preaching this message i'm telling if you want the greek to understand that message you got to start back here and we've got an increasing problem today even when you start back there they don't believe the book because wait a minute that science has disproved the book that the books not true you can't you can't trust that anyone was on the ark and what about the big bang in carbon dating so you know we've got to do in our culture we've got to teach apologetics to show we can defend the Christian faith to show that we've got answers to all those things they've been taught out there that caused them to believe you can't trust the book to help them understand it's true and lay the foundation for the message you know that's what Paul did he looked around he saw all these idols and temples and gods when I was over there in London I wanted to get a picture of all the Greek gods and I did there they are they're not very powerful they couldn't even get out of the glass case there they are he looked around and he and he says I found an altar with this inscription to the unknown God whom therefore you ingly worship ignorantly worship I declare to you the unknown God who is the unknown God I'm gonna declare to you the real God he's the God that made the world and all things therein and he gives life and breath to all life he's not like your gods he doesn't dwell in temples made with hands and he and he made of one blood you're all related to each other you all one race we all go back to Adam and Eve that's why we're all sinners that's why we're all in need of the gospel there's only one race boy that's a whole nother topic when the human genome project headed by an atheist did observational science and and they mapped out the human genome in the year 2000 what'd they find there's only one race the human race wow what a revelation people there aren't any races well actually there's two races they're saved in the unsaved see that's the difference that the Bible makes clear to us people are the saved or unsaved and they're the ones that shouldn't mix in marriage by the way because there's no such thing as interracial marriage from a biological sense it's a spiritual aspect here that we need to be understanding and if we want to know what the answer to racism is it's very clear you don't teach an evolutionary view of history and all the rest you help people understand we're all related rule one family all go back to Adam and Eve that's why we're all sinners it was a terrible that formed the different people groups not different races and those external characteristics where there's skin shade notice I didn't say color because we're all the same color it's a matter of how much of the color you have the pigment melanin whether it's your eye shape your ear shape your skin shape they're all minor differences because of genetics was the Tower of Babel that formed the different cultures and end up with different combinations of genes you know dominating particular groups people do you know what we need to be out there what we need to be out there telling the coming generations this history is true we've got answers in geology biology astronomy anthropology this history which is God's record of geological biological astronomical anthropological history that the world tells you is not true it is true and we can answer these questions you've got about dating methods and carbon dating and where they can get his wife and the races and how Noah could fit the animals on that this is true which is why the gospel based on that history is true about it when was the first time the Gospel message was preached genesis 3:15 when's the next time the Gospel message is preached Genesis 3:21 when God killed animals the origin of clothing the first blood sacrifice covering for their sin pointing towards the ultimate sacrifice in Jesus Christ if Genesis is not true how can the gospel be true it's preached for the first time in Genesis and see so what we're doing is this we're saying the Greeks today we need to be doing what the Bible says the Bible itself says yeah go on all the world and preach the gospel but it also says be ready to give an answer be ready to defend your faith that's what we fail to do do you know who's been teaching apologetics the public schools and the universities and the media we've handed our kids over to them and you know what they're saying here's the evidence the Bible's not true here's the evidence for evolution of millions of years here's the evidence you evolved from an ape man here's the evidence you can't trust the Bible here's the evidence now couldn't fit the animals on the ark here's the evidence that there ever was a global flood what do we doing doing our churches and hopes we have our acts to approach sebacean ISM trust in Jesus Johnny he died in the cross for you sin where'd you get that from well I'm not gonna say the Bible were taking the spotlight off the Bible now so you just you know what people people have said it I mean we're gonna get that wrong and if you say the Bible oh but you can't trust the Bible because of all these things and what do we do well don't worry about that you don't need to believe Genesis anyway doesn't matter and maybe God got it wrong and there's probably mistakes in contradictions and that's okay trust in Jesus and we wonder why the church is not impacting the culture you see what Paul was doing was taking them off the wrong road and giving them the right beginning putting him on the right road and then he preached the x---two message think about it defined who God is giving you the foundational knowledge we're all one blood God the Creator God and then gets back to the message of the Cross and you know what happened some mock just like last time some said we'll hear you again I believe God was opening the house the truth Sumbul and you know what people say it wasn't 3000 like ax2 and you know what many bible college professors have Christian college professors have taught their students and in seminary don't use a method of Paul he got all intellectual about his faith tried to define his terms only got a few converts Peter just went out there and talked about Jesus and the resurrection got thousands of converts I Got News for You Paul was going to people like outright atheists who are very hard to witness to and and had conducts incredibly successful peter was going to people who already had the terms they already had the foundation that's the difference and people I'm suggesting to you that we are much more in x17 culture today and if we continue to use the axe to method increasingly we're not going to reach the culture you know what Paul had to do turn Greeks as types into Jews take people with the wrong foundation wrong well view give them a different foundation different worldview you see America United Kingdom Australia most of our Western world was very much like the Jews and when you have a culture that's like the Jews that has that foundational knowledge and you preach the message of the Cross they understand but increasingly what's happened in our Western world the difference between the the Christian and the non-christian has been widening it's really a separation of the Jews and the Greeks and now most of our culture including most of our kids in our churches are Greeks because we sent them to the Greek education system they turn them into Greeks and that's what it does I mean most of our public schools have strong guard out the Bible out prayer out you know what they say to to the students you can explain everything by natural processes in fact they say you don't have the supernatural in science only naturalism you know naturalism is its atheism in fact one of the biology textbooks in public schools define science as you've only got a you only allowed you have to restrict science to natural causes natural phenomena supernatural explanations outside of science they're teaching atheism and we wonder why when we preach the message of the gospel to them it's foolishness to them and people eighty-five to ninety percent of kids from our churches are sent to the Greek education system they're turned into Greeks they watch Greek television Greek internet Greek books and magazines we're out there preaching to them trust in Jesus and they don't understand we teach them all these wonderful Bible stories we don't teach them apologetics we don't teach them how to defend their faith it's the world that's teaching them apologetics here's the answers but here's why you gotta believe in evolution of millions years what do we do don't worry you can do that that's okay whatever trust in Jesus you know what evolution of millions years really is it's the pagan religion of our age to explain life without God and most of our church has adopted it and added it into the Bible oh I've heard that before I think I've read about that in Malachi and Zechariah and Hosea and Habakkuk it's the same about it it's my Australian accent and you know what the problem is most of our churches they've done that they've adopted the Greek view and added it into the Bible and now we're realizing what are we going to do and now we get these pastors saying well let's have lots of music let's have pizza parties let's have let's take the spotlight off the Bible you know we developed a Sunday school curriculum most of our Sunday school curriculum if we're really honest about it is fluff and stuff we developed a Sunday school curriculum that teaches meet is called the answers Bible curriculum we go Genesis to Revelation chronologically and a-four apologetics biblical authority see chronological we teach the doctrines we connect old and new Testament together show how it all connects together focus the whole message of the Bible is about Jesus of course but we give the foundation all the way through and we teach apologetics all the way through we have churches telling us it is revolutionising their churches revolutionising their young people and their old people older people we have homeschool there are thousands of churches thousands of homeschool is using this now as their main Bible curriculum people there's nothing else like it in the world and you can look at it out here when we finish here in a few minutes do you realize we're all Greek to one degree or another gorilla is all of us as Greek a Greek the whole world is really Greek I mean I even get into conservative churches at times whether with a pastor has said you know mr. hams preaching to the choir here because we believe the Bible with fundamentalist here and then I get up and peach about these topics and get more quick guess what questions I get from from from the congregation well what about millions here's what I do with carbon dating do you believe in dinosaurs could they have gone on the ark how didn't I'll get the animals only how to explain the races of people there are all Greeks and they're wondering why their grandkids don't go to church and you see most pastors have not been taught how to teach this material in a way to defend the faith I know there are many pastors out there they want to do this but most of the seminaries and Bible colleges don't do it I mean I preached in big churches where the pastor's come to me afterwards and said thank you for teaching our people I would I was never taught how to do these things how to answer questions like where they can get his wife and explain the races of people and what about carbon dating and nor feeding the animals on we weren't taught that sort of stuff and most of the mind that's that's why most churches at the most people most Christian leaders have no idea what to do and they're intimidated by science for people the resources are now here I encourage you to get people to the museum get them to the ark get these resources the Sunday school curriculum the books jeweler is what the Creation Museum and the arts really all about it's really taking Greeks and turning them into Jews you know what I call that D Greek izing now people say there's no word degree guising it's right up there on the screen I can see it there it is D Greek Isaac it needs to be a word in the dictionary taking people off the wrong road and getting them on the right Road that's what we need to be doing you know the parable - Sauron the seed you've got lots of see lots of different ground out there there used to be a lot of play out ground where you can plant the seed but now most of that plowed ground has disappeared because now it's mainly acts 17 ground and we need to be coming in and clearing the ground and dealing with those questions that have caused doubts we need to be going out and degree cozy now before we stop here and I'm gonna be out there in the lobby for a bit if you want to be out and come out there and we'll have one of our speakers out there is it your day today Brian okay and I'll tell therefore on a moment here you know answer questions for you but do you know what we have in our dragon Hall bookstore upstairs and what we have out here degree guising materials that's what they are and degree guising for the church and and and for the unchurched when you came in you should receive one of these forms if you fill it out and hand it in to get on our newsletter list email list keep up to date on the museum the Ark and our resources we'll give you a free DVD of my testimony that was done at a church pocket guides these are normally two dollars each we let you have them for what for these are only six dollars each I should say will let you have them for two dollars each they answer a lot of those questions they're great to give away to people this is my favorite witnessing book guess where we start Genesis 1 to 11 then Exodus 20 the law then the book of John the life of Christ the book of Romans the gospel in detail last two chapters of Revelation new heavens and new earth those scriptures give you the gospel from beginning to end and then we put an overview of the Bible in the middle give you a whole overview of Scripture and then 10 of the most asked questions that cause doubt with short answers and then what does it mean to be saved how do you become a Christian it's a great witnessing book and then that this is this is it here the begin book because most of us most of our evangelists attract start in the New Testament a lot of times we hand out the New Testament what's the New Testament missing the rest of the Bible and particularly the book of Genesis so the you choose program where you can put together combinations of books and DVDs at discounted prices Kalai and this has a chapter in it dealing with the Jews and the Greeks but this is what we will call the textbook of our ministry this is other than the Bible this is the book that it that really is the message of what we're teaching here the Ark the whole ministry this is what it is that's it and then the two books already gone and ready to return the most definitive works I believe in understanding what's happened to the church what's happened to our young people why the church is not impacting the culture like it used to what parents haven't done what's wrong with our Sunday school material it's all in there that's real research easy to read and then the answers books for the hundred and twenty of the most asked questions with detailed answers those four books here the for answers books if you get the material in those most of the questions you're going to hear out there that your kids will hear your young people here to try to get them to doubt the Bible they're already covered in there I encourage every young person to read them every older person to read them we have detailed books on one race one blood the six-day issue and the age of the earth which is a major issue in our church and then is for Adam Diaz for dinosaur Ennis for now for little kids right at a young age they start to doubt the Bible these days and we need to be able to help them understand it's a book of history even for middle school upwards how many animals are on the ark that's one of the big questions they get out there Noah's Ark couldn't be true that's what bill and I said to me on the stage here because he couldn't fit all the animals on board and so this is good for adults as well and then books on dragons and dinosaurs my son-in-law Bodhi wrote this book to show names in cultures around the world that go back to ham Shem and Japheth books on dinosaurs that dinosaurs are used to try to convince mums and dads and kids the Bible's not true books to show them the Bible is a real book of history from Adam and Eve all the way through those cultures how all that folds out there's also a more detailed one we have books to help you understand man's word based religions around the world and how to answer them all volume three comes out soon and it'll have atheism in it as one of the religions and you can get those books already gone ready to return and the research we did on Christian colleges in this pack here the ready for Reformation packed Bill Nye debate tired of transcript the debate the entire DVD and then all the answers to everything you brought up and a book on how to confound the critics by the way in October we're going to come out with the DVD on the second debate when I took Bill Nye through the arc for two hours very interesting and we're going to give you the unedited version so you can follow it through and see what happened and then just one more or two more things this is six of my main talks including what I did today revealing the unknown God six of my major presentations done up as 12 30 minute presentations a whole curriculum that goes with it many churches using up for the young people in adults as an introductory foundational apologetics curriculum look at our Bible curriculum out there three-year Bible curriculums Sunday school curriculum and then answers magazine it's an award-winning magazines one of the top Christian magazines in the world has a mini magazine for kids in the middle and encourage you to subscribe and if you get $75 more in resources we'll just give you a subscription for the whole year free and right now it comes out every three months next year it'll be every two months so it's an incredible publication to keep you up-to-date Brian's going to be out there with me and he'll be there to answer questions so if you've got questions so a lot of people want to ask questions but there's so many people often want to come and say hi so I'll just do the easy bit and hand the questions over to to Brian so think of your hard questions and go out there and ask him so you need some hard questions today okay I'll hand back to guest services and I'll be out in the lobby here well thank you so much ken wasn't that amazing great information

Channel: Answers in Genesis

Views: 24,651

Rating: 4.6058159 out of 5

Keywords: evangelism, gospel, Bible, creation, Genesis

Id: xUIM_IPFccg

Length: 71min 29sec (4289 seconds)

Published: Fri Sep 09 2016