How you doing? Doing all right? Well, hey, it is a privilege to be here with you. My name is Brian Osborne. I'm from the Ministry of Answers in Genesis, headquartered in America, but we literally go all over the world. Now, who's familiar already with Answers in Genesis? Oh, quite a few of you. Very good. Who's not familiar with Answers in Genesis? Okay, a couple. Well, there's time to repent. That's okay. All right. I'm just kidding, all right? But yeah, before we jump into the ministry, I will just tell you a little bit about myself first. These right here are my greatest earthly blessings, the guys bless me with. They're with me here in Australia. I'm currently at the house right now. I couldn't make the trip, but that's my wife, Marla. We've been married for over 21 years. And my daughter, Macy, who's one and a half, and my son, Ian, who is five. And I'm just showing off what God has blessed me so richly with here on this earth. Since I love showing pictures of my kids, here they are again. Just more pictures, all right, of my kids. And then before joining Answers in Genesis a little over five years ago, I was a teacher. I taught Bible history in a public school in the States for 13 years, which is weird even in America. And my wife was a teacher as well for a very long time. And then I joined Answers to Genesis over five years ago. And really, what our ministry is all about, if you're not familiar with it, our ministry is about equipping Christians to do apologetics, which means to give a defense for the faith. Equipping Christians to answer the questions of this age, to defend their faith in order to boldly proclaim the gospel of Jesus Christ effectively, and equip those in the church to stand firm on their faith and not fall away. That's our heartbeat. And that's the point behind apologetics, always in scripture. That is to give a defense to proclaim the gospel. Doing apologetics, answering questions, is never about winning arguments. It's not about winning debates. It's not about looking smart. It's showing that God's word is true to proclaim the gospel effectively. And that's what our ministry is all about. And that's why we're so passionate as a ministry about what we do. I do need to change one more thing on here. Excuse this brief interruption. As I fix one last thing on here, sorry, settings were just a little bit off. Now, as I mentioned, we are headquartered in America and we have the Creation Museum. Who's heard of the Creation Museum? Anybody been to the Creation Museum? Oh, wow. Very, very good. All right. Who's heard of the Ark Encounter? All right, same age. Who's been to the Ark Encounter? Probably the same people. All right, very good. That makes sense. All right. And those are things, those are attractions that the Lord has blessed us to build to reel people in, to teach them the truth of God's Word from the very first verse. And I just want to show you here, come up in just a second. Settings are done. Praise the Lord. That'll work perfectly. All right. And so the Creation Museum, what it is, it's a 75,000 square foot walk through biblical history. And as we walk people through biblical history, we are showing them a very fundamental truth that the world, and guys, much of the church needs to hear today. And that is this, the Bible is true. The Bible gets everything right. The Bible is right about history. It's right about morality. It's right about salvation. Put your faith in Christ. And as we go through the history, we're answering questions, showing how the Bible's true. Questions like, what about dinosaurs and the Bible? What about evolution and the ape men? And who did Cain marry? And how do you explain all these different people groups if we all come from Adam and Eve, et cetera, et cetera? And we answer questions showing that the Bible has really good answers to those sorts of questions. And we give a defense for the faith and we proclaim the gospel in numerous ways. And we've seen God use this ministry in such a powerful way in the past 25 years. The museum's been open for around 12 years. And we get roughly 500,000 people a year coming to the Creation Museum, which is just really amazing to see. And then also I mentioned the Ark Encounter. We've built a life-size replica of Noah's Ark. This is all in Kentucky, by the way. Who's heard of Kentucky in the States? Who knows that from Kentucky Fried Chicken? But this is a life-size replica of Noah's Ark. And if you ever get a chance to go, it is mind-blowing. It's a huge ship. Inside, there are three different levels, just like Noah's Ark. As you go through those levels, again, we're answering questions about biblical history, showing God's Word is true about the past. It gets the beginning right that's right in the middle and the end. And so we answer questions like how did Noah get the animals onto the ark? And what about the rock layers and fossils? Do they confirm a global flood or millions of years? And we're just showing all sorts of answers, showing again the Bible is true. And that you can put your faith in it in all things. It's right about the present. It's right about the past. It's right about the future. It's right about everything. Why? Because the Bible is the very word of God. And God gets everything right. It's a very simple premise. And really, we're so passionate about this for a couple of reasons. Number one, we've been commanded by God as Christians to give an answer for our faith, to contend for the faith, to defend the faith where the attack is happening today so we can proclaim the gospel effectively. And we are so passionate about doing this because we've recognized something I'm sure you guys have recognized. That's what this whole session is about this morning, why this stuff matters so much. We've recognized that our nation, really the entire Western world, is headed in the wrong direction. Have you guys noticed that? Whether it's Australia, Canada, wherever we're talking about, America, the Western world, we're seeing the collapse of the Christian worldview throughout the Western world. We're seeing it wherever we go. And in America, where I'm from, we're seeing the same sort of thing. It's just kind of symptomatic what's happening throughout the entire Western world. But in America right now, around 4,000 churches a year are closing their doors, shutting down in America. Back in 2009, this was the cover of Newsweek. It had this, the decline and fall of Christian America. And inside they made a very good observation about really America and really the rest of the world, Western world anyway. They said, the present in this sense, it's less about the death of God, and it's more about the birth of many gods. And kind of notice what they're saying. You know, America used to be one nation under God, but now it's one nation under many gods. Isn't it great? See how tolerant we are? Which is a consistent theme throughout the West, right? But did you realize, foundationally speaking, there are actually only two religions? You say two? Just two. Here they are. Either we build our thinking from God's Word as the ultimate authority, we build our thinking from this foundation, or you reject this, and then man's Word becomes your ultimate authority in some way, shape, or form. Those are your two foundational religions, God's Word versus man's Word. And guys, what we've seen in America, and really just throughout the Western world, whether it's Australia, South Africa, we can be wrapped up in this in different places, we've seen a shift away from God's Word being the foundation to much of the cultural thinking, to now man's Word has become the ultimate authority. Man now determines truth. And guys, that's why truth is relative in our culture today, because each person decides their own truth. And that's why our cultures in the West look so much like Judges 21-25, right? When there was no king in Israel, every man did that which is right in his own eyes. And this is why our Western cultures feel free to redefine morality, to redefine marriage, to redefine the sanctity of life, to redefine things as basic and fundamental as gender. Here, National Geographic, a nine-year-old boy posing as a girl, and that's seen as good and right and to be celebrated in our Western world today. And of course, this concerns me for a whole lot of reasons, not the least of which is I'm raising two beautiful children in this Western culture, becoming ever more secular by the moment. And guys, how do we equip, number one, ourselves and then those under our care, our kids and our grandkids, our students, to know what they believe and why they believe it, to defend their faith in a culture like ours becoming ever more secular by the moment? ever more anti-Christian by the moment. Who'd ever thought we'd live in a day and age throughout the Western world where abortion is legalized up through the third trimester, up to the point of birth? We're told by Oprah, you guys know Oprah? I'm sorry, all right. We're told by Oprah, you should shout your abortion, be proud of your abortion. We're told by Planned Parenthood in the States, the major provider of abortions in America, that we need a Disney princess who's had an abortion to make it more relatable to the kids these days. We're told by the British Medical Association, don't call pregnant women expectant mothers. That might offend the transgender movement. Instead, call them pregnant people. We've seen Disney go gay. Their first ever gay kiss, one of their cartoons on their cable channel. In America, we're so confused, we have drag queens teaching our little kids in public libraries across the United States. We're being told by experts around the Western world that, you know, pedophilia, it's not that bad. It's a natural sexual orientation that needs to be rightly understood and directed. More and more we're hearing that rallying cry to support pedophilia. And then one last headline just to blow our minds, true headline, 61-year-old woman gives birth to own granddaughter for gay son using his husband's sister's egg. I'll give you a second just to comprehend all that, all right? Man, whew. I could show more headlines, and of course, you here in Australia have all your own headlines that are very similar to these, right? For the sake of time, can we just all agree the Western world has lost its mind? We can agree on that, right? The question is, why? Why are we becoming less Christian every day? Why isn't the church, why aren't Christians influencing the culture like we used to years ago? And guys, here's what we suggest, because in many cases today, it's the culture that's influenced the church. That so many Christians today have compromised God's Word with the secular thinking of our age in different areas, we've undermined biblical authority. As a result, we're seeing the collapse of the Christian worldview. That what is taking place has been an attack on the Word of God, yes, outside the church, of course, but also inside the church. And the results have been catastrophic. And the fact that God's Word is under attack, man, that's nothing new. God's Word's been under attack since Genesis chapter three. Right when the devil said to Eve, did God really say? And guys, notice what he was doing. Getting Eve to question God's Word, to doubt God's Word, so ultimately she would reject God's Word. And the method was so effective, you know what? He's used it ever since. Different forms, but same basic attack. And guys, one of the primary ways he is doing this today, throughout the world, especially the Western world, is through the teaching of things like evolution, ape men, Big Bang, especially millions of years, using those sorts of ideas to get multiple generations to watch this, question God's Word, doubt God's Word, ultimately to reject God's Word. Same fundamental attack, with a different stealth twist in our day and age. Notice what he's doing today. Today, he's attacking the Bible's history to undermine the Bible's authority to undermine the gospel that's based in that authority. Because bottom line is this, if we cannot believe the Bible's clear history, why on earth would you trust what it says about salvation? Right? If you can't trust Genesis 1-1, why would you believe in John 3-16? If you cannot believe the beginning of this book, why would you trust the middle or the end? And guys, for so many people today, especially younger generations, but not just them, this is their stumbling block to the gospel of Jesus Christ. And even though so many Christians have missed this attack today, where it's happening today, guys, the atheists, the secularists, the non-believers, they understand this is a great way to attack God's Word by attacking the history. Give you one example of this, show you this clip of a guy named Lawrence Krauss. He's America's version of Richard Dawkins. You guys know Richard Dawkins? He's our version of him, a very aggressive atheist and a professor of physics at Arizona State University. I want you to hear what he says. Hear the reaction of the crowd, his students. And as you watch this, bear in mind it's just a good example of where and how the attack is happening today. The amazing thing is that every atom in your body came from a star that exploded. And the atoms in your left hand probably came from a different star that exploded. It really is the most poetic thing I know about physics. You're all starters. You couldn't be here if stars hadn't exploded, because the elements, the carbon, nitrogen, oxygen, iron, all the things that matter, revolution, were created at the beginning of time. They created the nuclear furnaces of the stars, and the only way they could get into your body is if the stars were kind enough to explode. So forget Jesus. The stars died so that you could be here today. Forget Jesus, the stars died so you can be here today, he says very mockingly. And I'm not sure which is worse, honestly, the statements or the reaction of his students who are in wholehearted agreement. They're both horrible, aren't they? But notice his basic thinking. His thinking is this. Jesus is not your savior God. Why? He's not your creator God. You're not here because God made you like the Bible says. You're here because stars exploded. And this stardust over here is different from this stardust over here. But basically, the bottom line is this, the Bible, he says, is wrong about origins, but I trust it about salvation. Same God said later on in a different conference, I think in Australia, that change is always one generation away. So he says, if we can plant the seeds of doubt in our children, which sounds a whole lot like Genesis chapter three, religion will go away in a generation, or at least largely go away, and that's what I think, he says, we have an obligation to do. Thank goodness he's neutral. No such thing, right? We'll come back to that later on. But guys, he is right about one thing. Change is always one generation away. We see it in the Bible numerous times. We see it happening right before our very eyes. According to numerous studies, an average of around two-thirds of kids today who grow up in Christian homes throughout the West are walking away from the church by the time they reach college age, most of whom do not return. And these stats are from America, but they're consistent throughout the West. They're worse in the rest of the Western world. Two-thirds who grew up in church are walking away by the time they reach college age. And the kids we're talking about in these studies, they're kids who grew up actively involved in church. They're part of Awanas. They're in VBS. They're doing youth group. Two-thirds of those kids are walking away. So we wanted to figure out why, so we did some research on this, interviewed a thousand of these millennials who have grown up in church and since walked away to try to figure out what's going on and what to do. Let me show you two of the major findings, pretty eye-opening. First, when we asked them, if you don't believe, when, when did you first have doubts? And please notice, guys, it was not university, it was not college. Most of them, over 80%, had all these questions, all these doubts, starting in middle school and high school. First middle school is age 11. High school ends at age 18. So 10 or 11 years old, having all these questions, all these doubts, all these questions that were not getting answered, at least not at home and not at church. What sort of questions? Same questions I heard for 13 years teaching Bible history in a public school, for 20 years working with youth in the church, questions like, if the Bible's true, where did God come from? And what about evolution and the Amen? Hasn't science disproved the Bible? And by the way, who did Cain marry? If we all come from Adam and Eve, how do you explain all these different people groups all around the world? And what about the dinosaurs in the Bible? What about the rainmaker dating in the distant starlight? Aren't the rock lakes and fossils millions of years old? Why is there so much death and suffering in this world? Hasn't science disproved the Bible? Have you heard some of those questions? Maybe not that fast? We hear those, right? Because this is one of the primary places where the attack is happening today in our generation, for multiple generations now. And for so many today, they think you cannot trust the Bible in this modern scientific age. It's been bombed out by these sorts of ideas. And then here's the kicker. Guys, they're coming to us for answers. They're coming to their Christian parents and their Christian grandparents and their Christian friends and Christian leaders and saying, hey, you believe the Bible? The Bible's true? You believe in Jesus? Well, what about dinosaurs and the Bible? What about the abandoned? Hasn't evolution disproved the Bible? What about the carbon-14 dating? And who did King Mary? How do you reconcile real science with the Bible? Hasn't the Bible been proved wrong by those things? They're coming to us for answers. Okay, here's the thing. For so long now, most of us as Christians, and I did for a long time myself, what's been our response? You know, I don't know about the rock layers or the fossils or the ape men or evolution or dinosaurs, but don't worry about that stuff. Just trust in Jesus. Now, we need to be really clear. Do we want our kids to trust in Jesus? What's the answer? Yes, Christian church. All right, very good. Yes, we want our kids to trust in Jesus, but hear me on this, when we ignore their questions, we're ignoring their fundamental question. Here's what they're really asking, why? Why should I trust in your Jesus? Because the message of salvation through Christ, it comes from the Bible, it comes from this book. And hey, mom, dad, grandpa, grandma, pastor, if this part of the book's been disproved, why should I trust the rest? If you can't believe the beginning of this book, why trust the middle or the end? Either all of this book is authoritative, or none of it is. And our kids understand that, and they're asking these questions. That is their fundamental question. And so we haven't answered their questions. And what we found in the research is that so many are walking away in their hearts and in their minds before they ever leave physically for university. They're sitting in our pews, in our homes right now, and they are already gone. And that's why we entitled the book Already Gone, with the research in it. And we asked them in this research their reasons for leaving, and one of their main reasons for leaving was hypocrisy. And we said, well, define that for us. What do you mean by hypocrisy? And this is what the majority said on their own. This was not a multiple choice question. Something along these lines. They said, well, we grew up in church, and we were told in church this book, the Bible, is the very word of God. Trust all that it says, especially that part about Jesus. Put your faith and trust in Him. But then they said, we were told in some way, shape, or form by a Christian parent, grandparent, leader, that we as Christians, you know, we don't really necessarily believe this part of the book. And you can take evolution and eight men and Big Bang, millions of years. You can take man's ideas. You can reinterpret this first part. It's not that important. Just be sure you believe the rest of it, especially that part about Jesus. And guys, they see it as hypocrisy, and rightfully so. That's what it is. And because of that sort of compromise, we're seeing so many testimonies like this young man's throughout the West today. ...of how I became an atheist. I was born into a Christian family and indoctrinated growing up as a kid. That next year was freshman year of high school, and I started learning about evolution in my biology class. then that's where I realized I had never seriously questioned or thought about my religious beliefs. So as I learned about evolution and just started thinking philosophically about it, I realized that there couldn't be a God. So I became an atheist. And it's a pretty safe bet that most of us in this room know somebody with a similar testimony, quote-unquote, as that young man's. Hey guys, hear me on this. I'm sure that many of you, like myself, for a long time, we had the best of intentions when we said, I don't know about the rock layers or fossils or dinosaurs, but don't worry about trusting Jesus. We had really good intentions. But guys, even as Christians, we can have good intentions and still get horrific consequences. Hey, I know this is a heavy talk, especially early on Sunday morning, so let me give you a lighthearted example of when Christians had good intentions but got bad consequences. Let me show you some bad church bulletin titles. I'll really kind of bring this home. Like this one. The peacemaking meeting scheduled for today has been canceled due to conflict. Could have been worded better, right? Or this one. Don't let worry kill you off. Let the church help. Which, do you do that by committee? How's that work? I'm just wondering about that one. All right. This one at the service tonight, the sermon topic will be, what is hell? Come early, listen to our choir practice. Where Barbara remains in the hospital, she's having trouble sleeping, and requests tapes of Pastor Jack's sermons. Right? Good intentions, still bad consequences. And on a serious note, guys, when we compromise God's Word with the secular thinking of our day, even with the best of intentions, you get the worst of consequences. We also saw in the research that the way we are teaching the Bible is causing so many to question and doubt God's Word. You say, what do you mean? Well, so often today when we study the Bible, we say, hey, today we're going to study this great Bible story, especially for kids, but all the way through to adults. But what's the word story tend to mean in our modern language? Yeah, fairytale fiction, not true, right? So what we hear, especially our kids, oh, today, we're learning all these great fairytales, like Noah's Ark, and Adam and Eve, and Little Red Riding Hood, and Tortoise and the Hare, and Jonah and the Fish. Maybe moral truths, but not real history, not really connected to reality. And then we show them pictures like this of Noah's Ark, as an overloaded bathtub, right? Giraffe sticking out the top somehow. Everybody's happy in these pictures, although the whole world is being destroyed. And I know the picture's meant to be cute for kids, I understand that, but kids are very impressionable. You show a kid a picture like this, does that tell that kid Noah's Ark and Flood, real event or fairy tale? Fairytale and we're reinforcing a secular idea whether we mean to or not and for so many people especially younger generations But not just them again. They have all these real questions about real history They're looking for answers and they're coming to us and for the most part we are not giving them any We've not equipped ourselves or the coming generations to do apologetics to defend the faith. What do we do? Well, we teach stories So where do they go to get the answers to these real questions? Well, they go to their secular sources. They go to their secular textbooks, to their secular teachers. They go to Uncle Google, right? They go to YouTube. They go to Wikipedia. They go to social media platforms. And at those places, they get apologetics. It's just secular apologetics. They'd learn from all those places all the reasons the Bible's history must not be true and cannot be trusted. And what are they getting at church? They're getting stories. And guys, that history in Genesis, It's not a fairy tale. It is real history, and it is really important. And we summarize that history at the ministry with the seven C's. And the first four, creation, corruption, catastrophe, confusion, that's really Genesis 1-11. That's the geological, biological, anthropological, astronomical history that lays the foundation for the last three C's, which is Christ, cross, and consummation, the gospel. And these seven C's, they're married, and they cannot be divorced. A few examples. Just as it was a perfect creation in the beginning, no death, no suffering, no bloodshed, no disease, one day when Christ returns, it will be perfect again. Anybody looking forward to that? Absolutely, right? And then the corruption, because a real man in real history, our real representative head, he really did sin. And we all really do descend from that man. Therefore, we are all sinners by nature and by choice. And we all need saving through the last Adam, Jesus Christ, God became flesh and lived a perfect life, died on the cross in our place, rose from the grave, defeating death. Put your faith in him alone. You'll be saved. And then the flood of Noah's day a global judgment on man's sin with one way to be saved to the door of the ark That's a picture of Jesus Christ because there's another global judgment coming. The next time is by fire And there's only one way to be saved. Jesus says I am the door if by me any man enter in he shall be saved john 14 6 He said i'm the way the truth and the life No man, no woman, no child, no one gets to the Father but by me. And then the confusion in the Tower of Babel, oh man, such a relevant issue in our day and age. This history, this historical event, it reminds us that all people who've ever lived can trace their family tree, not all people who've ever lived, but people today can trace their family tree back to Noah, his sons, and their wives. And before that, every person who has ever lived can trace their family tree back to two people, Adam and Eve. That means, biblically speaking, supported by real science. How many races are there? One, the human race. And by the way, this is why we're all sinners and we have a savior called the last Adam, Jesus Christ. You see that very quick connection to the gospel. But again, if that first part is not true, like the culture screams, like much of the church is agreeing, why should we trust the rest? And many would say, okay, Ron, we understand that, but come on, it's just Genesis. It can't be that important. And I will suggest to you that is what the devil wants you to believe. Because if you map this out theologically, every single, every single biblical doctrine is either directly or indirectly founded on the book of Genesis. A few examples. Where does the doctrine of marriage come from? Which book of the Bible? comes from Genesis, right? Where do we see the origin of sin and death? That's in Genesis. Why do we practice a seven-day week? That comes from Genesis. Why do we wear clothes? I noticed you are, and that's good, amen? Amen. That goes back to the book of Genesis. Why did Jesus die on the cross? Why is he called the last Adam? Why do we need a new heavens and a new earth? That all goes back to the book of Genesis, foundational doctrine, foundation to every single biblical doctrine. You take away that foundation, the structure collapses, like we see happening throughout the Western world today. I heard someone recently cleverly say that if God thought Genesis was so important, he should have put it closer to the beginning of the book. It's the first book of the Bible for a reason. It lays the foundation for all the rest. And let me just give you two quick examples of how biblical doctrines are being attacked today by attacking the book of Genesis, particularly Genesis 1 to 11. First one's pretty easy to see. Second one's a bit more subtle, but both are extremely important. The doctrine of marriage, I think we can agree, is under attack today. That's easy to see, right? And it's interesting. When Jesus was asked about marriage by the Pharisees, he did something radical. He quoted from the Bible. And he said to the Pharisees, have you not read? Translation, don't you guys read your Bibles? That he who made them at the when? Beginning. Made them what? And he's quoting Genesis 127, by the way. By the way, how do we know fundamentally, authoritatively, there are only two genders? That starts in the book of Genesis. And he said, quoting Genesis 224, for this reason, a man shall leave his father and mother, be joined to his wife, and the two shall become? One flesh. And he was showing that the doctrine of marriage is founded on the biology and the history of Genesis being true. You become one in marriage. You become one flesh. Why? It's based on the historical fact that the woman came from the man, like the Bible clearly describes in Genesis, reaffirmed throughout Scripture. The woman, praise God, did not come from the ape woman. Amen, fellas? A double amen, all right? She came from the man. And as Christians, guys, we can say confidently, lovingly, boldly, compassionately, that marriage is between one man, one woman, for life. Why? Because the God who made marriage, He made it between one man, one woman, for life. God made it, He defines what it is. And He alone defines it. And we find that in the book of But again, if that history isn't true, or God's Word is not the authority, then why not redefine marriage and make it whatever you want it to be, which is exactly what the world is doing today. But again, that was pretty easy to see. Next one's a bit more subtle, but just as important, and that is the doctrine of death and its relationship to the atoning work of Christ on the cross is also under assault. You say, how? Follow me on this. The Bible is clear that God made a perfect creation in the beginning, right? No death, no suffering, no bloodshed. It was perfection. And He warned Adam, the day you eat of the fruit, the day you disobey, you will surely And the Bible is clear from cover to cover that it was man's sin that brought death the enemy, death the intruder into God's perfect creation. Our sin wrecked this world. The wages of sin is death. And that sin affected everything. Romans 8, 22, for the whole of creation is aching, it's groaning in pain because of the sin of man. And it longs for the return of Christ when it will be returned back to its perfect state, which will happen when Christ returns. You guys will see the very first death of an animal after Adam sinned, where God kills an animal for a very first time. He sheds its blood, the first blood sacrifice, to make clothing for Adam and Eve to cover their sin and their shame. And of course, that's a picture of Jesus Christ, the Lamb of God, who later shed his blood to cover our sin and our shame. And most Christians will say, okay, Brian, we are with you on all of that. Where's the attack? Here it is. If we compromise the Word of God and try to squeeze the secular atheistic idea of millions of years into the Bible, it does not matter how you try, eventually you will put death before sin. And death before sin is theologically impossible. for a whole host of reasons, here are a couple. First, in Genesis 1.29-30, God told Adam and Eve they were to eat fruit, the animals were to eat plants. Originally, everything was vegetarian, which I know sounds weird to us today, because we all like eating meat pies in Australia, right? Or whatever. But it does make really good biblical sense because there was no death in this world until after Adam sinned, which means you cannot eat meat until after he sinned, right? Because when you eat meat, you're eating an animal that has died before sin. There's no death. Everything has to be vegetarian. It makes really good biblical sense. Not until after the flood, even, that God told Noah, hey, just as I gave you plants to eat, now you can eat everything. And this, by the way, is why you can eat a hot dog. because it is everything. You're welcome. All right. But why is this a problem? Well, here's why it's a problem. If we reject the clear biblical teaching and its implications, that God made a perfect creation, but then man sinned, and then there was a global flood that laid down most of the rock layers and fossils we see today. If you reject that, and you instead embrace the secular atheistic idea that the rock layers and fossils were laid down slowly over millions of years, watch this, before man ever existed, and thus before sin. In those rock layers supposedly laid down before man, before sin, we find a whole bunch of evidence of animals eating each other. But wait, the Bible says before man sinned in the perfect creation, all things were vegetarian. We find in that same fossil record lots of evidence of things like brain tumors, diseases like cancer and arthritis, but the Bible says that God looked down on day six before man sinned and called everything very good. Surely He would not call millions of years of death, suffering, bloodshed, cancer very good. If He did, He's not a very good God. And by the way, if this were true, if we think clearly on this, it would make God the author of death, part of His very good creation. We find Thorns in the fossil record supposedly millions of years old. The Bible is clear. Thorns came after the curse. They're a result of the curse. They're a symbol of the curse. And that's why Christ on the cross wore the crown of thorns. He bore the curse on our behalf. And then most important of all, if we try to squeeze millions of years into the Bible, I have whole books on this issue, but it doesn't matter how you try, Day Age Theory, Gap Theory, Progressive Creation, Theistic Evolution Framework, Hypothesis, Cosmic Temple, there are many others, but they all put death before sin. And please watch this logically, theologically. If there's death before sin, then death is not the consequence or the payment for sin. It's just always been around, part of God's very good creation. And if death is not the payment for sin, like the Bible does teach, then Jesus's death cannot and does not pay our sin debt. And we just destroyed the foundation for the gospel through the atoning work of Christ on the cross, whether we meant to or not. And at best, this event would be unnecessary. I think we all can agree that is unbiblical in the highest degree. And let me let you in on just a little secret, okay? This is why we care so much. As a ministry, we are not passionate about winning a debate about the age of the earth or rock layers or dinosaurs. We are passionate about defending biblical authority and the gospel that rests in that authority. That's what's at stake. That's what's under attack. Ultimately, that's why it matters so much. You see, when you really think about this carefully, the good news, the gospel of Jesus Christ, it does not begin in the book of Matthew. The gospel begins in the book of Genesis. It truly does. And some would say, okay, Brian, we get that, but wait. Are you saying that you guys at Answers and Genesis teach that someone has to believe in a 6,000-year-old earth and a global flood and a literal atom to be saved? Is that what you guys teach? Not at all. What does the Bible say about salvation? John 3, 16. For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him and in a young earth and a global flood will be saved. Your Bible should not say that. If your Bible says that, throw that Bible away. That's some second heresies or third opinions. That's not in the Word of God. No, we are saved by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone, plus nothing. So this is not a direct salvation issue, but it is an indirect salvation issue. Because where does the message of salvation come from? Again, it comes from this book. If we cannot believe the beginning of this book, why trust the middle or the end? Bottom line, we don't have the option of treating God's Word like a buffet. I'll take some of, you know, John 3, 16, Jeremiah 29, 11, Philippians 4, 13, all have context in those cases, by the way, but not Genesis 1, 1 or Genesis chapter 3 or whatever. Don't have that option. Either all of this is authoritative and true or none of it is. And that's why, guys, it is so imperative that we as Christians are obedient to God's command to give an answer for our faith where the attack is happening today. And I think so many Christians aren't doing this today because we have bought numerous secular lies. One of those is this, that you can't use the Bible to do science because it's not a science textbook. Our response is, you're right. The Bible's not a science textbook. Praise God. Those change every year. But where the Bible touches on science, we can trust it because it's God's Word and He gets everything right. And what the Bible does do for us, it gives us the big picture of history to rightly understand things like biology, geology, anthropology, astronomy. It gives us the right understanding of the past that we apply to the evidence in the present. And that's really important because we all live in the present, right? Right? Raise your hand if you're with me in the present. Quick check. Let me ask you a question. Be careful with this question, but it's really important. When do fossils exist? Past or present? Very good. They exist in the present. If they didn't, we would not have them. Right? You've got to recognize when you find a bone in the dirt in the present, it does not come with a label on it saying, hey, I'm 65 million years old, made in China or whatever. All right? Don't see that. And guys, here's my point, it is simple but really profound in this discussion, that is this. Ultimately, all the evidence, any scientist, secular scientists, non-believing scientists, or biblical scientists, they've got all the same evidence in the present. The same rock layers observed in the present. The same fossils in the present. The same radioisotopes in the present. The same distant starlight in the present. The same DNA in the present. But they interpret those things differently in the present and make different guesses about where they think those things came from, their origin, and thus their age, based on their different starting assumptions about the unseen past, based on their different worldviews. And here's the key. If you start with the wrong assumptions, you'll most likely get the wrong conclusions. And this is why some really brilliant secular scientists can be so wrong about certain things like the age of the earth, rock layers, dinosaurs, etc. Wrong assumptions, wrong conclusions. I am reminded of the story of an elderly gentleman who was sure his wife was going deaf. So one night he stuck up behind her about 10 feet away and he whispered, can you hear me honey? Nothing. He got a few feet closer. Can you hear me, honey? Nothing. He got right behind her. Can you hear me, honey? To which she responded, for the third time, yes. Some of y'all will get that later on, all right? wasn't her problem, right? Wrong assumptions, wrong conclusions. That is so pivotal in this issue. And guys, everyone has assumptions. Everyone's got a worldview. It's impossible not to. The Bible says neutrality is not even possible. Why? Because foundationally, either you trust in God's word or in man's word. You got to choose one of those two foundations. The Bible puts it like this. Either you walk in light or you walk in darkness. darkness. Jesus said it this way, either you are with me or you are against me. Either you gather with me or you scatter. There is no such thing as neutrality. It does not biblically exist. And recognizing that truth, we as Christians should lovingly, boldly stand on the authority of God's Word from the very first verse. And here's the amazing thing. When you do, you've got answers. And they're not that hard. You do not need a Ph.D. to defend your faith. That's a good thing. If you've got one, great. Use it for God's glory. But you don't need it to defend your faith. What you do need is to trust the Bible from the very beginning. say no God's word, have a biblical worldview, you can answer these questions. They're not that hard. Questions that scare Christians half to death really aren't that hard. Just a couple quick examples. How did Noah get all those animals onto the ark? Right? We get that question all the time. Skeptics use it as a scoff at the Bible. Well, guys, the answer's pretty easy if you just read your Bibles. Read it in context. First, the Bible's clear. Noah's ark was huge. Over 500 feet long, 85 feet wide, and 50 feet tall with three different levels. I think that's 150 meters long, 25 meters wide, 15 meters tall, if I remember that correctly. Dave's nodding yes. Thank you, David. So it's a huge vessel with three levels, over 100,000 square feet if you get what that is, almost 10,000 square meters I think, something close to that roughly, but it's a huge vessel. This was not Noah's Ark. If you see a picture like this in one of your kids' books, blow it up. And the Bible is clear, Noah took two of each kind onto the ark. He didn't take two of each species, two of each kind. And the word kind in the Bible, for the most part, it's equal to about the family level of modern day classification. So according to the Bible, Noah did not take 400 pairs of dogs on the ark. He most likely never saw a chihuahua or poodle in his life. He was a blessed man. He just took two of the dog kind, two of the elephant kind, two too many of the cat kind, but two of the basic kinds of animals. Just getting on the arc, all right? And he would not need that many kinds, roughly 1,400 total kinds. In a worst-case scenario, roughly 6,700 individual animals needed on that huge vessel, and they would fit with no problem whatsoever. And then we should be connecting the flood to geology. If there was a global flood, as described in the Bible, we'd expect to find billions of dead things buried in rock layers laid under water all over the earth. Guess what we find? Billions of dead things buried in rock layers laid in my water all over the earth and the features of these rock layers and fossils Screams a rapid and recent deposition I've gone down through the Grand Canyon down the Colorado River two different times now and the features just scream a rapid recent deposition not long slow natural processes over millions of years and someone said but wait I thought it took a long time to make a rock layer. Not at all. Water, dirt, minerals, right conditions. You can make rock layers really quickly. A few examples of this in nature. Here's a ship's bell encased by rock. Here's a clock in a rock. There's a spark plug in a rock. Of course, those are not millions of years old. Or, back in 1980, Mount St. Helens erupted back in the States. From that minor eruption by historical standards, rock layers formed. Hundreds of rock layers, big ones and little ones, in literally hours. We just watched it happen right in front of our eyes, no time flat. It formed canyons like this one, nicknamed the mini Grand Canyon because it's 140th the size of the Grand Canyon, with very similar features to the Grand Canyon. And it formed this canyon in nine hours. We just watched it happen. Great observable, testable, repeatable evidence. It does not take a long time to make those sort of structures. But what you do need is a catastrophe. And if you want bigger rock layers and bigger canyons, what you'd actually need is a bigger catastrophe like a global flood described in God's Word. Some say, what about fossils? I thought they took a long time to form. Actually, no. Typically, fossils are evidence of a rapid process. You have to bury something deeply and quickly to protect it from scavengers and decomposition. A few examples of this rapid process, here's a petrified ham. A ham that turned to stone in less than 60 years after being buried from a volcanic eruption. We don't know what to do with it, but there it is, a petrified ham, all right? Here's a fish fossilized in the act of eating another fish. This was pretty much instantaneous. We see this all the time, by the way, but this poor guy did not get to finish his last meal, all right? And that's why I call this fossil the Last Supper. is an ichthyosaur fossilized in the act of giving birth, which does not take millions of years. Recently, in a lab, scientists made fossils in less than 24 hours in a laboratory. How? Heat, pressure, water. You can make these things really, really quickly with minerals. It doesn't take that long. And the fossils made in the lab look pretty much identical to fossils found out in nature. It does not take a long time, just the right conditions, like during and after a flood. Or speaking of recent deposition and recent fossil formation, we are now finding, again, I do a whole talk on this, but we're now finding again and again and again and again from so many specimens, we're finding soft tissue from dinosaurs still intact in their bones. You say, what do you mean by soft? It's still stretchy, it's still pliable. Inside that tissue, quite often, like here, there are blood vessels and red blood cells still intact. And this has been authenticated so many times now, it's ridiculous, even by secular scientists. And guys, these organic remnants, they're made of mostly water, and they should not last hundreds of years after the creature's death. Maybe thousands in very special conditions, like after a flood. No way millions. Phenomenal confirmation of the biblical timescale. And then some will say, but wait, I've been told my entire life carbon-14 dating proves the Earth is millions of years old. Actually, ironically, carbon-14 is one of the best evidences for a young Earth. You say, really, how? Well, that's a different talk for a different time. Check out the website later on if you would like. But here's my point for this morning. If you'll put on biblical glasses, trust the Bible from the beginning. We have answers. And guys, those answers will confirm the Bible again and again and again. Real biology, real anthropology, real astronomy, real geology confirms the Bible all the time. There's a question you end up asking, so many do. Wow, okay, if the evidence is so clear, and it seems to be, then how come today so many smart people miss such clear evidence? The Bible tells us the answer. Ultimately, Romans chapter one, a suppression of truth, because ultimately we must recognize this is not a head issue. It's a heart issue. That then becomes a worldview issue. This is not an intellect issue. It's a battle over the will. It's a heart issue. You see, you got two options in this life. Either you submit to God's word as the ultimate authority. You build your thinking from there. That means he's God and you're not. He's the authority and you're not. Or you reject this and then man's word, really your own thinking, becomes your ultimate authority. And now, watch this, you have become as God. A fight as old as Genesis chapter 3. This is not a head issue, it is a heart issue that becomes a worldview issue. And bottom line, summarizing all this up, what we have seen in the Western world throughout the entire Western world has been a foundational shift away from God's Word as the authority. Now, man's Word has become the authority. And now, guys, we have multiple generations, yes, outside the church, but even inside the church because of the compromise on God's Word by so many Christians who no longer build their thinking on God's Word as the ultimate authority. And we're seeing the collapse of the Christian worldview as a result. So bottom line, what do we do about it? Good question, glad you asked. I'll sum up with two little castle diagrams I think are very accurate for what's happening today in the world, especially the Western world. Castle on the right represents Christianity built on the authority of God's word, and the doctrines that come out of that foundation, and of course the gospel itself. Castle on the left represents humanism, the idea that man can determine truth and the moral relativism that comes from that worldview. Notice a couple things from this picture that I think are very accurate that we're seeing today. Number one, notice that the humanists, The secularists, the non-believers, driven by the enemy, whether they recognize it or not, are being very clever today. Don't focus your attack on the virgin birth or the deity of Christ or those sorts of issues. No, no, no. Focus the attack on the foundation. Focus the attack on that foundational history in the book of Genesis. Because they understand that once that foundation goes, what happens to the structure? that collapses, like we see happening right before our very eyes. And then notice the Christians. You'll recognize some of these people. Some have no idea what's going on. Some are asleep. Some are fighting each other over typical trivial issues like, you know, what color should the carpet be in the church? How should you brew your coffee, dark or light? The answer is obvious, dark. All right. And then, and sadly, there are many Christians today who are like this guy, who are looking at that foundational history in the book of Genesis. You know, we don't really need that. And by the way, I was here for a while myself, just to be very clear and transparent on this. We don't need that history in Genesis. It doesn't really matter. Maybe God used evolution to be, it's just trust in Jesus. And they're destroying their own foundation, whether they recognize it or not. And by the way, that guy in the picture has on a suit and a tie, and there's a reason for that. because he truly, sadly, represents the majority of our pastors, Christian scholars, Christian seminary professors, Bible college professors who have compromised on this issue to one degree or another, and they're raising up the next generation of leadership in the church to be compromised as well. That raises up compromised Christians in the church. It's a huge problem. And then, I think most of us can really resonate with this person right here. We look out to the culture that we live in, and we see all these social ills. Of course, the abortion issue's been hot on the presses for you guys just recently. And then all these other issues. And we think to ourselves, we gotta fight against those things. And we should, we must, in truth and in love. We do God's will, God's way. But guys, we need to recognize, as we fight against those things, they are not the problem. They're the symptoms. They're the symptoms of a loss of biblical authority in our cultures today. And for all the time and money we as God's people have spent fighting these symptoms, these issues, is it working? And the answer is no, right? We're becoming less Christian every day despite all of our efforts. Why isn't it working? Well, because when all we do is deal with these issues and we ignore the foundational issue, actually, if we're doing that, all we're really trying to do is just change the culture. We're just trying to make it more Christianized. but nowhere in the Bible does it say go into the world and change the culture. The Bible says go into the world and preach the what? Preach the gospel and to make disciples that God would change hearts and minds, that God changes people from the inside out, that'll change their heart, that'll change their thinking, that'll change their worldview. You see, we're losing this quote unquote culture war because we are fighting the symptoms and not the source. So what is the solution in a word? Stant. if we will stand on the authority of the Word of God and equip ourselves and our kids and our grandkids and our students to know what we believe and why we believe it, to answer the skeptical questions of this age, show that God's Word is true from cover to cover, and then stand on that foundation to boldly proclaim the gospel of Jesus Christ. It is the gospel that changes hearts and lives. Because bottom line, the answer to our problems in our culture is the gospel. Amen? It always has been the answer. It always will be the answer. But guys, that gospel stands on the authority of the word of God, which begins in the book of Genesis. That's why this stuff matters so much, and that's why we're so passionate, and that's why we as Christians must be ready to give an answer for our faith where the attack is happening today. And really God's raised up answers in Genesis, I believe, for such a time as this to help the church and Christians do just that. So a huge part of what we do is equipping you to do this in the real world in a real way. Now this morning, Really, this was the why. This is why this matters, why we're so zealous, why we need these answers. And there are tons of great answers. I do so many talks on rock layers, and radiometric dating, and the age of the earth, and distant starlight, and dinosaurs, and what about evolution, and the ape man. I do talks on all those sorts of issues and so many more. There are great answers. Couldn't get to all that this morning. Would be here for millions of years if I did, all right? So, but there are great answers out there. First, I encourage you to check out the website. answersingenesis.org. It's totally free. It's really well done. There are literally thousands of free articles on the website from kid level to PhD level and everything in between to answer pretty much any question you might have regarding origins and moral issues in our day and age from a biblical authority perspective. Really well done. And there are hundreds of free videos on the website as well dealing with all those issues.