Welcome to the Creation Museum here in our Cincinnati area. We're actually in the theater of the museum, which is located in Petersburg, Kentucky. In a moment, Ken Ham, the president of Answers in Genesis and this Creation Museum, will give his second State of the Nation address. A little bit about Ken first. Ken, as you'll be able to tell in a few seconds, is from Australia originally, but he's been in America now 23 years, is a U.S. citizen as well as an Australian citizen. And since moving here 23 years ago, he's developed a deep appreciation for the heritage of this country. Ken is the author of many books, including one he co-authored with behavioral researcher Britt Beamer called Already Gone, which looks into the massive exodus of young people from our church and what to do about it. We'd like to thank our friends at Cornerstone Television for broadcasting this live on their TV network nationwide, and also CDR Radio. There are many other outlets that are tape delaying this, and if you go to our website of answersingenesis.org, you'll find out when you might be able to watch this webcast or hear it on another outlet. Well, Ken Ham is the president of AIG and this creation museum. And we welcome Ken here and we look forward to what he'll have to say for the next hour. Please welcome Ken Ham. Well, good evening. It's great to be here and to be able to bring this special presentation to you. In 2006, now President Obama, he made this statement at a conference. 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. President Obama, in his book The Audacity of Hope, which was published before he was elected, he actually made a similar sort of statement. He said, whatever we once were, we are no longer just a Christian nation, we're also a Jewish nation, a Muslim nation, a Buddhist nation, a Hindu nation, and a nation of non-believers. And then, during his inauguration address, he said this. We are a nation of Christians and Muslims, Jews and Hindus, and non-believers. We are shaped by every language and culture. It's interesting to note that the American Humanist Association, in the special inauguration issue of the Washington Post, congratulated President Obama, and the quote that they highlighted from President Obama was this particular one about him saying, well, we are no longer just a Christian nation, we're also a Jewish nation, a Buddhist nation, a Hindu nation, and so on. It was a quote from his book, The Audacity of Hope. It was interesting to note also that in 2009, as President, when he was in Turkey, here's what he said to the Turkish President. I've said before that one of the great strengths of the United States is, although as I mentioned, we have a very large Christian population, we do not consider ourselves a Christian nation or a Jewish nation or a Muslim nation. We consider ourselves a nation of citizens who are bound by ideals and a set of values. There's no doubt that one of the mantras of the President of the United States has been that quote, whatever we once were, we are no longer just a Christian nation, we're also a Buddhist nation, Hindu nation, and so it goes on. In other words, what he's saying is something has changed, something is different about America, which is why I've given a subtitle to this presentation, State of the Nation, and the subtitle is Reminders Removed. You know, in the Bible, in Corinthians, for instance, we read about a reminder that God gave to us. In fact, he's given us a number of different reminders in his word. In Corinthians, we read about the reminder of the bread and then the cup so that we would not forget the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. In Joshua, we read about another reminder. When the Israelites crossed the Jordan River and they were told to take up 12 stones, And what do these stones mean? Well, they were to be a sign, to be a memorial so that the next generation would not forget the great miracle that God did. So when those children ask, what do these stones mean, your children will be told that they will not forget. And there's one other aspect of this too, assign a memorial so that all the peoples of the earth may know the hand of the Lord, to be a witness to the whole earth about the true God. But do you know what we find? Sadly the next generation was not reminded as it should have been and we read that in one generation they followed other gods, they lost it in one generation. And people, we are losing it in America today, just as the Israelites did. And I believe for many of the same reasons, as we'll see. The United States of America, what is the state of this nation? You know, most of the founding fathers of this nation were Christians. and they built the worldview of this nation. They built this nation on the authority of the Word of God. That was the foundation, God's Word. And because of that, there have been reminders in this culture concerning God's Word, concerning the God of creation, concerning the witness of these founding fathers. Here I have 12 stones representing some of those reminders. The fact that you would see Bible verses on buildings in Washington DC, for instance, prayer, creation. in the public education system. Marriage was considered to be one man for one woman. Respectfully elderly, you'd never think of such a thing as euthanasia. The sanctity of life, you would never think of such a thing as abortion. And you would never think of such a thing as gay marriage and so on. These were reminders of what this nation was built upon. Built upon the absolute authority of the Word of God. And they were a sign. They were a memorial. so that coming generations would know and be reminded of the God of creation, the God that the founding fathers believed in, or the majority of them at least anyway, and his word that is the foundation for what this nation was to become. Well, you know, it's interesting, as well as that, I believe that these reminders were also a witness so that the whole earth may know who this great God is, the God of creation, the God of the Bible. In fact, America has sent out missionaries all around the world. America has been a great witness around the world. Christian radio programs, Christian television, all sorts of Christian curricula. It's been a tremendous witness in the world. But, you know, something has changed. Whatever we once were, something has changed. In April last year, 2009, the front cover of Newsweek declared the decline and fall of Christian America. And then there's an article inside that said the end of Christian America and in that article this statement was made. The present in this sense is less about the death of God and more about the birth of many gods. This nation has changed. It's no longer one nation under God. This nation now believes in many gods. It's interesting to note that just a few hours before this presentation a magazine arrived in our library. It's called Free Inquiry. It's a magazine of the Council for Secular Humanism. And I was just fascinated because it's arrived in our library today, on the very day that I'm giving this particular presentation on the state of the nation. And when you look at the front cover, it says Fading Faith. New trend shows secularism is booming. And the picture there, as you can see, is a church steeple that's collapsing. And then inside they have a picture of a church in England showing how it was converted to a residence. And in the book Already Gone we have pictures of lots of churches from England that have been converted into nightclubs or antique stores, shopping centers, whatever. And then they make this statement, and I want you to look at this, because this arrived today. A historic transition is occurring, a historic transition in this nation. Barely notice, slowly, quietly, imperceptibly, religion is shriveling in America as it already has in Europe, Canada, Australia, Japan. See, it's not just America. across the developed world. Increasingly, supernatural faith belongs to the third world. The first world is entering the long-predicted secular age when science and knowledge dominate." And by the way, whether you use the word science, I'm going to talk about that a little later on, but the word science, when a lot of these people use that word, they're not really talking about observational science that built the technology to make a broadcast like this happen. They're really talking about evolution, millions of years. They're talking about their beliefs concerning the past, concerning origins. But a historic transition is occurring. What is wrong with this nation? What has happened? What's going on? Well, the first point I want to make is this. Reminders have been and are progressively being removed. Let's go through them very quickly here, just some of them. For instance, when President Obama said, whatever we once were, so something has changed. What's changed? The reminders are being removed. In 1982, 1962, the Supreme Court ruled unconstitutional school prayer. And then in 1963, the Supreme Court case, Bible reading in public schools was ruled unconstitutional. In 1973, Roe versus Wade, a very famous one, where abortion was now legalized. And then 1985, the United States Supreme Court ruled that nativity scenes on public lands violate separation of church and state. We're seeing increasing legislation for gay marriage across this nation as we saw in Washington D.C. recently. We have a President of the United States that made this comment. He said, I am proud to be the first President to appoint openly lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender candidates to Senate-confirmed positions in the first hundred days of administration. He also proclaimed June 2009 as Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Pride Month. And he said, I've called on Congress to repeal the so-called Defense of Marriage Act. And then at a human rights campaign dinner, President Obama said, my expectation is that when you look back on these years, you will see a time in which we as a nation finally recognise relationships between two men and two women are just as real and admirable as relationships between a man and a woman. Whatever we once were, we are no longer. We have changed. And when the President of the United States is making these sorts of statements, we know that this nation has changed and this nation is in trouble. It's also interesting to note that during his State of the Union address this year he said, I will work with Congress and our military to finally repeal the law that denies gay Americans a right to serve the country. On the White House website we read that President Obama's federal budget defunded all abstinence-based education and then When we think of Senator Obama before he was president, back when he and Senator Biden were putting together a blueprint for change, he said he was going to make preserving a woman's right to choose under Roe v. Wade a priority, which is why we shouldn't be surprised on January 22nd 2010, President Obama made this statement. Today we recognize the 37th anniversary of the Supreme Court decision in Roe v. Wade which affirms every woman's fundamental constitutional right to choose whether to have an abortion. I have and continue to support these constitutional rights. It's also interesting to note we see news items like this one. Amidst all of the American flags and presidential seals, there was something missing when President Barack Obama gave an economic speech at Georgetown University. The White House asked Georgetown to cover a monogram symbolizing Jesus' name. This nation has certainly changed. Whatever we once were, we are no longer. And you know what's happening in this nation? What's happening is that those reminders are being removed. Those stones, if you like, are being removed. They're being removed from this nation. So, the reminders are being removed. And why is that? What has happened that has really caused this? Such a fundamental change from a nation built on the authority of God's Word to a nation now where we see those reminders of being built on God's Word are basically being removed before our very eyes. Well, what's happened is the starting point has changed. What do I mean by that? You know, before we even discuss that, I want to just look at the word science here for a moment. You'll see how all this plays into what I want to talk to here, talk about science. The word science, when you look it up in a dictionary, the word science means knowing, knowledge, state of knowing. You see, I say that for this reason, because a lot of people today, when they're talking about science and they're talking about Christianity, Really, most of them aren't talking about observational science. See, observational science means knowledge gained by observation and repeatable tests that build out technology, that put man on the moon, built space shuttles. You can be a creationist, you can be an evolutionist and all have the same observational science. That's why you can have both creationists and evolutionists actually working together on the Hubble telescope and there's no problem. But you see, historical science is knowledge concerning the past when we weren't there. Origin science, if you like, your beliefs about the past, where did it all come from? And a lot of times you'll find today, and this is why I wanted to define this up front, when you hear even theologians, scientists, others using the word science, you have to say to yourself, what do they really mean by that word? In a lot of these instances, they actually are not talking about observational science. They're talking about beliefs concerning the past. They're talking about issues of origins. It's interesting. In the State of the Union Address, President Obama talked about China and Germany and he said they're putting more emphasis on math and science and we here need reform that will raise student achievement and inspire students to excel in math and science and so on. You know another person that's also been saying many of those same things? It's actually the President of Princeton. The President of Princeton, Shirley Tillman, she's given a number of presentations recently and it's interesting, I've read through them And they're all talking about, you know, the importance of science and raising the standards of science. For instance, she talks about China, as the President of the United States did, and how they've dramatically increased intellectual and industrial capital in science. And she goes on to say how we need to raise our standards of science in America. But interestingly enough, in the various talks that she's given, in all the ones that I read, she also then brings in the whole issue of creation versus evolution in Christianity. For instance, she said, we must for starters avoid the suggestion that science and faith are mutually exclusive. By the way, what does she mean by science there? I suggest to you she's really talking about evolution of millions of years. She's not talking about observational science. And she goes on and says, Christian fundamentalists in the United States have launched a well-publicized assault on the theory of evolution. Biblical creationists contend the world was created in accordance with the book of Genesis. At least she admits the book of Genesis says six days, so that's something. And she also says, it's virtually impossible to conduct biological research without the power of Darwin's theory. Here's the interesting thing that I see. I see these people like the President of Princeton out there saying, we're going to raise the standards of science and so on, but we've got to teach evolution. To do that, we've got to teach evolution. We've got to get rid of these people who believe in six days and we can't have that. To raise the standards of science, we've got to believe in evolution. Before he was elected, President Obama said this. He said, I also believe our schools are there to teach worldly knowledge and science. I believe in evolution, and I think it's a mistake to try to cloud the teaching of science with theories that, frankly, don't hold up to scientific inquiry. Very interesting that you have people like the President of Princeton and President Obama talking about raising the standards of science, and yet whenever they talk about teaching science, you've got to teach evolution. Very interesting. What's happened in our education system then? Well, you know, at our offices here at Answers in Genesis, we have collected the major biology and earth science textbooks used in the public schools in America. And I just want to give you a little sample here of what they say about science. For instance, this one here says, science only explains the natural world. Science explains events in the natural world. It only deals with the natural world. This one says, science can only explain things using natural causes. Supernatural explanations of natural events are simply outside the bounds of science. By the way, do you realize what they're saying to the students in this nation? They're saying, when you look at the universe, life, mankind, all of reality, the supernatural has nothing to do with it. Everything is explained by natural processes. Do you realize that's the religion of atheism or the religion of naturalism? They've actually thrown out Christianity and replaced it with a different religion. this Earth Science textbook. The goal of science is to explain natural phenomena, has to be natural events. You can only consider natural forces. The National Academy of Sciences, which has a great influence on the public education system, sent out this booklet and said in science explanations must be based on naturally occurring phenomena. You can't have the supernatural. Do you realise what they're doing? They're redefining science. and they've redefined science as having to do only with naturalism and the supernatural can't be involved. So they're eliminating the Bible. They're eliminating Christianity and replacing it with a different religion. In fact, the National Center for Science Education, which is nothing more than an anti-creationist think tank headed by an atheist, Eugenie Scott, and made this statement, those non-empirical, talking about supernatural ways, must not, we must not allow them to be taught to our children as some twisted definition of science. See, what we need to understand is our education system, as the nation, was once built upon the foundation of the authority of the Word of God. And that was the foundation for all of our thinking. But what's happened in our education system, it's happening across the nation in all sorts of ways. The Bible is being thrown out, replaced with what? Just some neutral position? No. Replaced with man's ideas that everything has to be explained by natural processes. And when you think about the fact that 90% of children from church homes go to public schools, we have to ask ourselves a question. The question is, how come the church hasn't been a force in dealing with this? You know, one of the problems is many in the church have been duped into this idea of the so-called separation of church and state. And we've heard this over and over again. The Constitution, the First Amendment, teaches the separation of church and state. And the separation of church and state means you can't have religion in the public sector. You can't have religion in the public schools, for instance. because you've got to have neutrality there. So, you have to get rid of the Bible, you've got to get rid of prayer, you've got to get rid of creation. By the way, remember, whatever we once were, once the Bible was in the public schools, once creation was in the public schools, prayer was in public schools. Why? Because this nation had the foundation of the authority of God's Word. But now we're being told, oh no, separation of church and state. No, that means public education has to be neutral. You can't have religion. That means you can't impose a religion on public education. When they threw out the Bible, what did they replace it with? We're now defining science in terms of everything has to be explained by natural processes. The supernatural is not involved. And you know, I've heard this statement too. Oh, you can believe in God if you want. But God is in the religion class or God is in the church, but you can't have God in the science classroom. By the way, who is the God then of the religion class? Who is the God in church then? Because in the science classes they're being told the whole of life, including mankind, is a result of natural processes, the supernatural is not involved. So, you know what they've just done? Eliminate the God of the Bible because the God they're telling you you can have in the religion class can't be the God of the Bible because the God of the Bible is a creator. who brought everything into existence. They're eliminating Christianity. And see, from a biblical perspective, we must understand something. The Bible says, if you're not with me, you're against me. If you don't gather, you scatter. You walk in light or you walk in darkness. There is no neutral position. You're either for or against. If the education system is not for Christ, it is what? Exactly, it's about time we woke up to that in this nation. It's not neutral when they threw the Bible out. They didn't throw religion out, they threw Christianity out and replaced it with a different religion, a religion centred upon man. That man defines that everything is explained by natural processes. And I want to challenge us concerning this. What does the separation of church and state really mean? Well, what it really means then is we get rid of the Bible. That's what it really means in people's minds today, in the secularist minds, and we replace it with man's word. It's man who determines truth, man by himself. We get rid of that revelation from God and replace it with man's word. But we need to understand something. There is really no such thing as separation of church and state. I mean, when you read the First Amendment, you don't read separation of church and state. What do we read? This is what the Founding Fathers wanted. Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion or prohibiting the free exercise thereof. Actually, what they wanted was freedom of religion. Now, certainly, the morality and worldview of this nation was founded upon the Bible, but they wanted freedom of religion. That's really why they came to America. because of freedom of religion. And the way people are interpreting it today is freedom from religion, but you can't have freedom from religion because everyone has a religion. In fact, there are only two religions ultimately. You start with God's Word or man's Word. And so what they really mean is freedom from Christianity. And that's what's happening across this nation. You see, as President Obama said, whatever we once were, We have changed. We have changed from a nation with an education system, a nation as a whole that's founded in God's Word, to now building our thinking upon man's Word. And you know, this is really summed up, I believe, really well. in regard to its consequences in a movie that was just released called Creation. It's actually a movie about evolution. It's a movie dramatising Darwin's life. And atheist Paul Bettany acts Darwin in this movie. And in one particular scene, a contemporary of Darwin comes to Darwin and he says this, listen carefully. Clearly the Almighty can no longer claim to have offered every species in under a week. You've killed God, sir. You have killed God. Actually, I think it's interesting that this movie is really admitting what evolution does is it kills God. And if you kill God, what does that do? You see, from the perspective of building our thinking on God's Word, there are absolutes because we have an absolute authority. Marriage is one man for one woman, the sanctity of life, abortion killing a human being and so on. But you kill God and what have you got left? It's man then who determines truth. And so why not do whatever is right in your own eyes? Marriage, gay marriage, whatever you want with marriage. Redefine it however you want. Abortion, get rid of spare cats, get rid of spare kids. You're just animals, what's the difference? And in fact, even in this movie, they admit to this in another scene when Paul Bettany, acting as Darwin, talking to his daughter, makes this statement. Now, listen to this carefully, because this really sums up what's happening in our education system. You imagine generations of kids, 90% of them are kids from church homes, go to public schools, and they're being taught a philosophy that really says this to them. Listen. Oh, I'm right. It changes everything. As long as the whole world stops believing that God has any sort of plan for us, nothing matters, not love, not trust, not faith, not honor. Only Brutus and I. So the whole world stops believing in God and then if there's no God, then there's no love, there's no trust, there's no faith, there's no honor, just brute survival. And that really is what's being taught to generations of kids in our public education system today. They've thrown God out, they've thrown the Bible out, everything's explained by natural processes, it's just brute survival. Fascinating to me that in Australia recently, the Weekend magazine, the Australian Weekend magazine, it's in a very big newspaper in Australia, Published an article The Weekend Australian magazine January 16 to 17 had an article entitled Children of the Evolution and this article also was reprinted in other places overseas as well. And they were talking there about, for instance, school violence and mentioned the Columbine shooters and how one of them had a t-shirt with natural selection and he was very interested in evolution and the Finland shooter that said he was going to be the natural selector. And here they make this statement. I think this is fascinating. We see this published in the secular world because, oh, we have been blasted by evolutionists for even suggesting there's a connection between people's worldview and morality and evolution. But look what they say here. The basics of evolution are much more accessible and are taught in high school, so it should not be surprising that Darwin seems to be emerging as the inspiration for the more dim-witted school-boy sociopath. The more sinister implications of the worldview that has come to be called Darwinism and the interpretation the teenage nihilists put on it are as much a part of Darwin's story as the theory of evolution. And people, they're right. As a man thinks in his heart, so is he. If you believe you're just an animal, just brute survival, no love, no trust, no honour, why not go and do whatever you want to do? In fact, it's summed up by a verse of scripture in the book of Judges. In those days there was no king to tell them what to do, no absolute authority, so everyone did what was right in his own eyes. You see, when you kill God and you replace the foundation of God's Word with man's Word, What happens when you take away that foundation of an absolute authority, you would see the absolutes built upon that, you would see that collapsing in our culture. You would see increasing moral relativism and you would see that permeating the culture. Isn't that what we see? We see it right across the culture. To me, it was really typified by a Christmas commercial I saw on television. The Gap Clothing Store put together a Christmas commercial and in the last three lines of that Christmas commercial they said this, You 86 the rules, you do what just feels right, I mean you do whatever you wanna ka, and to all a cheery night. Watch the commercial. See, in many ways, if you think about it, the words of that ad almost follow what President Obama said. Whatever we once were, we're no longer what we once were and now we're this and we're that and we're this and we're that. Allow all the different views and all the different gods and so on and then the philosophy of the age, you do whatever you want to. That's a TV ad. permeating people's thinking across this culture. You know, it's interesting that Free Inquiry magazine that arrived today said, a historic transition is occurring. And see, if that transition is occurring, that transition from the foundation of God's Word to man's Word, you know what you're going to see? You're going to see secular humanism more and more permeating the culture, and you're going to see the secular humanists becoming much more aggressive, because now there's a foundation for them to build upon. We have generations coming through an education system, their foundation is naturalism, man's Word, not God's Word. It enables the secular humanists, the atheists, to be much more aggressive in imposing their anti-God philosophy, and we're seeing it. For instance, there have been since 2007, there's been atheist advertising campaigns in many cities, many states across America, nearly 60 cities, 30 states. And here's just a sample of some of those sorts of campaigns. Billboards, for instance, like this one here, the Cleveland billboard, Don't Believe in God, You Are Not Alone, Chicago billboard. You are good without God and so on. Iowa bus, this one here, don't believe in God, you know, you are not alone. Washington DC bus, why believe in a God? Be good for goodness sake. And this one on a San Francisco bus, quoting the atheist Richard Dawkins, the God of the Old Testament is arguably the most unpleasant character in all fiction. And then this billboard here, it's on a San Francisco bus actually, quoting Katharine Hepburn, I'm an atheist and that's it. Well this one, an Iowa billboard, keep religion out of politics. By the way, what they really mean by that is keep Christianity out of politics. And this one here in a St. Louis billboard, imagine no religion. What they really mean is imagine no Christianity, imagine no Bible. And this one here, a Seattle billboard, yes Virginia, there is no God. This one, a Madison, Wisconsin billboard, praise Darwin. And that's what it's all about, praising man. In fact, worshipping the creature instead of the creator, as Romans 1 tells us. And people, as a result of this, you know what's happening more and more? Christianity in this nation is becoming outlawed more and more in various quarters and in fact Christians are now more than ever being openly mocked. I want to show you a short video clip by a professor, Professor Lawrence Krauss from Arizona State University. He's a man that's also opposed openly the Creation Museum. He was speaking at an atheist conference in 2009. And I want you to watch this video and listen very carefully to what he says and also realize these are the sorts of things that are being said in educational institutions across this nation, what's happening in this nation, what's confronting generations and the way in which Christianity is being openly mocked and our Lord Jesus Christ is being openly blasphemed in this nation. 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 than your right hand. It really is the most poetic thing I know about physics. You are all startups. You couldn't be here if stars hadn't exploded because the elements, the carbon, nitrogen, oxygen, iron, all the things that matter for evolution were created at the beginning of time. They created the nuclear furnaces of stars and the only way they can 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. By the way, you notice how they just resound in laughter. when he blasphemed there. People, wouldn't you like your students to be going to university, having a professor like that teaching them? By the way, if he was to say the same sort of thing about the Islamic religion, what would happen? It'd be headline news. There'd be major problems. But you can openly attack Christianity. That's what's happening in this nation because whatever we once were, we have changed. The foundation has changed. And what we see happening today is, sadly, we see that those reminders have been removed and they're being replaced with a different worldview. Moral relativism is burning across this country as that foundational change occurs. But my question is this, where's the church in all of this? And what's wrong with the church? I suggest there's a couple of things here. First of all, the church is not affecting the nation like it used to. I mean, Newsweek, Free Inquiry magazine, we're admitting something is happening. Look, our whole Western world, from a Christian perspective, is collapsing more and more. So, something is wrong and the Church is not touching the culture like it used to. The Church has to look at itself and say, what is wrong? Why aren't we touching the culture like we used to? I believe the first reason here is biblical authority has been undermined because of compromise. You know, we're told in Matthew 5 about being salt, but if salt's contaminated, it's no longer good for anything. I believe the salt has become contaminated in this year of history in a particular way, starting back in the late 1700s, early 1800s, when dearsome materialists popularized the idea of millions of years to try to justify not believing the Bible. You know what happened in England, for instance? There were many church leaders who adopted millions of years into the Bible and reinterpreted the days of creation. And by the way, that is right through the whole church in our Western world. In fact, even many of our conservative churches won't take a stand on the six days. And then along came Darwin popularizing his ideas of evolution. And many in the church said, we can believe in evolution. We'll say God did it. And then the Big Bang, we can believe in the Big Bang and we'll say God did it. And we see those influences today in the church. For instance, I just want to give you one particular example here to show you how they're influencing even our conservative churches. William Densky is a professor of philosophy at a seminary, Baptist Theological Seminary in Fort Worth, Texas. It's a seminary of the Southern Baptist denomination. And in his book he says this, a young earth seems to be required to maintain a traditional understanding of the four and yet a young earth clashes sharply with mainstream science. By the way, what does he mean by science? I suggest to you it's not observational science, it's interpretations in regard to the past, beliefs in regard to the past. Dating methods, in my view, provide strong evidence for rejecting the face value chronological reading of Genesis 4-11. You reject the face value reading of the Bible because of man's interpretation of things in regard to the past? This is what's wrong with the church. This is what has hit the church. And then he says this, Noah's flood, though presented as a global event, is probably best understood as historically rooted in a local event. So here we have a professor of philosophy at South Webster Baptist Theological Seminary now rejecting a global flood, saying you reject just reading the Bible as it's given to us there. You have to take man's ideas, add them into the Bible. People, this is what's happened in the church, particularly since the late 1700s. And as a result, we have all these different reinterpretations of the Bible, different interpretations of Genesis, theistic evolution, day age, local flow. We've heard of all those. And I'm going to say to you that this is what's undermined biblical authority. We're out there as a church saying, trust in Jesus, but the message of Jesus comes from this book. And yet we're saying this part of the book you can reinterpret according to man's ideas over here or you can't take man's ideas that man can't rise from the dead and reinterpret that. No, you have to take this as written, this bit you don't, when in actual fact the book of Genesis in the first 11 chapters is the foundational history for all of our doctrine, the gospel, the whole of the rest of the Bible. And when you reinterpret that, you do two things. You undermine the foundational history for all of our doctrine. But secondly, and this is the real issue, you undermine biblical authority itself by putting man in authority over the Word of God. Now, I've had people say to me, wait a minute, wait a minute. So, we've got different views of Genesis. In the church, there are different views of eschatology. There's different views of baptism, sprinkling, immersion, so on. There's different views of other issues. And we can have different views of Genesis. Oh, but it's not the same thing. You see, there are different views of eschatology like pre-mill, post-mill, arm-mill and so on, but except for a few extreme views, why do we have these different views? Because we're arguing from Scripture itself. We're trying to understand end times from Scripture itself. But when it comes to Genesis, why do we have different views of Genesis? It's because we're taking man's ideas from outside the Bible, adding them to the Bible, and then imposing those different positions, those different compromised positions on the Bible. In other words, we're starting outside of Scripture, adding to Scripture, reinterpreting it. And people, what's it done? You know, when we published the book Already Gone that Mark mentioned in the introduction, It was based upon research done by America's Research Group because other research has shown two-thirds of our young people are walking away from the church. And you know the number one reason the research found? Because of hypocrisy. And when research being delved into what do you mean by hypocrisy, it was being told by the church that you're to believe the Bible, but then being told that you don't have to believe these bits of the Bible over here, and particularly when it came to Genesis and the age of the earth and the issue of creation. And we're seeing all these problems in the church as a result. And now we see the church is getting to this sort of stage. For instance, many of you might have heard of Francis Collins, who was a head of the Human Genome Project, and he established a website. And here's their mission from their own website. He established the Biologos Foundation to address the escalating cultural war between science and faith in the United States. What does he mean by cultural war between science and faith? He's really talking about evolution and millions of years and the Bible's account of creation. And in fact, now the president of the Biologos Foundation and the vice president are two men who are professors at Nazarene universities, Christian universities. One is a professor at Point Loma Nazarene University. He's the president and the vice president has been a professor. He's been on the faculty of Eastern Nazarene College in Massachusetts. And I just want to show you, I mean, what's permeating the church. Here's the teaching that they're endorsing. This is just one sample. I encourage you to go to the website yourself and read the rest. I think you'll be shocked. But this is just a sample. The image of God. From the biologist's perspective, God planned for humans to evolve to the point of attaining these characteristics. For example, in order to reflect God's image by engaging in meaningful relationships, The human brain had to evolve to the point where an understanding of love and relationship could be grasped and lived out. The image of God also includes moral consciousness and responsibility. When Adam and Eve received God's image, they had evolved to where they could understand the difference between right and wrong. So when did humans receive the image of God? We cannot know the exact time that humans attained God's image. In fact, it may be that the image of God emerged gradually over a period of time. While some literalist interpreters of Genesis argue God created Adam and Eve in their present form, and what they should have added, just like the Bible says. The evidence of DNA in the fossil record establishes that humans were also participants in the long evolutionary continuum and God used this process as his means of creation. It seems likely that Adam and Eve were not individual historical characters but represented a larger population of first humans who bore the image of God. People. Nazarene professors are endorsing that. We have a Southern Baptist professor in philosophy saying that you've got to accept what the secular world is saying about the age of the earth and you reinterpret the scripture and reject the global flood. One of the leading Hebrew scholars in the evangelical world today, Bruce Wolpe, who's been at a number of different seminaries, including right now the Reformed Seminary in Orlando, Florida, and he wrote a letter because he was asked to do a white paper. He said Francis Collins, noted for his leadership of the Human Genome Project, and he's now been appointed by President Barack Obama to head up the National Institutes of Health, And for his founding of BioLogos has asked me to prepare a white paper identifying the barriers that hinder the typical evangelical theologians from accepting the possibility of creation by means of an evolutionary process. I want to find out what these barriers are. And he actually makes a statement. He says, the tension between faith and science with regard to the origin of species is one of the most important and urgent issues that confronts the church today. This is a unique opportunity to seek to narrow the gap between faith and science. between faith and evolution, between being the Bible and evolution. People, these are the forces at work in our church. And what is this going to lead to ultimately? Well, from a college that I know teaches evolution as fact and teaches millions of years, a Christian college, Calvin College in Grand Rapids, Michigan, here's one of their professors of religion from their religion department. He said this, to begin with, the Bible itself nowhere claims it is inerrant, free of factual errors of any sort. When thoughtful Christians turn to the historical narratives in the Bible, they see ancient authors who wrote according to the methods and standards of their own day. But they made occasional errors of fact in areas like geology, chronology, and political history, and so on. To acknowledge this is not to demean scripture, but to accept it as it is. Here are two examples of minor factual errors. He gives one supposedly from Daniel 5, Luke 2. Inerrancy is simply not a property that scripture is claiming, he goes on to say. So he said, there's nothing misguided or deceitful, much less dangerous, about the Bible teaching our students receive at Calvin College. Oh, really? They've been told the Bible is not inerrant? They've been taught that there are mistakes in the Bible. By the way, then who determines what's a mistake and what's not? It all becomes subjective. You may as well throw the whole thing away, which is what a lot of people actually do these days because of that sort of teaching. You know what else is sad? Atheist Eugenie Scott made this statement. I have found that the most effective allies for evolution are people of the faith community. One clergyman with a backward collar is worth two biologists at a school board meeting any day. Actually, the atheists love the compromising Christians. They use the compromising Christians for their own agenda. And what is actually interesting is that a man who says he's a Christian has written an article that's on Eugenie Scott's website, the NCSE website. Now she's an atheist and on her website he has this article and he says this, it is time for theistic evolutionists to take over from atheists as the public face of evolution advocacy. We theistic evolutionists want to take over from the atheists. We think you should let us be the leaders. He says, that those who embrace theistic evolution should actively engage family, friends, colleagues, clergy, elected officials, news reporters, and anyone else who evinces doubt about the compatibility of evolution and religious belief. To really protect education from creationism's inroads, it has to be marginalized, not just scientifically and legally, but theologically, and the atheists among us cannot do that. And so what he's saying is, you atheists, leave it to us, the compromisers, the theistic evolutionists, let us lead the way so that we can convince people to add evolution into the Bible. Here they are helping the atheist agenda. You know, when you think about it, Atheists won't compromise with the Christians. Oh, but they love the Christians compromising with them. And they use them for their own agenda. To do what? To change that foundation in this nation. To change it from one built on the foundation of God's Word to one built on man's Word. From a Christian worldview to a secular worldview. It's an incredible spiritual battle in this nation between Christianity and secular humanism. And unfortunately, the church by and large is on the side of secular humanism. People, the church needs to repent. And you know, we look at the Israelites in Hosea, for instance, we read about the Israelites. Oh, they started worshipping wooden idols. They played the harlot against their God. And what did God say to them? I despise you these days. I'm not going to accept your offerings. I'm not going to hear your singing, your praise songs. and he's withdrawn himself from them. He says, I'll send a famine in the land of hearing the words of the Lord. My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge, and this is going to affect your children. You know, we look at the Israelites and say, how stupid could they be with all the great things God had done for them and all the miracles, and they worship pagan gods? How could they do that? I want to say something here. We in the church in America, by and large, in our Western world, have done the same. when the church has taken the pagan religion of the day. And that's what it is. That's what evolution millions of years is. It's the pagan religion of the age to explain life without God. And we've added that into God's word. We have done exactly the same as what the Israelites have done. And you know, God's principles apply regardless. He's the same yesterday and today and forever. And I believe what he says in Hosea 4, 6 applies. My people are destroyed from lack of knowledge. This is going to affect your children. What do we know? 70% of kids are going to walk away from the church. We're losing the coming generations. And we found, as we did that research that was published in Already Gone, We found that these kids weren't being taught the Word of God. In fact, over and over again, they said, we weren't taught to defend the faith. We weren't given those answers. There is a famine on the land. There's a famine of the hearing of the words of the Lord. The church is not teaching people how to answer the skeptical questions of the age, to be ready to give a defense for the Christian faith, to know why we believe what we do. And you know what I believe God is saying today to the church? I don't see your assemblies. I don't save your assemblies. You can have all your worship services. You can have all your programs and all your curricula and you can have all your praise psalms, but I don't hear them. You know why? Because you have compromised my Word. And I believe that's where we're at in this nation today. So what is wrong with the church? Biblical authority has been undermined because of compromise. And the church has also succumbed to this separation of church and state issue as a neutral position. And this is why the church has not been a force, because they haven't really understood the foundational change, haven't been thinking in the right way. And the world has so affected their thinking because we haven't been thinking biblically, we've succumbed to this idea of neutrality. You know, in Matthew 12, 30, we read, He who is not with me is against me. If you don't gather, you scatter. That, in James, friendship with the world is at war with God, enmity with God. In Romans, men suppress the truth and unrighteousness. And also in Romans, the carnal mind is at war against God. You've got to remember something, there is no neutral position. You know, you imagine two knights fighting and one says, before we begin, throw down your sword. Oh, okay, that's a great idea. You say, well, that's stupid. Well, what about a Christian and a non-Christian talking? Now, we can talk about life and the universe, but you must leave the Bible out of it. Oh, okay, because that's where much of the church is. What is interesting to me is what a reporter said to me here at the museum when he said, what are you really on about in Answers and Genesis in the Creation Museum? What's your real underlying motive? And I said, we're on about the authority of the Word and the Gospel of Jesus Christ to see people saved, want the Lord to be in heaven with us. And he looked at me and he said, so you admit it then. And I said, admit what? You admit that you're deliberately trying to get people saved? Absolutely. And then he said, that's refreshing. And I said, why is that? He said, because we interview a lot of people in America, whether it's to do with the abortion issue, or the gay rights issue, gay marriage issue, or to do with creation, evolution in school issue, or the Ten Commandment issue, or nativity scenes issue, or whatever it is. And he said, we know a lot of them go to church and they're Christians, but when we ask them, what are you on about, the usual answer is tradition, family values, what's good for the culture, what's right, and so on. He said, why don't they come right out and say, we're on about the Bible? Because we've been intimidated in this nation. The church has been intimidated, because many people don't know how to answer skeptical questions anyway, because the church hasn't taught that by and large. And we've been intimidated to think, well, if we say we're on about the Bible, you're on about religion. You can't impose religion on this culture. And see, here's the problem. We have the secular world challenging the Christian world. And they say, we can talk about all these issues, but you can't use the Bible. And so many in the Christian world say, oh, OK, so I can give that up. That's all right. And I can walk on a neutral ground. But it's not neutral ground. It's their ground. And we've let them win the debate. And that's why a lot of times when we see the issue of abortion or gay marriage being dealt with in the Christian world, the arguments are conservative values, what's good for the culture, tradition, it's wrong, the founding fathers, what they believed. You know, Newsweek magazine in January 9 issue this year, 2010, had an article about gay marriage and on the front cover it said, the conservative case for gay marriage. And it had a conservative who wrote an article and said this, the explanation mentioned most often is tradition, but simply because something has always been done a certain way does not mean that it must always remain that way. By the way, he's right. If it's just tradition, family values, what do you think is good for the culture? It's just an opinion and that's all it is. And here's the problem. I like to use these castle diagrams. On the right we have the foundation of God's word and the castle of Christianity and the gospel that comes out of that foundation. And on the left we have the foundation of autonomous human reasoning, in other words, man's word. And we have secular humanism and those issues, moral issues, gay marriage and so on. There's been a phenomenal attack on Christianity in our days. There's been an attack on the Word of God and particularly an attack on Genesis 1-11 and much of the church has succumbed to that attack and said, well, we don't need that, it doesn't matter. As long as we keep the rest of the Bible and keep this structure, we'll be okay. But that structure needs a whole foundation to stand. And then we look up at those issues, abortion, gay marriage and so on, and they say, here are the problems, we've got to go out there and fight the problems. People, they're not the problems, they're the symptoms. And you know, for all the millions of dollars that Christians in America have spent fighting the abortion issue, the gay marriage issue and so on, for all the millions of dollars spent fighting those moral issues, has it really worked? From a big picture perspective, has it? No, it hasn't. You know why not? Because we've gone out there to try to change the culture when what the secular world did was change hearts and minds that changed the culture. You see, the Bible says, go into all the world and what? Preach the gospel and make disciples of people. You see, the point is, until hearts and minds are changed concerning the Word of God, you're not going to change the culture. The secular world have known what to do. That's why they hate us influencing children. They know if we can take generations of kids through an education system, change their foundation, change their hearts and minds in regard to the Word of God and a compromising church, lets it happen and says, that's okay, trust in Jesus. And then we wonder why their whole worldview changes and the culture changes. And if we want to be successful, what have we got to do? We've got to change hearts and minds, we've got to see hearts and minds change. It's God's Word that changes hearts and minds. Hearts and minds change in regard to the Word of God who build a Christian worldview, who will be that salt and light out there and not contaminated salt. In the same issue of Newsweek, The author made this statement, he said, the simple fact is there is no good reason why we should deny marriage to same-sex partners. Oh yes there is, if the Bible really is the absolute authority of the Word of God. That is the reason. And this is the way we should be fighting those issues. Fighting the abortion issue, the gay marriage issue. Here's what the Bible says. It's the Bible that's the absolute authority. Here's what God's Word says. But you see, the problem is when you have a church that compromises the Word of God, doesn't really stand on the Word of God and we've been intimidated by thinking there's such a position as a neutral position when in reality there's not. No wonder the church is not touching the culture. Romans 10 tells us faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word. Hebrews 4 says the Word of God is living and powerful and sharper than any two-edged sword. It's God's Word that goes forth from his mouth and shall not return under him void. So, I have a challenge. Who is on the Lord's side? Who is prepared to stand unashamedly on God's Word in this nation? We need generations of people, God's people, to start standing unashamedly on the Word of God, which is why we started a campaign called IamNotAshamed.org. I am not ashamed of the Gospel, Romans 1.16 and 2 Timothy 2.15. Workmen rightly, who are not ashamed, rightly dividing the Word of Truth. Can you imagine what would happen if we started to raise up generations of children like these children here. I am not ashamed. I am not ashamed of the Gospel of Christ. The Bible is so great because it tells us about Jesus and God. God made me. I'm not ashamed. I'm not ashamed of the Gospel of Christ. Can you imagine also, instead of the atheist billboards across this nation, can you imagine billboards like this? The Bible speaks for itself on abortion. You knit me together in my mother's womb. The Bible speaks for itself on marriage. God made them male and female. See, that's the way we need to be fighting this. But the problem is we have generations today, even in our churches, that no longer believe the Bible is the authoritative Word of God. They no longer believe that the Bible is inerrant, many of them. And they've compromised with naturalism and so on and added it all together. That's why we have such a weak church, why a church is not touching the culture. People, the church in our Western world needs to repent of compromise and get back to the authority of the Word of God and stand unashamedly on the Word of God. And so, how should the battle be conducted? Well, we need to be restoring that foundation of the authority of the Word. We need to be dealing with that wrong foundation of naturalism. You see, there's a battle between two worldviews here because there are two different religions, there are two different foundations, man's word, God's word. And we need to see generations who build their thinking on the Word of God, who build a Christian worldview, who can be sultan-like, who will influence this culture for the Lord Jesus Christ. That's how to influence the culture. Hearts and minds influence the culture. And you know, when you think about it, so many Christians, so many Christian organizations, and don't get me wrong, we need to stand against abortion as Christians, we need to stand against gay marriage, but if that's all we do, we're just fighting the symptoms, you'll never get anywhere. And sad thing too, I know that there are many great Christian leaders who will be fighting those symptoms, but they won't take a stand on the authority of God's Word beginning in Genesis, which is where we have undermined the authority of the Word in this day and age. And people, that's why we have to get back to the Word of God. You know, if we want to see those reminders back in this culture, those reminders of the Word of God, those reminders for future generations, those reminders for generations of children, so they will not be like the Israelites and judges who in one generation lost it. And people, when you've got 70% of our young people walking away from the church, it doesn't take a brilliant mind to work some mathematics and realize where's the church going to be in just a few generations. What's the solution? The solution number one is we need a reformation, a new reformation in the church. We need the church to return to the word of the Lord. Hosea 6.1, come and let us return to the Lord. I would like to see people symbolically, maybe we should do it physically, symbolically nailing Genesis 1 to 11 on the doors of churches and Christian colleges and seminaries across this nation. Because that's where we lost it in this day and age. That's where we lost Biblical authority, undermined Biblical authority. We need a new Reformation to call the church back to the authority of the Word of God. We need Christian leaders out there calling for this new Reformation. So we need a new reformation in the church and we need a return to God's word for the nation. You know, in his State of the Union address, President Obama said, in the end, it's our ideals, our values that built America. They're American values. And my question is, President Obama, if they're just our ideals and values and American values, then it's just a matter of opinion. And if it's just a matter of opinion, then anyone can do what is right in his own eyes if he can get away with it. No, we need to return to the Word of God. It's not a matter of our ideas or our values. This nation was built upon God's Word. That's how this nation was built. And do you know the message that I have for the President of the United States? It's this. Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord. And which God is this? The God whose word is right. The God who made the heavens. The God who brings the council of nations to nothing. The God who is the God of salvation. Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord. And I have an economic stimulus plan, too, for the President of the United States. If you start with God's Word, you know, with the Israelites, if you diligently obey the voice of the Lord your God, then the Lord will set you high above the nations. He'll cause your enemies to be defeated. He shall lend to many nations. You shall lend to many nations and you shall not borrow. But if you do not obey the voice of the Lord, the Lord will cause you to be defeated by your enemies, the alien. He shall lend to you, but you shall not lend to him, which sounds like today exactly what's going on. And at the end of his State of the Union address, President Obama said, God bless you and God bless the United States of America. My question, President Obama, is this, which God are you talking about? It needs to be the God who is the Lord. Thank you. Thank you, Ken. I hope all of us have been blessed, encouraged. Some of us may be even challenged by what Ken has shared with us today on State of the Nation. Now, to stay in touch with our ministry of Answers in Genesis and find out more about the Creation Museum, where we are right now, please go to answersingenesis.org. While you're at that website, you can take advantage of the thousands of free articles that are there, but also learn how you can download a copy of the State of the Nation Address and also order a DVD of State of the Nation. And so as we go off here in the few seconds remaining, Wait about a minute or so and then go to AnswersInGenesis.org and you can actually order the DVD. So thank you to our audience here, those watching on Cornerstone Television, CDR Radio Network and other outlets around the country and around the world. Thank you. Good night. Thank you for coming to the Creation Museum.