Christian and Secular Worldviews Defined – Ken Ham

we have a major problem in the church we’re seeing in Exodus from the church in the in the Western World you know in

England Church attendance is down to four percent and if you think about what’s happened here in America in the 1700s Church

attendance was about 70 to 80 percent of the population now you come up to 2010

Millennials is down to 18 come up to 2021 Generation Z down to less than nine

percent people there’s a catastrophic generational loss from the church and

not only that you have researchers like George Bonner Christian research in America telling us that the Generation Z

are the first truly post-christian generation who would have thought that we’d be saying in America that this

generation is totally post-christian which means anti-christian which means very secularized and we’re seeing moral

relativism permeate the culture these are everyday headlines these days gay

marriage and abortion and racism and gender issues euthanasia even pedophilia

raising its its ugly head and we look at all that and we say what is happening and why is this happening

and you know if you ask the question why is it happening well why is it happening the Bible tells us and actually what’s

happening today has been happening in a way where the the basics of it has been

going on for 6 000 years because it started in a garden six thousand years ago when God created everything he said

it was very good there was no death there was no suffering there was no disease in the world everything was perfect but then he gave a test to the

first man Adam Adam Adam you can eat of all the trees just one you’re not eat of because if you do you’ll surely die and

what we need to understand here is that what is happening is God is saying obey

God’s word obey God’s word but then what happened the devil in the form of a

serpent came along and said did God actually say I want you to stop right there for a moment

do you realize here Genesis 3 1 did God actually say the first attack was on the

authority of the word of God to get Adam and Eve to doubt God’s word so that doubt would lead to unbelief and

that attack has not let up and then you will be like God you decide Truth for yourselves you decide right and wrong

for yourselves and you know if you stand back we know that Adam sinned and because Adam sinned and where

descendants of Adam when Adam sinned and really our sin nature is summarized by

Genesis 3 1 and Genesis 3 5. in other words our propensity as Sinners is that

we would rather trust the word of man than the word of God I see that in the church all the time because I see so

many church leaders Christian College professors Bible College professors Seminary professors so many pastors not

all but certainly the majority who would rather believe man’s word about millions of years and evolutionary ideas instead

of God’s word as stated clearly in Genesis and we see today Generations

when you think about it like Generation Z the majority of them wanting to be their own God want to decide Truth for

themselves they decide what’s right and wrong they decide what their their gender is and so it goes on and so

really this is all about trusting man’s word and what I want us to understand is a battle began six thousand years ago

between two foundations or two religions see I know we can talk about lots of different religions in the world but

when you distill them down in an ultimate sense there’s really only two God’s word and man’s word and it’s their

two foundations and this is where we need to understand a very very important concept and you know when we think about

teaching our kids educating our kids we want to make sure that they have a

Biblical world view now for a lot of people biblical worldview they think means oh you know the Bible stories and

so on and we believe in Jesus and I I want us to understand a Biblical worldview is something very different to

that and I found that most Christians don’t have a truly biblical worldview because it’s not taught by the majority

of our churches most people don’t really know what worldview is see your worldview is your way of thinking your

way of thinking that and enables you to understand the world or to look at the

world and if you’ve got the wrong foundation for your way of thinking you’ll have the wrong way of looking at

the world and saying out of the wrong interpretation of the evidence did you know every one of us wears a pair of

glasses every single one of us now you know I’ve got these physical glasses on

because you know as you get older you know what happens things deteriorate and all the rest of it but every one of us

actually has a pair of glasses it’s our way of thinking we’re actually looking through a way of thinking at the world

and see when you start from God’s word you build a way of thinking that we will

call a Christian or biblical world view now stop right there for a moment when

you start from God’s word what is God’s word see a lot of people have the idea God’s word is you know it’s a guidebook

to life it’s a book of spiritual things moral things Booker relationships Book of Stories you know what this is It’s a

revelation from the one who knows everything there is to know about everything someone who has always been there who

has infinite knowledge think about Colossians 1 in Christ ahead all the wisdom uh Treasures of wisdom and

knowledge he knows everything he’s revealed to us a little bit of that infinite information to enable us to

have the key information to build the right way of thinking to underworld understand the world correctly see let

me help you understand further I’ve had many Christians over the years who have asked me how do you fit dinosaurs with

the Bible and I would say no no no that’s a wrong question you don’t fit dinosaurs with the Bible you don’t think anything with

the Bible you don’t start outside the Bible with man’s interpretation of things and try to fit it to the Bible

you’ve got to start with the key information God has revealed to build the right way of thinking to understand

Dinosaurs the word dinosaur is a modern word invented in 1841 for particular

types of land animals they find as fossils and we’ve got to go back to the Bible and say when did God make all the

land animals on day six he made all the land animal kinds so what we call dinosaurs today is about 80 different

groups they’d be a subset of the land animal kinds God made on day six and

what did they eat well Genesis 1 30 tells us they’re all vegetarian to start with see it was everything was very good

there wasn’t any death or suffering in the world that came after sin two of every kind seven pairs of some went on

board Noah’s Ark the land animal kinds that went on Noah’s Ark did it include dinosaurs well it was every land animal

kind which would have included the group we call dinosaurs you get the idea those that didn’t go on the arced round many

of them turned into fossils oh so your fossils are not from millions of years ago from the time of the flood 4 300

years ago you’re building a Biblical world view same goes for issues like

death and suffering people say had it for death and suffering with a loving God how do you fit that with the Bible no no you start from God’s word to

understand death is an enemy it’s an intrusion because of sin the world we

live in today is not the world as God made it he made a perfect world but we and Adam messed it up now we’re living

in a groaning world you see the difference now if you don’t start with God’s word you start with man’s word and

you build a secular worldview and here’s an interesting problem in education

if you’re using secular textbooks they have the wrong foundation and the wrong world view many people think that they

can christianize it by adding guiding up here but in the majority of instances you can’t do that you’ve got to start

from down here to build the right way of thinking you’ve got to have the right foundation for the right worldview now

the point is that we need to be raising up Generations that have the right foundation and the right world view so

they can think about everything correctly understand everything correctly as Christians not only does

that enable you to look at fossils correctly at dinosaurs correctly death and suffering but what you believe about

morality what you believe about right and wrong if you start with man’s word who determines right and wrong you do

so it’s all relative you start with God’s word who determines right and wrong God does he’s the absolute

Authority and so as we look at all these issues in our culture today we need to understand them

foundationally because a lot of Christians look at those because they don’t think with the biblical worldview

and don’t think foundationally they look at these and they say how do we deal with all these different problems

there’s so many different problems a gay marriage problem the racism problem the gender problem the abortion problem how

do we deal with all these problems no no you’ve got to understand something if you think foundationally correctly

they’re all the same problem right they’re not different problems they’re different symptoms of the

problem down here and so therefore if you want to deal with all of these if they’re the same

problem do you know what that also means they all have the same solution so what’s the solution well the solution

has always been the truth of God’s word and the saving gospel and you see when

you start from God’s word and what I want to show you today uh in the talk I’m going to give this just the introduction I haven’t started my talk

yet just just so you know that uh when we start with uh the foundation of God’s

word Genesis 1 to 11 is actually the foundation of the rest of the Bible of our Christian worldview of all doctrine

of the Gospel now of everything Genesis 1 to 11 is the foundation for

everything and the battle in today’s world is a battle between two

foundations and and two World Views in conflict because of those two different foundations and I want us to think about

this because this is where many people don’t understand you know today because moral relativism pervades our culture

because the secular worldview is the dominant world view now it used to be

that the judeo-christian ethic permeated the culture in America but now that is

certainly not the dominant worldview and so therefore those on this side here with the secular worldview look on

people who believe this as intolerant and these people have hate speech that’s

what they accuse us of and that’s what the conflict is up here now the only way to deal with that correctly is down here

because if you don’t deal with it foundationally you’re never going to be able to deal with it up there you know

I’ll give you a practical example here I’ve had a person who believes in gay

marriage who came up to me at a conference you know lots of different examples like this he said I’m gay I believe in in gay marriage what do you

say about that and I said well I’m a Christian and I believe the Bible so I build my thinking on here can I explain

to you why I believe what I do and he said don’t give me the Bible I don’t believe the Bible give me some other stuff and not the Bible you know one of

the most asked questions I’ve had asked of Me by Christians over 40 years of ministry one of the most asked questions

how do you talk to somebody who doesn’t believe the Bible because you can’t use the Bible because they don’t believe the

Bible well there’s even a pastor and it was more than one actually in America that

will tell you when you talk into non-christians you can’t use the Bible because they don’t believe the Bible now here’s the problem

if you give up the Bible you give up your starting point you give up your foundation then there’s only one Foundation left you know what

the foundation is well man’s wood so they’ve won the argument right so here

if you’re thinking foundationally and certainly you understand these people don’t believe the Bible but that’s why

you’ve got to approach them in a different way and so here’s the how the conversation went now it depends on the

person what questions they ask where they’re at Etc but to give you the idea you don’t believe the Bible no well

guess what I do right let me ask you a question why don’t you believe the Bible because you

know what they’ve been taught in school and through the media do you think science has disproved the Bible you taught something in school that thinks

you you can’t trust the Bible and tell me why do you believe what you do what do you believe about who you are where

you came from and and life and where did you get that from and how do you determine right and wrong tell me can other people have a different right and

wrong to you or do they have to have the same right and wrong as you how do you determine uh what what you believe and

so on and you see what you’re doing you’re dealing with it down here foundationally and you know what I have

found I have found that when I’m talking to people who are LGBT people like that

who accuse you of hate speech and so on I say to them look I want you to understand I start from the Bible that’s

why I believe what I do if you don’t have that Foundation I totally get it you’re going to have a different world view right and that doesn’t mean that I

hate you and I realize our World Views are in Conflict but until we have the sound same Foundation we’re never going

to deal with this at a worldview level we need to make sure that we’re teaching our congregations and teaching our

children this so that they will understand how non-christians think and know why they think the way they do

we’ve got to be dealing with this uh foundationally and give me another example I’ve talked to LGBT people and

they’ve said to me things like this look all we want is freedom for our views well no they don’t they want Total

compliance and acceptance but that’s another issue I’ve had them say to me look uh they’ve said you people are

intolerant you people give hate speech because we allow All Views you people don’t and I say wait a minute you don’t

allow All Views and they say yeah we allow all viewers in regard to marriage and gender and so on okay what about my

view based on the Bible which is God’s view that there’s only two genders man male and female and there’s only one

marriage a man and a woman then they said now wait a minute now you’re not allowing uh our view and I said wait a

minute but you’re not allowing my view to build on the Bible and they say but you’re intolerant of our our world yeah

well Emmett you’re intolerant of my view here so you see the conflict and you see this is what we’re seeing in our culture

the conflict up here but that’s why we’ve got to understand it starts down here and if we don’t

understand that and know how to deal with it foundationally and we’re not raising up Generations who understand

that then we’re not going to be impactful in reaching these people now

as we go on here I want to jump over to the New Testament in second Corinthians 11 3 the Apostle Paul has a warning for

us and so this is God’s word and here’s the warning I want to warn you the devil’s going to use the same

method on you which means on your children on your grandchildren same method that he used on Eve to get you to

position not believing the things of God oh well I need to say to myself okay

what method was that that he used on Eve I need to make sure I’m preparing my children for that method I need to make

sure that that they’re not going to be led astray so what was the method he used on Eve well we know it was an

attack on the authority of the word of God did God actually say and that’s in

Genesis 3 1. that’s the method that was used on Eid I call it the Genesis 3

attack and I’m going to ask us a question because this is what we should be saying to ourselves okay so we’re

living in this world we need to understand things foundationally and we need to understand the Genesis 3 attack

how does the Genesis 3 attack manifest itself today so I can prepare my children

well what is the Genesis 3 attack of this era I’ll give you a little hint go back to the first century

Peter and Paul preaching on the resurrection did anyone come up to them and ask about carbon dating

of course not because that that’s the 20th century invention did anyone come to Martin Luther in the 16th century as

he nailed the thesis on the door of the church and say but did dinosaurs go on the ark well the word dinosaur wasn’t even

invented until 1841 but if you look back in history you’ll see there were times

when there were attacks on the bodily resurrection of Christ attacks on on on the Divinity of of Christ attacks on uh

faith and and salvation and so there are all sorts of attacks down Through the

Ages what’s the Genesis 3 attack of our era I believe the Genesis 3 attack of

our era began in the 1800s in the 1800s atheists began to popularize the idea of

millions of years because they said there’s no and no way the Bible is true there

wasn’t a global flood how did all the fossils get here they were laid down over millions of years and you know what

happened in history many of our church leaders said oh we’ll take the millions of years and put in the gap between Genesis 1 1 and 1 2 Darwin comes along

and says given millions of years one kind of animal changed into another oh we’ll say God used Evolution and add

that into the Bible uh Along Comes The Big Bang I always say God used the big

bang and so on and here’s the interesting thing as I have traveled around the world for

the past 40 years doesn’t matter what country I’m in in this era people ask the same basic

questions when they know you’re on about the Bible they know you’re on about the gospel hear the sort of questions they ask well don’t we live in a scientific

age well has a science history of the Bible well how do you know the Bible is true what evidence is there for God who

made God you believe in Adam and Eve where did Cain get his wife how did all the races come about if they’re only two

people to start with where’s the evidence of the flood don’t fossil layers prove millions of years in evolution we know man evolved from

aprilite creatures how could the story of Adam and Eve be true how can you believe in a loving God with all the death and suffering in the world didn’t

dinosaurs live millions of years ago and evolve into Birds how could Noah fit all the animals on the ark hasn’t science

proved evolution is true isn’t the Bible an outdated book of Mythology just for interest

just for interest and those of you out in Arizona make sure you do this put your hands up if you’ve heard those

sorts of questions look at that that’s a shock that’s nearly all of you

of course because they’re the questions of today and by the way you notice I’m the

actually part of the Genesis 3 attack today and you notice those questions particularly relate to Origins to

science to history they’re actually attacks on Genesis 1 to 11 because

they’re the particular attacks today you know the devil has attacked God’s word down Through the Ages but we live in a

time when the first 11 chapters of the Bible have come under incredible attack not only from without the church but

from within the church because the majority of our Christian leaders sadly say Genesis doesn’t matter you can

compromise with evolution in millions of years I’ve even had conservative pastors tell me it’s too divisive a topic for

our church so I ignore it but if what I’m saying is right that Genesis 1 to 11 is the foundation for

everything then if your church is not teaching that then there’s a major problem

and people the good thing is I don’t know you so I can ask that question you can think

to yourself has my church been teaching this are my pastors teaching this do they really stand on God’s word in

Genesis because I’m going to show you how important this is and this is where I now get to start my talk because

that’s the introduction Okay so what can we do what can we do I’m going

to challenge us that there’s two aspects that are greatly missing from much of

our teaching in many of our churches we need to be raising up generations to be thinking foundationally having the right

foundation understanding foundations understand world view understand the

conflict and equipped with apologetics first Peter 3 15 always be prepared to make a

defense or answer the word defense or answer comes from the Greek word Apollo gear from which we get our word

apologetics which means to give a logical reason defense of the faith and the interesting thing those questions

that I had listed there they’re just a few of the many questions we answer here at the Creation Museum The Arc encounter

through the exhibits through the books through the curricula because that’s where the attack is today now at the

Creation Museum and that’s where we are right now you know there’s lots of different exhibits and theaters and so

on but a centerpiece is the walk through the Bible from Genesis to Revelation call it the Seven Seas of History

creation corruption catastrophe confusion that’s Genesis 1 to 11 Christ cross consummation and as we go through

that history God made a perfect creation he made the first man and woman the first marriage the first man rebelled

against God the origin of sin death was a judgment the origin of death God killed animals include Adam and Eve the

origin of clothing First Blood sacrifices are covering for their sin the setup of the sacrificial system God

promises a savior Genesis 3 15. we have the flood of Noah’s day Noah’s Ark is a

picture of Jesus only those who went through the one door were saved remember Jesus said I am the door this is why we

find fossils all over the the Earth because of that flood then after the flood as people increased on the earth

uh they rebelled against God again so now a judgment at the time of the terror Babel giving different languages causing

different people groups not races we’re all One race we shouldn’t talk about different races we all go back to Adam

we’re all Adam’s race which is why God’s son steps into history The Babe in a Manger to be the God man to be a member

of the one human race but a perfect man to dine across because death was apparently for sin raised from the dead

offers a free gift of Salvation one day there’ll be on new heavens and a new Earth to come and we are here in history

maybe here could be there we’re somewhere there we’re in there people that’s the whole message of Christianity

that’s the whole message of the Bible right there but I want you to notice something all this has already happened