Recent USA Today Article Implies AiG Is a Cult

On May 24, I was sitting in my hotel room in Colorado and picked up a USA Today newspaper. On page nine I read a commentary written by a professor at Eastern Nazarene College. It stated:

A conservative evangelical seminary [it is the Florida seminary founded by the late Dr. D. James Kennedy, who totally supported Answers in Genesis] has just hired someone who has warned that Christians who deny scientific facts [by this he means Darwinian evolution] are in danger of becoming a “cult”.

This might suggest that Ken Ham and his Creation Museum in Petersburg, Ky., are becoming less relevant, as they speak for—and to—an increasingly smaller band of hyper-conservative biblical literalists. Ham’s followers, ironically, are exactly what Waltke [Dr. Bruce Waltke, a pro-evolution Old Testament scholar that the Florida seminary just hired] warned us about—a cult, with their own separate science.

So, in a prominent column in the nation’s largest newspaper, it is strongly implied by this Nazarene college professor that I am a cult leader!

As I finished reading this remarkable commentary, I contemplated many of the numerous life-changing testimonies AiG has recently received. They included several that came to me the evening before I spoke at an Answers in Genesis conference at a Calvary Chapel church in Colorado—a church where the pastor enthusiastically supports the Answers in Genesis ministry and our emphasis on biblical authority and the gospel.

So that you can appreciate the impact of your prayers and support for the AiG ministry, I want to share a few of those encouraging testimonies. These came from people who were so thankful for the ministry of Answers in Genesis and what it has done for their Christian walk, as God has blessed.

After one of my talks in Colorado, a lady shared with me how she remembered hearing me speak 20 years ago when she was just a young girl (around 7 years old). Because of the impact the teaching had on her life, she was making sure she raised her children up with Answers in Genesis resources to help them know they can trust God’s Word. Actually, I have noticed this phenomenon more than ever before; I have received so many similar testimonies (which also reminds me that I am getting old!).

Praise God that there is a new generation of young people being raised up in this nation to stand on biblical authority. I meet many of them, as I did in Colorado:

• An eleven-year-old girl told me she was witnessing to her friend, and she was asking me about a particular AiG video to use in helping her young friend know the Bible is true and to hear the message of Jesus.
• Two young boys, one 14 and one 10, came up and told me they wanted to study to be creation scientists—one wants to be a creation biologist and the other a creation astronomer.
• And then there were two kids, ages 7 and 6, who told me how much the talks had meant to them—and they weren’t just thinking about the special dinosaur program I did for children: they were talking about my main presentations to the adults!
• Some parents at the Colorado conference told me that when they were growing up, they never heard the biblical answers that Answers in Genesis teaches—nor did they have any of the types of resources we produce today. As a result, they went through all sorts of struggles in regard to trusting God’s Word. As one dad said to me, “I don’t want my kids going through those struggles—we are bringing them up on AiG resources right from when they are born. They will have a start in life I never had.”

This also reminded me of a letter I recently received, where the dad stated:

… We have three children, ages 5, 10, and 11, and when we returned home [from the Creation Museum] to Virginia, they immediately set about creating their own mini-Creation Museum. This was their own idea; no prompting from Mom and Dad, and they spent most of several days working on the project.

I thought it might be an encouragement to you to know that our children enjoyed their tour so much, and they learned so much in just one day … We so appreciate your unwavering stand that we can trust the Word of God.

I would love to have supporters with me when these adults and children come up to me at the conferences and give their testimonies, so that they could see what their prayers and support are accomplishing through God’s grace. It is truly a blessing.

Here’s another testimony. One young man in Tennessee recently told me, “I was an atheist, but someone gave me your six-video set. I watched them and couldn’t stop watching—as a result, the Lord used these videos to bring me to the point of salvation. Now I am an “on-fire” Christian spreading the Word.” And I regularly hear life-changing testimonies coming from our Creation Museum guests. One of our staff recently shared this incredible testimony with me:

A leader from the local Cincinnati-area Teen Challenge ministry related the testimony of how he brought two atheists to the Creation Museum, and immediately after leaving the museum these atheists renounced their anti-God beliefs and gave their hearts to the Lord! The message at the Creation Museum convinced them that they were going the wrong direction. Since then they have grown in their walk with the Lord in the Teen Challenge program.

As I contemplated these testimonies, I thanked the Lord for the changed lives. And then as I thought about the false accusation in the USA TODAY commentary (a piece that used emotional terminology meant to harm our reputation and undermine our integrity) of AiG being a cult, I remembered this verse of Scripture:

Woe to you, when all people speak well of you, for so their fathers did to the false prophets (Luke 6:26).

The Lord is so gracious in encouraging us in the creation/gospel ministry. We also know that if we are doing His work, we will get opposition in this world. What really burdens and pains me is that this recent opposition comes from a commentator who is influential in a Christian college and is undermining biblical authority to generations of young people. It fires me up even more to “charge up the people across this nation and around the world,” as one person wrote to us:

... I believe you and your AiG staff are some of the most influential and biblically principled servants of the Lord. Your ability to utilize the scientific information to explain the Bible and refute the evolutionary hogwash is phenomenal. Don't get discouraged.

A lot of us out here count on you to charge us up with the Answers magazine … In my day-to-day contact with people and work associates, your work and the Answers magazine help me to interject miscellaneous pieces of creation info into conversations. It makes people at least stop and listen to an alternative to what they have been bombarded with over the years by the schools and media. So many people have just never heard a common sense, rational approach to divine creation.

Thank you for helping us “charge” up people across this nation and around the world.

From reading these wonderful comments, it is clear that we are not a cult. AiG is a ministry of dedicated born-again Christians who are doing our best to fulfill the Great Commission and to spread the “water” of the Word to as many as we can. Would you prayerfully consider committedly praying for and supporting this non-profit apologetics ministry to help us continue impacting and changing lives for Jesus Christ? It is always encouraging to hear testimonies of how Answers in Genesis has impacted lives for Christ. We would like to take this opportunity to thank our supporters for making it possible—and for being a part of this vital ministry. We would also enjoy hearing your story of how Answers in Genesis has impacted your life.