In my e-mailings, I receive Que Pasa, a newsletter from the San Antonio Baptist Association. In their June 11 e-mailing, they had a segment on an article “The 2019 Most Post-Christian Cities in America.”¹ Instead of just asking people how they identified themselves, Barna researchers looked at certain criteria; basically how people actually live their lives. I think it is notable that Springfield-Holyoke, MA was rated number 1, given that Massachusetts was founded “for the glory of God, and advancement of the Christian faith,”² by Separatists (Pilgrims). The 16 criteria listed include:

• Do not believe in God
• Identify as atheist or agnostic
• Disagree the Bible is accurate
• Bible engagement scale: low (have not read the Bible in the past week and disagree strongly or somewhat that the Bible is accurate) 

These four criteria can be summed up as: People do not believe the Bible. And I would argue that the other 12 criteria given are very much related to people not believing the Bible. And if you do not believe the Bible starting with Genesis; you do not believe the Bible. But what are my fellow Baptists doing about this? What is the church in general doing about this?

The minister at the church I currently attend is making an effort to teach people that they can believe the Bible. Our church has shown Patterns of Evidence,³ The Truth Project,⁴ A Matter of Faith;⁵ and had a speaker from Creation Ministries International.⁶ Our minister has led studies on the issue of believing the Bible, and given me the opportunity to speak on a couple of occasions.

But my experience is that my pastor is the exception. I grew up in the Baptist church. But I had cognitive dissonance.   I started reading the Bible when I about nine. This should be a good thing. But I did not live in a bubble. We had the 1969 edition of the World Book Encyclopedia;⁷ which I also read. In it, I remember seeing the geologic column that showed the earth’s alleged billions of years of history. I knew that what I was reading in the encyclopedia (and learning in school, and seeing in television documentaries), did not mesh with what I was reading in the Bible. And the church was not addressing this, explaining to me why I could believe the Bible. In my mind, I at some point “settled the issue” by becoming an old earth creationist. Later, as a young adult, I heard a great pastor, who overall had a very positive influence in my life, teach that Darwinian evolution of plants and animals was biblical; but man was a special creation. So I bordered on being a theistic evolutionist.   For a short time while living in Clarksville, TN, I attended a church that did address these issues in church training. I was interested and went to some of the training. But I did not really get into it at that time; because, like many people, “I had already dealt with that.” This is a very important point; because by that time I was already up in my twenties and thought that I had the answers. I was good with being an old earth creationists/quasi theistic evolutionists. And I had other things going on, trying to make a life for myself. It shows how critical it is to start reaching people at a young age; before they “have it all figured out;” and are preoccupied with other things such as starting a career, dating, getting married and having a family. But the timing of events led me to examine my worldview.

I left the Baptist Church for a time after I got married; and I attended another denomination. The church was very loving and welcoming. The church prayed for us regarding my wife’s illness. But for a number of years, I was frustrated that the church was not more interested in the pro-life issue. (I was a volunteer in the San Antonio Pregnancy Care Center – doing data entry.) Then after 14 years, I decided it was time to leave the church when the church could not agree that a marriage was between a man and a woman. I just could not understand how these Christians – these church leaders – did not get that.

Then about that time, I happened to hear Ken Ham⁸ with Answers in Genesis on Truths that Transform, with the late D. James Kennedy.⁹ A light came on! The people in the church that I left did not have biblical values because they did not believe the Bible. They thought the accounts in Genesis, such as the Tower of Babel, were “just stories.” And they thought Moses did not write the first five books of the Bible “because they didn’t have a written language back then.” (William Federer on Faith in History¹⁰ has an episode where he discusses ancient Israel being the first nation to have a written language based on symbols representing sounds that are put together to form words – a 22 character alphabet.)

I ordered the book – The Collapse of Evolution.¹¹ Then I began getting more and more books and DVDs. I realized that this was the information that I should have been getting at a young age when I first starting realizing that the Bible did not mesh with what I was learning everywhere else. I was so excited about this, I wanted to share it. I tried contacting other churches and our local church association, but found them very non-responsive. I even tried contacting the Southern Baptist Convention. The Southern Baptist Convention put out statements regarding Calvinism,¹² homo-sexual Boy Scout leaders,¹³ and the Marxist based social justice movement.¹⁴ They partnered on the Nashville Statement,¹⁵ giving the biblical view of sexuality. All of these statements I agree with. But what are they doing to teach people what is foundational to all of this – that they can believe the Bible starting with the creation account in Genesis? What are they doing to address this issue that they just identified in their own newsletter? What is your church doing? If it is not doing anything – and most churches are not – this is an opportunity to ask your church leaders about this issue and inform them help is available from ministries such as David Rives Ministries,¹⁶ Answers in Genesis, Creation Ministries International, as well as local biblical creation organizations such as the San Antonio Bible Based Science Association.¹⁷   “We destroy every proud obstacle that keeps people from knowing God. We capture their rebellious thoughts and teach them to obey Christ.” II Corinthians 10:5 NLT.

Terry Read

1. https://www.barna.com/research/post-christian-cities-2019/?mc_cid=27d825c292&mc_eid=6f7cb08e35
2. http://www.ushistory.org/documents/mayflower.htm
3. https://patternsofevidence.com/exodus-film/
4. https://www.focusonthefamily.com/promos/the-truth-project?utm_source=thetruthproject.org&utm_medium=redirect&utm_campaign=ttp_landing_page
5. https://answersingenesis.org/countering-the-culture/matter-of-faith-movie/
6. https://creation.com/
7. https://www.worldbook.com/encyclopedias.aspx
8. https://answersingenesis.org/bios/ken-ham/
9. https://www.djameskennedy.org/truths-that-transform
10. http://www.amerisearch.net/index.php?date=01-21
11. http://midwestapologetics.org/reviews/collapseofevolution.htm
12. http://www.sbclife.net/article/1940/calvinism-~-southern-baptist-perspectives
13. http://www.sbc.net/resolutions/1233/on-the-change-of-membership-policy-of-the-boy-scouts-of-america
14. http://sbctoday.wpengine.com/sbc-social-justice-resolution/#comments
15. https://cbmw.org/nashville-statement
16. https://davidrivesministries.org/
17.  https://www.sabbsa.org/