Answers in Genesis CEO and President Ken Ham has posted a list of the
top five most worrisome trends he sees developing in American churches,
identifying liberal pastors and youths rejecting Christianity as some
of his biggest concerns.
"More watering down of the Word to
accommodate our culture's lies. We're consistently seeing more and more
churches compromising on God's Word in order to preach what is perceived
by our culture as a loving and tolerant message (e.g., supporting gay
'marriage')," he wrote Tuesday about the first trend.
"But it's really a message that's loving and tolerant of sin but
contrary to the Word of God, which should be our standard for morality
(2 Timothy 3:16).
Over the next year and beyond, I anticipate we will
see more of 2 Timothy 4:3–4 coming true as many churches become places
to satisfy 'itching ears' rather than places to satisfy a thirst for
truth."
For the second trend he identified increasing pressure on
the church to conform to what he called "the culture's thinking on
marriage, gender, and sexuality," and said that many Christian
individuals and organizations have already compromised.
Ham, who
is also the CEO and president of the Creation Museum in Kentucky, said
that pressure on the Church in regards to the sanctity of life will also
be increased. He warned that Christian organizations need to refuse to
violate their consciences and refuse to pay for abortions or
abortion-inducing drugs in healthcare plans.
For the fourth trend, he noted that large numbers of young people continue leaving the church, and embrace culture instead.
"Sadly,
by college age, two-thirds of young people are leaving our churches and
often the Christian faith. Much of this trend has to do with the fact
that these young adults think more like the culture than like God's
Word, and they've never been taught to stand on the Bible or to defend
their faith," he added.
"As theologically liberal teaching
continues to infiltrate the Church, the numbers of young people leaving
will likely only increase."
Ham warned about the increasing number of liberal pastors in the fifth trend.
"Instead
of building up young people and encouraging them to start their
thinking with God's infallible Word, these colleges exalt man's ideas
over the Bible," he wrote.
"The result is liberal theology that
honors man over God. Sadly, this trend in Christian colleges appears to
be continuing, and the result will be more liberal teaching from the
pulpit as pastors are trained to think this way."
Ham often warns
about what he sees as a troublesome future for Christians in America on
his Facebook page and AiG blog, and has spoken out specifically against pastors who choose to ignore controversial social topics like marriage and abortion.
"Sadly,
when pastors choose to neglect controversial issues, they do great
damage to the spiritual growth of their congregates. We have generations
of young people in our churches who simply believe what the world
believes on social and moral issues, and they don't think biblically on
these matters," Ham wrote back in December.
Last week, AiG won a major religious freedom case in
its lawsuit against the state of Kentucky, which had previously denied
its Ark Encounter project participation in a sales tax incentive worth
millions of dollars. A federal judge decided that state officials had
violated the creationist group's First Amendment rights by denying it
participation because AiG had insisted on using religious preference
when hiring workers.
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