The Importance of Creation Evangelism in Secularized Societies

A recent dialogue between a missionary in Japan and a Japanese unbeliever highlights the importance of evangelism in our increasingly secular world:

“For example, “ I (the short-term missionary) said, “take the first verse in the Bible, In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. If you preach on that verse, you explain to people that the only One who was alive at the beginning of the universe – of the earth and all life, and of time itself – was God. And if the Bible tells us the world was created by a Higher Power, by “Intelligent Design” then we’d better believe it.” She stopped me right there and said, “Oh, so you don’t believe in evolution?” I responded that even though fossils are used as evidence for evolution, only a manipulation and biased interpretation of the fossil evidence could possibly lead to the evolutionary explanation for the origin of living things. And what kind of science would that be? Theory at best, and not a very good one. But at this point I realized I may be entering troubled waters: “Do I want to take this road,” I asked myself, “since both Mr. and Mrs. ___ are retired science teachers?” But then I thought, “It’s okay, this is probably the best approach, for how can one sense a need for a Savior without first seeing this as a good world, made by a good God, that has gone bad. Evil originates in rebellion against the Benevolent Creator and King of the universe. And the only way to overcome evil is God’s way, which is the story of the gospel.” (Emphasis mine)

Amen.