Ken Ham's Blog, page 380

Blessed by Other Ministries

We are blessed to have many special speakers visit AiG and encourage us during our regular staff meetings. Thursday’s guest presenter was Tom Kiser, who heads up a unique ministry—involving a “Prayer Stand”—called Prayer Stand International. Tom and his volunteers are spread across the country as they set up a tall-standing prayer pole in places that have a lot of foot traffic. He encouraged our staff to share their faith with passion, and he presented one way to do it—using the Prayer Stand and offering to pray for people and to talk with them.

During these difficult, questioning times in the USA, Tom and his volunteers, not only have the opportunity to pray with people and the needs they have, but also to share the gospel. In the course of many conversations, people do ask questions about the Christian faith, including those related to the reliability of the Bible. As a part of this Prayer Stand ministry, all sorts of evangelistic tracts—covering a variety of topics—are distributed.

Here is Tom with me after he spoke to us in Legacy Hall on Thursday:

Find out more about the outreach of Prayer Stand International at prayerstand.com.

Tom is not only an evangelist, but he designed and built these tall stands. He shared with our staff on Thursday that it was a Christian in 1969 who shared the gospel and prayed with Tom—and Tom received Christ as his Savior. He shared with us that he will be “eternally grateful” to that person. That 1969 gospel conversation occurred at a county fair where a man put up a simple table with a sign that stated, “If you died tonight, do you know that you would go to heaven?” He has been evangelizing ever since. In 2000, he began witnessing with others using a table with a sign that stated, “Prayer,” and he designed the Prayer Stand in 2010.

Here is a photo of the easy-to-put-together stand—set up in just a few minutes (as Tom was speaking to us, he put up the tall stand on our stage).

Another recent speaker was Pastor Rick Lambert of Ohio, who spoke on 1 Peter 1:3–9. Rick shared with our staff that as Christians go through trials, they need to be looking for God’s love for us—including in every Scripture that we read—so His love for us can envelop us. And we can be joyful no matter what.

Here is a photo of Rick with his sister and her children, with Mark Looy of our staff at the far right, at the museum’s Foto FX station.

You can find out about Rick’s church, Grace Bible Church of Morrow (Ohio), at www.gracebiblewc.org.

Thanks for stopping by and thanks for praying,

Ken

Save Big On The Answers Mega Conference—Register By Tuesday

Our major teaching event of the year—the Answers Mega Conference (to be held near the beautiful Great Smoky Mountains)—has a deadline looming. The early bird discount ends Tuesday, April 30.  Register today and save 20 percent off the registration price.

Plus you can take advantage of some extra bonus features as part of the conference—a family conference to be held in the excellent facilities of the Sevierville Convention Center. I look forward to returning and speaking.

Each registered attendee will receive a $10 Adventure Voucher for the Creation Museum (a four-and-a-half-hour drive away), which can be applied to a spectacular new attraction coming there soon! Get ready for an experience of a lifetime with our new zip line canopy tour.  Our travelers will ride on 16 zip lines that range from 270 ft. to 900 ft. in length and up to 150 ft. in the air.  Travelers will also glide over 12 sky bridges. That is over two and a half miles of aerial action! You can use this conference voucher when you visit* the Creation Museum—along with your free museum admission as part of your conference registration.

We have also added three bonus sessions especially for the teens, hosted by Eric Mock, vice president of Slavic Gospel Association. On Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday evening immediately following the last evening session, we will have a time of worship, a devotional by one of our conference speakers, and prayer time. The theme for each night will be Know the Truth, Live the Truth, and Proclaim the Truth. Eric is bringing a team of youth to work with our kids’ program throughout the week and has opened up their worship time to all interested teens (and adults) who would like to attend. It’s just one more way we seek to equip your entire family at the Answers Mega Conference.

Hosted in the beautiful Great Smoky Mountains area, there are plenty of great family activities for your entire family to enjoy. Be sure to take advantage of some of the terrific discounts on Dollywood and Dixie Stampede tickets when you register. These rates are only available through the registration prepurchase before June 30th.

So make sure you register today  for this family vacation of a lifetime at www.AnswersMega.org.

Extraterrestrial Aliens, Legal Aliens, and Antibiotics

Every Saturday, AiG’s Dr. Elizabeth Mitchell writes a fascinating column that analyzes news of the past week that relates to the Bible’s authority, especially in Genesis.  Today’s very intriguing topics include:

Ata. Is this tiny mummy proof that aliens have visited earth and that evolution is true?  You may have seen these photos below on various websites and in other media—images taken from the new film Sirius. Who is Ata?
Antibiotic resistance of bacteria to drugs is often used as an example of evolution “in action today”—but is it? Dr. Mitchell will show you how no new genetic information is involved in this resistance, just more of the genetic information that is already there.
Researchers have produced results that show that life began on earth before the earth ever existed!
We have been closely watching the well-known Romeike homeschool case now in the U.S. courts. Every citizen should be watching how the Obama Administration’s lawyers are threatening Americans’ ability to bring up their children as they seek to deport a German family who left their country because of persecution for homeschooling. You’ll get an update today in News to Note.

Get the details on these stories and more in today’s News to Note.

Thanks for stopping by and thanks for praying,

Ken

*Zip lines scheduled to open early this summer.

Should Christians Not Judge Others?

We live in a world that increasingly strives to (supposedly) promote the idea of tolerance, but actually becomes intolerant of Christian absolutes as it does so. Whether it involves religion, behavior, or human sexuality, there is a growing anti-Christian sentiment in America and other Western nations. Ultimately, built into this “tolerance” is the concept that truth is determined by each individual, not by God. This has led many people to conclude that making judgments on anyone (especially coming from Christians) is wrong because the Bible says ”judge not” (Matthew 7:1). Interestingly enough, those who reject the notion of God or the credibility of the Bible often attempt to use God’s Word (e.g., by quoting verses out of context) to excuse their actions when they are presented with the gospel and the plight of sinners for rejecting it.

Because we hear the accusation that Christians shouldn’t judge others—particularly when we discuss topics such as “gay” marriage, compromise positions on Genesis, and so on—we decided to write a more detailed article in response to such an accusation. I encourage you to read the entire article now posted on the AiG website.

Thanks for stopping by and thanks for praying,

Ken

Famous German Homeschool Family, Persecuted for their Beliefs, Visits AiG

Earlier this month, I wrote a blog post about a Christian family—originally from Germany—that had been attempting to home educate their children in their homeland. The family had asked for asylum in America because of the persecution they were facing in Germany (which included fines and possible imprisonment). A judge in Tennessee granted them asylum, but the Obama Administration has challenged the asylum ruling. In Romeike v. Holder, oral arguments were heard in a U.S. Court of Appeals in Cincinnati on Tuesday about the Romeike family’s asylum request. While in the area, the Romeikes, including their six children, toured the Creation Museum on Tuesday and Wednesday.

Not only is the Obama Administration threatening to send the family back to Germany, where they may even face the loss of custody of their children, but what should also concern Americans is the possible precedent their case might set in the USA. For instance, lawyers with the U.S. Attorney General’s office implied during the oral arguments on Tuesday that the government can deny the liberty of parents to direct the educational upbringing of their children. While U.S. courts have generally been favorable to parents in regard to how they want to educate their children, including in their religious training, this current administration apparently wants to chip away at the rights that Americans currently have in home education. I blogged about this threat in a recent post.

One of the Romeike attorneys, Michael Donnelly, who is also the Director of International Relations for the Home School Legal Defense Association (HSLDA) and who has visited our museum three times himself, spoke to our AiG staff on Tuesday morning about the case, and he introduced the staff to the Romeike family. Here is a series of photos taken during the staff meeting, plus some other photos taken on site. After the oral arguments were made on Tuesday, the Romeike family returned to the Creation Museum on Wednesday to spend the entire day here and met with me and other AiG staff.

 

Mike Donnelly of the HSLDA spoke to our staff this Tuesday.

Uwe Romeike, father of the persecuted homeschool family, spoke briefly.

A film crew with the Truth in Action ministry filmed a part of our staff meeting.

The entire Romeike family, with attorney Michel Donnelly at the far right

A photo with me and the Romeike family inside the Creation Museum

The Michael Donnelly family and me

Here I am with two of the members of the Dudek family, taken inside the museum. This is another German family who has also been persecuted by German authorities for homeschooling.

Here is the compelling video that was shown to the staff on Tuesday morning by Mr. Donnelly—it will make you better informed about the importance of this case:

During a briefing for us at AiG on Wednesday about the previous day’s oral arguments in the Cincinnati courthouse, Mr. Donnelly shared with me and some of the staff that he found it “very troubling what the Obama Administration was arguing in court” regarding homeschooling. He told us that the U.S. Attorney General supported the German government’s assertion that homeschooling is not a parental right. In other words, the Obama Administration was supporting a belief that children really belong to the government, not to the parents. Therefore, governments supposedly have a right to educate children in the way they want to. This means that the current U.S. administration is seeking to undercut the parents’ ability to homeschool their children and undermine the biblical teaching that children belong to the parents and that parents are responsible for the education of their kids. In Germany, the Romeikes were forced to pay fines, and their children were removed from their home by authorities and were taken to a government-run school.

Romeike v. Holder should be a warning to all Americans that the same arguments being heard about homeschooling could be used down the road to outlaw homeschooling in the USA. At the same time, we also note that the U.S. government is increasingly pushing for new national standards in math, reading, science, etc. to be adopted in an effort to totally control the education of our children. In this curriculum move, the 50 states will not get federal financial support if they do not agree to adopt these new standards. Of course, we are seeing this new generation of national science standards insist that science should be taught as naturalism (which is atheism) and evolution presented as fact.

To keep up-to-date on this important Romeike v. Holder case, which directly affects religious liberty and education, go to the Romeike page of the HSLDA website.

Additionally, this related news story shows what it looks like when parents have no fundamental right to homeschool—at least for one family in Sweden, whose child was “removed” in 2009. The justification given by the state: homeschooling.

On Monday, our main article on the AiG website will discuss the Romeike case and its importance to education and religious freedom, not only in Germany but also in America—and the possible ramifications for home education here. Sadly, the Romeike v. Holder case just shows how anti-Christian the culture has become in America, as the secularists attempt to remove any vestige of Christianity from society. If you homeschool your children, you need to watch this case very carefully—and even if you don’t homeschool, you need to monitor this effort to undermine Christian education and freedom in America.

Thanks for stopping by and thank for praying,

Ken

Inconsistency and Hypocrisy Abound

Whenever I write a blog post like this one, I am always concerned that someone will misunderstand, so I wanted to write the following caveat to help stop such a misunderstanding.

I am grieved when I hear of the shocking killing of children in Connecticut, the maiming and killing of people by bombs at the Boston Marathon, the 9/11 attack, etc. After all, such tragedies will continue to take place because we live in a fallen world cursed with sin, with sinful human beings who are in rebellion against the Creator God (Genesis 3; Romans 1:18–31). Such sinful acts of violence and terrorism must be dealt with. Those responsible need to be held accountable, and the victims, those killed or injured and their family and friends, need our help and our love, plus our prayers (real prayers—to the God of Creation to comfort them).

In this post,  I wanted to write about what I see as sheer hypocrisy and gross inconsistencies on the part of many of the leaders of this country and many of its citizens.

President Obama told the country that those who planted the bombs that killed three people and injured over 100 at the Boston Marathon will be prosecuted. Of course, they needed to be held accountable for their sinful actions. This search cost millions and millions of dollars and disrupted hundreds of thousands of lives, and of course the nation should invest all that we can to protect our citizens. My heart goes out to those injured and maimed and also to the families of those killed. We need to pray for them and offer help.

But let’s not forget another tragedy: abortion. America has decided not to prosecute all the doctors and nurses in the U.S. who murdered over 3,000 innocent babies in their mothers’ wombs that same day (in a place that should be the safest spot on earth). This does not include the more than 3,000 they killed the day before, plus the more than 3,000 they murdered the day after, and the over 54 million they murdered since 1973. Why don’t we prosecute anyone in the U.S. government who uses taxpayer money to pay for those legal murders? And what about those courts that legalized the murder of children in their mother’s wombs? The hypocrisy is breathtaking!

Even though many of those who commit such wicked acts like we saw in Boston will escape punishment here on earth, it will be a dreadful day when they die and stand before God Almighty. It will be a day where those who have not repented and trusted in Christ will experience the wrath of God’s judgment for all of eternity (Isaiah 66:22–24; Matthew 25:31–46; Daniel 12:1–2; Revelation 20:10–15).

The news media spent days following the search for the Boston bombers (as they did for the 9/11 terrorists) and then discussed various issues relating to such events. Yet while they covered this, over 3,000 children were legally murdered each day and virtually nothing was reported about it.

At the same time, many in the news media spent days and days following a case of a woman accused of murdering her husband—yet these same media outlets said nothing about the more than 3,000 children murdered in the mother’s wombs each day.

The U.S. government has granted asylum to all sorts of people (and have allowed many  to immigrate here without knowing much at all about them). Yet a German homeschool family’s request for asylum (because their children would be taken away from them in Germany for being homeschooled) is being opposed by the Obama Administration. And sadly, the reasons being used to oppose the asylum request could be used to restrict religious freedom in America and even close down home education.

I have previously written about this homeschooling family—the Romeikes—and the case about their asylum request on my blog.

Yes, hypocrisy and inconsistencies abound. This homeschooling family would be a quality Christian family the USA should be welcoming. Consider the Boston bombers who were allowed to live in America! However, as Christians, we should not be surprised by the opposition we continue to receive from the increasingly anti-God culture. Christians throughout history have suffered persecution at the hands of unbelievers, and it will be no different today or tomorrow. The Bible tells us clearly that if we are true followers of Christ and living in truth, we too can expect persecution (John 15:20; 2 Timothy 3:12). What a great reminder that our home is not here on earth but in heaven if we have trusted Christ as our Savior (Philippians 3:20; 1 Peter 1:3-5)! While we are here on this earth, we need to continue to spread the gospel to a lost and dying world so they too can have eternal life because of Jesus Christ our Lord.

I would like to make a prediction. Because this nation (except for those true Christians who are a minority in the population) continues its rebellion against God,  relentlessly murders children every day, and increasingly endorses things like “gay” marriage that is an abomination to the Lord and destructive to the family, then this nation will continue to see the withdrawal of the Lord’s hand of blessing as God turns this nation over to righteous judgment.

This nation and many of its leaders need to repent of gross sin and remember that “blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord” (Psalms 33:12).

Thanks for stopping by and thanks for praying,

Ken

Context and “the Rest of the Story”

Recently I wrote a blog post titled “Skeptics Not Telling the Truth.” A few weeks ago, a small group of skeptics had contacted our publicist to obtain free passes to visit the Creation Museum. One of the jobs of our publicist is to vet requests from people who request complimentary passes as journalists and to determine if they are full-time professional journalists. These people who requested passes were not deemed to be legitimate journalists. Such skeptics usually come only to mock AiG and the Creation Museum and not write a balanced report. Now, there are professional journalists who will write articles that are not supportive of the Creation Museum and can be highly critical, but they possess legitimate credentials and usually act professionally when here. So they are entitled to receive free museum passes.

After this group was questioned about their intentions to conduct themselves as professional journalists, a writer for a skeptics magazine decided to write about their decision not to come to the Creation Museum. But this writer did not tell the truth about why the group didn’t come. See Skeptics Not Telling the Truth to read my blog post about this.

Now, the skeptic who told the writer the distorted view of what happened has responded with a blog post, where she claims the following:

Ham spends several paragraphs building an ironclad argument that I lied about that, which is very strange. He seems to think ‘we ended up skipping it’ is code for ‘the evil creationists barred the door and are hiding something.’ No, actually. Their PR person was very polite, and she was clearly concerned that we would make fun of their beliefs. At our other stops, the believers we talked with were by and large aware that their beliefs were weird and were fine with us having fun and making jokes. It didn’t seem to us that the creationists would like it if we made jokes about their weird beliefs, which is perfectly reasonable. Here is what their spokesperson said, in part:

While I know you may disagree with what the Creation Museum is all about, we wanted to make sure you weren’t approaching it with the attitude that people who hold those views are “weird” or to be made fun of.

I am glad my argument was “ironclad!” But this skeptic is not telling the whole story.

Our publicist wrote the words above in the context of this group trying to get free museum tickets. She told them they would get the passes if they were professional media reps and would cover us as a professional journalist should: fairly and accurately. We are not in the habit of granting free tickets to bloggers who are not professional journalists and will only end up mocking us.

The blogger (writing under the banner “Skepchick”) conveniently left out that entire context. Our museum guests are not obligated to write about us fairly as a condition of their visit. Furthermore, how could we possibly bar skeptics—if we wanted to (but we don’t)—who intend to write poorly about us afterwards? Should we have all guests sign a statement to that effect? Of course not.

So, when this blogger claims that we attempt to bar mockers and she cites our publicist who said, “We wanted to make sure you [the skeptics] weren’t approaching it with the attitude that people who hold those views are ‘weird’ or to be made fun of,” that is a misrepresentation. The group would not get free tickets if the members had the intent to mock the museum and weren’t professional journalists anyway. They certainly could pay like any other guest, tour the museum, and then comment later how they wished. And of course we couldn’t control what they write!

Now, our publicist did express to the skeptics that she had a concern that their group might be disruptive to the other guests during their visit. Our publicist told us that she “was concerned about their possible onsite behavior, but not their final posting. [She] didn’t want them making fun while at the museum, which would have disturbed other guests.” So, maybe this was another reason the skeptics decided not to tour (in addition to being denied free tickets). They might have had second thoughts about coming because they thought they could not get away with being disruptive if they openly mocked what they saw—and bothered our other guests (as we saw during a visit by a large atheist group previously).

You can read the Skepchick blog posting at this link.

Well, the Skepchick blog was taken up by atheist PZ Myers (associate professor of biology at the University of Minnesota Morris). As is usual for Prof. Myers, he lied to his followers. (Although for an atheist there is no such thing as ultimate truth, so lies are not really lies to them—ultimate truth, on the other hand, is presented in the Bible, which is the absolutely true Word of God.) The professor gave a highly inaccurate summary of his own visit to the Creation Museum when he and 285 other atheists (and some agnostics) came through four years ago.

Now, I want to warn you that the following quote from Dr. Myers is very explicit concerning some sexual matters. But I wanted you to know how far this atheist professor will go to lie to his followers—all a part of mocking God and shaking his fist at the God he claims does not exist.

In a recent blog post, Dr. Myers stated (among other remarkable comments), “When a group of us went to their ‘museum’, you could just see their paranoia twitch. They were very concerned that we amoral atheists might have gay sex on their exhibits, for instance, and told us not to … Not even if we brought condoms and promised it would be safe sex!”

Well, I’m sure nobody on our staff even thought of such garbage! Then the professor continued with his lies, stating, “We had to sign contracts promising good behavior.” The truth is that AiG did not get these atheists to sign such a statement—it was actually the leader in charge of bringing this group who insisted her people sign a statement that they would behave while here. That was because the organizer of the skeptics group had concerns that some of her people might get rowdy (and some of them did even after signing). Now, why did the atheist blogger leave out that key bit of information and instead make it appear as if the museum required the group to sign a statement of good behavior?

This Minnesota professor also claimed in his blog post that we threatened to “evict” one of the people in his atheist/agnostic group from the museum during their visit. What was omitted (conveniently) by this blogging professor was that the young man in question was previously involved in an incident downstairs (nothing major, but he was intending to be a distraction) that involved one of our public safety officers. In the museum bookstore episode that the blogger mentions, that same young man made some negative comments that were loud enough that other museum guests, and a staff member in the area (who was walking by and had also witnessed the incident downstairs), heard his loud mocking.

The young man was asked to keep it down—but there was no threat of eviction. Most of the atheists that day did follow the guidelines set by their group leader (however, the Minnesota professor did not, as shown at the link below). But sadly, some of our other guests did let us know that their visit was disrupted by the antics of some of the atheists. One family was given free tickets to come back another time after they shared with us that some of the atheists had disrupted their visit.

This Minnesota professor is not setting a good example for his students when he lies and misrepresents—including leaving out key information that would give his readers a completely different view of things. I hope this does not characterize the science research he is conducting at his university—much of which is probably at taxpayer expense.

You can read the original report on what happened the day when the 285 atheists and agnostics visited. You can also read more (and watch a YouTube video) about this group’s behavior when they went outside the front gates of the Creation Museum and conducted a mock communion service—to ridicule the death and Resurrection of Christ.

Actually, one of the main reasons I wanted to write this blog post today is once again to illustrate to what lows these skeptics will go to denigrate Christians. As Prof. Myers lies about what happened during his group’s visit to the Creation Museum, we need to understand that he also lies in what he teaches students about the creation-evolution issue. It’s sad that so many gullible students are being led astray by such an untrustworthy professor. The people who follow him as if he is some sort of guru or “god” want to be led astray because they are willing ignorant. 2 Peter 3 tells us about those who reject creation, the Flood of Noah, and the coming judgment by fire.

Of course, after reading this blog post, the professor won’t be able to help himself—he will come back with another blog and tell more untruths to defend himself (as he normally does when he is called out for his misleading blogs). Because the professor is so relentless in writing about AiG, he must see us a real threat. If not, why does he get so defensive of his anti-God stance?

Even though skeptics will continue to mock us, we do need to keep praying for these people (and they will mock us for even suggesting prayer)—that God will open their hearts to the truth of His Word and the gospel. This is what He did for Saul, who became the Apostle Paul—the greatest missionary of all time.

Thanks for stopping by and thanks for praying,

Ken

Earth Day: Eliminating All References to Him Day

This year marks the 43rd anniversary of what some people celebrate today as “Earth Day”—a date set aside each year to increase awareness of environmental issues. I’ve noted many times in the past that there is a heavy connection to Earth Day and paganism, but I think it’s important to remind everyone once again about the problems surrounding this day.

Now, Christians agree that they are called to be good stewards of the Lord’s resources (e.g., Psalm 24:1; Colossians 3:23). We were commanded in Genesis to care for God’s creation. We are to use it for man’s good and God’s glory:

Then God said, “Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.” So God created man in His own image; in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them. Then God blessed them, and God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply; fill the earth and subdue it; have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over every living thing that moves on the earth.” (Genesis 1:26–28)

But we must be cautious of putting the creation over the Creator. Romans 1 warns against worshiping the creation rather than the Creator—and many Earth Day celebrations are founded on evolutionary ideas, where man’s opinions are lifted above God’s Word. And we must remember that “nature” is not perfect. In fact, we read that God cursed the ground in Genesis 3:17. That will dramatically affect how we understand farming and gardening. Also, in Genesis 3:18, thorns and thistles came into existence as part of the Curse. Thus, man can help improve things by working against the Curse.

One concern for many people is climate change. And while there has been evidence for slight global warming at times (currently we are in a cooling trend) and climate change at a minute level, this is a natural occurrence in today’s fallen world and will not lead to doomsday scenarios as some scientists and politicians have claimed. For a general biblical perspective on climate change, I encourage you to read Global Warming in Perspective on our website, and for a more technical explanation, read Human-Caused Global Warming Slight So Far. We also need to remember (as we read in 2 Peter 3:7–10) that it is God who will end this present world when He determines it is the time and create a new heavens and earth.

However, the biblical mandate to “have dominion” over the earth should not be taken as an excuse to abuse the world either but rather the real justification to care for it—and without having to resort to scare tactics or to lifting up the creation over the Creator.

Understanding that humans were given dominion over the creation, and yet the creation is now suffering from the Fall, will then determine how we deal with certain issues. Here are just two of many such examples:

Although fires in forests can be good for a forest, extreme fires can be detrimental. Understanding it’s a fallen world will help us know that just because some fires are “natural” does not necessarily mean that they’re good.
It may be beneficial for man to dam up a water course—and the resulting lake can create new environments for birds and other animals. To insist this area must be left “natural” is not necessarily the right decision.

I urge you to read my article Earth Day—A Creationist Perspective so that you’ll be equipped to respond to the questions and claims of those with an unbiblical view of nature and the earth.

I like how our AiG cartoonist summed up Earth Day:

Thanks for stopping by and thanks for praying,

Ken

Jurassic Park 3-D “Helps” Creation Museum!

From April 5 until April 25, AiG was offered a phenomenal opportunity to reach hundreds of thousands of people—a unique outreach possibility that was presented to us by the advertising agency that promotes our Creation Museum and its many dinosaur exhibits.

In movie theaters in Indianapolis (Indiana), Cincinnati (Ohio), Columbus (Ohio), Dayton (Ohio), Louisville (Kentucky), and Lexington (Kentucky) that are showing the newly released Jurassic Park 3-D movie,* those people attending will learn about the Creation Museum. In these markets located within a two-hour drive of the museum, our award-winning, Hollywood-like, 30-second, animated commercial for the Creation Museum will be shown—before every showing on 458 screens in major theaters and during previews of every movie that is showing in those particular theaters. This will result in nearly 1,000,000 “impressions.” Also, the Creation Museum will be shown in every lobby of each theater in a video loop with other commercials.

Pray that this Creation Museum commercial will stimulate many moviegoers to visit the Creation Museum. We do work hard with our marketing company (Joseph David Advertising) to promote the Creation Museum with the view to reaching as many people as possible with the truth of creation and the gospel.

Thanks for stopping by and thanks for praying,

Ken

*The original Jurassic Park film was released twenty years ago.

Enns Continues to Promote Heresy—Sponsored by a Baptist Church

Theologian Peter Enns rejects a literal Adam and literal Eve and a literal Fall. Thus he has destroyed the foundation of the gospel. Peter Enns also does not believe the book of Romans deals with the gospel or that God through Paul refers to a literal Adam back in Genesis.

Many of you may be familiar with Peter Enns, who is a former fellow with BioLogos, an organization dedicated to promoting a form of theistic evolution (or “evolutionary creation” as they call it). We both spoke at the same homeschool convention a few years ago.

During my talk, I showed a few video clips of him, demonstrating in his own words that he doesn’t believe in a literal Adam or Eve or in a literal Fall. After we were told by conference organizers that I could critique Enns’s beliefs during the conference, we had informed them that we were considering it, and we were cleared to do so. Well, I was dropped from the next homeschool convention and Peter Enns was retained.

In many ways this cancellation was a turning point in the national homeschool movement, as homeschoolers in droves showed their support for me and for AiG for standing on the authority of the Word of God. There is much on the web about what happened and subsequent events, but our account of the whole situation can be read on our articled titled Kicked Out of Two Homeschool Conferences.

Well, Dr. Enns is coming to Dayton, Ohio, (which is not far from the Creation Museum) on Monday to be a keynote speaker at a conference (sponsored by First Baptist Church of Dayton) on science and theology. The goal of the conference is to present what organizers believe are alternative positions to biblical creation, such as theistic evolution. So I thought it would be important to present a new critique of Enns’s theological positions.

The pastor of First Baptist Church, Dr. Kennedy, said the following in one interview:

“The conference has one goal, to offer alternative truth claims to those that are presented by the Creation Museum and other advocates of a literal six-day creation of the earth,” said Rodney Kennedy, lead pastor of First Baptist Church on West Monument Avenue in Dayton. “Science has taught us that the universe is about 14 billion years old, and that the best available explanation for the beginning is the ‘big bang.’ There is nothing in scripture to refute the big bang. God created the heavens and the Earth, and I believe she took her sweet time doing it. . . .

My desire is that conference attendees will be strengthened in their faith by hearing our 21 presenters offer an alternative to six-day creationism, intelligent design and scientific creationism.”

The report continues as follows:

The main sponsor of the conference is First Baptist Church. This conference is offered through a grant from the Fordham Institute. Conference co-sponsors are Temple Israel, Christ Episcopal, United Theological Seminary and the University of Dayton Continuing Education Department.

Interesting that on the church’s website, we read this statement: “We study the Bible along with the gift of critical scholarship through the ages. Literalist interpretations are left to others.” So it‘s not surprising at all this church is sponsoring this conference that undermines the authority of God’s Word and the gospel.

Associated Baptist Press has released an article on this conference. The reporter did speak to me for a considerable length of time. It is a shame he didn’t include the information I gave him as to why it is important to take Genesis as it is written. I was asked why it matters what one believes in Genesis—as long as one preaches the gospel.

I explained that to compromise Genesis is not a salvation issue per se (salvation is conditioned upon faith in Christ—not what one believes about the age of the earth or days of creation). However, compromising on Genesis is an authority issue and a gospel issue. It is an authority issue because reinterpreting Genesis is undermining the authority of God’s Word and exalting man’s fallible words. It is also a gospel issue because to believe in millions of years, evolution, or both is to blame God for death and evil in the world instead of blaming our sin in Adam.

It’s interesting that in this article Peter Enns is quoted as saying the following:

Enns disputes Ham’s take on the situation and said he never heard of the term “historical science.”  “I wonder if he made that up,” said Enns, affiliate professor of biblical studies at Eastern Universityin St. Davids, Pa.

Well, even Enn’s friends at the compromising BioLogos foundation recently wrote an article discussing “historical science.” Even the liberal website rationalwiki.org details information about the term historical science. The fact that Peter Enns doesn’t understand the use of the term is one of the reasons he has been greatly influenced by the secular world in regard to beliefs about origins.

You can read the Associated Baptist Press article at this link. Sadly, most of what I explained is not discussed in the article.

If you want to hear Enns for yourself, I would encourage you to watch this video of a talk he gave at the Erasmus lecture at Westmont College of Santa Barbara in California (a Christian college that also has profs that teach students to reject a literal Adam and to believe in evolution):

Peter Enns even believes that Jesus is wrong in places (see our article on this subject called Was Jesus Wrong? Peter Enns Says, “Yes”). The ABP news article reminds the readers that “Enns has been battling creationists and biblical inerrancy for years. In 2008, he was suspended from Westminster Theological Seminary over his 2005 book Inspiration and Incarnation: Evangelicals and the Problem of the Old Testament.”

In 2012, Enns published his book, The Evolution of Adam, which basically teaches believers that evolutionary ideas can be mixed with God’s Word. But more than that, Enns totally rejects a literal Adam and Eve and a literal Fall. Now, the book is really divided into two sections. One section covers the book of Genesis and another covers the topic of Paul and his statements about Adam in Romans and 1 Corinthians. Of course, Enns’s treatment of Scripture related to biblical creation is appalling—in fact, it is heretical. Once you reject a literal Fall of man, then your teaching is heretical. Now, let me be clear: I am not calling Dr. Enns a heretic. But he has a very low view of the Word of God and some of his beliefs are certainly not a part of orthodox Christianity and thus are heresy.

We at Answers in Genesis stand uncompromisingly and unashamedly on the authority of God’s Word beginning in Genesis.

Live Streamed from San Diego This Sunday and Monday

I will be speaking at Horizon Christian Fellowship in San Diego this Sunday morning, evening, Monday morning (special programs for K–6 and 7–12), and Sunday evening.

All sessions will be live streamed. Here is the information:

Program details can be found on the event page.
For live streaming go to Horizon Christian Fellowship’s website at this link.
Times listed are in the Pacific time zone.

Thanks for stopping by and thanks for praying,

Ken

Skeptics Not Telling the Truth

A recent article in the Skeptical Inquirer made a claim about the Creation Museum that is simply not true. A group of skeptics—two journalists and a university professor—had contacted our Creation Museum’s publicist to inquire about getting complimentary tickets.

The article (see it below) proclaimed the following in bold print:

The visit by Richard Wiseman, Jon Ronson, and Rebecca Watson to the Creation Museum in Kentucky didn’t happen. Recounted Watson: “They said yes, you can film. But you can’t make fun of us. We ended up skipping it.”

Now, this quote implies that we and our publicist discouraged or prevented them from coming to the museum, based on how they wanted to portray us mockingly. But really, our publicist simply asked them to conduct themselves in a professional manner since they would be touring the museum and interviewing people—as our publicist normally does. So their decision not to tour the Creation Museum had nothing to do with our preventing them. Apparently, they just did not want to pay the admission!

Of course, skeptics are certainly welcome to visit the museum, as long as they won’t disrupt the experience of the other guests. And any paying guests can certainly write about us later in whatever way they wish. We can’t control what they write—we just ask that they be courteous and professional while here.

It frustrates us to hear claims that we supposedly won’t allow skeptics to tour the museum or to restrict them in some way if they won’t promise to write about us in a non-mocking way. It’s not true at all. Our ministry is to share the gospel of Jesus Christ with unbelievers—why would we deny entrance to the Creation Museum to those who don’t believe?

It’s unfortunate that these skeptics chose not to be honest about this situation. But without an absolute authority to help determine right and wrong, would we expect them to be honest in their reporting according to their meaningless and purposeless worldview? I hope that this group will not only reconsider how they’re falsely portraying the Creation Museum but that these individuals will visit like any other paying guest.

By the way, this past Saturday we had a group called the Secular Alliance visit the museum from Indiana, and they conducted themselves in a professional manner, as I was told, as most such groups do. And on Saturday, students from Duke University will visit with their professor. We welcome them.

 Thanks for stopping by and thanks for praying,

Ken