Ken Ham's Blog, page 423

You Can Witness at the Olympics—Don't Miss the Trip of a Lifetime!

This booklet, in several languages, will be distributed by the tens of thousands at the London Olympics this summer.

Have you ever dreamed about taking a foreign mission trip?

Have you ever dreamed about attending the Olympic Games?

Have you also ever dreamed about being in London?

75 people (so far) are about to live those dreams this summer.

They are part of the AiG Olympics team that will be leaving for the London 2012 Olympic Games on August 2, 2012. They will spend 10 glorious days at the Belsey Bridge Resort and travel by coach to the streets of London to do ministry. They will be involved in evangelistic literature distribution (in eight languages) and witnessing as God gives the opportunity.

Also, my wife Mally and I will be going to the UK at the same time so I can speak in various locations, and I will spend some time with this AiG Olympics team to give them their own mini AiG conference!

Deadline Approaching

You can still join us for this once-in-a-lifetime ministry experience—students, families, mission groups, pastors and missionaries, retired folks, and anyone who would love to meet people from 200 countries.

There will be time to explore London and even attend an Olympic event.

The AiG team will fly out of New York City directly to London's Heathrow Airport where our coaches will be waiting.

However, because we have reserved flights during the Olympics when air traffic is at the maximum, our team members must sign up quickly.

Contact the Olympics coordinator, Stefanie Cannon, if you are interested.

Visit the Answers in Genesis Worldwide Olympics web page for more information.

Dr. David Crandall of AiG Worldwide will be leading this AiG ministry team; this will be his seventh such Olympics (including the Winter Games).

Thanks for stopping by and thanks for praying,

Ken

Don't Miss This Feature

Every weekend we post a web feature examining many news reports of the week that touch on biblical authority (especially on topics that relate to the book of Genesis). Our feature offers analysis on these reports using science and the Bible. Called News to Note, it is written by a talented researcher and writer, Dr. Elizabeth Mitchell, as each week she looks at news items from a biblical perspective.

This is a phenomenal resource to keep up to date with the latest news on the creation, evolution, and millions of years front as well as related issues that AiG deals with on a regular basis.

If you hear of something in the news that seems to question the accuracy of the Bible, it's quite possible that Dr. Mitchell will examine that report—from both Scripture and science—by the weekend. I encourage you to read this past weekend's information-packed News to Note, where among other stories you'll be updated on a popular on-line poll to pick the best family attractions in America (look for it at the very end of the feature). The survey has generated some controversy as evolutionists have been trying to bump our Creation Museum off the list of top five attractions.

Needed Help

We also rely heavily on you, our supporters, to send us relevant information on news items. Just because you come across an article or news item does not necessarily mean we will have seen it—or you may have found it before we have. Now, if it's a major news source like The New York Times, Associated Press, Yahoo.com, MSNBC, CNN, etc., we have those media sources already covered. But please, send us any relevant news items from medium and smaller media outlets. We appreciate your assistance.

Starting at the Beginning

Yesterday, I gave a Sunday message at Calvary Baptist Church in Covington, Kentucky to kick off its annual Missions Conference. I spoke on being ambassadors for Christ by presenting the gospel to the world the way God does it in the Bible—by starting at the beginning. (In particular, I focused on Genesis 3.)

As part of our support for this conference, we offered everyone in attendance the new book Begin (which presents the gospel by starting at the beginning) at the special price of $3 each (normally our case lot price).

Here are some photographs taken at the church yesterday.

I am with the senior pastor, Jeff Davenport.

Speaking from the platform.

People at the resource tables to obtain Begin.

The Begin book was very popular.

Special Offer for Answers for Women Conference

Are you desiring to attend the Answers for Women conference but not sure what to do with your husband and kids?

Well, as a special bonus, when you register and attend the Answers for Women conference, you will receive complimentary Creation Museum admission for your husband and children, good for Friday and Saturday. So while you are enjoying great Bible teaching and uplifting worship, your family can be enjoying all the exhibits and shows (including the petting zoo).

Don't forget, the Early Bird rate ends February 29. Register now and save 15 percent. Bring a group and get $10 off each additional person.

Visit www.answersforwomen.org to register now!

Thanks for stopping by and thanks for praying,

Ken

Misrepresented by Leading Pastor

Tim Keller is pastor of Redeemer Presbyterian Church in Manhattan, New York. He attended Westminster Theological Seminary in Philadelphia, PA.

He is known as a good Bible teacher and has a heart for evangelizing New York City. Redeemer Presbyterian's Hope for New York outreach program seeks to satisfy the spiritual and material needs of those in the community. Hope for New York does sets a high standard for Christian participation in the larger community. But …

In a new article posted this past week, he has grossly misrepresented what I believe and teach. But first of all, let me give you some background:

Pastor Keller is quoted as saying that he takes Genesis 2 literally, but not Genesis 1. In a teaching session on Genesis 1 and 2, Keller claims that Genesis 1 and 2 contradict one another and says that Christians can do either of the following: they can believe that Genesis 1 and 2 contradict each other and an "idiotic editor" put them together in the Bible, or Christians can adopt his perspective that Genesis 1 is a poem, while Genesis 2 is historical.

I have written about Tim Keller previously. For instance, I quoted him stating, "Belief in evolution can be compatible with a belief in a historical fall and a literal Adam and Eve." You can read my post about this subject on my Facebook page at this link.

I also wrote the following in another post:

Tim Keller is an example of a very evangelistic teacher of the Word, who we would applaud for his teaching on the centrality of Christ and his fervor to reach people with the gospel. And certainly, there are many who are responding to his teaching—for which we praise the Lord. At the same time we need to step back and recognize that we are losing this culture, and the church in America is moving in the direction of the church in England where church attendance is way down and the culture as a whole has become extremely secular.

We have said many times over the past years that the attack on the Word of God in this era of history has been an attack on Genesis 1-11 in particular. So many in the church have adopted evolution/millions of years into the Genesis account, reinterpreting it in various ways. This has led to an undermining of the authority of the Word of God and contributing to the loss of the coming generations from the church. It only takes one generation to lose a culture.

It is so sad to see a great Bible teacher like Tim Keller promote belief in evolution to the church. In 2009, he co-sponsored a conference with the Biologos Foundation (a Foundation that I consider to be extremely liberal in many ways) in New York. Tim Keller presented a paper at that conference which I will link to below. I encourage you to read his paper in its entirety, as you will then have no doubt where he stands in regard to Genesis 1. Basically he does not believe Genesis 1 is literal history. Interesting to me that he brings up some of the same old issues we have answered many times over on the AiG website.

You can read the rest of the post at this link.

And yet another post (published on my blog) I wrote about Tim Keller can be found at this link.

The Misrepresentation

I give you all the above as the background to the first of a new series of articles by Pastor Keller that has just been posted on the pro-evolution BioLogos website. In this article, Keller states the following:

Many secular and many evangelical voices agree on one 'truism'—that if you are an orthodox Christian with a high view of the authority of the Bible, you cannot believe in evolution in any form at all. New Atheist authors such as Richard Dawkins and creationist writers such as Ken Ham seem to have arrived at consensus on this, and so more and more in the general population are treating it as given. If you believe in God, you can't believe in evolution. If you believe in evolution, you can't believe in God.

It's sad that he would place arch-evolutionist Richard Dawkins and me in the same sentence. I'm assuming he considers both of us to be extremes. Since Richard Dawkins as a radical atheist is one extreme, then am I as a six-day, young-earth creationist the other extreme?

It is true that I believe people who reinterpret God's clear words in Genesis to accommodate evolution or millions of years do not have the high view of Scripture they should have. However, as I have noted many times, there seems to be almost a type of Schizophrenia with a number of theologically conservative Christian leaders. They have such a high view of Scripture from Genesis 12 through the end of Revelation (as I would say Tim Keller does), but then they apply a totally different hermeneutic to Genesis 1–11—a hermeneutic they would refuse to apply to the rest of Scripture! For Genesis 1–11, they allow man's fallible beliefs about evolution or millions of years to override the clear words in Scripture so man's ideas can be accommodated into Scripture.

Also, I have stated many times that there are many men and women of God who believe in evolution or millions of years. But I am also quick to say that salvation is conditioned upon faith in Christ—Christ alone! Believing in evolution or millions of years is not necessarily a salvation issue per se, but it definitely is an authority issue—a battle over the authority of the Word of God. So to make the statement Tim Keller has declared about me—that,"If you believe in God, you can't believe in evolution. If you believe in evolution, you can't believe in God"—is a gross misrepresentation.

Sadly, I would say that one can be a Christian leader, preach the gospel, and see people saved for eternity and yet still be contributing to undermining the authority of the Word of God by accommodating man's ideas of evolution or millions of years into Genesis. I believe there are many Christian leaders and academics today who may have a successful ministry in many ways (in a church, Bible college or seminary classroom, and so on), but stand back when it comes to Genesis. As a result, we are losing the culture—America will become like Europe and the UK if it continues in the direction it is going regarding biblical authority. And why? I believe there has been an increasing generational loss of Biblical authority because so many in the church have opened the door to compromise beginning in Genesis.

I don't necessarily believe that people like Tim Keller have deliberately misrepresented me and others like me who take the stand we do on Genesis. I think they haven't really understood what we are saying in relation to the loss of biblical authority. And I personally believe one of the reasons they don't understand is because they really don't know what the word "science" is and how it is used! They do need to understand the difference between operational (observational) science (that we all basically agree on) and historical science (beliefs about the past that can't be tested empirically). And for whatever reason, these conservative scholars like Tim Keller seem to be blind to the fact they have two different approaches to hermeneutics—one approach for Genesis 1–11 and one for the rest of Scripture.

On the BioLogos website, we read the following concerning the new series by Tim Keller:

The six-part series that begins today is taken from a paper Dr. Keller presented at the first BioLogos Theology of Celebration Workshop in October of 2009. It considers three main clusters of questions lay people raise with their pastors when introduced to the teaching that biological evolution and biblical orthodoxy can be compatible. As a pastor and evangelist himself, Keller takes these concerns seriously and offers suggestions for addressing them without requiring believers adopt a particular view or accept a definitive answer. In this first installment, Keller gives an overview of the tension between biblical and scientific accounts on origins, before addressing the specific issues and responses in subsequent posts.

At the end of the article by Tim Keller, he states the following:

In short, if I as a pastor want to help both believers and inquirers to relate science and faith coherently, I must read the works of scientists, exegetes, philosophers, and theologians and then interpret them for my people. Someone might counter that this is too great a burden to put on pastors, that instead they should simply refer their laypeople to the works of scholars. But if pastors are not 'up to the job' of distilling and understanding the writings of scholars in various disciplines, how will our laypeople do it? This is one of the things that parishioners want from their pastors. We are to be a bridge between the world of scholarship and the world of the street and the pew. I'm aware of what a burden this is. I don't know that there has ever been a culture in which the job of the pastor has been more challenging. Nevertheless, I believe this is our calling.

Then BioLogos states, "Next week, Keller begins to unpack the individual questions, beginning with how we can understand evolution in relation to a literal reading of the Bible."

By the way, the six-part series by Keller is taken from a paper he presented at the first BioLogos Theology of Celebration Workshop in October of 2009. Based on a check of the internet and Facebook, Pastor Keller took this shot at me a couple of years before I even mentioned him on my Facebook and blogs.

You can read the entire article by Tim Keller on the BioLogos website.

Thanks for stopping by and thanks for praying,

Ken

What about All Those Laws in the Old Testament?

This week, I was interviewed by a newspaper in western Kentucky about an upcoming conference in Paducah (www.AnswersinGenesis.org/outreach/event/Paducah2012).  After asking me various questions about creation, evolution, what we believe about Genesis, and dating methods etc., the reporter then asked a question that went something like this: "Well if you believe the Bible, why don't you obey all those laws in the Old Testament—for instance all the laws in Deuteronomy, Leviticus and so on?  Laws about stoning people who committed various sins/crimes?"

I find I am getting these sorts of questions more and more.  When reporters hear us give confident answers about the creation/evolution/age-of-the earth issues, then they resort to asking about the Bible and the laws in the Old Testament, thinking they are pointing out that we really don't believe the Bible, because if we did, we should be obeying all those laws detailed in Leviticus and Deuteronomy, etc.

The first thing I said to him was, "Well Christians don't sacrifice animals like the Jews did—because Christ's death and Resurrection changed all that.  As the Scripture states, 'who does not need daily, as those high priests, to offer up sacrifices, first for His own sins and then for the people's, for this He did once for all when He offered up Himself.' (Hebrews 7:27)."  I then went on to explain that we are under the New Covenant (a new legal agreement, if you will), not the Old Covenant as given to the Jews.

I must admit, it is difficult to explain this in summary form to a reporter on the phone—but here is the essence of what I also explained:

The laws of the Old Testament, sometimes called the Old Covenant or the Law, were made up of over 600 rules and restrictions. If one rule was broken, the person was as guilty as if all were broken (James 2:10). But Christ's death and Resurrection have made them obsolete. The Apostle Paul writes in Galatians 3:25 that "now that faith has come, we are no longer under a tutor" (i.e. the Law). The author of Hebrews sums up the issue of the Law, writing, "In speaking of a new covenant, he [Christ] makes the first one obsolete" (Hebrews 8:13).

The sacrifice of animals and the priesthood were all types and shadows that pointed to Christ. We no longer need animal sacrifices because through His death and Resurrection, He secured an eternal redemption," something that the blood of animals could never do (Hebrews 9:12). We live in a world where not even one person is righteous (Romans 3:19), so we could never keep the 600+ laws of the Old Covenant perfectly! But Christ came to earth, kept the Law to perfection, died in our place, and was resurrected not only to give us salvation, but also to free us from the Old Covenant and establish a new one—a covenant based on His atoning blood (Luke 22:20).

Please pray for wisdom as we attempt to answer the many questions we receive from the media and the public as a whole.

Thanks for stopping by and thanks for praying,

Ken

Evangelists from Romania Visit the Museum

Florentin Clipa of Romania has just paid his third visit to the Creation Museum in the past two years. This time he was joined by his brother Pavel. They are evangelists in Eastern Europe, based in northern Romania. Now that the Iron Curtain has fallen (can you believe it, it was more than 20 years ago?), there are many more opportunities for Eastern European Christians like Florentin to share their faith.

Their father, a pastor, died at the hands of Communist authorities in Romania in the 1980s, but his children have carried on his evangelistic efforts. Florentin and Pavel are with a missionary group called Vision Outreach Romania (VOR). Florentin spoke to our staff last year in chapel, and he shared how he is using biblical apologetics in his evangelism.

Here is a photo of Florentin and Pavel taken with me inside the museum's Noah's Cafe.

Pavel (left) and his brother Florentin (right) with me in the museum's Noah's Café.

These brothers are absolutely passionate about reaching their countrymen and people in neighboring countries with the gospel. Here is one reason why.

They are two of seven children. Their father's suffering at the hands of Communist oppressors in the 1970s and 1980s was somewhat similar to what was experienced by the world's most famous Romanian preacher, Richard Wurmbrand—author of the bestseller Tortured for Christ and founder of Voice of the Martyrs. Pastor Clipa, however, did not have the kind of prison stay that Wurmbrand had. That's because Pastor Clipa had seven children, and authorities did not want to have the father, the breadwinner, to be taken away to prison and away from his job and thus have the state take care of eight people that he would have to leave behind. So here's what the Romanian secret police did. They detained Pastor Clipa in the evenings at a jail (and often in the early morning), where he was subject to many beatings. He would then be brought home so he could get a bite to eat and then get ready to go to work so he could earn money for the family. After work, he returned into custody. Incredible.

The beatings suffered by Pastor Clipa took their toll, and he died of internal injuries at the age of 42, leaving a widow and their several children. All seven children love the Lord today, and are involved in various evangelistic outreaches throughout Romania and neighboring countries. Their mother, now in her 60s, does not look back with bitterness on how her husband and family were so mistreated under Communist rule (Romania became free over 20 years ago).

Interestingly, in their visit with us, both Pavel and Florentin indicated that opposition to their evangelistic work no longer comes from the government, but from the church—the Orthodox church (which is so powerful in the country). Compromise in the church regarding biblical authority does not just exist in America; it's a major problem in this once-Communist nation of Romania.

Find out more about Florentin, Pavel, and VOR—including their outreach camps for children and teens—at www.charis.ro. We appreciate the prominence given to our AiG website and Creation Museum on the right side of the homepage.

A Great Camp

This past weekend, Steve Ham had the opportunity of being a part of the "Signs of Life" winter retreat youth camp, with the theme "With Every Heartbeat," in Lake Michiwana, Michigan. He reports the following:

It was a true privilege to be with a group of pastors from smaller churches who pooled resources to bring their youth together for equipping in the Word of God. The theme of the camp was around giving our all for Christ, and messages were given from various pastors and myself. The idea behind this camp came from Pastor Eric Mock who has a passion to really equip youth with the truth in God's Word and point them to the sufficiency for life in Jesus Christ and train them to serve in the church. The electives were all centered around training the youth for serving in the church including teaching young men to preach. It was a joy to be a part of the final session of the camp that was totally youth led based on the training they had received during the weekend.

A Great Strategy: Pastor Eric combined with other pastors who are running two camps per year. One winter camp based on equipping youth to serve, and then a summer camp based on equipping youth to defend their faith. The summer camp is based around the teaching of the Creation Museum and is actually held at the Creation Museum. The more I have seen this in action the more I have been impressed with this wonderful combination of growing spiritual maturity alongside growing biblical foundations in such a strategic way.

A Great Game: During the camp we played a game whereby the youth had to smuggle Bibles (toothpicks) past agents (the adults) to get them to their contact for distribution. If the adults caught the youth, they had to be able to explain the gospel to them and answer questions in order to be let go. It was great for me to see how many of the youth were able not only to give a good description of the gospel but also defend it. It was also great to be able to help some of them with answers and teach them apologetics in such a practical manner.

Here is a photo taken at the youth camp.

"Signs of Life" Winter Retreat

Thanks for stopping by and thanks for praying,

Ken

Compromise with Millions of Years Continues to Permeate the Church

We are seeing many more instances of conferences run by Christian academic institutions or by churches that have speakers who promote evolution or millions of years. We are also seeing more Christian leaders being identified with a particular compromised position on Genesis. For instance, Richard Dahlstrom, senior pastor of Bethany Community Church in Seattle, was featured on the theologically liberal BioLogos.org website over the weekend in their Saturday sermon series. Interestingly, his church's statement of faith claims the church believes in the authority of the Bible, but he heavily promotes John Walton (professor at Wheaton College who believes in millions of years and rejects Genesis 1 as an account of material origins) in the sermon (not in this clip). BioLogos only features a clip from the sermon, which was delivered in November 2011.

Pastor Dahlstrom asserts that the word "create" in Genesis 1 does not mean to make something but rather to take something that's already in existence and to make it "functional." He claims that God is bringing the "dysfunctional universe" into something functional. While he says that God created all the universe, he claims Genesis 1 is only concerned with the "functional" aspect, not the material aspect. He says Genesis 1 is about bringing order out of chaos. (Earlier in the sermon, he recommends John Walton's The Lost World of Genesis One.)  He is obviously regurgitating the position taken by John Walton from Wheaton College, and we have written about this before (see this blog post).

John Walton in his book The Lost World of Genesis One writes the following about order and chaos in relation to the Flood:

It has already been suggested that the boat in Mesopotamian accounts may have served as a floating shrine. In its dimensions, the Genesis ark is much more realistic for a boat, though conceptually it may also represent a sanctuary where order is maintained floating on a sea of resurgent chaos. In this sense the Mesopotamian ark appears as a physical representation of a sanctuary, while the Genesis ark appears as a functional representation of a sanctuary. Creation both in the Bible and in the ancient Near East entailed deity bringing order while pushing back chaos. . . . The forces of chaos were most consistently represented in the cosmic waters. In this sense, the flood represents a reversal of creation. This is more the case in the biblical account than in the ancient Near Eastern accounts, for in the latter there is no textual representation of re-creation. (p. 322)

Read more about this issue at this blog post.

Pastor Dahlstrom, who promotes Walton's ideas, is the author of  The Colors of Hope: Becoming People of Mercy, Justice, and Love and  02: Breathing New Life into Faith, both of which deal with the Christian life and walk. Dahlstrom earned his MDiv at Talbot Seminary and runs a blog called Fibonacci Faith.

Regardless of what John Walton claims, I argue that after reading his book and other writings of his, there is no doubt in my mind he had developed his ideas about Genesis to accommodate the supposed millions of years of earth history. And as I often say, the teaching of millions of years is really the pagan religion of this age that attempts to explain life without God and that even Evangelical pastors can be caught up in this darkness.

Why do we continue to inform you about such pastors and academics who promote these ideas that we claim compromise God's Word? Well, even though I don't want to question the Christian leaders' commitment to the Lord, to me the compromise with the secular world is really summed up in this verse of Scripture:

For you were formerly darkness, but now you are light in the Lord; walk as children of light (for the fruit of the light consists in all goodness and righteousness and truth), trying to learn what is pleasing to the Lord. And do not participate in the unfruitful deeds of darkness, but instead even expose them. (Ephesians 5:8–11)

Thanks for stopping by and thanks for praying,

Ken

Compromise with Millions of Years Continues to Permeate the Church

Photos from the NRB Convention

I just spent three days at the annual convention of the National Religious Broadcasters, an association of about 1,200 ministries that have media outlets (radio, TV, internet, etc.). We met in Nashville, Tennessee at the massive Opryland Hotel.

We picked up the NRB award yesterday for Best Ministry Website. (We'll be getting a photo from the NRB soon of the ceremony—meanwhile, below is a photo of NRB President Dr. Frank Wright interviewing me about the website award.) We are honored and blessed to receive the award considering there are so many NRB members with quality websites. Our talented web team, led by VP Dan Zordel, was greatly encouraged by this special recognition.

At the convention, we passed out demo CDs of our new 60 second radio program (to launch in May).

Here are some photos from the NRB convention.

Dr. Wright and I videotaped an interview, where we talked about the "Best Website Award" plus the progress of the Ark Encounter.

A couple of ladies dropped by our large booth in the NRB expo hall and wanted my advice on … well, smart phones! A staff member joked with me that I had missed my calling—working as a sales associate at Best Buy!

Being interviewed for an American Family Radio program—the host was back at the AFR studios in Tupelo, Mississippi. (By the way, please pray for its ailing VP and AiG friend, Marvin Sanders.)

Talking with Luiza, a reporter for the Christian Post news website, at our booth.

An interview with Dennis Page of KCBI, a large Christian radio station in Dallas.

Talking with long-time friend Dave Young, VP of Blount Communications, whose six radio stations cover a large part of New England (and have hosted me in the past for an AiG seminar).

The convention started with some sad news. Outgoing NRB chairman Bill Skelton passed away the day before the convention started. Bill was the right-hand man for the late Pastor Adrian Rogers and his well-known ministry "Love Worth Finding." He and his wife Barbara (photo below) were keen Creation Museum supporters—they toured in 2010 and we appreciated their friendship. See NRB Chairman Visits. Please keep Barbara in your prayers.

Last, here's a photo of Pastor Jim Scudder of Chicago interviewing me for his TV program Victory in Grace.

Thanks for stopping by and thanks for praying,

Ken

Eagle Scout a Huge AiG Booster and Rubik's Cube YouTube Star

I recently heard of a new Eagle Scout (a difficult rank to achieve within Scouting, requiring a lot of hard work and perseverance) who is an avid Answers in Genesis supporter and lives in California. Cooper is his name, and his parents wrote to us recently to let us know of their son's accomplishments. That includes a video posted to YouTube where he gives a talk on the incredible design of our world—and as he speaks, he solves the Rubik's Cube puzzle very quickly. (The video is below.) If you know anything about the Rubik's Cube, you know it's a very, very difficult puzzle to solve—much less doing it fast (and by a teen)!

Cooper's parents had recently asked us for a favor, which we granted (see below). Along the way, they shared something about this very able young man (the family asked that we keep his full identity hidden).

Dear Mr. Ham,

It is customary for new Eagle Scouts to receive a letter from the president

congratulating them. Our son who will soon be 18 and will vote in the upcoming

election, would not be as thrilled to receive a letter from the President of the

United States as he would be to receive a letter from you, Ken!

This e-mail is to request if there is any way possible for you to send a letter

congratulating our son for reaching the high and prestigious rank of Eagle Scout

and also to congratulate him on his home school, high school graduation. It would be

such a blessing for Cooper to receive a letter from you as he considers you a

hero of the faith! He loves attending your conferences and we have a great

photo of the two of you [see attached].

Sincerely grateful for your stand,

God Bless you!  Gal. 6:9

Marci (mom)

Marci:

I will get this letter done for you. As a former Explorer Scout and California

resident (I did a lot of hiking in the Sierra Nevada mountains when I was a Boy Scout and

Explorer), it is my pleasure to make sure Ken does this and pops the letter in the mail.

Is there a deadline?

Regards,

M

[Reply a few days later:]

Awesome! Thank you so very much!

The letter and the photo arrived today. Cooper is more than thrilled.

We are so very grateful to you for helping this to happen! Please give Ken Ham a special thank you for us! We pray God repays you both, as we never could.

– M. and M.

With a photo taken of Cooper and me at a recent seminar in northern California, we had a 5 x 7 of this photo made and sent to Cooper—along with a congratulatory message from me written on the photo.

In a follow-up email, Cooper's parents shared a video of a speech Cooper wrote and presented on the topic intelligent design—when he was only 14 years old. He solved the Rubik's Cube in the last part of his speech and finishes with the gospel message. Fast forward to 5:50 of this video:

Click here to view the embedded video.

Now, that's pretty good for a 14 year old! Amazing in fact!

Later, the family shared much more about their son:

Cooper had always dreamed of applying for the Air Force Academy. But things have changed so much in the world in the past 10-15 years we didn't have peace.

Cooper is currently very actively involved in Speech & Debate  and he is attending the local Junior College and plans to transfer to San Jose State. Lord willing he will study engineering, .and if he is still up to it would like to go into law and maybe practice corporate law. These are ambitious desires.  Most of all, we pray Cooper gets in line with God's plan for his life and education.  He is very grounded in the Word.

They added the following:

Cooper is very active in the prolife movement and is the treasurer of a youth run group.  He plays the piano.

[There's a] 17 year gap between Cooper and our next oldest child. He has been a blessing every day of his life.

At age 14, Cooper wrote the [Rubik's Cube/Design] speech (or, God gave Cooper the speech) and he came in 5th in the nation. He continues to perform it for Bible studies, Home School Conferences and groups, chapels, etc. He performed it one summer at an ATI Conference, and only two speakers received a standing ovation that week, one was David Barton and the other was Cooper.

He was invited to take the speech to Malaysia. Although Cooper has never even done a "sleep-over," he got on a plane by himself and flew to Malaysia for 4 weeks in 2010.

We would love to some day visit the Creation Museum! We have heard wonderful things about it.

Thanks for stopping by and thanks for praying,

Ken

Eagle Scout a Huge AiG Booster and YouTube Star

I recently heard of a new Eagle Scout (a difficult rank to achieve within Scouting, requiring a lot of hard work and perseverance) who is an avid Answers in Genesis supporter and lives in California. Cooper is his name, and his parents wrote to us recently to let us know of their son's accomplishments. That includes a video posted to YouTube where he gives a talk on the incredible design of our world—and as he speaks, he solves the Rubik's Cube puzzle very quickly. (The video is below.)

Cooper's parents had recently asked us for a favor, which we granted (see below). Along the way, they shared something about this very able young man (the family asked that we keep his full identity hidden).

Dear Mr. Ham,

It is customary for new Eagle Scouts to receive a letter from the president

congratulating them. Our son who will soon be 18 and will vote in the upcoming

election, would not be as thrilled to receive a letter from the President of the

United States as he would be to receive a letter from you, Ken!

This e-mail is to request if there is any way possible for you to send a letter

congratulating our son for reaching the high and prestigious rank of Eagle Scout

and also to congratulate him on his home school, high school graduation. It would be

such a blessing for Cooper to receive a letter from you as he considers you a

hero of the faith! He loves attending your conferences and we have a great

photo of the two of you [see attached].

Sincerely grateful for your stand,

God Bless you!  Gal. 6:9

Marci (mom)

Marci:

I will get this letter done for you. As a former Explorer Scout and California

resident (I did a lot of hiking in the Sierra Nevada mountains when I was a Boy Scout and

Explorer), it is my pleasure to make sure Ken does this and pops the letter in the mail.

Is there a deadline?

Regards,

M

[Reply a few days later:]

Awesome! Thank you so very much!

The letter and the photo arrived today. Cooper is more than thrilled.

We are so very grateful to you for helping this to happen! Please give Ken Ham a special thank you for us! We pray God repays you both, as we never could.

– M. and M.

With a photo taken of Cooper and me at a recent seminar in northern California, we had a 5 x 7 of this photo made and sent to Cooper—along with a congratulatory message from me written on the photo.

In a follow-up email, Cooper's parents shared a video of a speech Cooper wrote and presented on the topic intelligent design—when he was only 14 years old. He solved the Rubik's Cube in the last part of his speech and finishes with the gospel message. Fast forward to 5:50 of this video:

Click here to view the embedded video.

Now, that's pretty good for a 14 year old!

Later, the family shared much more about their son:

Cooper had always dreamed of applying for the Air Force Academy. But things have changed so much in the world in the past 10-15 years we didn't have peace.

Cooper is currently very actively involved in Speech & Debate  and he is attending the local Junior College and plans to transfer to San Jose State. Lord willing he will study engineering, .and if he is still up to it would like to go into law and maybe practice corporate law. These are ambitious desires.  Most of all, we pray Cooper gets in line with God's plan for his life and education.  He is very grounded in the Word.

They added the following:

Cooper is very active in the prolife movement and is the treasurer of a youth run group.  He plays the piano.

[There's a] 17 year gap between Cooper and our next oldest child. He has been a blessing every day of his life.

At age 14, Cooper wrote the [Rubik's Cube/Design] speech (or, God gave Cooper the speech) and he came in 5th in the nation. He continues to perform it for Bible studies, Home School Conferences and groups, chapels, etc. He performed it one summer at an ATI Conference, and only two speakers received a standing ovation that week, one was David Barton and the other was Cooper.

He was invited to take the speech to Malaysia. Although Cooper has never even done a "sleep-over," he got on a plane by himself and flew to Malaysia for 4 weeks in 2010.

We would love to some day visit the Creation Museum! We have heard wonderful things about it.

Thanks for stopping by and thanks for praying,

Ken

A Pastor Who Really Gets It!

As many of you know, recently I spoke at an AiG conference in one of the largest (if not the largest) church in Bermuda.

After my first message on the Sunday morning—in which I covered the topic of the relevance/importance of the book of Genesis and the decay of cultures—the pastor gave a powerful challenge to the congregation. To me, his challenge was refreshing. I say this because the pastor really understood the nature of the message I gave. He challenged the congregation concerning how they are teaching their children/families and that they needed to commit to pass on that spiritual legacy to the next generation.

The reason I was so pleased is because in many churches, the leaders often give what I would call the standard "altar call." Pastor Gary Simons of Cornerstone Bible Fellowship really understood the "Already Gone" message. So many young adults are leaving the church, and many young people still going to church are "already gone" in their minds, and they are ready to leave when they become adults.

Here is a photo of some of those people who stood together to take up the challenge given by the pastor to do their best to train up the next generation to stand uncompromisingly on God's Word and to be able to defend the faith.

I selected the audio of his challenge, and I urge you to listen to it—it will encourage you. And to me, it is a great lesson for other Christian leaders to help them understand the types of challenges that need to be given to families today.

Listen here.

One of the church members who sent me the audio file wrote the following:

Thanks again for coming to our small Island and blessing us with solid teaching. I especially appreciated it as I work with the young people in our church and I know that they are trying to keep afloat in the difficult situations they find themselves in at school—it is the hardest thing they deal with in their lives and most of them don't make it—they give in to the pressure and live defeated lives spiritually. I am convinced we are not giving them enough help to survive the school system.

You can listen to all the talks I gave in Bermuda on the church's website.

You can find out more about the church at www.cornerstone.bm.

Pastor Simons also wrote a follow-up news item about my visit to the island.

Thanks for stopping by and thanks for praying,

Ken