Ken Ham's Blog, page 431

Reaching into Faraway Places

When the Creation Museum was opened, we did not envisage the wide-ranging impact it would have—and in ways we never dreamed of. This past week, we received an email from a pastor in a country that was formerly a part of the Soviet Union. It is fascinating to see how an article about the Creation Museum resulted in him contacting us to ask for advice. Obviously English is his second language, but if I could write in a second language as well as he does, I would be thrilled. Actually, I do speak in two languages—American and Australian.

As you read the following email, please pray for this pastor and his group (names have been withheld for reasons of protecting their identity in a challenging environment):

I am [a pastor from a country that was a former part of the Soviet Union]. Looking through [a] Christian magazine for October, I came across some interesting interviews with Mr. Mark Looy [AiG Chief Communications Officer].  It's really exciting and so important that you have founded the museum of Creation and in this way you are reaching people, showing them the truth about God and the origin of life itself.   It encouraged me greatly as I got [a like] desire a short time ago. I have dreamt to become a PALEONTOLOGIST from my school years. I used to learn the information on my own, to buy books, and made dinosaurs using clay. But my parents did not share my interests, and they did not want me be a paleontologist, and I thought that it would never come true. But desire towards this topic has been inside of me all the time.

In the year of 1992 I got to know God, and in 1999 I became the pastor of the church.   Obviously, I did not believe in evolution, but I did not see any possibility to make anything in the sphere of my old dream either. From time to time I heard something about the movement of creationism, but no idea came to my mind that I could do anything in this sphere. About three years ago when my family and I were on vacation I was at the seaside reading a book.  In one of the chapters I read such a thesis: "your hobby has to be the tool of your influence on your generation…" Remembering my hobby I smiled to myself and thought that that phrase was not about me, because my hobby is so weird and is not useful for people at all. But it became a turning point, as right after it in my mind appeared the plan of application of my paleontologic hobby in the educational realm, and in sharing the Good News with people, society. I understood that I had got the idea from God how I could tell people about God in an extraordinary and progressive way.   That was the idea of making the movable exhibition which with the pass of time will become a Developed Creation Museum.

A group of like-minded people was formed quite quickly. We had meetings, prayed and gathered the appropriate literature on creationism. In order to make our exhibition not only based on  theory and pictures, we started to do diggings and gather fossils.  Today we have some big pieces of a huge fossilized tree (sequoiadendron, araucaria) ammonites, elf-bolts, and prints of fish, plants and corals, shells of different sizes and so on and so forth… I was invited as the speaker to the international conference on creationism which was held [in our country]. The main point of my speech was that the evolutional outlook captured both children's and adults' mind through the popular and exciting means: cartoons, movies, books, shows and TV programs. The most interesting thing was that everyone's attention was captured by the bait – the dinosaurs.  If the evolutionists do it, we, Christians can and must do it to tell the truth and make it heard by the others by available and interesting methods…

Probably in the US no one will be surprised, but here in [this country] in [no] museum of Natural History anybody will find a single skeleton or replica of a dinosaur. Praise God for the wisdom He has given to us in this situation. To start with we decided to make the model of T-Rex skeleton in its real height which meets the museum exhibit standards.   In order to produce it we had been collecting the detailed photos of all the parts of T-Rex and its sculptures for a few months. Having got the prints of real height we began to reproduce it. Once we happened to come across the T-Rex Skull scanned by X-ray and made in 3D format. Thanking to it we managed to reproduce that skull of real size with whole its inner emptiness, and now we have got the moulds for producing T-Rex skulls of real size in needed quantity. We plan to complete the whole skeleton in this way. Besides that we began to buy real fossils and replicas for establishing the exhibition. Some museums asked us to make the replica of mammoth, wooly rhinoceros.

Though today we have some scientists in our team and we are conducting seminars in schools and other educational establishments, I see that it is not enough for making this vision be fulfilled. We strongly need professional assistance and experience in this sphere. The information about your museum and the work you are doing has become as a bright light amidst the dark night.  We ask you sincerely to help us promote this issue . . . I am aware that it is impossible to write everything in one letter, that is why if it is resounds in your heart, let it be the beginning or our dialogue and cooperation. I am putting down a few main questions. But if you have any other important topics, be so kind to suggest them to us please.

1)      What should the structure of the exhibition be? What should be represented there?

2)      What must the strong emphases be put on?

3)      What literature is recommended as learning materials?

4)      How is it advisable to prepare and estimate the guides?

5)      Who can conduct the excursion, lectures: professional scientists or anybody else who has needed qualities and has gone through proper training?

6)      Where one can buy, get or to exchange replicas of vivid proofs of flood…?

I am so thankful to God for you and I am looking forward to your reply.

Thanks for stopping by and thanks for praying,

Ken

Something Big Is Coming to Homeschooling

On Thursday, we were involved in a series of interviews and the recording of a web based TV program—all part of something big that is coming to homeschooling. This group, Home Educating Family, has decided to innovatively and very creatively use cutting edge technology to reach the homeschool community, and in many ways, I believe they are going to lead the way in providing a platform for teaching and distributing resources for homeschoolers.

I encourage you to watch this short video at this link, and you can also follow them on facebook as they lead up to their big March launch.

The following photo was taken during one of the video recording sessions on Thursday:

Some of my family were interviewed for a feature in the special magazine. You can find out more about this magazine at this link or on YouTube

We praise the Lord for the way He is raising up people to stand on His Word and provide resources of Christians in today's increasing secularized culture.

Thanks for stopping by and thanks for praying,

Ken

It's Not So Parallel!

There was a failed attempt to discredit Answers in Genesis and any Christian who holds to a literal Genesis as they should. Dr. James F. McGrath (Clarence L. Goodwin Chair in New Testament Language and Literature at Butler University, Indianapolis) tried to use the old argument of supposed parallels in the days of creation in an attempt to discredit Genesis as historical narrative. He says the following in a recent blog post:

Recent discussions with young-earth creationists have illustrated well how young-earth creationists do serious harm to the Bible, and not only science, in their bizarre attempts to treat the Bible as though it were a scientific textbook and science textbooks as though they were someone's Bible.

Take, for instance, the parallels that scholars have identified between days 1-3 and days 4-6 in Genesis 1, illustrated best by using a chart:

The first three days feature the creation of habitats, and the next three fill those habitats with inhabitants.

Here's another diagram that highlights the connections in slightly more detail (ironically found on a site trying to dispute the parallelism in the passage!):

Others like it can be found on various web pages as well as in books and commentaries.

Now, let's see what happens if Answers in Genesis decides that it wants to try to co-opt this into their twisted approach to the Bible and to science:

In their attempts to shoehorn science (or rather, their distorted and selective bits of science) into the passage, they make nonsense of the parallels. They not only remove the dome from day 2 (to facilitate their deceitful claim to take Genesis 1 literally in a manner that is not selective), but they focus on the creation of a habitable atmosphere in between the waters above and below on day 2, which leaves one with the impression that the sea creatures on day 5 ought to live in the sky. The Bible's beautiful structure is treated by them as so much garbage, to be ridden roughshod over in their misguided attempt to hijack Scripture and science for their own twisted ends. Because they are not interested in exploring and highlighting what is actually in Scripture, but in using Scripture for their own ends.

You can read Dr. McGrath's entire blog item at this link.

By the way, in this one item he uses the following type of language to describe what we believe and to describe our character: "charlatans," "bizarre attempts," "twisted approach," "deceitful claim," " garbage," "hijack Scripture," "twisted ends," "misconstrue," "hypocrisy and lying," "atheists seeking to do harm," "foolish," "misguided," "sowing misinformation," and "falsehood and division." And that is to name just a few! Wow, the language is not very academic at all for a professor, who is obviously very angry at us because we take God's Word seriously and submit to it.

Well, I thought the best way to answer this twisting of Scripture is to quote from an article by AiG staff writer and researcher, Tim Chaffey (Th.M., M.Div.) and Dr. Bob McCabe (Th.D., Th.M., professor of Old Testament at Detroit Baptist Theological Seminary). They wrote an article about the compromise position of the Framework Hypothesis, which appears in our recent apologetics book, How Do We Know the Bible Is True? In this article they deal with the issue of supposed parallels in the days of creation.

The Two Triads of "Days" argument is a premise that all Framework advocates agree with. Framework supporters claim that the two triads of "days" is a topical parallelism where the topics of days 1–3 are parallel with those of days 4–6. About the parallel nature of days 1 & 4, Mark Futato states, "Days 1 and 4 are two different perspectives on the same creative work."3 Returning to the overall topical arrangement the entire creation account, Kline writes, "The successive members of the first triad of days [days 1–3] correspond to the successive days of the second [days 4–6]."4 In other words, days 1 and 4 are simply two different ways of stating the same event, as are days 2 and 5, and days 3 and 6. The following chart is representative of that used by many Framework advocates and reflects this topical parallelism.5

Day
Formation of the World

(Items Created)
Day
Filling of the World

(Items Created)


1
darkness, light
4
heavenly light-bearers


2
heavens, water
5
birds of the air, water animals


3
seas, land, vegetation
6
land animals, man, provision of food

At first glance, it may seem as if these writers are on to something. However, a closer look reveals some problems with this argument.First, this supposed semi-poetic construction is inconsistent with the fact that Genesis 1 is a historical narrative. Hebrew scholar Steven Boyd has clearly shown that Genesis 1 is written as historical narrative rather than poetry. Hebrew poetry commonly utilizes a high percentage of imperfect and perfect verbs. By contrast, Hebrew narrative is marked by a high frequency of waw-consecutive preterite verbs that indicate a sequence of events in past tense material. Comparing Judges 4 and 5 shows a good example of these differences. In Judges 4, the account of Deborah and Barak defeating the forces of Sisera is explained in historical narrative. The following chapter is a poetical song describing the same event. The difference in language is readily apparent even in English translations. The same is true with the historical narrative of Genesis 1 and poetic descriptions of creation activities such as those found in Psalm 104. After studying and cataloging 522 texts, Boyd concluded that Genesis 1 can be classified as narrative with a probability of virtually one.6

Second, the above chart is inconsistent with the text of Genesis 1:1–2:3. Water was not created on the second day, but the first. Genesis 1:2 states, "The Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters." This occurred prior to the creation of light on the first day. So perhaps days 1 and 5 should be viewed as parallel. Another problem with this chart is that the "heavenly light-bearers" of day 4 were placed in the "heavens" of day 2 (Genesis 1:14). This is problematic for the Framework advocate who believes days one and four are the same event viewed from different perspectives, because this must have occurred prior to the event described in days 2 and 5. How could the stars be placed in something that did not exist yet?

Third, the order of events is crucial here. The Framework proposes that the days are not chronological, but theological. However, if one rearranges the chronology, then it breaks down into absurdity. The waters of day 1 must exist for them to be separated on day 2. On day 3, the dry land appeared from these waters. The sun, moon, and stars of day 4 were placed in the heavens (expanse, firmament) of day 2. The birds of day 5 flew on the face of the firmament of day 2 and multiplied on the land of day 3. Finally, mankind was made to rule over all of creation (Genesis 1:28). Any attempt to rearrange days of the creation week forces impossibilities into the text.

In the final analysis, the Framework's reinterpretation of Genesis 1:1–2:3 as a topical account of two triads of days is an illegitimate approach that fails to accurately interpret the creation account.

You can read his entire article on our website.

Thanks for stopping by and thanks for praying,

Ken

Help Stop the Already Gone Phenomenon!

Sadly, many churches today make the mistake that we disciple adults but only entertain children; they don't teach our young people the "deep" things of the Christian faith because they believe children cannot understand much of it. But we are failing our children when we don't teach them the Word of God and give them answers in today's modern scientific world. Children in our churches are largely biblically illiterate, and they don't see Scripture as relevant in their lives. We shouldn't be surprised that two thirds of the young people growing up in the church will leave the church in their 20s (as we examine in our book Already Gone).

Because it's our first conference designed especially for those who minister to children in our church, we're excited to host our "Children's Ministry Leaders' Conference," March 22 and 23.  We're inviting all Christians who lead, teach, or serve in any children's ministry role to join us here at the Creation Museum's brand-new Legacy Hall.

Numerous passages throughout Scripture command us to teach truth to our children, "That the generation to come might know, even the children yet to be born, that they may arise and tell them to their children, that they should put their confidence in God and not forget the works of God, but keep His commandments" (Psalm 78:6–7).

Likewise, Jesus cared for children during His ministry. He healed young people (Luke 8:49–56), welcomed children, and used them as examples in teaching (Mark 10:13–15). Christ also taught that there would be judgment for those who harm children (Matthew 18:5–6, 10) and demonstrated how God values children (Matthew 18:12–14).

Because about two thirds of our young people are leaving the church when they become adults, the need to reach children has never been greater. Our research for the book Already Gone clearly revealed that even well before college age, young people are already "checking out of church" in their minds. As they sit in church, they are "already gone."

Our children are continually bombarded with worldly, anti-Christian ideas throughout the media and public schools. In response, AiG is pulling together some of our best resources and speakers to equip leaders in children's ministry with relevant apologetics with this unique March conference. I will be one of the speakers. Children today need content, not just fun and games.

Please share this blog post with youth leaders in your church and encourage them to attend and receive some wonderful teaching and practical ideas for various ages.

Register before Thursday, December 15, and you will save 15 percent. And you will save even more when you register as a group, so why not bring your whole children's team (including Sunday school teachers)?

Visit www.answersingenesis.org/go/childrens for complete details and to register.

We will also be giving many details of our soon-to-be-released, three-year Answers Bible Curriculum! This will be another effective way to reach the young people in our churches.

Don't miss out—register today for the March conference.

Thanks for stopping by and thanks for praying,

Ken

Untruths for the Sake of Fund-raising

One of our supporters was kind enough to send me a fund-raising letter from a prominent anti-creationist group headed by the professed atheist, Eugenie Scott. The primary purpose of this group is to attack creationists and defend teaching evolution in schools (with an emphasis on the former). The center's fund-raising letter signed by Dr. Scott bemoaned the fact that its budget is "dwarfed" by the AiG budget and that AiG is aggressively pushing "pseudoscience into every corner of the American public school system, backing anti-evolution legislation, supporting local creationist groups, intimidating teachers to avoid teaching evolution, attacking scientifically sound textbooks," and more.

Wow! I had no idea we were this busy and that we were doing so many things!

Actually, the truth of the matter is that almost all of these claims are false.

Seriously, I find it very ironic to have to point out that our ministry budget is dwarfed by the billions of dollars that are spent each year in America's public schools, science museums, and the secular media (e.g., PBS science programs) to promote an evolutionary worldview.

Also, we are not pushing our information into "every corner" of the U.S. school system. In fact, we are not involved at all in legislation, litigation, or lobbying to force creation to be taught in schools. AiG thinks it's not wise to mandate that creation be taught because most science teachers will teach it poorly and thus forcing creation into schools will be a counterproductive effort. We are not even involved in the so-called textbook battles over evolution content in science books. Furthermore, we have no efforts at all to "intimidate" teachers and pressuring them to avoid teaching evolution.

In addition, we are not involved in getting behind "anti-evolution" education legislation—we are not an activist group. Now, if others want to make sure that evolution is taught in a more critical way in public schools, and if they use our resources while doing that, then so be it. But we are not political, legislative, or judicial activists at all.

Our main thrust has always been to reach the church (though we do have outreaches to the culture at large in various ways) and to provide resources for people. Certainly, some of those people who obtain our resources may get involved in creation vs. evolution battles at school board levels and so on. However, AiG does not get involved in such issues; we are here to provide a vital message concerning biblical authority and the gospel and educate people in the church and culture with information that is by and large censored by much of the media and education institutions.

These charges Eugenie Scott made in her letter are false, but such hysterical claims about AiG being some kind of "bogeyman" will likely lead to more donations for her anti-creationist group. And the end justifies her means, which is consistent with the atheistic, no-absolute-standards worldview that she holds. For her, why tell the truth in a purposeless and meaningless universe? When she claims something is right or wrong, these concepts are really meaningless within her worldview. So why not tell untruths about AiG in an emotional pitch for the sake of trying to raise funds for their anti-Christian cause?

I also find it amazing that an organization that's devoted to education (and even has the word in its name) needs an education itself about who we are and what we do. Their staff's research skills are obviously very poor, or they are intentionally miseducating their readers for increased donations.

Well, I'll take this opportunity to ask the following question to you right now: Why not financially support AiG at the end of the year and help us counter the efforts of secularists and their billions of dollars' worth of spending (much of it taxpayer money) on their anti-Christian crusade? You can donate here.

And by the way, we have heard the same sorts of accusations against AiG from this person and her group before, and we have stated a number of times (on our website and in blog posts) that we are not a political group doing such things as listed above. But they don't want to get confused by the facts—they want good material for fund-raising, regardless of the true facts of the matter!

Thanks for stopping by and thanks for praying,

Ken

Praise the Lord for Bible-Believing Pastors!

While I was overseas, I understand that I missed an excellent chapel speaker last week, Dr. Harry Reeder. On Tuesdays and Thursdays, the AiG staff gather in our Legacy Hall for a devotional and prayer time, coupled with making announcements. Dr. Reeder of Briarwood Presbyterian Church in Alabama, with his wife Cindy, spent the day here last week, and I hear that he gave a wonderful devotional from the book of Daniel and spent the entire day touring the museum and meeting with some of our ministry leaders.

Here is a photo of Dr. Reeder as he spoke at our chapel.

Dr. Reeder is the pastor of a church that many consider to be the founding church of the Presbyterian Church in America (PCA) denomination—Briarwood Presbyterian Church in Birmingham, Alabama.

After his visit, he wrote the following to us:

Grace and peace to you in the name of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. I cannot tell you what a joyful and informative experience it was for me to benefit from the Creation Museum and the Answers in Genesis ministry briefings. I thank you for the gracious hospitality which Cindy and I enjoyed. You certainly went beyond any expectations which we might have entertained. I am also grateful for the privilege of opening God's Word to your staff.

I praise God for PCA leaders—such as the late Dr. James Kennedy of Coral Ridge Presbyterian Church in Florida, the honorary chairman of our Creation Museum building project—who stand solidly on scriptural truth from the Bible's very first verse.

Thanks for stopping by and thanks for praying,

Ken

A Kool Family at the Museum

John and Ruth Kool celebrated their sixtieth anniversary by visiting the Creation Museum over Thanksgiving weekend! And they brought along their family—all 34 of them. In the photo, John and Ruth are the older couple wearing the darkest shirts—now, they may not look like they are old enough to have been married for 60 years, but we double-checked the anniversary number!

The Kool family gathered in this area for Thanksgiving and spent four days together. One of the days was dedicated to visiting the museum. There were four generations represented; including John and Ruth, it was their their children, grandchildren, and great grandchildren. John and Ruth are from Michigan (the Grand Rapids area); their children and grandchildren have spread out to six states and Costa Rica, with two youth pastors and a missionary in the family.

John and Ruth have visited the Creation Museum before. Just after the museum opened in 2007, they were hosted by a friend who happens to work here at AiG. I had spoken at their home church of Rush Creek Bible in Byron Center, Michigan. While making their plans for an anniversary get-together/family reunion and considering where they could all gather, the location of the Creation Museum (within a one-day drive of almost two thirds of the U.S. population) made our facility their first choice.

Maybe their idea will prompt you to have a family gathering here at the Creation Museum; we're located in the Cincinnati metropolitan area. For group information and discounts, go to http://creationmuseum.org/plan-your-visit/groups/.

A great time to visit is during our Christmas Town celebration, starting this Friday and for seven other days in December—see http://creationmuseum.org/christmas/.

Thanks for stopping by and thanks for praying,

Ken

One More Raft to Launch!

Our annual raft trips on the Colorado River and through the magnificent Grand Canyon are still many months away, but I have just been told that three of the four AiG rafts are already full!

Each year we work with Tom Vail of Canyon Ministries, and he leads about two dozen people on tours that run from just a few days all the way up to nine days right through the incredible Grand Canyon in northern Arizona. I had the wonderful opportunity in 2007 to take one of the three-day tours, and I tell you, you can talk all you want about the Grand Canyon—its geology and how it relates to the Flood—but until you are there to see the rock layers for yourself from the bottom up, it can make your teaching about the Grand Canyon much more effective.

The last available trip we are hosting with Tom runs from August 30–September 2. Ron Uebel of our staff, who is an excellent Bible teacher, will present devotionals for the participants as Tom discusses the geology of the Grand Canyon.

Go to the Grand Canyon Raft Trips page for more information about our raft trips, plus the other 2012 trips Tom will be leading in association with other groups.

It's possible that some of my blog readers have been on a Canyon Ministries raft trip with Dave Coppedge from Creation Safaris.  You may recognize his name; earlier this year, Dave was fired from the Jet Propulsion Laboratories (JPL) in California. To make a long story short, Dave was let go from JPL where he had been employed for more than a dozen years—fired for offering to loan DVDs to colleagues in which their messages differ from JPL's views on the origin of life. Please keep Dave in your prayers, as this case will finally be going to court soon. For more information on Dave's situation, click on this World Magazine article from earlier this year.

Christmas Town Begins This Friday and Saturday

Don't miss out on the spectacular Christmas Town at the Creation Museum—eight nights only.  Most of the events are free.

Here are some photos of the gardens taken recently as we prepared the grounds for this year's Christmas Town.

See http://creationmuseum.org/christmas/ for details.

Thanks for stopping by and thanks for praying,

Ken

On National Radio Monday

Bible Broadcasting Network (BBN) out of Charlotte, North Carolina—with several dozen radio stations/translators and a major internet presence—is planning to air my "Already Gone" message tomorrow on its program Building Blocks for the Family at 2:30 PM EST. Already Gone is the book that I co-authored with renowned researcher Britt Beemer, and it documents why so many young people are leaving the church when they are in their 20s. We know that about two thirds of young people will leave the church (as shown by Barna and So. Baptist studies), but we asked the question "why?"

You can listen live at this link or go to this page for information about this particular BBN program.

BBN has also requested a copy of our new Already Compromised DVD (which based on the book and describes how biblical compromise regarding Genesis permeates almost all Christian colleges and universities). BBN are considering taking the DVD's audio track and using it for broadcast.

By the way, many BBN staff have toured the Creation Museum over the years, and we appreciate their support.

Go to our online store to find out more about these two books.

Lastly, Christmas Town (almost all the activities are free) starts this coming weekend at our Creation Museum (see http://creationmuseum.org/christmas/).

Thanks for stopping by and thanks for praying,

Ken

Fond Memories from Malaysia

Exciting Follow-up to the All-Asian Creation Conference

As I reflect on our creation conference last month in Malaysia, it brings back some very fond memories. Yesterday I wrote about some of the great feedback we received from several attendees, but this time I have some photos and more thoughts about the great meeting. I have been speaking on the book of Genesis for over 35 years now, and I don't think I have ever spoken at a more powerful and exciting overseas event, as about 1,000 people from 20 Asian countries gathered for three days of apologetics teaching (called the All-Asian Creation Conference).

The enthusiasm of the participants (some of them came from countries that are very closed to the gospel, and even getting a visa to travel to Malaysia can be very difficult) occurred right at the beginning of the conference and after my first talk-when the bulk of the resources we shipped over were swept up in just a few minutes! Three days later, the conference concluded with a 12-minute standing ovation. We have had some great meetings in the United States and other countries, but this one was certainly up with the best!

While I was in Australia, Dr. David Crandall of AiG, who helped organize this All-Asian Creation Conference (which was originally to be hosted in Thailand several months ago, until political unrest cancelled the meeting) gave a 30-minute report to our staff on the conference. He showed some slides of this wonderful event. Here are some of them:

Bottom, left:  In the photo behind Dr. Crandall, Mally and I can be seen with some of the conference participants.

Bottom, right:  A slide behind Dr. Crandall shows the so-called "Missionary 10/40 window," a region which has many nations largely unreached with the gospel.

Dr. Crandall worked with a Malaysian businessman, Joseph Tan, in putting together one of the best organized events we've ever been a part of. The only thing that didn't quite "work out" is that 600 people had pre-registered, and we thought that this figure would be close to the final tally—but about 300-400 additional people actually turned up at the door for various programs.  I'm glad they prepared by having extra seats in the auditorium just in case!

Read one of my blogs from last month on this creation conference in Asia.

By the way, you may have noticed the unusual backdrop for Dr. Crandall's chapel presentation for our staff.  The stage is being set up for our special Christmas Town celebrations that begin at the museum this weekend.  Find out more about this special outreach (most of the activities are free) at CreationMuseum.org/christmas

Thanks for stopping by and thanks for praying,

Ken