Ken Ham's Blog, page 473

A Testimony from a Creationist Pediatrician

This past Thursday, AiG staff had the privilege of hearing a presentation from a specialist doctor who changed from being an evolutionist to an on-fire biblical creationist.  He now teaches others on the importance of taking Genesis as literal history. Dr. Doug Henry is a pediatrician, currently working at Ft. Campbell Army military base near Clarksville, TN.  He trained at Columbia University Medical Center and did his residency at Presbyterian Hospital in New York City, the pediatric training hospital then called Babies Hospital.

Dr. Henry told me the following:

I was an evolutionist for 20 years or so after high school, even as a Christian. I was challenged to think about the process of, and rate required for, fossilization to occur. AiG had a significant part in that challenge to me.

I am a member of [a church] in Nashville, TN, where my wife and I worship and serve.  Part of God's will for me is to defend the "pre-Israelite" Bible (Genesis 1–11) to the church, in view of the dearth of ability in churches to consider why young earth creationism is not only what the Bible teaches but is also consistent with what science demonstrates.

My wife, grandchildren, and our guest family had a great experience at the museum.  Thanks for your ministry!

You can hear Dr. Henry's 20 minute presentation to the staff here:

staff meeting

Here is a photograph of me taken with Dr. Henry in the main hall of the museum:

This is a photograph with Dr. Henry's family who visited the museum with him:

Thanks for stopping by and thanks for praying,

Ken

Day of Geological Discovery

At this time, Dr. David Crandall and Dr. Andrew Snelling are leading 90 AiG supporters on a trip through Israel.  But this is no ordinary tour—having creation geologist Andrew Snelling along gives this trip a real unique aspect.  Andrew has been studying the geology of Israel to gain an understanding of how the geological formations relate to Noah's Flood etc.  Dr. Crandall has been writing blogs about the Israel tour.  Here is one about their special day dealing with the geology of Israel:

This morning I began a journey with our 90 people to lands I have not visited in my previous 18 trips to Israel. We headed due south from the Dead Sea to Solomon's Mines in Timna. These mines are located 12 miles from the Red Sea. Our group both walked and crawled through these mines, which are literally thousands of years old. The Egyptians used these mines to provide copper for their military equipment.

This was Dr. Andrew Snelling's day as he excitedly described the geological significance of this part of the world. At one location he surprised us all as he touched one layer of stones and declared it a creation stone and with the other hand touched a layer that was a post-Noahic-Flood stone. The post-Flood stones were filled with fossils, and the creation stones had no fossils. The evidence for a global flood was seen and appreciated by all of our AiG travelers. As we stood beside these gigantic towers of stone, etched by time and water, we felt so very dwarfed and insignificant.

The tabernacle of God in the wilderness was moved 42 times, so it was appropriate that out in this desert, with less than one inch of rain per year, we would find a correctly dimensioned wilderness tabernacle. All the items in the tabernacle were in place, and we all had the privilege of walking into the Holy of Holies. Our Messianic Jewish guide gave us a spirited and exciting recital of the events and equipment in the biblical tabernacle.

As we turned northward, we saw Makhtesh Ramon, which is the Israeli version of the Grand Canyon. 90 people stood together on a cantilever platform to view the world's largest erosion area, which was caused by the global Flood. Even in its cursed condition, this area was magnificent to view and spoke to us of the great Creator God.

As always, Dr. Snelling took the complex geological information about this region and made it so understandable and exciting for all of us amateur geologists. The average person on this day took 200 pictures, which means that we shot about 18,000 pictures today.  We are very thankful for digital cameras.

Tomorrow it's onward and upward to Masada—one of my favorite spots. I will then have the privilege of leading our group into Jerusalem. As Jesus said, "Let us go up to Jerusalem."

You can keep up to date with this Israel tour by reading the blogs at: http://blogs.answersingenesis.org/blogs/worldwide/

Train up a Child

AiG produces a lot of resources for children to help parents (and grandparents) train up their children from when they are born (as the Scripture instructs us to do).   If Christians don't train their children, the secularists will!  Here is a photograph of Caroline, 17 months, sent to us by proud grandparents who are AiG supporters—note the AiG book she is holding:

Fort Lauderdale AiG Conference

We are in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, for a large AiG conference at Calvary Chapel that begins this evening.  You can find all the details from the AiG website.

Thanks for stopping by and thanks for praying

Ken

Needed: Two Creationist College Profs

There is a new college program seeking to hire two creationists with terminal degrees in biology.

We have heard good things about Dr. Emir Caner, the new president of Truett-McConnell College (a Southern Baptist school). The school hosted this summer's joint meeting of the Creation Geology Society and the Creation Biology Study Group. He told the scientists there about his strong desire to make young-earth creation a bedrock of his school's educational mission, along with missions ("from the very first verse to the very last tribe").

As a part of that mission, Dr. Caner hired young-earth creationist Dr. Kurt Wise last year to help reorganize the school's science program and open a new Creation Research Center (see the school's announcement of the new center on their website).

This summer Dr. Wise was made chairman of the Division of Science and Mathematics.

Dr. Wise has been active in creationism since he earned his PhD in paleontology from Harvard University (under Stephen Jay Gould) back in 1989. Along with his other roles in creation research, he served as a key adviser during the development of the Creation Museum and as the acting curator of our museum fossil collection (and he's even featured with me in the museum video Dinosaurs & Dragon Legends).

He recently wrote a request for help in finding two new young-earth biology professors:

When I was hired at TMC in 2009, I was given two tasks (besides teaching) by the president of Truett-McConnell College—the creation of a creation research center and a science major at the college.  TMC is one of three Georgia (Southern) Baptist Colleges and was a two-year institution until 2002, when it began a gradual transition (one major at a time) to a four-year college.  TMC, like the other two Georgia Baptist Colleges, was also non-conservative until the present president, Dr. Emir Caner, was installed in August of 2008.

Subsequently, he has been swinging the institution in the conservative direction, requiring, for example, the science to become young-age creationist in orientation. We were able to get a biology major approved by the faculty at the end of last semester conditional on additional faculty (we would need another math and another biology professor), and facilities (we would need two more teaching labs). Spurred in part by a large positive spike in enrollment this fall, the trustees have approved a building project (to be completed by August 2011) to provide the needed facilities.  We are now in need of TWO professors of biology—one to begin as early as January 2011 and the other to begin as early as August 2011.

The president has made it clear that he will hire only young-age creationists into the biology positions.  I therefore have the task of finding and hiring TWO young-age creation biologists—optimally folks with terminal degrees.

Truett-McConnell College is looking to become another in the short list of colleges that teach young-age creation science, but it cannot do so (at least offer an entire bachelors degree) without more professors of that type.  I was wondering if you might ask around. I appreciate any help that you might be willing to give!

If you're interested, I encourage you to contact Dr. Wise at the school (kwise[at]truett[dot]edu).

We certainly need more colleges—like this one—that take such a stand on Genesis.  Please pray that the Lord will lead the right people to Dr. Wise for these positions.

AiG Major Conference in Florida this Weekend

This weekend (beginning Saturday evening), Dr. David Menton, Dr. Jason Lisle, and I will be speaking at an AiG conference hosted by Calvary Chapel Fort Lauderdale (in Florida).  This is a large church with satellite churches, and so we are expected to speak to in excess of 20,000 people! You can find all the details on the event page.

Thanks for stopping by and thanks for praying,

Ken

Creation Museum Wins More Awards

Every year, the Kentucky Tourism Council (KTC) honors the talent, creativity, and effectiveness in marketing and public relations from its members, one of which is the Creation Museum. This past Tuesday evening, the KTC hosted the 2010 Traverse Awards for Excellence in Tourism Marketing at the Northern Kentucky Convention Center with several hundred people in attendance representing organizations like Newport Aquarium, KY Dept of Parks, Shaker Village, and Louisville CVB, to name a few. Last year, the Creation Museum won several categories, including Best of Show!

This year, the Creation Museum received four awards. The Traverse Awards are presented annually for the best work in advertising and marketing among Kentucky tourism businesses and marketing organizations. This year, a panel of out-of-state experts in tourism marketing judged 210 entries from across the state. Each entry is judged on creativity and how well it relates to its audience.

The Creation Museum received first place awards for the Souvenir Guide and Billboards, and honorable mention for our dinosaur bobblehead and newsletter. Here are photographs of the winning items:

I have also included a photograph taken of Mally and me on the Columbia River Gorge earlier this year, holding our dinosaur bobblehead:

The Kentucky Tourism Council is a state association based in Frankfort, Kentucky, that represents every segment of Kentucky's tourism industry. The almost-600-member organization offers continuing education programs, provides legislative advocacy for Kentucky's travel industry, and works in governmental relations.

For more information on the Creation Museum, go to www.CreationMuseum.org.

Creation Museum in Danish Paper

A two-page spread (with a rather silly headline) on the Creation Museum appeared in the Danish paper, Berlins Tidende.

Wikipedia states the following about this paper:

Berlingske Tidende is a Danish daily newspaper. Founded in 1749 by Ernst Henrich Berling, it is the oldest Danish newspaper still in existence, and in the World only eight other newspapers (Post- och Inrikes Tidningar 1645, London Gazette 1665, Wiener Zeitung 1703, Hildesheimer Allgemeine 1705, Hanauer Anzeiger 1725, Sankt-Peterburgskie Vedomosti 1727, News Letter 1737, and Scots Magazine 1739) are older.[2]

With a circulation of about 103,685 copies on weekdays, it is also one of the "big three" broadsheet-quality newspapers in Denmark along with Jyllands-Posten and Politiken. Traditionally itself a broadsheet, Berlingske Tidende has been also published in the tabloid/compact format since August 28, 2006.[3]

Berlingske Tidende has won many awards in recent years. It is the only newspaper in the world to have won the World Press Photo Award four times. It has also won the most prestigious journalistic award in Denmark, the Cavling prize, in 2009.

The online version of the article is at this link: http://www.berlingske.dk/verden/hvor-flintstone-er-en-dokumentarfilm

Thanks for stopping by and thanks for praying,

Ken

The Utter Absurdity of the Secular Worldview

Recently, Dr. Jason Lisle (AiG researcher, writer, and speaker with a PhD in astrophysics) read Stephen Hawking's new book.  Dr. Lisle wrote the following:

I just read Steve Hawking and Leonard Mlodinow's latest book, The Grand Design, in which the authors attempt to answer questions like: "Why is there something rather than nothing?  Why do we exist?  Why this particular set of laws and not some other?"  Hawking is a brilliant physicist.  Yet, since he has rejected the biblical worldview, he cannot cogently answer any of the questions he asks.  His explanation of the universe is a self-refuting journey into the absurd.  Let me give a few examples:

In the introduction, Hawking states, "Philosophy is dead." (p. 5).  Yet, the rest of his book is primarily an exposition of Hawking's philosophy—scientific determinism (p. 34.)  Hawking makes no attempt whatsoever to defend his philosophy; he simply arbitrarily asserts it.  Such arbitrariness is the mark of irrationality.  He asks, "Do we really have reason to believe that an objective reality exists?" (p. 34).    Of course, if there is no such thing as objective reality, then why would a person bother writing a book on the topic?

There are some things that Hawking gets right, of course.  Some of the descriptions of quantum phenomena—such as the two-slit experiment—are quite good.  Also, Hawking correctly acknowledges that the big bang is an atheistic model; that is, it attempts to explain the origin of the universe without invoking God.  "Spontaneous creation is the reason there is something rather than nothing, why the universe exists, why we exist.  It is not necessary to invoke God to light the blue touch paper and set the universe going." (p. 180).  But much of the book shows the inconsistency of secular thinking.

Even the title of Hawking's book is ironic, since Hawking does not believe that the universe is designed at all.  By his thinking, this universe is simply one of many that popped into existence from nothing.  Hawking is well aware of how precisely fine-tuned the universe is in order to allow for human beings to exist.  In explaining why the universe appears so well designed, Hawking appeals to his belief in multiple universes; this just happens to be one in which the conditions were right for us to evolve to observe the universe.  Students of logic will recognize this as the fallacy of irrelevant thesis.  It doesn't actually answer the question.

Hawking concludes that the universe is the inevitable result of the law of gravity:  "Because there is a law like gravity, the universe can and will create itself from nothing in the manner described in chapter 6." (p. 180).  But my question is this: Apart from God, why would there be a law of gravity, and why would the universe be compelled to obey it? Why does the law of gravity apply at all times in all places, and why does it have a simple mathematical form that humans can understand?  The biblical creationist can answer these questions.  But Hawking has obviously not reflected adequately upon these issues.  The secular worldview cannot make sense of laws of nature.

Even the Acknowledgements section of the book shows the utter absurdity of the secular worldview.

You will want to read the rest of what Dr. Lisle wrote from his speaker blog.

AiG in Israel

Dr. David Crandall, director of AiG Worldwide, sent the following photographs from Israel as he and Dr. Andrew Snelling are leading this year's AiG Israel tour:

One of the Parson family holds an AiG sign at Mediterranean.

This is the AiG Holy Land group as Dr. Crandall preached this past Sunday morning at Caesarea.

Devotion

Neither do I exercise myself in great matters

(Psalm 131:1) A Song of degrees of David. LORD, my heart is not haughty, nor my eyes lofty: neither do I exercise myself in great matters, or in things too high for me.

The answer to questions of how could God be just if He forgives the worst of sinners is that those are proud questions, too high and of no concern for us.

Thanks for stopping by and thanks for praying,

Ken

Half the Atheists Came Back

Well, half the atheists came back to demonstrate outside the church yesterday morning as hundreds of children came to attend the special school assemblies.  Here is a photograph of the demonstration:

One of our staff went out to speak with the one protester.  He sent me this email:

I went out and said hi. He was alone this time, and he greeted me in a friendly way.  So I engaged him by inviting him into the church café for a coffee and donut—on me. He responded with something like, "I don't want to be preached at—why are you trying to convert me?" To which I replied, "but all I did was ask you in for a cup of coffee?" Then (in a blink of an eye his countenance changes dramatically) yells at me and says, "I DON'T WANT A G&*#! $&%#@ CUP OF COFFEE, AND I DON'T WANT TO BE CONVERTED," as he lifted the sign over his head and slammed it on his knee and then stormed off. He opened his car door threw the sign in, jumped in his car, and sped off. The mind boggling irony is the sign he is holding encouraging people to find answers in "reason."

So the "friendly neighborhood atheist" (see t-shirt), who wanted to convert people to atheism, was not prepared to discuss anything. I guess if he thought he couldn't convert people to his belief in atheism, he may as well leave!

In thinking about his sign, "the answers are in reason," I was reminded of Isaiah 1:18:

Come now, let us reason together, says the LORD: though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow;  though they are red like crimson, they shall become like wool.

Sadly, the atheist didn't want this "reason," which he so desperately needs.  Please pray for him.

Here are some photos taken yesterday during the special children's programs:

Pastor Mike with three of his boys and a friend

Devotion

He that put His Holy Spirit within him

(Isaiah 63:11) Then he remembered the days of old, Moses, and his people, saying, Where is he that brought them up out of the sea with the shepherd of his flock? where is he that put his holy Spirit within him?

It was the Father who put His Holy Spirit, the Spirit of Christ to live in us after we were saved, so we now have a Holy Guest living in us as our helper, comforter.

Thanks for stopping by and thanks for praying,

Ken

Massive Atheist Demonstration at San Jose AiG Conference!

Dr. Jason Lisle and I are in San Jose, California, for an AiG conference at a Calvary Chapel church. Before the conference, I noticed that one of the atheist blogs was calling for atheists to cause problems and/or demonstrate against us at the conference.

The atheists turned up to demonstrate against AiG outside the church on Sunday morning. Here is a photograph of the massive protest:

Well, maybe it wasn't a massive protest, but atheists represent such a small percentage of the population. So compared to the number of Christians, this was a massive protest! Here is a photograph taken in the auditorium at the same time the two atheists were protesting:

Note the signs the atheist were holding:

One of the signs reads, "THE ANSWERS ARE IN REASON."

This really represents the culture war—the battle. This is the same battle that began in Genesis 3, and this battle is between God's Word and man's word—where man wants to be his own god. Inside the church, I was teaching that our thinking starts with God's Word, and outside the church, the atheists were claiming that our thinking starts with man's word. This is a battle between two religions.

It was interesting that an AiG staff member, who obtained the permission of the atheists to take their photographs, asked if they had heard me speak before. They said no. So he invited them to hear what they were protesting against, but they refused. He then asked them how they could protest something that they did not know about. At that point, the lady looked uncomfortable and did not have an answer, and then she looked at the man. The man said he did not want anything to do with religion.  Now that was an interesting response, as they were holding signs showing clearly that their religion was to trust man as god. They were there promoting their atheist religion—that man was god.  Well it had started raining.  The two atheists then left.

On Sunday evening, we found one or more people (maybe atheists from the same group) had placed a flyer (which was in a plastic bag because it was lightly raining) on each of the cars in the parking lot of the church.  A church official had someone collect all the flyers!

The flyer began with the following, "Creationism is Pseudoscience … Answers in Genesis is lying to you and your children."

Further on, the flyer states, "Another common creationist claim is that evolution hasn't been proven. This is just rhetoric. Evolution hasn't and can never be proven."

However, the flyer also states, "Evolution is a fact, as real as gravity," and it states, "Scientists no longer question whether evolution is a fact because the evidence supporting the idea is overwhelming.  There is no doubt or debate in the life-sciences community as to the fact of evolution."

On the back of the flyer, there was a cartoon giving the message that Christians start with the Bible (start with "conclusions"), but evolutionists start with facts. This is absurd. The secularists (like these atheists) start with the belief there is no God, the Bible is not true. We both have starting points—starting with God and the other starting with no God.  The demonstrators sign, "the answers are in reason," illustrated this point—starting with no God and man on his own determines "truth."

What is interesting to note is that these atheists are really intolerant; why are the ones that are so intolerant have to demonstrate against Christians? Well, Paul makes it clear in Romans 1:18 that they "suppress the truth in unrighteousness." The Bible tells us the knowledge of God is written on our hearts (Romans 2:13–15). There are no true atheists. They know there is God, but they so hate God that they have to work hard to suppress the truth.

When you think about it, if there was no God, why would they even care what other people believe—why bother?  However, on their blogs, on these flyers they distributed, and on the signs they used in the protest, they are showing that they know that the Creator God is real. And since they don't want to submit to their Creator and don't want to acknowledge they are a sinner, they have to work hard to suppress what they know is true. Though in their actions, they are not demonstrating against us but ultimately shaking their fist at God.

Recently, an atheist blogger was very upset with us because he saw children in a photograph taken at an AiG conference, and he was claiming we are "abusing" children by teaching them creation and so on.  Well, here are just some of the children who attended the sessions on Sunday hearing the truth of creation:

Today, I will be speaking to hundreds of children at the special school assemblies as part of the AiG conference.

Here are some more photographs taken yesterday:

Our volunteers

People were excited with the resources

Devotion

Be thou strong and very courageous

(Joshua 1:7) Only be strong and very courageous, that you may observe to do according to all the law, which Moses my servant commanded you: turn not from it to the right hand or to the left, that you may prosper wherever you go.

Standing up for the Lord Jesus Christ and obeying Him is not for the cowardly, as it takes strength and courage to not go along with the world.

Thanks for stopping by and thanks for praying,

Ken

All Things Work Together for Good . . .

In recent times, AiG has had the privilege of conducting AiG conferences in a number of Calvary Chapel churches across the nation.  This weekend, I am at Calvary Chapel of San Jose (see this event page for more details).  Next weekend, I will be at Calvary Chapel in Fort Lauderdale (see this event page for more details of this major event).

Recently, we had a special visitor all the way from Oceanside—a pastor of a Calvary Chapel where I also spoke recently.

I'm hearing about a phenomenon time and time again of people flying across the country for the purpose of visiting the Creation Museum here in our Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky area.

That was the case with Pastor Mike Reed and his college ministries pastor, Dan Leitz, of Calvary Chapel of Oceanside in California (north of San Diego). While I was speaking in this church a few months ago, I extended an invitation to Mike to tour the museum (over 2,000 miles away). Well, Mike and Dan were here recently at the museum—unfortunately, I was on a speaking tour at the time and did not meet with Mike. But our staff rolled out the red carpet for Mike and Dan.

A verse Mike uses a lot is Romans 8:28, which states, "And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose." On his church website, he declares that "the pain and suffering I have endured became the crucible God used to form my very nature." He says that for a reason, and it is a remarkable story that I will summarize here.

In the 1970s when Mike was 10 years of age, he was diagnosed with Aplastic Anemia. Doctors gave him about 200 blood transfusions just to keep him alive. His parents were told by some doctors just to let their gravely-ill son "go."

The treatments were failing. He needed a bone marrow transplant (which was a rather new treatment back then and only had mixed success), or he would die.  While his brother seemed to be a good match as a bone marrow donor, doctors at a local hospital refused to proceed with the transplant. They were wondering if Mike would survive the procedure. Mike's parents then found a clinic that was experimenting with new cancer treatments, and Mike went in. It was touch and go for several days, but the new bone marrow seemed to take hold. His body began to heal, but he turned to worldly pleasures, which only made him despair.

A long story cut short: he became a Christian and got healed spiritually. Then in a blood test, it was discovered that Mike had contracted Hepatitis C from one of his many blood transfusions. His liver was now failing. Mike became one of the first people in history to be involved in a "living donor" liver transplant. Even after getting that new liver, he faced many health challenges, especially as with the medicine he now had to take. He eventually returned to his work as the marriage and family pastor of Calvary Chapel Oceanside, and became the senior pastor a few years later.

His church now has a wonderful ministry to the military—the Marine Corps base at Camp Pendleton is right up the road.

Mike is currently going through the Book of Genesis on Sunday. Take a peek at his website and read his full testimony at http://www.calvaryoceanside.org/.

I say this quite kindly: Pastor Mike is a "character." He is one of the most engaging and funny pastors I've ever met. Here is a photo of him sitting in my chair at AiG while I was away, writing me a note:

Thanks for stopping by and thanks for praying,

Ken

Canadian Conference

Once again I wanted to bring a creation group in Alberta, Canada, to your attention, and to a creation conference it's holding this weekend.

The Creation Science Association of Alberta, led by Dr. Margaret Helder, is the conference sponsor. At this meeting, Dr. Marcus Ross of Liberty University in Virginia—who spoke with me last year at an "Answers for Darwin" conference—will be the featured speaker.

Here is a promotional ad:

CSAA helped us in April by providing volunteers when I spoke at a highly successful home-educators conference in Canada.

Here is a link to their special poster — and then another link to their site.

We are thrilled to be able to support and promote such Canadian ministries that are leading the way in that country to proclaim the creation/gospel message.

Webinar Great Success

Last Tuesday, AiG's Dr. Georgia Purdom conducted the first AiG webinar "Answers for Women."   Here is an excerpt from Georgia's blog about this event:

We had approximately 200 women from 17 states (even Hawaii) and two countries (England and Germany). One lady in England said she stayed up until 2:00 AM to be able to watch the evening webinar! Several people enjoyed the morning webinar so much that they came back for the evening webinar (a repeat of the morning). We had a very active chat room with 35–55 people for the majority of the one hour chat time. It wasn't easy keeping up with so many questions and comments. It was equivalent to carrying on 10 different conversations at the same time, so I guess it's good that women are multitaskers! Many women were thanking us and saying they had been blessed.

Now if you missed out, part 2 of this webinar will be on Tuesday, October 19, at 10:00 AM (ET) and 9:00 PM (ET). Check out the Answers for Women website for more details.

You can read more from Georgia's blog.

San Jose

Today I am in San Jose, California, with Dr. Jason Lisle for the AiG conference.  Go to www.AnswersInGenesis.org/outreach/event/6807/ for details.

Thanks for stopping by and thanks for praying

Ken

Creation Evangelism in Bulgaria

Dr. Terry Mortenson of our staff sent this report from his creation evangelism outreach in Bulgaria (note: Darin below was his Bulgarian contact):

My last lecture (Ape-men: the Grand Illusion) on Tuesday night was at the university in Ruse. I exposed the scientifically flawed "evidence" for human evolution and then explained what the Bible said about the origin of man and the "races" concluding by explaining the moral and spiritual implications of all this ending with Acts 17:30-31. Right before the meeting, a journalist introduced herself as an atheistic communist who was interested in what I had to say. Darin had met her about a year earlier when he gave her a Bible as he and his senior pastor were giving Bibles to all the members of the Ruse City Council. She said it was significant that I was able to speak at the university because it has not given the Orthodox [Church] such an opportunity yet. Darin told me this was a key university because just the day before the Chancellor of Germany had received an honorary degree there. About 70 people came to the meeting and most stayed for the Q&A. Some were older, leading Darin and me to wonder if some of them were professors and university administrators. Many were unbelievers we think.

At the beginning of the Q&A, one guy was rather hostile (Darin is pretty sure he is a neo-Nazi), but he calmed down after my reply and stayed through the rest of the meeting—we even talked more outside at the end.  Darin thinks the talk and discussion had a real impact on him.  He was brought to the meeting by Darin's friend, who himself had been a neo-Nazi when Darin led him to Christ a few years ago.

A fourth-year student told me that she was a former Muslim recently converted to Christ and had heard a lot of lectures during her time in the university, but this was the most helpful one she had heard.  An older student asked why the evolutionists are so strongly in control given the kind of false information, which gave me the opportunity to emphasize the battle about origins was not science vs religion as the evolutionists want us to believe but both in Bulgaria and the former communist world as well as in the West, it was the religion of atheism vs Christianity—a conflict of worldviews used to interpret the scientific evidence.

Another student asked what I thought of Francis Collins' "middle way" approach (of theistic evolution) in his book The Language of God (which, sadly, apparently has been translated into Bulgarian).  I explained that the problem was that Collins claimed to be an evangelical Christian, a follower of Jesus, but he almost completely ignores what Genesis says, which Jesus took as literal history (e.g., Mark 10:6).  So, his view must be rejected because it cannot be harmonized with Genesis.

Several others talked to me outside after the university building was closed.  So, it was a good meeting at the university.  Christians were strengthened and non-believers were challenged with the truth.

Unexpected meeting

Well, after a late dinner at a Chinese restaurant with Darin and his wife, we all got three hours sleep, before we left at 2:30 a.m. Wednesday morning to get me to the airport in Bucharest, Romania.  There we had an unexpected "Divine appointment" meeting with the pastor of the largest Romanian church in America (3,000 members in Portland, Oregon), who was flying home after three weeks of ministry (he told me later that he and his family had been forced by the communists to leave Romania in 1977 because of his vocal ministry), and the pastor of a large church in Bucharest who is also president of the largest Bible college in Romania.  Darin had wanted me to speak at the college on this trip, but the Bulgarian schedule was too full.  So we talked about the possibility of doing something in the future, and I invited the American-Romania pastor to visit the Creation Museum.  Darin also talked to them about translating AiG materials into Romanian.

Well, it was a great but tiring week.  We made a circuit around the country and the Lord protected us on the roads.  He gave us wisdom and strength.  I couldn't have done it without Darin's excellent translation work, and he couldn't have done it without me.  About 750 people heard us in the seven speaking opportunities and hundreds of booklets, books, and DVDs were given away free.  What the ripple effects will be, we will only know in heaven.  Thanks for praying.  You have been partners with me in this ministry through your prayers.

The harvest is surely plentiful but the laborers few.  Pray for Terry—he flew back to the U.S. on Wednesday and is in Charlotte, North Carolina, today for a conference.

10/10 Wedding

This past 10th of October, there were many weddings across the USA.  Just imagine being able to say that you were married on 10/10/10!  Well, there was also a wedding at the Creation Museum (we have had a number of weddings now on the grounds of the Creation Museum—also a great place for fantastic photography).  Here are photos of the Creation Museum 10/10/10 wedding:

Off to California

Dr. Jason Lisle and I will be in California for an Answers in Genesis conference at Calvary Chapel of San Jose.  For all the details, go to the event page.

Thanks for stopping by and thanks for praying,

Ken